January 2008 Archives

Fairfax Media Deputy Chairman Mark Burrows has been forced off the publisher's board by his fellow directors, The Age's Business Day has reported Friday.

The investment banker officially resigned Thursday over “perceived conflict of interest” due to being Lachlan Murdoch's chief adviser in his AU$3.3 billion bid to buy Consolidated Media Holdings, according to the report.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, The Asahi Shimbun and The Yomiuri Shimbun have launched a joint Japanese-language Web site, called Aratanisu, on Thursday morning.

The three papers have come together to form the Nikkei-Asahi-Yomiuri Internet Business Partnership. The new site allows readers to read stories originally written for front and domestic news pages and editorials side-by-side online. Deputy managing editors for each of the three papers will also write essays for a featured section of the site, Henshu-kyoku kara (From the Editorial Bureau), The Yomiuri Shimbun reported Thursday.

Media General Inc. saw profits plummet by 86 percent in 2007, as its Florida ventures, including The Tampa Tribune and television station WFLA-Channel 8, continue to labour in the anaemic Florida media market, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported Thursday.

The media company earned US$10.7 million (47 cents per share) in 2007, just a slice of the $79 million ($3.35 per share) it earned in 2006.

Average television daily viewing time has increased in the United States since 2000, although viewing during primetime has remained almost the same, according to research firm eMarketer.

In 2000 and 2001, an American household spent on average seven hours and 39 minutes watching TV, which grew to eight hours and 14 minutes in and after 2005. TV viewing time for an individual American aged two and above grew from four hours and a quarter during 2000 and 2001, to four hours and 34 minutes during 2006 and 2007.

The Polish online market is rapidly growing, according to a report published by Internet Standard.

According to SMG/KRC NetTrack, online penetration in Poland reached 42 percent in 2007, or 12.8 million users aged 15 and above. And nearly 65 percent of these users logged on every day.

Amazon announced Thursday it will buy Audible, an audiobook specialist, for US$300 million.

Audible sells nearly 80,000 audio products, across radio shows, newspapers, magazines, books and exclusive programmes, which Amazon will be able to push to its vast userbase of the audio book market.

Fourth quarter profits fell eight percent for E.W. Scripps Co. due to a slump in advertising sales at its newspapers and televisions, the media company said Thursday.

Scripps profit of US$123 million (75 cents per share) for the quarter ending Dec. 31 was down from the same period of 2006, when profit was $134 million (81 cents per share). Revenue fell from $683 million in 2006 to $679.2 million in 2007, the company stated in a press release.

Although Belo Corp.'s pace of revenue decline increased during the last three months of 2007, that pace will slow in 2008, Robert Decherd, Belo chairman and CEO, announced Wednesday.

Decherd made the announcement in New York, where he is attempting sell his plan to spin off Belo's newspaper divisions into a separate publicly traded company from its television stations. Overall in 2007, Belo's newspaper revenue dropped 9.7 percent. During the last three months of the year, however, that revenue dropped 11.5 percent, according to preliminary figures, The Dallas Morning News reported late Wednesday.

Newspapers around the globe are extending their reach through the internet and other media, yet print circulation generally remains the standard for measuring newspaper audience.

New global initiatives to provide a more complete picture of newspaper audience through cross-media measurements are the subject of a major session at the upcoming World Newspaper Advertising Conference & Expo.

Problems with production at Mutare Board and Paper Mills have caused the Zimpapers to reduce print runs for its newspapers, the publishing group's chief executive announced Tuesday.

Justin Mutasa apologised to readers and advertisers in a statement, and said the group's Harare Branch uses 100 tons of newsprint each week, while its Bulawayo Branch uses 30 tons, All Africa reported Wednesday.

The Sun-Times Media Group Inc. will suffer a US$8 million financial blow in the fourth quarter for job cuts at its flagship Chicago Sun-Times and other newspapers.

The one-time, pre-tax charge largely comes from severance expenses for those employees, as the publishing group, formerly controlled by Conrad Black, takes measures to reduce annual operating costs by $50 million before June, Editor & Publisher reported Wednesday.

Yahoo has been losing ground due to its rival Google as well as newcomers like Facebook, which take up more of online users’ time, a major factor eroding the company's financial results.

Yahoo yesterday reported its profit declined again. Jerry Yang, the co-founder and chief executive, acknowledged that the company needed a big shift in strategy. He also warned that there will be "headwinds" this year, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

A study by Northwestern University found that teenagers find online news troubling and a reminder of the world's dangers, contrasted by time spent on YouTube, social networking and music downloading sites, which they viewed as a treat.

For the study, "If It Catches My Eye: An Exploration of Online News Experiences of Teenagers," researchers interviewed 65 teens in the Chicago area in 2007. Findings suggests news organisations should cultivate teen audiences by understanding what they are interested in and diminishing their angst, according to a Editor & Publisher report.

Pearson confirmed Wednesday it will sell its 50 percent stake in Financial Times Deutschland to its joint venture partner Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of German media group Bertelsmann.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of this year, and will leave Gruner + Jahr in full control of the German business paper, Media Guardian reported.

The Australian federal police commissioner's call for a media blackout during all terrorist operations, including ones gone awry, is going too far and has been “howled down,” the Herald Sun has reported Wednesday.

Commissioner Mick Keelty announced in a speech to the Sydney Institute Tuesday that no public comment should be made about investigations of terrorism until they are finalised in court. The Federal Opposition, civil liberties and media groups say Keelty's proposition actually undermines his own efforts to combat terrorism.

Jagran Prakashan grew its revenues by 29 percent to Rs2 billion (€35 million) in the third quarter of 2007, compared to the same period the year prior.

The Indian publisher, partly owned by Independent News & Media, also grew margins in both circulation and advertising revenue, bringing in a 47 percent increase over 2006, a net profit of Rs259.3 million, the Irish Independent reported Wednesday.

Wachovia Equities Research anticipates U.S. newspaper advertising revenue will fall 8.2 percent in 2008, not 6.1 percent, as the firm had previously forecast.

The harder fall suggests a “newspaper ad recession,” Editor & Publisher reported Tuesday.

Two groups of editors have written complaints about several new Associated Press practices, such as new fee structures and news coverage practices. The two letters, sent to AP executives in past weeks, were obtained by Editor & Publisher.

The letters partly responded to AP's rate structure change, set to take effect next year, which the AP says will make the service more flexible, allowing a la carte services and a decrease or unchanged price for most newspapers. Editors, however, say the changes will actually make some fees go up, and need to be revised in this time of economic hardship for newspapers, E&P reported.

Financial management and advisory company Merrill Lynch cut its forecasts for advertising growth in Australia due to a downturn in global earnings, The Australian has reported Wednesday.

The company's media analyst, Alice Bennett, cut her 2008 forecast for growth from 7 percent to 6 percent.

News Ltd. and Fairfax Media will co-produce their rival auto sales Web sites, The Sydney Morning Herald reported Tuesday.

Fairfax Digital's drive.com.au's sales team will take over all car dealer listings on carsguide.com.au, News Ltd.'s site, and the listings will appear on both Web sites at the same time.

Spanish media group Vocento SA announced monday its CEO Belarmino Garcia Fernandez has resigned.

The group announced in a statement that Jose Manuel Vargas Gomez, formerly Vocento's general manager for the national market, will replace Fernandez.

Despite many downward ad forecast revisions, and concern over an economic recession, WPP's GroupM unit released a report calling for relatively healthy growth in the worldwide ad economy in 2008, Media Post reported.

The report pointed out that this year, growth in the U.S. marketplace will rise 3.7 percent due mainly from two factors: cyclical stimuli, such as the Olympics and presidential elections, and increased ad spending on the Internet. Without the incremental effects of the Olympics and election spending, U.S. ad spending would increase only 1.8 percent in 2008. Without the effects of the Internet, the U.S. ad market would rise only 0.6 percent, and would leave it at almost the same as it was in 2007.

Many Asian telecom operators are expected to see opportunities for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) soon in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Standard & Poor's (S&P).

Mergers and acquisitions will be hot in this region for the pursuit of economies of scale, S&P credit analyst Yasmin Wirjawan stated in a report Friday.

As a flurry of changes continues at the Wall Street Journal following the purchase of its parent company, Dow Jones & Co. by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. late last year, another change is in the works.

The Wall Street Journal is planning to move away from Wall Street, Yahoo Finance reported Tuesday.

Reuters and Bloomberg make millions selling financial news first to businessmen and women around the world who are willing to pay to get into the market first. Updated information and share prices that are available for free online are usually delayed 15 to 20 minutes for the average reader to whom it isn't important to make immediate buy or sell decisions, Philip M. Stone of FollowtheMedia wrote Tuesday.

And as volatile as the markets have been lately, professional investors can't afford not to pay premium prices for real-time information – so why give it away for free?

After the media sector in Thailand took a dive in 2007, it is expected to pick up this year, thanks to improved business prospects in the local economy after the formation of a new coalition government, the Bangkok Post has reported Tuesday.

Although Thai stock markets continue to be slow, due to fears of a U.S. recession and heavily sold Thai stocks, media stocks are attracting more investors.

The Baki-Kheber's bank accounts, which hold revenues from newspaper sales in Gaya, Gasid and Azermetbuatyayim, were arrested beginning Sunday, the Azeri Press Agency reported Monday.

The freezing of the accounts have been imposed on revenues from the sales of the Baki-Kheber because the newspaper is in debt AZN 2179.4 (€1,754.52, US$2,588.79), according to a letter from Yasamal district court Zaur Abdullayev, which was sent to Gaya, Gasid and Azermetbuatyayim.

Despite losing readers due to heavy competition, Metro was the most read newspaper in the last two months of 2007, Newspaper Innovation reported Saturday.

Although Metro lost some readers in local markets, its national edition gained readers over 2006. The free daily recorded 1,571,000 daily readers in the last four months of the year, while paid newspapers Aftonbladet came in second with 1,255,000 readers and Expressen came in third with 1,040,000, according to figures from research group Orvesto.

A group of investors holding just under a 5 percent stake in the New York Times Co. urged the company to buy up more digital firms, according to a regulatory filing Monday.

Hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners and investment firm Firebrand Partners, which together own about 4.9 percent of the outstanding shares, stated although they think the publisher should spend more on digital companies, they are not looking to change the company's dual class share structure, Reuters reported Monday, citing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Global mobile entertainment revenues will exceed US$64 billion by 2012, from merely US$20.7 billion in 2007, according to the latest report from Jupiter Research. "With more widespread penetration of 3G handsets – or entertainment-focused 2.5G handsets like the iPhone – there is likely to be a much greater surge in both the adoption and overall usage in rich media services," stated Windsor Holden, author of the report, "Mobile Entertainment Markets: Opportunities & Forecasts 2007-2012."

More than eight million people living in the United Kingdom listen to Web-based radio services every week, and about two million download podcasts every week, according to a survey conducted by research firm Ipsos Mori.

Survey results suggest Internet radio has hit the mainstream in the UK, finding that more than 12 million people have listened to Internet radio, and 8.1 million listen every week either through live streaming or "listen again" services, MediaGuardian reported Monday.

Samsung Networks has launched the first Voice-over-Internet (VoIP) service for mobile phones in Korea, which will cut phone charges.

The Samsung Wyz 070 service allows users to make and receive mobile phone calls through the WiFi wireless Internet network, a wireless local-area network (LAN) found in homes, offices, schools and other public places, Asia Media reported Thursday.

Russian news and information agency RIA Novosti publicly launched its newly integrated and converged multimedia newsroom Monday, featuring a fully equipped, two-floor newsroom with a central hub, the only one of its kind in Russia.

The newsroom now houses an integrated news department, which enables the news agency to more efficiently cover all multimedia formats, such as video, infographics and user-generated content, as well as traditional text and photos.

Since the recent launch of ACAP, the new standard to protect the intellectual property of anyone publishing on the Web, the blogosphere has been full of comments about it -- and not all of them have been polite.

In addition to a great deal of supportive commentary, the Automated Content Access Protocol has faced an inevitable flurry of criticism. ACAP and its supporters, which includes the World Association of Newspapers, are facing the issues head-on and answering their critics.

Sam Zell toured Tribune's business units and found something he did not like: Content filters.

In a memo this week to Tribune properties, Zell pointed out how hypocritical it is that those guarding the Fourth Estate were not being allowed to see all of it. At least not on the Internet at work.

News that an Australian institution was closing seemed to come from a very outside source.

The announcement that The Bulletin was closing was handed down from Scotsman Adrian MacKenzie, managing partner of Hong Kong private equity fund CVC Asia Pacific, to American Scott Lorson, chief executive of Australian Consolidated Press. The Bulletin, Australia's longest-running magazine, was founded in 1880.

European media group Mecom will cut 80 positions at two of its regional newspapers in the Netherlands, in the southern province of Limburg, Newspaper Innovation reported Friday.

Dagblad de Limburger and the Limburgs Dagblad “are household brand names, with a readership of c200,000,” UK-based Mecom states on its Web site.

Video on demand, digital video recorders, online video and broadband Internet will all have their base gains by the year of 2011, according to research firm eMarketer.

Digital video recorders are the fastest growing. There will be 45.1 million DVR households in the United States by 2011, growing from merely 18.6 million in 2006.

As many as 16 advertising positions in the production and display of design ads at The News & Observer will be exported overseas, the Raleigh, North Carolina newspaper announced Thursday.

The News & Observer Publishing Company is working with Chicago company Affinity Express, which has production facilities in the Philippines and India, the Associated Press reported Friday.

The Boston Globe will raise its newsstand price from 50 cents to 75 cents beginning Feb. 4, the newspaper announced Friday.

The price hike applies to newspapers sold in Greater Boston, as the daily Globe already costs 75 cents beyond 30 miles from the city.

The top five UK national newspaper Web sites reporting monthly ABCe figures saw slower reader traffic in December during the holidays, MediaGuardian reported Thursday.

Although traffic slumped during the holiday season, growth from the year prior remained strong, as three of the five sites saw traffic increase by more than 20 percent compared to December 2006.

More Americans read newspapers online in 2007 than in the previous year, which marked a new record high, according to the latest data from the Newspaper Association of America.

The study pointed out that in 2007, 60 million people visited an online newspaper, compared with 56.4 million in 2006, up 6.3 percent in unique audience, Editor & Publisher reported Thursday.

The Sun-Times Media Group will terminate its three weeklies published in the Chicago area after next week. It is the latest move of its cost-cutting strategy under the way.

Tammy Chase, STMG Director of Investor Relations, confirmed the news to Editor & Publisher Wednesday. She said Jan. 30 will be the last publication date for The Skyline, the Booster and the News Star.

What will be the biggest threat to the traditional newspaper market? According to a survey targeting four Nordic countries, the Internet and free papers with editorial content were chosen by newspaper editors and managers as the top two competitors to traditional newspapers.

More than 70 percent of the survey's respondents thought the Internet will be the biggest threat, slightly down from the survey's 2006 figures. Free papers with editorial content was ranked second – over 65 percent chose free papers as a top competitor against traditional papers, which dropped about 10 percent from 2006, according to the Wilberg Management As study.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will scrutinise Lachlan Murdoch and James Packer's joint AU$3.3 billion bid for Consolidated Media Holdings Ltd. for any possible links to News Corporation, MarketWatch reported Wednesday.

Lachlan Murdoch is the son of News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, and also has a seat on News Corp.'s board.

Understanding how a consumer “feels” is becoming more important than what the consumer “thinks” about an ad or brand, as emotional attachments to a brand are more difficult to break by rivals, the Wall Street Journal's Live Mint reported Tuesday.

This new, so-called neuro marketing enlists the help of neuroscientists who gauge consumer responses to ads using portable tools, such as a “skin response meter.” One expert in the field is A.K. Pradeep, who has a company in Berkeley, Calif., called NeuroFocus Inc.

Monday's global stock market drop wiped £77 billion from the FTSE100 index of the top companies in the United Kingdom, the worst plunge the market has seen since Sept. 11, 2001.

Pearson, United Business Media and SMG were hit hardest in British Media, Press Gazette reported Tuesday.

As it reorganises to better compete with Google Inc., Yahoo! Inc. will cut about 700 jobs, or five percent of its employees, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing “a person with knowledge of the plans.”

Reducing its employee numbers to about 14,000 could be announced Jan. 29, the same time it will report earnings, the news agency reported.

How do Americans consume media? According to the latest Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM 11) conducted by research firm BIGresearch, an increasing number of people multitask with more than two media at the same time, and the level of simultaneous media usage increased over the last survey for all major forms of media.

“Technology is creating new media options faster than most people can assimilate and is causing more multitasking,” said Gary Drenik, president of BIGresearch.

Chinese Biz News, the first Chinese-language business newspaper in North America, is being published by a Los Angeles-based Internet company, according to the company announcement Saturday.

There are currently about 300,000 Chinese-owned businesses in North America, which bring in more than US$100 billion annually. Due to the booming development of Chinese enterprises, businessmen in the United States and China would like to have greater access to business information, and Chinese Biz News will aim to bridge that information gap, the announcement said.

Is newsroom integration really working? Editors at four of the world's most prestigious newspapers will examine this question at the 15th World Editors Forum, to be held in Sweden in June, the Forum has announced.

Online visitors outside the United Kingdom outnumber the domestic audience for The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail and the BBC, according to comScore data released Tuesday.

The Daily Mail received the most international visitors, with 69 percent of its 7.6 million users coming from outside the United Kingdom.

The editor-in-chief of French newspaper Le Monde, who is running for CEO, told financial daily Les Echos in an interview published Tuesday that he wants to be a “man of an historical compromise” between Le Monde journalists and corporate shareholders.

Eric Fottorino also said recapitalising the loss-making paper in the future needs to happen through several European media groups having a stake in Le Monde, including current shareholders Lagardere and Prisa, of Spain, Reuters reported.

AT&T Inc. and the New York Times have reached an agreement that allows wireless users to access full content of the newspaper's site at no extra charge.

AT&T wireless data customers will be able to access articles about the latest news, business, politics, sports and entertainment through the New York Times' mobile site.

Children have a ravenous appetite for digital content, according to a new report, "Kids and Digital Content," by NPD Group.

The survey tracked the usage of entertainment content (physical and digital) among children using computers, video games, portable music players and mobile phones. It found that kids between age two to 14 consume digital content anywhere, from three to seven times a month on a single device.

Getty Images has put itself up for sale, and could bring in more than US$1.5 billion, the New York Times reported Monday.

The biggest supplier of photos and video to media and advertising companies in the world has gained the interest of several buyers, most of them from private equity firms, including Bain Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Robers, and others, the report stated.

Lachlan Murdoch, son of media giant Rupert Murdoch, and Australia's richest man and gaming heir, James Packer, offered to buy Consolidated Media Holdings for AU$3.3 billion (US$2.9 billion) Monday.

This is the second major effort the two rival media empires (Murdoch's News Corporation and the Packer-backed Consolidated Media) have made to join forces, after both backed telecommunications company One.Tel, which closed in 2001, Reuters reported Monday.

Even as sales dropped at home, British daily tabloid sales remained steady or climbed in Ireland in December, the Sunday Business Post reported Sunday,

According to Audit Bureau of Circulations numbers, the Sun sold 104,629 copies in the six months to December, staying the same as in 2006. Overall, however, News International's flagship tabloid dipped below three million in December, an overall low.

Yahoo and T-Mobile are joining forces to serve targeted display advertising on mobile Internet services in Britain. The first ads for T-Mobile's Web 'n' walk mobile browser will be rolled out during the first half this year.

Yahoo signed a similar deal with Vodafone last year, which provided it with a key role in display ads on two of the United Kingdom's top mobile services. It also reflects Yahoo's strategy of making advertising and distribution deals with carriers and handset makers in key markets, such as Europe, Asia and Latin America, according to a Media Post article.

Online advertising will more than double to $50.3 billion in 2011, from $21.7 billion in 2007, mostly driven by new technologies that boost online ad performance, according to the research firm Yankee Group.

“While the size of the U.S. Internet audience will level off in the next few years, ad dollars have yet to catch up with the growth in online media consumption,” the Yankee study said. The Internet accounts for about 20 percent of total media consumption, but only 7.5 percent of ad budgets.

Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir, Icelandic Minister of Social Affairs, formally launched a Polish news Web site Friday. The new site, with all the main stories translated to Polish, was a subsection of dv.is, the news Web site for Icelandic daily DV.

According to editor of DV Thórarinn Thórarinsson, the news site provides service for the over 6,000-strong Polish community in Iceland. "Easy access to the main news stories from the Icelandic society strengthens the position of those who are trying to gain footing in a foreign community, foreign because of language barriers," he said.

Media General, Inc., will divest its one-third stake in SP Newsprint Co., selling its piece to White Birch Paper Company, and use the proceeds of the sale to reduce its debt, SP announced Friday.

Two other equal partners in SP are Cox Enterprises, Inc. and the McClatchy Company. Media General expects to make $37 million to $40 million from the sale after taxes, and will put the funds toward debt repayment, PR Newswire reported.

The Times will be sold on newsstands in parts of South Africa's Gauteng province beginning in mid-February.

The sister publication of The Sunday Times is delivered daily to about 126,000 Sunday Times subscribers for free, and is expected to retail at R3.50 (about € 0.34) on newsstands, Business Day reported.

The U.S. adult online population use the Internet more than TV and radio in a day, according to research firm eMarketer.

A U.S. adult online user spends 2.91 hours on average online, another 2.78 hours on TV and only 1.87 hours on radio.

Although most teens don't follow serious news online, news organisations can cultivate their interest by learning how to catch their eyes, a new study by the Media Management Center at Northwestern University claims.

Other tactics news outlets can use to get the attention of teen readers is to “diminish their angst, go where they are on the Web (and) enlist parents and teachers in the cause and help them develop a 'news persona',” the MMC states in the report's executive summary.

In order to boost circulation and shore up ad revenues, The Independent is considering a free edition, experts in the media industry told MediaGuardian, according to a report Thursday.

The report however, is "utter rubbish," Editor-in-chief of the Independent Simon Kelner told MediaGuardian. "And I think it's shameful journalism on the part of Guardian Media that you present unsubstantiated gossip as news," he is quoted by the site as saying.

Time Warner Cable will modify a new pricing structure for high-speed Internet access later this year, charging users based on the amount of data they download, according to a company spokesman Wednesday.

As the second-largest cable provider in the United States, the company will start a trial in Beaumont, Texas. To new online customers, it will sell different tiered levels of service based on how much data they download per month, not the fixed-price with unlimited downloads as usual.

New regulations announced earlier this week by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) that aim to limit cross-ownership of newspapers, television and radio and limit media consolidations are most likely to hurt mid-sized media companies and those looking to sell shares to the public, the Financial Post reported Friday.

Privately-held CTVglobemedia (owner of The Globe and Mail), Torstar Corp. (The Toronto Star) and Corus Entertainment Inc. could all fall victim to the new policy, according to an informal survey of analysts, the Post stated.

Danish investor Morten Lund has bought a 51 percent stake in Icelandic holding company Dagsbrún Media.

The company publishes Danish free newspaper Nyhedsavisen, from Baugur Group.

More than 45 percent of the newspaper market share in Switzerland is made up by free titles, and growing competition from those titles may have been one of the reasons paid weekly Das Stadtblatt, in Winterthur, moved to a free Sunday distribution beginning this year, Newspaper Innovation reported Thursday.

Five national titles in the German-speaking part of Switzerland are free, while two titles are free in the French speaking part. Winterthur, home of Das Stadtblatt, is located northeast of Zurich.

Web users in Korea will able to access more free security programmes beginning in April, as NHN Corp., which runs Naver, the country's most popular portal, announced Wednesday it will provide a real-time antivirus programme for free in partnership with local web security firm Ahn Lab.

Naver will offer the programme as part of its “PC Green” user service, The Korea Herald reported Thursday.

HT Media Ltd. reported a 10 percent net profit rise in the quarter of October through December in 2007 from the same period the year before, due to better advertising revenue growth, the newspaper publisher announced Thursday.

The New Delhi-based publisher of English newspaper Hindustan Times reported a net profit of 369 million rupees on net sales of 3.2 billion rupees between October and December of last year, while sales rose 16 percent.

The Chicago Tribune announced Thursday it will expand its community journalism Web site coverage to Chicago's southwest and western suburbs.

Officials at Triblocal.com said the expansion plan will start this week, which includes 13 more suburbs.

For Swedish young people, digital devices, such as the Internet and mobile phones, top the list of things they cannot live without, according to research and consulting firm Kairos Future.

Computers top the list among Swedes ages 16 to 25-years-old, while Internet and mobile phone follow. Among those 24 to 45-years old, TV is on the top of the list, with mobile phones and fixed phones on the second and the third. For those between ages 46 and 65, fixed phones, cars and radios top three things they cannot live without.

The Guardian in the United Kingdom has been exceptionally successful in using its on-line presence to reach new audiences and develop advertising opportunities. Its traffic has topped 18 million visitors per month, it is read by as many people overseas as it is at home (particularly in the US), and its overall weekly reach in the UK is 25 percent higher than it would be with newspaper sales alone.

Giving evidence to a UK Lord's Committee on Media Ownership and News, The Sun Editor Rebekah Wade said a newspaper's online platform can not yet replicate the print version's revenue, and that The Sun's Internet revenue will become “significant in 14 or 15 years time.”

“Long-term I can't be detailed and say this percentage will come from the Internet but it will become significant in 14 to 15 years time. Right now the newspaper makes the money,” Wade told the committee.

The Bakersfield Californian newspaper will begin outsourcing its printing operation in mid-March, a move that will cut 34 jobs at the newspaper's publishing centre.

The printing will be done by Nevada-based Brad Moseley Inc.

Belo Corp. disclosed Tuesday it expects to reap US$51.9 million from the spinoff of its newspapers into a separate publicly traded company, according to a statement in a regulatory filing.

The media company's board approved the deal, which includes a special tax-free stock dividend distribution to shareholders, Friday. Following the spin-off, Belo will owe $18 million in federal income taxes, as well as state tax, on the gain, according to the filing.

DoubleClick's vice president of advertiser products wrote last week that whenever the topic of widgets come up in a business meeting, people start to giggle, and repeating the word only makes the giggles continue.

But despite the funny name, widgets, which VP Ari Paparo describes as “small contained piece(s) of content that can live on a blog, a social networking page, a personalised homepage or even a mobile phone” can mean big business for interactive marketers.

Reuters and Thomson announced in a joint statement Monday that their US$17 billion merger deal should receive regulatory clearance early in Q2 this year, a slight delay from the planned mid-of-Q1 clearance.

The U.S. Department of Justice had agreed to give its decision on the deal “on or about the date” that the European Commission makes its decision, to align the clearances, which is by March 10, the two groups said.

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs announced during the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco an alliance with the six major movie studios, which will enable the company to offer online movie rentals.

The service was launched Tuesday in the United States and will roll out globally later this year. More than 1,000 movies will be available for online rental through iTunes by late February. Price will be $2.99 for older movies and $3.99 for new releases.

The mobile video games market is increasing, compared with markets for consoles and handheld video games, while online games are growing faster than the mobile video games, research firm Understanding & Solutions said.

“Global revenues from mobile gaming are pegged at $3.6 billion this year. We predict this figure to rise to $6 billion by 2011," said David Rouse, an analyst at Understanding & Solutions.

A young newspaper publisher executed in 1961 for collaborating with North Korea was acquitted in an emotional trial today, The Korea Times reported Wednesday.

Jo Yong-su, 32, founded the Minjok Ilbo (People's Newspaper) in February 1961, and was executed in December 1961, after he was convicted by a military court of setting his newspaper up with financial support from North Korea and of being a member of pro-Pyongyang underground organisations. Wednesday's ruling overturned the court's 1961 decision.

In its biggest contract since venturing into the mobile ads market, Nokia has been hired by Reuters to help the news agency generate mobile advertising revenues.

Nokia Ad Business, the sales team the mobile phone giant formed after acquiring mobile media services group Enpocket last October, will help develop branded sites for ad campaigns and sell ads on Reuters' mobile properties, Brand Republic reported Wednesday.

Swiss publisher Ringier is promoting its tabloid Blik by distributing 150,000 free copies in Kiev every Monday, a circulation boosting tactic the publisher began yesterday.

While a team of 200 promoters hand out the paper for free on Mondays, on other days Ringier is trying other tactics, such as sweepstakes, to increase circulation.

French newspaper Le Monde is in crisis as staff face the possibility of the newspaper being taken over by Prisa, the owner of Spanish newspaper El País, and French media giant Lagardère.

Le Monde's chairman and deputy chairman resigned in the midst of a power struggle for control between shareholders and journalists. Staff have a majority stake in the daily.

The Welsh Language Board has commissioned an expert to review the Welsh press, putting plans for the first Welsh-language daily newspaper under high scrutiny in a new report.

The board commissioned Dr. Tony Bianchi at the request of Heritage Minister Rhodri Glyn Thomas to conduct the review. As the launch of the new paper would require up to £1 million of public money, which would probably come from the Welsh Assembly, Bianchi is looking at the possibility of how Y Byd (The World) would work in the long-term, HoldtheFrontPage reported Tuesday.

The Chicago Tribune on Monday announced it will make a daring move – beginning Jan. 22 it will overhaul its print help-wanted ads, becoming one of the first large daily metros to try and push those classifieds to online, all while keeping its more lucrative Sunday job listings section intact on the print side.

Currently, the help-wanted ads are in the classified section of the paper, but beginning next week the paper will only list the position, company, location and Web identification in the print version, an attempt to drive readers online to find more information about listings at CareerBuilder.com, which is owned by the Tribune Company.

The television arm of USA Today announced Tuesday it will launch a number of online and traditional TV programmes.

USA Today Live will debut two new celebrity-focused online video functions on USAToday.com. "CelebWatch" will feature celebrity interviews, and "CelebStyle" will cover celebrity fashion and how to obtain it.

ImpreMedia, the leading Hispanic news and information company in the United States in online and print, announced agreements with the Spanish-language publications of The McClatchy Company Monday. The two will create the largest online and print advertising platform serving the U.S. Hispanic market.

This platform will enable national advertisers to reach 18 top U.S. Hispanic markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Fort Worth/Dallas, Houston, Chicago, the Central Valley of California and San Francisco.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has decided to restrict media ownership after a week of hearings in 2007, unveiling a new policy that does not allow private broadcasting companies to control more than two types of media in the same market. The new rule applies to local newspapers, local television stations and local radio stations.

The CRTC is also limiting future acquisitions to ensure a transaction does not result in one media company controlling more than 45 percent of total audience share. New rules will also prevent one broadcast distribution company from controlling the delivery of programming in one market, according to Canwest News Service.

Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson is considering making an offer to buy The Virginian-Pilot, a daily newspaper based in Norfolk, Va. that he has criticised in the past for its coverage of him and his activities.

Robertson became a multi-millionaire after he founded the Family Channel television station and sold it to Rupert Murdoch. He is also founder and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, is the host of the Christian television show “The 700 Club,” ran unsuccessfully for president of the United States in 1988 and founded private Christian school Regent University, among other things.

Video content on Telegraph.co.uk was downloaded 3.4 million times in November by 794,000 unique users in November 2007, according to figures released by the Web site Monday.

The high numbers and apparent success of the downloads has led to a major expansion of video content, while resources are being reallocated away from podcasts.

Gannett's British newspaper division Newsquest is closing one of it printing sites.

According to the Guardian's Stephen Brook, Newsquest is shutting down the Newport plant, the company's only Welsh site. It is said this action could lead to 21 jobs cut.

The United States and Western European mobile advertising revenues will reach US$5.08 billion in total by 2012, from an estimated US$106.8 million at the end of 2007, according to the study "U.S. and Western Europe Mobile Advertising Revenue Forecast, 2007-2012," by Local Mobile Search.

The United States is expected to make up US$2.3 billion of the total, while US$2.8 billion will come from Western Europe, the report stated.

Video is booming on newspaper websites, but few have figured out how to do it effectively and efficiently. The World Editors Forum has produced a three-part primer on using video to best advantage.

The ad device Beacon, which many Facebook users accused of invading their privacy, will be a good thing for the site, once all the kinks are worked out, Facebook's founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told CBS News in his first interview since problems over the controversial ad device arose. The interview is scheduled to air Sunday in the United States.

Beacon alerts Facebook users when their friends buy merchandise online from companies the social networking site has a marketing relationship with.

Local TV revenues, which shrunk over one percent to $22.2 billion in 2007, should go up 11 percent in 2008 due to higher political ad dollars, according to the financial advisory service, BIA Financial Network.

The revenue gain this year will mark a 10-year high for TV station advertising revenue.

The Internet is the most influential medium to American online video users during the purchasing process, followed by word of mouth and cable TV, according to a survey by the Online Publishers Association.

The Internet takes the lead, especially in the later stages of the process. In the first phase, initial awareness, 48 percent of the respondents said they are influenced by the Internet. In the later phases, further learned, deciding where to buy and purchase decision, the number exceed 55 percent.

The Wall Street Journal is edging closer to a free online model, allowing users to look at paid-for content on its Web site, including opinion pieces, editorials and video interviews for free.

The move away from WSJ.com's paid subscription model by new owner Rupert Murdoch was described by the paper Thursday as being “as close as we'll get to conceding there is such a thing as a free lunch,” MediaGuardian reported.

Irish media and telcoms businessman Denis O'Brien has raised his stake in Independent News & Media PLC to 16.43 percent Thursday.

This is the second time in recent weeks O'Brien has raised his stake in the media company, which owns the Independent and Independent on Sunday in the United Kingdom.

The Chicago Sun-Times business editor resigned Thursday, telling his staff he anticipates the paper will be sold in just months, and would rather leave now than be laid off due to staff cuts in the future.

Dan Miller, 62, said he will stay with the paper and work on special projects until March. His announcement comes just two days after the Sun-Times debuted a smaller size just and days after the Sun Times Media Group began announcing newsroom layoffs in an effort to cut costs by $50 million.

Greg Sterling, founder of consulting and research firm Sterling Market Intelligence, writes in his blog that he received an e-mail telling him about a local address being found in an AdWords ad.

The inclusion of a physical address, in addition to the name of a city or region, suggests “either a new policy at Google or a failure to catch a clever advertiser. It's probably the former however,” states Sterling, also a senior analyst for Local Mobile Search, a service from Opus Research.

The mobile broadband industry and 3G technology are hot in Europe – the revenue from each mobile broadband user per month is steadily growing, and 3G penetration is soaring as well, according to Exane BNP Paribas’ estimate.

In 2005, 3G technology only reached about 10 percent of Europeans, but it will exceed 40 percent this year, and reach seven out of 10 by the year of 2010.

Yahoo is hoping to beat Google and other rivals on the mobile phone. It announced the launch of its mobile platform Monday, which allows outside programmers to develop new applications for mobile Web pages.

Yahoo hopes the mini-applications, known as widgets, will attract more users, and then bring in more ad revenues for the company.

After receiving a 21 percent raise, Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail, was paid almost £1.5 million in 2007, making him the highest-paid editor on London's Fleet Street.

Dacre was paid £1.49 million for the year ending Sept. 30, 2007, according to the Daily Mail & General Trust's annual report, published Thursday. Most of Dacre's pay raise came from an increase in cash allowances, which reached £443,000 in 2007, more than double the £204,000 he received the previous year.

The World Association of Newspapers has asked leading newspapers executives to identify the current trends they believe will have an impact on the future of their businesses. Some are profound and others are seemingly minor -- but all have the potential to shape the future of newspapers.

A recession would put newspapers in even greater financial danger, as it would likely cause revenue and earnings declines to accelerate, Goldman Sachs said Wednesday.

“We believe this secular trend will be exacerbated by a cyclical downturn in 2008, particularly affecting the classified categories, resulting in what we believe will be the industry's weakest revenue performance since 2001,” Goldman analysts stated in a research note, according to Reuters.

The Seattle Times Co. will lay off 17 non-newsroom employees at its flagship newspaper, the Seattle Times, and cut another 69 jobs through attrition, claiming it will save about $21 million, the newspaper announced Wednesday.

Vice President Jill Mackie said the Times will also reduce the newspaper's width by 1 inch in 2009 to save on newsprint, consolidate some weekday and Sunday features sections and stop publication of a Sunday tabloid news section for Southeast King County readers, which was launched in spring 2007.

Although online PDF versions of newspapers cost next to nothing to produce and post on newspaper Web sites, many newspapers are dropping them because they are not popular enough with readers.

The Daily Telegraph has quietly ended its production of Telegraph PM, a daily printable PDF version of the paper. Launched in 2006 for commuters to print out and read on their way home, the Telegraph at the time said it demonstrated “our commitment to being at the cutting edge of the new-media age,” MediaGuardian reported Wednesday.

Youku.com, China's biggest video sharing site, is approaching some records made by the world's largest video sharing site, YouTube.

Youku.com said Wednesday morning it has passed two significant milestones, including registering over 100 million daily video views during the week ending December 16, 2007. Youku had more than 12 million daily visitors in that week, according to Nielsen Online's Nielsen/NetRatings unit. That is 20-fold growth for the one-year-old video sharing site, and indicates a great increase of 30 million daily video views since last October.

2008 will be a harvest year for Indian e-commerce, according to B2B portal Tradeindia.

”E-commerce transactions, which are currently growing at the rate of 30 percent to 40 percent in India, are expected to reach $100 billion (this year)," Bikky Khosla, CEO of Tradeindia, told the Economic Times. "With the advent of the Internet, far-flung global markets have shrunk into one small market, breaking (down) the geographical and other conventional barriers involved in trading."

Media groups Promotora de Informaciones SA (Prisa) of Spain and Lagardere of France are looking to “substantially” raise their minority stakes in French daily newspaper Le Monde, Thomson Financial and Reuters reported Wednesday.

Thomson based its reports on comments by a Prisa spokesperson, while Reuters cited a report by Challenges.fr.

Marketwire announced Wednesday it will acquire Miami-based International Media Services Companies, which operates financial news aggregation, media management, newswire translation and clipping and monitoring services in Latin America and Asia.

The Toronto-based news release service company did not disclose financial terms, but did state that following the acquisition, it will expand the company into 17 offices on four continents. IMS provides services to hundreds of customers in six countries, including China, Mexico and Brazil.

Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf has agreed to open the World Newspaper Congress, World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo 2008, the global summit meetings of the world's press, to be held in Göteborg, Sweden, next June.

The South Wales Argus could see 21 job cuts if parent company Newsquest closes its printing plant in Newport and switches to overnight publishing, HoldtheFrontPage reported Tuesday.

Executives at Newsquest, one of the largest regional newspaper publishers in the United Kingdom, are in talks with staff over whether to make the move, as currently only the Saturday edition of the Argus is printed overnight.

Advertising revenue declined 8.6 percent in 2007 for U.S. newspapers, much worse than the 1.7 percent decline in 2006; and it's only going to get worse, as that decline is expected to accelerate even more in 2008, JP Morgan analyst Imran Khan predicts.

However, the declines in print mean positives for online search and display advertising, which newspaper Web sites need to take advantage of to lessen the pain from ad revenue hemorrhaging, he said, according to a Tuesday report by Follow the Media.

A new bilingual newspaper featuring equal coverage in both English and Chinese languages hit the streets in Singapore Tuesday.

my paper, which was originally launched as a Chinese-language freesheet two years ago, has been re-launched to include unique English-language content that is not just a translated version of the Chinese content. Two teams of journalists, one producing Chinese-language content and one producing English-language content, now file separate reports, The Straits Times reported Monday.

Following an industry-wide trend aimed at trimming operating costs, a smaller Chicago Sun-Times hit the streets today.

The tabloid is now about an inch shorter, at about 12-inches tall, and is part of the company's efforts to cut operating costs by $50 million in 2008, said Tammy Chase, Sun-Times spokeswoman.

Two Australian businessmen have purchased a controlling interest in Cambodia's Phnom Penh Post, The Australian said.

The Post's new owners are Ross Dunkley and mining entrepreneur Bill Clough. Dunkley’s company, Myanmar Consolidated Media, publishes the Burmese government mouthpiece Myanmar Times, Burma's first private newspaper.

Print media companies will be able to own broadcasting companies and vice versa, the Korean presidential transition team announced Tuesday.

Lee Dong-Kwan, spokesman of the team, said that the next government will have alternative legislation, which will replace the current Newspaper Law and give print media companies more autonomy.

Although mobile is one of the fastest growing consumer technologies, a majority of advertisers have yet to catch on and tap into it as an important advertising medium.

The latest research on what agencies and advertisers are planning for the future indicates that they aren't catching on to mobile, and won't be utilising it anytime soon, MediaPost reported Tuesday.

Newspaper companies are optimistic about their ability to capture the time and interest of a new generation of readers, no matter what media channel the young prefer, according to a new report from the World Association of Newspapers.

For the second time in just seven months, the Financial Times has increased its cover price, this time by 20 pence, to £1.50.

Beginning Monday, the FT costs £1.50, double the price of the Times, and 70 pence more expensive than the Independent, the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian.

The Saigon Times Group last week unveiled its online edition, Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon Online, its latest vehicle to provide updated news and information, The Saigon Times Daily reported Friday.

The e-newspaper will focus on the economy, with a goal of serving as a two-way information link by using blogs and forums.

India's first free daily launched in the country's fourth-largest city, Chennai, in December.

The tabloid Ergo, published by Kasturi and Sons Ltd., has 16 pages, with a print run of 50,000.

The Newspaper Association of America has singled out eight business practices that can bring you up to speed on the most important developments in the newspaper industry, trends they believe are worth keeping track of this year.

For example, “total audience” measurement, outsourcing and hyper-local coverage are all trends that won't be going away, and are shaping the future of the newspaper business.

U.S. media company Media General, Inc. will announce its fourth-quarter and full-year 2007 results Jan. 31, before the market opens that day.

Media General will make the full text of the release and financials available on the company's Web site, www.mediageneral.com.

Advertising executives have become more pessimistic about increasing the shares of their advertising budget for all media. However, some media, especially online, seem to be holding up better than others, according to the latest Advertiser Perceptions twice annual survey of advertisers and agency media buying executives.

The survey's findings marked a drop in the percentage of ad executives who expect their share of ad budgets to increase over the next six months for all the media measured. The worst hit of all the media were radio outlets - only 16 percent of ad executives expect radio's share of spending to go up in the next six months, down from 26 percent from a similar study conducted last spring, and down from 19 percent from last year.

Display ad revenue is expected to rise 14.4 percent this year in the United States, according to TNS Media Intelligence’s forecast. This estimate also demonstrates the continued health of online advertising in a softening economy and relatively anemic ad market, paidContent reported.

However, the TNS report also gives some evidence of slowing growth. Overall it is projecting a 4.2 percent ad revenue growth for 2008, as the Olympics and national U.S. political advertising drive spending, which would otherwise dampened by the economic recession.

Lee Enterprises plans to spend about $30 million to buy back its sagging stock, the U.S. newspaper company announced Monday.

"The true value of Lee stock is currently greatly undervalued on Wall Street, and we see this buyback as an opportunity to add value for our stockholders as it is immediately accretive to earnings per share," Mary Junck, Lee Chairman and CEO said in a statement.

The World Association of Newspapers has launched a new website to support and promote the use of cross-media audience measurements that will allow publishers to provide a more complete picture of their reach than print circulation alone.

Companies selling online content in the European Union know that separate licensing agreements must be negotiated for different countries. These circumstances could change soon, however, as the European Commission finalized its “Creative Content Online in the Single Market” paper Thursday, and will make proposals for instituting digital content regulations for the European Union by the middle of 2008.

The plan would create a single European market for online music, films and video games, and is pushing for one interoperable, consumer-friendly DRM (digital rights management) system.

Carole Leigh Hutton, former editor-in-chief of the San Jose Mercury News, ended her editorship Thursday after less than a year. She told Editor & Publisher Friday that she left the position on her own.

“I left and I am going to do something else,” she told Editor & Publisher Friday. “I think it is trying to figure out the right next step. My next step probably has nothing to do with the business.”

Sling Media Inc. announced Friday the launch of two new place-shifting products that stream live television to BlackBerry smartphones and stream high-definition video to broadband-connected computers.

The digital lifestyle products company will debut its SlingPlayer Mobile software running on RIM BlackBerry handhelds and the SlingBox PRO-HD set-top box at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Monday through Thursday.

U.S. Internet advertising revenue will exceed US $35 billion by 2011, from US $12.5 billion in 2005, with a continuous two-digit annual growth, according to the research firm MultiMedia Intelligence.

Online ad revenue in the United States grew aggressively in 2005 and 2006, with a more than 30 percent annual growth rate. It slowed down in 2007 to 22 percent, and is expected to slide to around 13 and 17 percent throughout 2011.

The telecom watchdog in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will issue licenses for mobile digital TV service in the country by mid-2008, local paper Khaleej Times reported Thursday.

The paper stated that the UAE Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) has appointed a consultant to give advise on licensing issues and procedures.

This year, Sweden is expected to become the first country in the world in which more will be spent on Internet ads than television ads. Meanwhile, the same is predicted to happen in the United Kingdom in 2009, according to data from one of the country's leading media buying agencies.

The media planning and buying group, owned by Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP group, also predicts that by the end of 2008, the Internet will account for 24.8 percent of UK media spend, just behind the 26 percent that goes to TV. By 2009, UK online ad spend will need to grow 6 percent to pass the TV sector, MediaGuardian reported Thursday.

Rupert Murdoch has said he is looking to turn WSJ.com into a free site, but such a move would require a 12-fold increase in traffic growth to offset lost subscription revenues, according to a new report from Bear Stearns analyst Spencer Wang.

WSJ.com brings in $78 million annually, from 989,000 subscribers who each pay $79 a year. Including traffic from non-subscribers, the company counts 122.4 page views per month.