In the next two weeks, a battered music industry, facing slumping CD sales and a bleak future, will help to introduce a new service, called MySpace Music.

Bertelsmann will sell its 50-percent stake in Sony BMG to Sony, the companies announced, giving the Japanese company full ownership of the joint venture.

Joseph A. Ripp, the man who revealed financial troubles at AOL in 2001, is among several former AOL executives facing a civil lawsuit alleging financial fraud.

Markus Dohle’s promotion to chief executive of Random House, the world’s largest consumer book publisher is just one part of a broader cultural makeover at Bertelsmann.

After weeks of speculation, the German media conglomerate appointed Markus Dohle, the head of its printing unit, to run the division.

In an odd experiment in reverse publishing, a collection of Wikipedia articles in Germany is being produced in book-form by a major publisher.