April 2008 Archives

The Times has become the latest British paper to offer readers a prepaid payment card, a trend started by the Daily Mirror, the Guardian reported.

The Times MasterCard prepaid card and "eccount" was launched by Tuxedo Money Solutions, which provided a similar services for The Sun and News of the World since last year.

STAR India, a subsidiary of STAR Hong Kong owned by News Corp., is exploring the possibilities of getting into the print media market in India, the Business Standard reported.

Last week, top STAR executives met in Bangalore to discuss possible joint venture partners for the print foray.

Telegraph.co.uk saw user numbers increase by five million last month, thanks in large part to improved back-end technology, higher news production and strong content, the Telegraph has stated, the Guardian reported Tuesday.

Unique users to the Telegraph's Web site increased by 38.7 percent from February to March, to more than 17 million, the Telegraph reported.

The mobile music market in Germany has long focused on ringtones, but now full-track downloads are increasing sales.

During 2007, 5.2 million full-track songs were downloaded to mobile phones, up 53 percent over 2006, according to new figures from BITKOM and GfK Panel Services.

Parent company of The Dallas Morning News, A.H. Belo Corporation, reported a US$8.7 million loss in its first quarter as an independent firm, The Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday.

During the period from January to March, A.H. Belo also saw revenue slide nine percent from the same quarter the year before, to $160.2 million.

New York City Spanish-language daily, El Diario La Prensa, saw a 7.6 percent rise in weekday circulation, according to information released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) Monday, Editor & Publisher reported.

Weekday sales of El Diario, published by ImpreMedia, were at 53,856 copies, up from 50,047 for the same period last year.Only three paid circulation, U.S. Spanish-language dailies are audited by ABC.

Media conglomerate Cox Enterprises Inc., which foresees shrinking newspaper and television audiences and plans to keep an eye on the online market, spent US$300 million to buy a startup, the Associated Press reported.

The deal with Adify Corp., announced Tuesday, represents the latest evolution for the media company, which began over a century ago with one newspaper in Ohio, and later expanded to new areas including radio, television and cable systems in the United States.

Ring launched last week in Bucharest, making itself Romania's second freesheet, Media Details reported.

The free daily has a print run of 50,000 copies, and is handed out through a street delivery network and at subway stations.

The Financial Times will on Tuesday launch a Middle East regional edition, which will be based in the United Arab Emirates, the Guardian reported Monday.

Every Tuesday and Thursday there will be page dedicated to the Middle East, and the new regional edition will feature a new masthead specific to the edition.

The Grand Island (Nebraska) Independent used new live blogging tool CovertItLive in a new way – to launch the redesign of its Web site using input from readers, Journalism.co.uk reported Monday.

Following the site's relaunch, the paper began using the blogging tool to start a live question and answer session between readers and the Web staff last week.

There are currently 28 million HDTV households in the United States, which is about one-fourth of the population, according to a Frank N. Magid Associates study conducted in March 2008.

According to eMarketer, during the 2007-2008 holiday and Super Bowl season, 5.5 million households bought their first HDTV set, while another 3 million homes added their second HDTV.

Only 11 of the top 30 U.S. newspaper Web sites reported an increase in the time spent per person in March, according to the latest data from Nielsen Online.

Those sites with big gains included The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal Online, Village Voice Media, the Houston Chronicle, and Politico, Editor & Publisher reported.

Editorial staff at The New York Times are bracing themselves for layoffs in the next 10 days, the New York Post reported Friday.

About 50 unionized journalists have accepted buyout offers, and another 20 non-union journalists have done the same. This means “the ax could fall on as many as 30 editorial people in the company's first-ever mass firing of journalists in its 156-year history,” the Post reported.

Madison, Wis.-based The Capital Times will print its final daily newspaper Saturday, and next week will begin publishing two tabloids a week, the Associated Press reported Monday.

The 90-year-old afternoon daily will use the paper's online version for daily coverage, and has shrunk staff numbers.

The new free Dutch business daily, De Financiële Pers, was a two-day test run, an editorial in Friday's edition stated, Newspaper Innovation reported Friday,

De Financiële Pers is a business spin-off of free daily De Pers, which De Pers launched in a joint venture with business platform IEX.nl.

The Evening Leader will carry out trials with micro-blogging platform Twitter, to cover local football in real time on its Web site, Journalism.co.uk reported Friday.

This Saturday, the UK newspaper will use Twitter to issue 140 character live updates from Wrexham FC’s home match against Accrington Stanley.

Trinity Mirror will shut down eight loss-making free weekly newspapers in Derby and Peterborough, including the Peterborough Herald and Post and the Derby Trader, the Guardian reported Thursday.

When the company’s offices in Derby and Peterborough close, 23 employees, including six in editorial, will be made redundant.

Web and radio are the two most accessed media at work, while TV the dominant at home, according to the 2005 Middletown Media Study II conducted in U.S. by Online Publishers Association.

In the United States, Web and radio are the two media most accessed at work, with a reach of 50 to 70 percent and 40 to 60 percent, respectively.

E.W. Scripps Co announced its first-quarter profit is up 23 percent, with revenue gains at its cable-television and Internet units, Bloomberg reported Friday.

However, the company’s newspaper units marked a revenue drop in this period.

Publishers should look to technology companies if they want to stay on top, keeping up with the online world and digital innovations, which means working more responsively and quickly, Ien Cheng, publisher and managing editor of FT.com, told the Guardian's Jemima Kiss.

Cheng's strategy appears to be working, as FT.com had 7.1 million unique users in March, a 33 percent increase from the same time last year. Additionally, page views were up 72 percent over the same period last year, to 72 million.

Dutch free daily De Pers has launched spin-off business daily De Financiële Pers today, Newspaper Innovation reported Thursday.

The paper will be distributed throughout business centres in major cities.

Current TV has created a new position for managing online activities and daily Web operations in the United Kingdom, and has chosen Rebekah Billingsley for the role as director of new media, Journalism.co.uk reported Thursday.

The a 24/7 cable and satellite television network and Internet site produced and programmed in collaboration with its audience is based in San Francisco, Calif., and has a UK branch.

The global spending (both consumer and advertiser) on mobile media services will exceed US$102 billion by 2012, up from $47 billion in 2007, according to a Strategy Analytics forecast.

Consumers will account for the majority of this spending in the near-term, according to research firm eMarketer.

Google is expanding into a new advertising domain - graphical ads appearing on mobile devices, according to an article on CNET News.com.

Along with Google's text-based mobile ads, the image ads are displayed based on keywords appearing on mobile Web sites people visit, the company said Wednesday.

The future is unpredictable, but that doesn't mean you can't do something about it. That message is particularly important for the newspaper industry and is the basis of "Scenario Planning for Newspaper Companies," the latest report from the SFN project.

Scenario planning – the practice of imagining a variety of possible futures and planning strategies to cope with them -- allows businesses to take a pro-active approach and prepare for many contingencies.

Should his tentative deal to buy Newsday from the Tribune Company, Rupert Murdoch will likely “pose the first significant challenge” to the Federal Communications Commissions' recently adopted media ownership rule, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

If the purchase goes through, Newsday will be Murdoch's third New York newspaper.

Canwest Publishing Inc.'s 10 regional daily publications could see an increase in advertising revenues, thanks to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

The largest publisher of paid English-langugage dailies in Canada will be the “Official Regional Newspaper Publisher” for the Olympics, Editor & Publisher reported Wednesday.

The east Oregonian Publishing Co. said it will buy the twice-weekly Hermiston (Ore.) Herald from Western Communications Inc., Editor & Publisher reported Wednesday.

The purchase is expected to close by May 1. Terms were not disclosed.

U.S. newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. reported a loss in the first quarter as advertising revenues plummeted 15 percent, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

The company is planning on buying back millions of dollars of its public debt, Reuters reported.

Moody's Investors Services downgraded The New York Times Co. to Baa3, the lowest investment-grade level, from Baa1 on Monday, saying it believes the publisher's free cash flow leverage will remain "significantly weaker" this year than expected, Editor & Publisher reported.

According to Moody's, The Times' debt position will be weaker because of an "ongoing deterioration in newspaper advertising revenue" combined with the cash it will need to fund capital spending initiatives, as well as US$132 million in annual dividend payouts.

Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo!, announced Tuesday that the company may still recommend a hostile takeover from Microsoft, after admitting that it had already spent US$14 million on advisers, including Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, to fight the approach, the Times Online reported Wednesday.

With a nine percent raise in revenues for the first quarter to $1.82 billion, the company remained “open to any and all alternatives including a sale to Microsoft,” according to Yang.

Dainik Bhaskar has launched six editions in India, exchange4media reported Tuesday from Mumbai.

The new editions were out Saturday in Chhatisgarh, Bhilai, Jagdalpur and Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, Shimla in Himachal Pradesh and Pali and Nagpur in Rajasthan.

Financial Times Group announced it is planning to launch a magazine in China, a move to expand the Financial Times brand into “fast-growing markets,” The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The magazine will target China's increasing number of affluent people in the business world, stated the London-based Pearson Plc, owner of the Financial Times Group.

Mirror Group Newspapers is leaning towards becoming the most recent newspaper group to publish its Internet traffic data within the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCe) figures, the Guardian reported Tuesday.

On Thursday, MGN Web sites will be included in ABCe monthly traffic figures for the first time.

Agora-owned Metro is Poland's third most read newspaper, following another Agora title, Gazeta Wyborcza, and Axel Springer-owned Fakt, Newspaper Innovation reported Tuesday.

Metro's weekly readership, from September 2007 through February 2008, was 2.4 million (8 percent).

The Daily Mail increased its price to 50 pence Monday, for which rival Daily Express accused it of "staggering hypocrisy," the Guardian reported.

The company said its price increase was due to higher fuel charges, printing, production and distribution costs, according to the Guardian report.

New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. on Tuesday disputed media reports of a possible sale.

"This company is not for sale," he told shareholders, calling recent media reports "ill informed", Reuters reported.

Metro International sales were down in the first quarter compared with the same quarter last year, the company announced Monday.

However, although operating losses were at €5.6 million for the 2008 first quarter, they were less than the €8.8 million losses of the same quarter in 2007, Newspaper Innovation reported Monday.

MySpace has launched an ad platform called Community Builder, which gives advertisers more control over their presence and allows them to build, maintain and customise brand profiles, Brand Republic reported Monday.

The platform is now in a trial phase. It offers advertisers with analytics to help them gauge campaign performance and make real-time adjustments.

A newspaper that reported rumours of a marriage between Vladimir Putin and a 24-year-old gymnast has closed the day following the report, after the Russian president told journalists the reports were unacceptable, The Independent reported Monday.

Moskovsky Korrespondent first reported the affair, but Putin denied he and his wife Ludmilla divorced, and thathe is to wed Alina Kabaeva. Meanwhile, the newspaper's editorial team said the story had no factual basis.

The UK-based Daily Sport is coming out with a new look, focusing more on sports, girls, and humorous material while staying away from showbusiness-type content. In other words, the paper will go for more of a “sexy” look, instead of “sleazy,” the Guardian reported Monday.

“If it is not about sport, if it is not about girls and does not make you laugh, then don’t bother,” Barry McIlheney, editor-in-chief of parent company Sport Media Group told the Guardian.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg Monday dismissed media reports that he could be a suitor for the New York Times Co., announcing that he is not interested in getting into the newspaper industry, Reuters reported.

"I am not going to go into the newspaper business," Bloomberg told reporters at a press conference. "I am not a newspaper person."

The Daily Herald in Chicago's suburbs laid off and unspecified number of staffers across its departments, Editor & Publisher reported Thursday.

Paddock Publishing President Doug Ray would not give the exact number of employees cut.

South African Web search engine Ananzi is working with Google to allow users to search locally on Ananzi and internationally with Google in one place, Ananzi stated in a press release.

Google's international search function is being incorporated into Ananzi's search pages.

The London Paper, News International’s London freesheet, has lost almost £17 million in its first 10 months of publication; the turnover for the period was £8 million, the Guardian reported Friday.

Launched in September 2006, The London Paper recorded a pre-tax loss of £16.8 million during the year ending in June 2007.

The Asia Pacific region and Europe were home of the majority of online and mobile users across the world in 2005, according to a study from Morgan Stanley.

In 2005, about 36 percent of online users came from Asia Pacific, and another 24 percent were from Europe. North America took up another 23 percent, while South America only accounted for five percent. The rest of the users were from other regions, including Africa and Australasia.

The Associated Press will begin using a new copyright protection system for online users of its content, called iCopyright, Journalism.co.uk reported Thursday.

Online copyright rights service iCopyright will help to create a Web-based licensing system for AP content.

Media General Inc. reported a loss of US$20.3 million (91 cents a share) in the first quarter of 2007, the Canadian Press reported Thursday.

Newspaper ad revenue dropped 19.1 percent in the first quarter, while profit in its publishing division fell 56.4 percent on total revenues that were down 16.7 percent.

The Malaysian government has shut down a paper serving ethnic minority Indians, a punishment for its news editor criticising the government on social and political issues, the Associated Press reported.

The Tamil-language Makkal Osai, or People's Voice, received a letter from the Home Ministry on Wednesday, stating that its operating license would not be renewed, according to its news editor B. R. Rajan.

The New York Times Company announced it lost US$335,000 in the first quarter of 2007, the Guardian reported Thursday.

In the same period the year before, the company posted a $23.9 million profit.

Torstar, owner of the Toronto Star, announced it will cut 160 jobs and charge C$21 million in an attempt to reorganise its newspaper division, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

The Toronto Star has the highest circulation in Canada.

The U.S. version of the Wall Street Journal could be available to other parts of Europe, following its launch in London, the Guardian reported.

The U.S. edition of the financial paper began being sold in London for the first time Wednesday as part of News Corp.'s global expansion plans.

Times Newspapers took a smaller hit on redundancy costs at its printing operations, causing losses to be cut in half for the owner of the Times and Sunday Times, the Guardian reported Wednesday.

Pre-tax losses were down 46 percent, at £43.9 million for the year ending June 2007, compared to losses of £81.8 million the year before.

Fairfax Media is looking to buy a stake in national Indian newspaper The Hindu, an English-language daily, The Australian has reported Thursday.

The Australian cited reports by weekly magazine Business India and business daily Mint, both of which reported Fairfax was discussing the transaction with Kasturi & Sons, owners of The Hindu.

The New York Times announced Tuesday that it plans to deliver content to the Chumby, a portable, coffee cup-sized wireless device designed for consumers who wish to access a condensed version online, Media Week reported.

The Chumby, designed and launched last year by Chumby Industries, is twice-size of an alarm clock and a mini-multimedia device. Users can use it to view photos, stream videos, and surf on their social networks, among other functions.

UK regional newspaper publisher Newsquest launched jobs Web site jobSW.co.uk, for the south west of England, HoldtheFrontPage.co.uk reported Wednesday.

JobSW.co.uk aimes to serve job seekers as well as businesses looking to hire. The site also offers information on the main towns and counties within the region.

MySpace launched a Korean service Tuesday, aiming to penetrate the highly competitive market dominated by local players, officials said.

The service exclusively features "minilogs" tailored to local users, which allows them to make daily jottings, AFP reported.

The number of U.S. newspaper journalists declined last year by almost five percent to 52,600, the lowest in almost 25 years and the biggest drop in 30 years, according to the figures released by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

The figures reflected the attrition happening in the U.S. media industry, and also aroused a debate over the number of "minority" journalists employed by U.S. papers.

Last month, WSJ.com reported 15 million unique visitors, a 175 percent increase over March 2007, announced Alan Murray, executive editor of the Wall Street Journal Online, citing the latest figures from Nielsen.

Page views came in at nearly 165 million, up 75 percent year-over-year, Portfolio.com reported.

News Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch will temporarily join the board of directors of U.S. news agency the Associated Press, ABC News reported Tuesday.

Murdoch will be replacing Jay Smith, president of Cox Newspapers, who retired after five years on the board. Murdoch will sit on the 18-member board until the next election of directors.

The City Paper, a free daily in Nashville, will switch from a daily model to a twice weekly model at the end of April, Newspaper Innovation reported Tuesday.

The last daily issue will be printed April 25.

Le Monde journalists went on strike Monday for the second time the newspaper's history to protest 130 staff cuts in newsroom positions, Reuters reported Tuesday.

Like other newspapers worldwide, the influential French newspaper has been struggling with rising costs and declining advertising revenues, as well as online competition.

The New York Times could be losing some of its most senior staffers and top names if those taking buyouts and those leaning toward buyouts are accepted, Radar magazine reported Tuesday.

Those already announced to be taking buyouts include three Pulitzer Prize winners: Linda Greenhouse, the paper's Supreme Court correspondent, John Noble Wilford and David Cay Johnston.

The Financial Times, impacted by the downward sales trend afflicting the quality daily papers, recording a 1.3 percent year-on-year circulation decline last month.

The business title sold an average of 454,937 copies worldwide in March, according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Global IPTV households reached more than 14 million last year, up from merely 4.7 million in 2006, according to research firm Parks Associates.

In Europe, the growth was particularly strong, with more than 250 percent increase last year. Now, nearly 60 percent of worldwide IPTV households come from Europe.

The Associated Press adds a new feature to its Online Video Network, which allows members to syndicate local video to other newspaper, TV and radio station sites in the network, Media Post reported Monday.

Media outlets syndicating video will take a 30-percent ad revenue cut when it plays on other sites. Of the balance, 20 percent will belong to the site using the video and 50 percent will be divided between the AP and MSN, which bolsters the new platform.

Baltimore will launch a second free daily called ‘b’ Monday, according to Newspaper Innovation.

The free daily is published by Baltimore Sun and will have an initial circulation of 50,000. The Circulation is predicted to increase 75,000 in September, and possibly reach 100,000 by the end of the year, Newspaper Innovation reported.

MediaSpace, a newspaper ad clearinghouse partnering with over 1,900 American newspapers, announced Monday that it is moving towards speeding up the invoicing and verification process for print newspaper ads with a new e-invoice system.

The new system by MediaSpace transports electronic invoices and tearsheets to advertisers in half the time. Sometimes the ad will appear the same day, according to Beth Cohen, MediaSpace’s vice president of finance.

AOL users will be able to receive news alerts and other features from USA Today via instant message, according to Media Post.

Using the new service, AOL AIM users can search the paper's headlines through instant messages simply by sending one or a set of keyword in the AIM dialogue window. With the same method, they can also set up to receive news alerts.

Newspaper company valuations will still be depressing until the industry finds out how to connect with younger readers, according to the private equity firm Quadrangle Capital Partners said on Wednesday.

“Finding that new model, which is heavily dependent on the Internet and other electronic technologies, is crucial for publishers who want to remain relevant to younger readers,” Joshua Steiner, Quadrangle managing principal, said.

The two free Singapore dailies, Today and MyPaper, have grown in circulation from 250,000 to 300,000 each during 2008, NewspaperInnovation.com reported on Friday.

The free daily Today (MediaCorp) launched in 2000, while MyPaper (Singapore Press Holdings), was launched in 2006.

The Deutsche Post World Net AG plans to launch a free newspaper are opposed by German newspaper publishing houses, according to Wolfgang Fuerstner, the managing director of VDZ, Forbes reported Friday.

According to Juergen Gerdes, Deutsche Post’s board member, in an interview with the Financial Times Deutschland, the German mail services company is hoping to expand its advertising revenues in order to offset refusals within its core mail business, thus a free newspaper will be launched with a print run of 1 million, Forbes reported.

Personal computers, the Internet, and broadband have continued to grow in Europe since 2003, and by 2010, computers and the Internet are expected to reach more than 60 percent, according to the data from Screen Digest and Eurostat.

In 2003, the penetration of computer (per household) was 49 percent, higher than that of online and broadband, which reported at 35.2 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively.

Readers and editors both trust what they read on newspaper Web sites, but readers are generally not as troubled by anonymous reader comments at the end of online articles as editors are, according to an Associated Press Managing Editors poll released this week, the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel in Maine reported Thursday.

More than 1,200 U.S. editors and 500 online news readers were surveyed.

The founder of the Vail Daily in Colorado in 1981, Jim Pavelich is preparing to launch another daily in his hometown, Newspaper Innovation reported Thursday.

In 1993, the Vail Daily was sold to Swift newspapers, however, Pavelich has said he is not content with situation of the paper now.

Roger Alton, formerly the editor of The Observer, will on Thursday be appointed editor of The Independent, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

This change is being made as part of a rearrangement of management in an attempt to stem losses at the flagship newspaper owned by Anthony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media.

U.S. newspaper sites outperform other local publishers in local online revenue, according to a survey by Borrell Associates.

The survey of 3,000 U.S. local Web publishers found that newspaper sites made up 26.9 percent of total local online ad dollars. It also predicted big gains particularly in spending on online video in 2008.

Data revenues at U.S. mobile service providers boosted to US$23 billion last year, and accounted for 17 percent of all mobile revenues, according to the data from CTIA.

Compared to 2006, total revenues marked a 53 percent increase last year.

Online newspapers are helping to stem the drop in U.S. readership, according to the Biennial News Consumptions Survey 2006 by Pew Research Center.

In 1994, 58 percent of the survey respondents said they read the paper the day before. The readership continued to drop until 2006, with only 40 percent readership left.

Yahoo offers video sharing services on its online photo-sharing site, Flickr, a move that may be a little late to draw people from the dominant video channel, Google's YouTube, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.

Flickr's video technology, which debuted late Tuesday, represents Yahoo’s latest efforts to catch up to Google.

Two Spanish-language newspapers published in Texas will be merged into one, home-delivered publication beginning May 2, according to its parent company, Star-Telegram.

La Estrella, the 14-year-old free weekly published by the Star-Telegram, will be merged with La Estrella En Casa, another free weekly launched last May and delivered to about 100,000 households in Dallas-Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Ukraine's third free daily, Vecherkom, launched in Kiev Monday, handed out by 100 distributors around the city, Newspaper Innovation reported Wednesday.

Free morning dailies in Ukraine include 15 Minut, published by KP Media, and Obzor, published by Dutch-owned Telegraaf Media Group. Vecherkom is an afternoon daily, and was designed and developed by a Spanish team from Innovation International Media Consulting Group.

Jay Smith, president of Cox Newspapers, announced Tuesday he will step down as chief of the privately held newspaper publishing company that owns more than 40 U.S. newspapers, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday.

Sandy Schwartz, president of Auto Trader, also owned by Cox, will take over the position May 1.

The Glasgow Herald Group has recently created a job title of group multimedia editor, and has assigned John Young to the post, Journalism.co.uk reported Wednesday.

The former Evening Times photo editor will head up a team in charge of all “non-text products,” such as photographs, videos and podcasts for the Herald's three newspaper titles.

Guardian.co.uk and video search service Blinkx have partnered a second time, signing a deal for the Guardian's Web site to share advertising revenue around its online content, the Guardian reported Wednesday.

The Guardian's online content will now be shown on the Blinkx service combined with news providers such as, CNN, the BBC and Fox News. The video will be maintained by contextual advertising from Blinkx’s ADHC platform.

Singapore's redesigned Sunday Times hit newsstands Sunday, with a majority of readers giving the paper's new look positive reviews, the Straits Times reported Monday.

The newly revamped paper has more hard news, in-depth features and columns, as well as expanded Invest and Sport sections.

New management at France's Le Monde told staff members Friday that 130 jobs, which includes 25 percent of journalists, may be cut in a plan to keep the paper going after heavy losses, Reuters reported over the weekend.

“To reject it would surely deny us any chance of success and would put the future of the group in danger,” wrote Eric Fottorino, the recently appointed chief executive of the Le Monde Group, and his deputy David Guiraud, in a statement posted on Le Monde's Web site.

Advertising revenue for domestic Canadian newspapers rose to $3.98 billion in 2006, up 2.7 percent from the previous year, according to the latest report from Statistics Canada.

Daily newspapers generated $2.85 billion revenues in advertising, while community papers brought in $1.13 billion, Media in Canada reported.

The Nielsen Company announced Monday it has agreed to acquire New York-based IAG Research for US$225 million in cash, another acquisition underlining its growing interest in advertising measurement.

IAG, which reported more than $35 million in revenue last year, measures the effectiveness of television and online advertising for marketers and networks, the New York Times reported.

The Internet will outpace television as the biggest advertising medium in the United Kingdom by the end of 2009, according to a report published by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), PricewaterhouseCoopers and the World Advertising Research Centre.

Britain has the most developed online ad market in the world, which was worth £2.8 billion ($5.6 billion) in 2007, Reuters reported.

Google Earth has added a new layer to its software, in which a person using Google Earth can also view New York Times news linked with the region they are viewing, CNET News reported Monday.

“Placemarks” will pop up on maps showing where news is happening, and by showing the New York Times layer in the software, a window will make a month's worth of headlines viewable, according to Google’s LatLong blog.

Mirror Group Newspapers is set to raise its revenue from its online platforms, expanding advertising opportunities for clients by combining its online and print advertising sales teams, Brand Republic reported Tuesday.

The UK newspaper group is reportedly looking at completely integrating its print and Web site advertising sales teams, which has been predicted to begin in June. Ad sales staff will then cross-sell sell print, digital and mobile platforms.

U.S. billionaire Sheldon Adelson is once again seeking to buy Israeli daily Ma'ariv, Newspaper Innovation reported Monday.

Adelson has tried to buy the newspaper twice in the last two years, and also owns Israeli free daily Israel today, and did own free newspaper Israeli, which closed in 2007.

Yahoo! Inc. announced Monday it will launch a new advertising management platform in phases, beginning with members of its Newspaper Consortium in the third quarter this year, paidContent reported.

AMP! from Yahoo!, will aim to simplify online advertising for advertisers, publishers, agencies and ad networks. The platform was formerly known as Project Apex.

Following the launch of Opinionated in late March, a political magazine exclusively for Amazon’s Kindle eBook, Tribune Media Services has launched its second Kindle-specific title.

The content syndication and licensing unit of Tribune Company has partnered with arts and culture site PopMatters.com for the launch of the pop culture focused daily publication.

U.S. online TV and video services will generate revenues of US$7.9 billion by 2013, according to a forecast by Informa Telecoms & Media.

In 2007, the market value was over $1 billion, and by the end of 2008, it will reach $4.7 billion.

New Scottish business newspaper Business7 has launched a Web site for “senior and executive recruitment,” AllMediaScotland reported Monday.

The site, www.b7appointments.co.uk, will cater to high-end job seekers looking for management and senior positions and those looking to hire them. Business7 is published by Trinity Mirror.

Yahoo, under pressure to accept a US$41 billion buyout offer by Microsoft, said Monday it doesn't oppose the deal but wants a better deal, the Associated Press reported.

The statement comes after Microsoft warned Saturday that if a deal isn't reached within three weeks, it will launch a hostile takeover at a lower price.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer threatened Yahoo with a proxy war over the weekend, setting a three week deadline for Yahoo to come to an agreement on its takeover bid, Editor & Publisher reported Monday.

“If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo board,” Ballmer stated in a letter on Microsoft's Web site.

Express Newspaper journalists began their first in a series of three 24-hour strikes protesting the 3 percent pay offer made by the company, BBC News reported Friday.

UK-based Express Newspapers' offer of 3 percent was “well below the 4.3 percent awarded to the company's printers as part of a three-year deal,” the newspaper's union stated.

Local TV news, the U.S. dominant news medium in the early 1990s, has continued to remain on the top, according to the 2006 Biennial News Consumption Survey by Pew.

In the early 1990s, when there weren't as many sources as today, nearly 80 percent of Americans regularly got their news from local TV, while about 60 percent consumed news from newspapers and nightly network news, while about 45 percent got their news from radio.

Independent News & Media Plc. Chief Executive Anthony O’Reilly has raised his stake in the company to about 27.10 percent of the company, by buying 1 million shares at 2.12 euros, Thomson Financial reported Thursday.

He now holds 225.19 million shares.

MySpace Thursday announced its launch of an online music service, as part of a joint venture with three of the largest recording companies.

This service allows users to listen to music and watch videos for free and purchase music downloads from the site directly, according to the Associated Press.

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch warned that “technology will continue to destroy all of the old ways and old assumptions, especially in the media”, during his speech in Georgetown University.

“We have one certainty – we can never be sure where the industry will end up. It is true that technology is changing accepted ways of doing business. It’s making us work harder for our customers,” Murdoch added in his address about the changing face of media.

The future of two weekly newspapers in southeast England is uncertain after the Kent Messenger Group exposed plans to close the titles, HoldtheFrontPage reported Friday.

A 30-day consultation process between staff of the free Bromley Extra and Bexley Extra and management is under way, in order to determine the possible future of the titles.

In December 2006, Mobile Internet penetration already reached 70 percent in Italy, Germany, Spain, the UK and U.S. However, the actual usage was relatively lower, according to Online Publishers Association.

The mobile Internet penetration was in particular high in Italy, Germany, and Spain, which exceeded 80 percent. In the UK and U.S., the reach was over 70 percent, while in France it was only 64 percent.

Journal Register Co., which stock is now about the cover price of its newspapers, disclosed Thursday that it is in danger of being delisted by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

The Pennsylvania-based publisher had been notified by the NYSE that it had fallen below the "continued listing standard" of minimum share price, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Google reported the biggest job reduction in its nine-year history, cutting 300 positions at DoubleClick, the online advertising company it acquired last month for $3.24 billion.

About 300 out of DoubleClick's 1,200 U.S. staffs were fired, or placed in “transitional” roles, according to an email statement from Google.

Norcliffe Media’s Hull Daily Mail deputy editor, Mel Cook, has been assigned as editor of the Scunthorpe Telegraph, another Northcliffe title, the Press Gazette reported Thursday.

Jane Manning, who is being replaced by Cook, will become Norcliffe’s Kent Regional News and Media Group editor-in-chief, which includes the Faversham Times.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations has launched a new online tool, The Preprint Project Center (PPC), aimed to give newspapers a chance to provide “confidential distribution” to help advertisers forecast insert advertising, Editor & Publisher reported Wednesday.

The PPC allows publishers to upload forecasted circulation data monthly, and advises them to input circulation data 90 days prior to distribution.

Traffic to UK online video sites in February 2008 increased 178 percent versus the same period in 2007, according to Hitwise.

"The sheer volume of compelling content out there is clearly helping to accelerate this trend," Robin Goad, director of research at Hitwise, said.

Mergers and acquisitions still thrive in the first quarter, even though the economy is shaky, according to the latest data from the investment bank Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc.

There were 202 transactions in total in the first three months of 2008, with the value totaled $13.4 billion. This marks a five-percent increase of total dollar value from the same period in 2007, while the number of transactions slid by two percent.

The Wall Street Journal will roll out a U.S. edition in the United Kingdom beginning April 16, which means that readers in London will have access to the paper several hours before it is released in the United States, the Guardian reported Wednesday.

The UK edition will be sold in addition to the Wall Street Journal Europe from about 250 news agents in London, the West End and Canary Wharf, as well as Heathrow and City airports, according to the Guardian.

Jared Kushner, owner of the weekly New York Observer, is among those contemplating buying or partnering with Newsday, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Kushner, son of real-estate developer Charles Kushner, declined to comment on the report, which was based on “a person familiar with the situation,” according to the article.

Trinity Mirror Plc has bought UK Web design and development consultancy agency Rippleffect Studio in an effort to branch out revenue streams and increase interest in sport and leisure media, the UK Association of Online Publishers (AOP) reported Wednesday.

Trinity Mirror bought Rippleffect for an initial £3.2 million, plus an additional £2.6 million, contingent on success over the upcoming three years, according to journalism.co.uk.

The Coventry Telegraph is the most recent Trinity Mirror regional title to experience an online makeover, the HoldtheFrontPage.co.uk reported Tuesday.

A large piece of coventrytelegraph.net has been set aside for nostalgia and old pictures of the city. Regular visitors will also notice a new section dedicated to yesteryear in England’s Midlands city.

De Telegraaf, the Amsterdam daily, continues to claim the highest circulation in the Netherlands during the last quarter of 2007. However, the paper experienced a drop in daily circulation in the fourth quarter, to 703,000 from 738, 000 copies a day, compared with the previous quarter, Thomson Financial News reported Tuesday.

In the fourth quarter of De Telegraaf’s circulation, it expanded slightly, from the 699,000 papers circulated compared with the same period in 2006, according to HOI figures.

Weekend Witness, the Saturday edition of South Africa's oldest newspaper, will switch to a tabloid format beginning Saturday, BizCommunity reported Monday.

The new format is aimed at being easier for readers to handle and read. Additionally, stories will be “livelier ... shorter ... and punchier,” to better fit into readers' busy weekend schedules, according to BizCommunity.

Revenues from newspaper circulation in Canada rose 1.5 percent to $862 million in 2006, despite a rise in free daily newspapers and increasing free online news sources, which have cut into print circulation for paid dailies, according to a Statistics Canada report out Tuesday.

A large part of the increase, however is due to a change in accounting practices, in which a number of publishing houses reported gross circulation revenues instead of circulation revenues net of distribution expenses, Canwest News Service reported Tuesday.

The stocks of major U.S. media and entertainment companies dropped during the first quarter, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The Hollywood Reporter Showbiz 50 stock index experienced 17.8 percent drop in value in the first quarter of the year, compared with the 2007 closing price. At the end of Monday, the final trading day of the first quarter stood at $1,082.73, much lower than a high of $1,375.53 in early November 2007. By comparison, the broad-based S&P 500 stock index ended the first quarter at $1,322.70, reporting a 9.9 percent decline.

Microsoft announced Tuesday that it would offer full Web browsing for mobile phones this year, following the steps of Apple's iPhone, Reuters reported.

Microsoft promised at the annual U.S. mobile show that it will make Internet Explorer Mobile available to phone manufacturers in the third quarter, and put the first phones on the market by the end of this year.

Indian publishing group Amar Ujala has announced the relaunch of its Hindi business daily by the end of 2008.

“We will relaunch our business daily in Hindi with a new name and style. It will be a breed apart from others and will be launched by the end of this year,” said Sunil Mutreja, President of Marketing at Amar Ujala.

U.S. total advertising spending was up 0.6 percent in 2007, according to new data from Nielsen.

The data showed that ad spending in local papers declined 7.5 percent, while national papers spending dropped 7.7 percent, which are two of the biggest declines of all.