Kodansha has recently opened a comic portal website called Kodansha Comic Plus (講談社コミックプラス).

Source: Ultimatum

From IGN comes an article that looks at Japan's current independent manga scene:

The doujinshi market has gotten big enough in recent years that it serves as a sort of "minor league" for the professional manga ranks. Many well-known creators nowadays got their start doing amateur productions.

According to Active Anime, the 9th International Manga Summit will be taking place in Kyoto, Japan this coming September:

This year's summit theme called "Environmental Innovation", will attempt to pursue and inform society about environmental conservation through manga with three sub-themes focusing on Global Warming Prevention, Dietary Education, and The 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle).

Type-Moon has updated its official website with the announcement of a new project: Mahoutsukai no Yoru - Witch on a Holy Night.

The story will be based on an unpublished story written by Type-Moon co-founder Kinoko Nasu. For more background on the story, visit here.

According to the announcement, more information will be revealed in the TYPE-MOON Ace magazine and TECH GIAN June issue, which will be released on April 21st.

The Associated Press looks at the popularity of mobile commerce in Japan.

TMC.net reports that Devil's Due Publishing is collaborating with uclick to make their comics available to mobile phone users.

Finally, the Manchester Evening News has an article titled "How did Manga take over the world?" that looks at the popularity of manga around the world.

Top 10 manga (4/02) according to Tohan:

1. Fullmetal Alchemist (19)
2. Kimi ni Todoke (6)
3. Nodame Cantabile (20)
4. Bamboo Blade (8)
5. Shingetsutan Tsukihime (6)
6. Soul Eater (11)
7. Neon Genesis Evangelion: Ikari Shinji Ikusei Keikaku (5)
8. Detroit Metal City (5)
9. Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden (8)
10. Koizora ~Setsunai Koi Monogatari~ (4)

Additional Rankings:

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Recently the head editor of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump, Masahiko Ibaraki, published a column on Nihon Keizai Shimbun called "25 Years of Me and Shonen Jump." In the column, Ibaraki talks about his life for 25 years as the editor-in-chief of Shonen Jump.

The Reminiscence of My 25 Years with Shonen Jump
- by Masahiko Ibaraki: Editor-in-Chief of Shonen Jump

I joined Shueisha in 1982 and was appointed to the Shonen Jump editorial department. Shonen Jump is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and I've been spending 25 years in the same place.

Read More »

ANN reports that the winner of the 2008 Manga Taisho (Manga Grand Prize) have been announced, and the winner is Gaku by Shinichi Ishitsuka:

Unlike many other manga prizes which are chosen by the editors of the manga publishers themselves, the Manga Taisho nominating committee is dominated by the bookstore staffers who are in charge of their respective stores' manga. The awards are also limited to works to published last year with eight or less volumes to promote relatively newer works.

According to a post from Negima mangaka Ken Akamatsu's blog, limited editions of volume 23 - 25 of the Negima manga will come bundled with the Negima OAV:

The anime will be by Shaft again and it'll be based on the manga version of Negima this time.

Source: Canned Dogs

From the Daily Yomiuri comes an article titled "Manga sniper gets a shot at television" that looks at how the anime adaptation of Takao Saito's Golgo 13 will be aired for the first time to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the original manga:

The manga by Takao Saito and his production company, Saito Pro, has been adapted for a live-action movie twice and an animated film once but, surprisingly, it has never been serialized as a TV anime.