Less than two months after talking up the turnaround at Dow Jones-IAC (NSDQ: IACI) personal finance JV FiLife, paidContent has learned the site’s continued existence is no certainty. It survived the multiple trimmings as Barry Diller cut back on IAC’s portfolio of emerging businesses, but the company is now exploring options that range from leaving it open to a sale or a full shut down. When Ezra Kucharz, president and GM for just over a year, left for CBS (NYSE: CBS) in January, both IAC and DJ credited him publicly with turning around the site and building it to 4.4 million unique visitors in December. Now both companies are declining comment about the site’s future.

Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR) frequently brags about how much spectrum it has at its disposal, and how easy it will be to deliver a ton of video and other high-bandwidth services over mobile networks. It’s a luxurious postion to be in and something that has only become top of mind for consumers recently as they experience dropped calls or sluggish 3G internet speeds.

But it appears that AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon have been formulating their response to this, and this week refuted Clearwire’s claims, by arguing that they have deep spectrum positions that can re-purposed for 4G when it needs to, reports ConnectedPlanet.com. Kris Rinne, AT&T’s SVP of architecture and planning, who spoke along side other executives at a GSM Association event, said: “You need to make sure you count all of our spectrum when you make these comparisons.”

However, when you check the facts, it does appear that Clearwire has the better spectrum position—no matter how you slice it. A Yankee report on the subject wrote: “Clearwire ranks highest with an estimated average of 150 MHz in the top 100 U.S. markets, measured in terms of population. Clearwire is followed by Verizon and AT&T, which have 88 and 84 MHz respectively, then Sprint (NYSE: S) with 69 MHz and T-Mobile with 51 MHz.”

The FCC is working on a plan that would sell a chunk of spectrum in the first half of 2011 that failed to be sold in 2008 because of the strict conditions of use.

The spectrum, which was earmarked for public-safety use, may now have different terms and conditions, if any are to be attached. Jamie Barnett, chief of the FCC Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau, told Reuters that the FCC could issue a notice of inquiry “early summer” but a final decision has not been made.

An auction would help T-Mobile USA, which doesn’t have the capacity on its current networks to roll out 4G services, like its major rivals AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless.

As it promised back in January, Affiliated Media, the holding company for newspaper chain MediaNews Group, has emerged for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The owner of the Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News was able to shrink its debt from a staggering $930 million debt to a more manageable $165 million. That 82.3 percent reduction in its debt, allowed it to end the bankruptcy period. This was a pre-packaged reorg, meaning its lenders are all in agreement. None of the newspapers will be affected, and Dean Singleton will remain chairman and CEO. Release

Initial stats are in for NCAA March Madness on Demand and it looks like CBSSports.com will be able to declare victory again (unlike fans of Georgetown or Vanderbilt). Unlike NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) and the Olympics, CBS (NYSE: CBS) goes for maximum exposure online—offering full, free access to all 63 games of the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament. Day one by the internal numbers:

Microsoft’s experimental Office Labs group says it’s testing a new microblogging service called OfficeTalk—which “applies the base capabilities of microblogging to a business environment, enabling employees to post their thoughts, activities, and potentially valuable information to anyone who might be interested.” It’s an experiment but the Office Labs group does say that OfficeTalk has been one of its most popular internal tests to date and it’s therefore inviting interested outside firms to try it out.

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»  For a quick laugh: the real victims of the newspaper collapse. [The Onion]

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Chief Technologist Sam Pullara is leaving the company, capping off a week of high-profile departures. At Yahoo, Pullara was “responsible for ensuring that products we develop are competitive and provide compelling customer experiences by driving a dialogue between internal product groups, research and business leaders,” according to his LinkedIn profile; he also represented Yahoo on the board of the OpenSocial Foundation and had helped launch its ‘open application platform’—which lets third-party developers build apps for Yahoo properties. Pullara is taking a job as an entrepreneur in residence at Benchmark Capital.

Most forecasters have expected broadcast ad revenues to experience a nice recovery as the recession eases, but BernsteinResearch analyst Michael Nathanson expects a TV advertising to see a rebound that could bring stations back to their healthier 2007 levels. While the major station owners took a big hit on revenue declines last year, margins remained fairly strong. For example, while Gannett’s broadcast revs fell by almost 20 percent in ‘09, it was still able to post EBITDA margins of 42.6 percent. Belo’s TV station ad revs dropped 23 percent between ‘07 and ‘09, but it still managed to produce respectable a 26.7 percent EBITDA margin. And although CBS’ and Scripps’ margins have gone from the 30 percent neighborhood down to the mid-teens, Nathanson expects a large wave of political ad spending this year to boost those levels back up—though on a smaller revenue base.

It now seems all but official that Google (NSDQ: GOOG) will pull its search operations in China; Chinese media says Google will make an announcement Monday and the search engine could shut down as soon as April 10.

The likely big winner in all of this: Baidu, which already controlled more than 50 percent of the Chinese search market to Google’s roughly 30 percent. So, how much value is Google handing over to Baidu? (NSDQ: BIDU) One measure: In the two months since Google first issued its China manifesto, Baidu has gained nearly $13 billion in market value (Its stock is up a whopping 42 percent, completely reversing a 10 percent drop during the prior two months). By contrast, Google has lost about $7 billion in market value (its stock down nearly 7 percent), while the S&P 500 has been flat.

Now the Financial Times is getting really bullish about its web access model. In another tweak, it’s now ensuring that no free articles are on offer to non-registered users.

In 2007, the site introduced this access model to give five free articles a month to casual readers, and 25 to free-registered users, as incentives to subscribe. But, watching its paying customers grow since then, it reduced the five free articles to one a month, and now to none.

Palm (NSDQ: PALM) provided a stark view of its financial and market position yesterday after releasing its third-quarter results. With inventories mounting, cash reserves dwindling and its market competitiveness to be determined, investors today are being quick to ditch the stock. In afternoon trading, Palm’s stock was down about one dollar, or 18 percent, to trade at $4.60 a share.

To be sure, there were critics that were even more harsh and believe the stock could go lower. Canaccord Adams technology analyst Peter Misek cut his price target from $4 to $0, and maintained his “sell” rating. In a note to clients, he wrote: “We believe Palm’s troubles will only accelerate as carriers and suppliers increasingly question the company’s solvency and withdraw their support. With what appears to be roughly 12 months of cash on hand, an accelerating burn rate, a complete lack of earnings visibility, and substantial debt and preferred equity, we no longer see any value in the company’s common equity.”

When I spoke with SpinVox buyer Nuance, as it began planning the future for the voicemail-to-text firm last month, it said it would pitch the service harder to network operators, stop offering new direct consumer accounts, but continue to maintain the service for existing subscribers.

That latter part now appears to be changing. UK users on Thursday started receiving SMS notification (how appropriate) that the service would end in seven days.

—Zynga: The FarmVille creator has hired Steven Chiang as president of the development studios, CEO Marc Pincus announced on his blog this week. Chiang co-founded EA-owned Tiburon Entertainment, the studio best known for the Madden NFL franchise. A longtime EA executive, he was most recently SVP and group GM for EA Sports.

—Fairchild Fashion Group: Patrick McCarthy, chairman and editorial director of Condé Nast’s Fairchild Fashion Group and de facto editor of the fashion magazine W is leaving the company at year’s end. He joined Fairchild as a reporter in 1977, rising to chairman and editorial director in 1997.

—Emmis Communications: One we missed earlier this month: Greg Loewen added president of Emmis Publishing to his role as chief strategy officer. The units regional and city mags include Texas Monthly and Los Angeles. Loewen replaced Gary Thoe, who left to focus on his family business, MidCountry Media, Inc. Loewen joined Emmis in 2007 from the Toronto Star, where he was VP-digital media and strategy.

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) is moving quickly to fill the void left this week by the surprising departure of sales chief Joanne Bradford by handing her duties—for “at least the next few months”—to Yahoo North America head Hilary Schneider, according to a report in AdAge; we’ve asked Yahoo for comment. The move should at least temporarily quell speculation about who will succeed Bradford at Yahoo—although it also raises questions about why Yahoo isn’t promoting somebody internally into such an important role permanently. Schneider tells AdAge that she will take over Bradford’s duties while the company conducts an “external search” which she says will take “a couple of months.” By all accounts, the departure of Bradford—who is leaving Yahoo to join Demand Media as its first chief revenue officer—was completely unexpected.

Palm’s poor performance was no surprise today since it sent out a warning last month that sales were falling way short of expectations.

But it’s not the company’s weak performance in Q3 that people should worry about. Cash-strapped Palm (NSDQ: PALM) will be busy conducting a turnaround over the next few months as its competitors rush into the market with guns blazing. Already, Palm’s launch on Verizon Wireless took a back-seat to the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid as Verizon’s big device launch of the year. Closer to the end of the year, Palm will have to contend with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) as it prepares to launch its flashy new operating system.

Release. | Webcast.

Since updating its look last fall, iVillage has been tinkering at the edges, adding three new channels around celebrities, food and even astrology. Now, it’s working to expand its health and wellness content amid a wave of competition from other female-focused websites. The NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) site has unveiled a new health channel, and in the coming weeks, it will introduce a pregnancy-focused site. The move follows last week’s deal with the recipes and nutrition information and part of the EatingWell Media Group that has iVillage running ad sales for EatingWell.com

The greatest benefit of moderating a session at the Magazine Publishers Association conference on e-reading today was the chance to witness Slate founding editor Michael Kinsley’s induction into the Magazine Editors’ Hall of Fame. I caught his wry acceptance on video but missed the chance to record Nicholas Lemann’s touching introduction of the man a lot of people think of as the definition of “editor.” (The video embedded below is brief but a little shaky at times due to operator error; for those of you who prefer, here’s an mp3.)

Not coincidentally, this all took place during the inaugural National Magazine Awards for Digital Media, the first time the American Society of Magazine Editors has honored editorial achievement on the web and mobile devices in the same way as print. Or, as Kinsley put it, after years of struggle by ASME, “I think the Supreme Court said it best in Plessy vs. Ferguson, ‘separate but equal.’” The winners, led by NewYork.com’s award for general excellence, are listed here. Kinsley bridges both: in addition to Slate, his other magazine resume lines include editing roles at The New Republic, Harper’s Magazine, The Economist, and The Washington Monthly. He is now a senior editor for The Atlantic, advising on The Atlantic Wire, among other things. 

T-Mobile USA is indeed looking for a U.S. partner to help finance a high-speed data network. T-Mobile USA CEO Robert Dotson said Thursday that his company—which has admitted it is losing business because many of its customers cannot even get 3G—is looking “at JV opportunities for additional spectrum” and has talked with both cable companies and also with Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR). There have been reports since September that T-Mobile USA was in partnership discussions with Clearwire, which is located only a few miles away from its Bellevue, Wash.-area headquarters.

»  Google (NSDQ: GOOG) explains its core businesses, search, ads and apps, in layman’s terms. [Google Operating System]

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»  Would you go back to buying CDs if they were $10 or less? [MediaMemo]

»  Rightsholders say the term “piracy” is too sexy. [ars technica]

»  Why Google TV will probably fail. [24/7 Wall St.]

»  A profile of sites like Texts From Last Night and FMyLife.com. [CNN]