Google News is planning to introduce a new feature that would invite the subjects of news articles to comment on the stories.

The Google News blog states that the long-term goal is for all participants to be able to send in their comments, which will be published in full, and without edits. They will be marked as “comments” so readers know to differentiate between the actual report and what the subjects of the report have to say about it.

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As UK Regional media company Archant saw an overall revenue increase of 2.1 percent, or 98.5 million pounds, operating profit fell by 1.1 percent, or 12.9 million pounds, in the newspapers and printing for continuing operations sector.

The financial data from the six months ending June 30 reflects costs offset by productivity improvements, or inflationary pressures on costs and further investment of .6 million pounds in online activities, holdthefrontpage.co.uk has reported.

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Beating out The Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and The Sunday Mail, The Age Wednesday night was voted the Pacific region's major newspaper of the year.

The award was given at the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers' Association's 38th annual conference in Melbourne.

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The New York Times Co. will stop charging for access to a section of its Web site called TimesSelect, The New York Post reported Tuesday.

Citing a source who had been briefed on the matter, The Post wrote that the decision stop charging for access to columnists and Op-Ed pieces via that section of the site was made by top executives. It is unclear when the service will become free.

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Thanks to an increase in advertising revenue and new publications, second quarter profits are up, the German newspaper and magazine publisher Axel Springer announced Wednesday.

Profit in April – June rose to 44.9 million euro, versus 44.2 million euro for the same period last year, the Berlin-based publisher of newspapers Bild, Die Welt and Sport Bild said. Sales for that quarter are also up, now at 617.3 million euro, a two percent increase from last year.

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Of the 18 million U.S. college students heading back to campuses in the autumn, 95 percent, or 17.1 million, use the Internet at least on a monthly basis.

In the 2007 Youth Trends survey, full-time college students said they spent 19.2 hours online on average per week, one hour more than in 2006.

The question is, what are they doing online?

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Customer product reviews online can increase conversion rates, online traffic and average order values, according to the latest “Social Commerce Report 2007” by e-consultancy and Bazaarvoice.

More than half of online retailers in the UK, U.S. and Europe said their overall conversion rates had grown in the past year due to customer ratings on their Web sites, while only nine percent said they dropped. Over 75 percent said their site traffic had increased due to the reviews, while only five percent said it had dropped. Average order values increased for 42 percent of the responders, and only six percent said they had decreased, according to the report.

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