• Disney Pixar’s Up marks the first 3-D film to open the Festival de Cannes (The Hollywood Reporter)
• FAO gets new CEO (Associated Press)
• Barnes & Noble sales decline continues (Associated Press)
Consumers still shopping at malls, says Simon chairman (Retail Wire)
• Is Sony Computer Entertainment working on a robot peripheral? (Kotaku)
• Translating Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to the video game world (Video Gamer)
• Walmart Canada slashes prices during March Break (Reuters)
• Teen retailers The Buckle and Hot Topic show strong performance (Inside Bay Area/AP)
• Namco Bandai acquires 95% stake in D3Publisher (Gamasutra)
• Disney puts a hold on expanding its Hong Kong theme park (Bloomberg)
• Would you buy your child a chalk gun? (Gizmodo)
• Libraries get hit by the CPSC warning about lead in kids books (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Wuthering Heights sees book sales spike, thanks to…Twilight? (The Guardian)
• Why kids and moms come first in advertising during economic downturns (New York Times)
• Nickelodeon and Mattel clear up misconceptions about new tween Dora (Associated Press)
• Solving the problem of in-game advertising (CNet)
• With Circuit City gone, Best Buy gears up to tackle competition from Walmart (Wall Street Journal)
• The evolution of the lowly barcode to hold videos and games (Gizmodo)
• Aeropostale sets sights on younger consumers with kids line (MSNBC/Motley Fool)
• Happy St. Paddy’s Day! Kids get creative with geeky school leprechaun traps (Wired/GeekDad)
• Mattel versus MGA – the battle continues (L.A. Business Journal)
• Is Teen.com poised to become the next MTV.com?
• Comcast and Sony join forces to form bricks-and-mortar retail store (Associated Press)
• New Batman collector’s edition game title to come with bonus DVD, Batarang (Kotaku)
• Race to Witch Mountain tops the box office on opening weekend (Bloomberg)
• Teen retailers pare down concept stores to focus on main brand (Wall Street Journal)
• Twitter driving more and more traffic to social and entertainment sites (MediaPost)
• With softer retail decline, could the economic slowdown be easing up a touch? (New York Times)
• How classic children’s books reinforce good parenting (CNN International)
• Harry Potter and The Disappointed Fans with The Sixth Movie (The Guardian)
• Namco Bandai’s president on strategies for the future of gaming (Washington Post)
• Hilarious outtakes of an encounter between Elmo and Ricky Gervais (Huffington Post)
• Sesame Workshop lays off one-fifth of workforce (USA Today/AP)
• Hulu now the #2 video site next to YouTube (AdAge)
• First impressions of Disney’s D23 (Motley Fool)
• Don’t mess with the 59-foot Gundam robot guarding Tokyo. He’ll be watching you. (Gizmodo)
• Bedtime-themed programming not a hit with some parents (MediaPost)
• Marvel pushes back The Avengers to 2012 (Reuters)
• Is there money in kids’ animated films video games? (Gamasutra)
• What demographic is reading Twilight? (Examiner)
• Daniel Radcliffe and Miley Cyrus top Forbes’ list of Hollywood’s Most Valuable Young Stars (Forbes)
• Kids virtual world market due for a major shakeout in 2009 (AdWeek)
• TV advertising upfront Stateside to be subdued affair this year (The New York Times)
• New tween gaming company SuperSecret raises US$10 million in capital (paidcontent.org)
• Sony Pictures cuts 350 jobs (The L.A. Times)
• It’d like to buy China a Coke…soft drink giant to plough US$2 billion into the country’s technology and retail distribution infrastructure (BusinessWeek)
• The backlash grows against the new tween Dora (The Globe and Mail)
• Retailers and marketers play to the sense of smell to entice consumers (Daily Press)
• The adult-targeted Barbie Bridal line joins the Barbie Golf collection in Japan (Reuters)
• Bling is out, understated is in with young girls fashion (USA Today)
• A blog that delves into children’s books of the past (BoingBoing)
• What can tween girls read after Twilight to sate their thirst for paranormal fiction? (USA Today)
• I, Robot – elementary kids in Japan get Saya, the android teacher (Gizmodo)
• How the digital age permeated playthings of the past (Wired)
• A farewell to Circuit City. Now which competitors are poised to take the business? (Motley Fool)
• The DIY retail trend bucks economic downturn (AdAge)
• Google veep dishes on the future of the search (Gizmodo)
• Debating kids’ privacy on Facebook (Boston Globe/Child Caring)
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