Grapevine, a city of about 50,000 residents near Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, has instituted an outright ban on news boxes in its historic downtown area. While the ban affects all public property, publishers can place boxes on private property in the affected area if the property owner agrees. Five city council members voted for the measure, and two voted against, including Darlene Freed. She is concerned the ban might violate the First Amendment, and wishes the council had talked with the newspaper owners before voting. Publishers have until Thursday to remove the boxes, or they will face a $100/day fine.

That's what some businesses in California's Sonoma County tell the Press-Democrat. The owner of a local pastry shop says a Yelp salesperson offered to rearrange reviews of her pastry shop for $300 a month. But according to Yelp's website, reviews cannot be rearranged. Representatives from the popular user-generated review site did not return the Press-Democrat's calls seeking a comment.

While Borrell Associates recently predicted that online ad spending will top out next year, Online Media Daily reports that some industry leaders are challenging the firm's prognosis. One eMarketer senior analyst says that while they see the slowest year of growth since '03, "we do see growth." Meanwhile, another study, by Advertiser Perceptions Inc., finds that the number of media brands ad executives plan to place ads in over the next six months is expanding for online media, but declining for print outlets. And in another bit of online ad news, mobile web ad provider Admob reports that requests for iPhone ads have increased 1000 percent in four months, making it the top device on the Admob network.