As News Corporation Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch gave thanks to strength in his Australian businesses Thursday, he also kept an eye trained on New York newspaper Newsday.

News Corp. is sticking with its US$580 million bid for Newsday, the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday.

More

Seoul's first free afternoon paper celebrated its first year in business last week, Newspaper Innovation reported Thursday.

The City has a circulation of 400,000, while total circulation of free newspapers in Seoul is about two million.

More

As the economic outlook for advertising remains uncertain, Trinity Mirror Plc announced it will remain cautious, but predicts its performance for the year will not change from previous forecasts, Reuters reported Thursday.

The British newspaper publisher stated it is still poised to deliver £7 million in cost savings by the end of 2008.

More

Less than a year after New York's Avista Capital Partners bought the Minneapolis Star Tribune from the McClatchy Co., the investment has “gone so sour” that if there is no monetary infusion or Avista does not hold a firesale, bankruptcy may be the only way out, Followthemedia's Philip Stone wrote Thursday.

“One has to assume that the Avista people are not stupid – they went through the Star Tribune’s books, they saw the cash flow, they thought (they) knew what they were getting into, believing that the cash flow would handle debt and operate the business with very little need for any major cutbacks,” Stone states. “And yet in less than a year that investment has gone so sour that although the newspaper insists it is not in a bankruptcy situation and it can still handle debt this year, it has brought in a another private equity firm to analyse its balance sheet.”

More

Google is considering running illustrated advertisements with the results of Web image-queries, a step beyond its text-based ad business, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

“Matching graphical-display ads with image searches represents a large opportunity, and there's lot of potential for advertising revenue there,” Marissa Mayer, a Google vice president, told Bloomberg Radio Wednesday. She added that the company at the same time must ensure such ads don't drive users away.

More

The United States took the lead in terms of time spent online in January 2008, according to the data from Nielsen Online.

The data was derived from nine countries, including the United States, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Australia and Switzerland during January 2008.

More

Global media reporting site Followthemedia will close May 16 unless €35,000 is raised, the group announced on its Web site.

Followthemedia has been reporting on media issues for four years, and counts 1.5 million visitors.

More

Industrial action by journalists at French daily Le Monde has been suspended, after the newspaper's management announced job cuts could be fewer than previously suggested, the Guardian reported Wednesday.

The announcement by management was made Wednesday, following an editorial staff meeting at which employees were to vote on whether they would begin a longer strike next Tuesday.

More

The idea that “free” news on the Internet is the cause for current financial woes in journalism is incorrect; on the contrary, a lot of money is generated by the news, very little of which makes it back to news providers, wrote Peter Osnos, senior fellow for media at The Century Foundation on Tuesday.

The fact that content creators are not receiving a fair amount is “no longer tolerable,” Osnos stated. “News is no more free these days than the 'complementary' bag of pretzels you get on a plane, after you’ve paid for the ticket.”

More

Most newspaper editors around the world no longer think of their product as “print-only,” and are optimistic about the future of newspapers and their place in the multi-media revolution, according to the Newsroom Barometer, an annual survey of editors around the world, released Tuesday.

The second annual survey of 704 editors and senior news executives from 120 countries was conducted by Zogby International in March, and commissioned by Reuters and the World Editors Forum, a partner of the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project and also part of the World Association of Newspapers.

More

Online advertising in Australia continued to march ahead in the first quarter this year, albeit at a slower pace than over the previous four years, The Australian reported.

The total Internet ad market grew 30.8 percent to AU$385 million in the first three months. Compared with the same period last year, it dropped from a 51-percent increase in 2007.

More

As of Q1 2008, 31 percent of Britons ages 15 and older listened to the radio via a digital platform every week, including a digital audio broadcast on the radio, cable television or personal computer, according to the Radio Joint Audience Research estimates.

The growing audience also spent more time on digital radio. Weekly listening hours increased nine percent to reach 184 million in the first quarter, and digital radio now makes up 17.8 percent of all radio listening in the UK.

More

News Media Corp. has bought the Arizona Silver Belt from GateHouse Media for an undisclosed amount, Editor & Publisher reported Tuesday.

“We did not see the Arizona operation as a good strategic or geographic fit and felt we could redeploy the capital more effectively elsewhere,” Michael Reed, GateHouse CEO said in a statement.

More

The Lexington Herald-Leader Co. will offer buyout packages to employees in order to decrease its work force by an estimated four percent to deal with the decreasing advertising and circulation revenue, the Herald-Leader reported Wednesday.

Owned by the McClatchy Co., the Herald-Leader currently has 385 full-time employees and managers.

More

Children in New Zealand are more media savvy than ever before, but know when they need to switch off the television, Internet or mobile phones, according to a new study, TVNZ reported Tuesday.

The country's Broadcast Minister Trevor Mallard on Tuesday released the Broadcasting Standards Authority report, Seen and Heard: Children's Media Use, Exposure, and Response.

More