From YahooNews. Full story here

LIVONIA, Mich. – News Corp. subsidiary News America Marketing has agreed to pay rival Valassis Communications Inc. $500 million to settle antitrust charges.

Valassis, a marketing company that provides direct mail and coupons, said the deal settles lawsuits it filed in several states against News America Marketing. Among them is a jury decision in Michigan circuit court last July that awarded Valassis $300 million in damages. News America was appealing that ruling.

Valassis accused News America of threatening customers with price hikes for not offering exclusivity in marketing deals.

Meanwhile, News America argued that Valassis tried to force higher marketing rates by publicly announcing price changes.

In a statement Saturday, News Corp. said it did not want to risk presenting the case to a jury in Michigan federal court, where it was scheduled for trial Tuesday. Citing unspecified concerns over the venue in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said News Corp. decided "it was in the best interests of the company and its stockholders to agree to a settlement."

Valassis said the deal also includes a 10-year shared mail distribution agreement with News America.

As many Mediabids.com publication users know, in addition to our conventional sales, we have been offering per-response advertising for the past three years. It is not for everyone but for many publications it is a great way to supplement revenue and get some real data on the results generated by their print editions. For any registered Mediabids publication interested in finding out more, click on "Place a per-inquiry ad" on the left hand side of your home page (www.mediabids.com) for a complete listing of advertisers we offer. 

The Suburban News Association recently announced a partnership with Valassis that is similar in it's intent. They intend to place coupons on publications websites and pay the publications per-printing of the coupons. Clever idea. It is interesting that SNA decided to bring this to their membership, since most pay-per-response advertising is best for publications when it generates new revenue from advertisers who would never, otherwise, use the publciations as a marketing tool. In the case of Valassis they are offering grocery coupons that are not uncommon in local newspapers on a per-response basis. So it is two steps forward, one step back. That being said, overall it is a move in the right direction.

We continue to believe that print publications and their websites work - too often publications are afraid to take the steps necessary to prove it.