Wednesday 5 September 2007

Guardian centralises recruitment and display ad sales teams

The Guardian is centralising its recruitment and display advertising sales operation in London.

The move, currently under consultation, is aimed at developing a national management structure for the newspaper’s ad sales teams. A small number of redundancies is expected in London and Manchester.

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Beeld manager breaks down young reader myths

The marketing communications manager of Afrikaans daily newspaper Beeld Wednesday listed myths about media consumption habits of young readers in South Africa that can be applied to better serving young readers around the world.

Gavin Rheeder's conclusions are based on his work with JIP, the KwaZulu-Natal-based newspaper's weekly youth insert. JIP caters to Afrikaans readers between ages 13 and 25. It is inserted into Beeld, Volksblad and Die Burger, and has a readership of 316,000.

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Sun's price cut an attempt to 'slow the decline curve'

The Sun's move to cut its cover price to 20 pence in London and begin using street vendors to stay ahead of circulation rivals the Daily Mail and freesheet Metro could force rival red-tops the Daily Mirror and Daily Star to follow suit, should the price cut prove successful.

The price slash, from 35 pence to 20 pence that began Monday in the London region, is seen as a defensive strategy to keep circulation above three million, and is being backed by a television advertising campaign.

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Yahoo acquires BlueLithium for $300 million

Following the recent RightMedia deal, Yahoo is making yet another acquisition in the online advertising market by purchasing BlueLithium, the online ad network, for about $300 million in cash.

BlueLithium, the fifth largest ad network in the U.S. and second largest in the UK, has nearly 145 million unique visitors per month, according to comScore.

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Australian readership on the rise

The free Australian daily mX has seen readership double since 2005 in Sydney, and increase more than 50 percent in Melbourne compared to 2001, when the paper was launched, Newspaper Innovation has reported.

mX's Brisbane edition, launched in March, has not been audited, although publisher News Ltd. stated readership was at 74,000 in December last year. The Melbourne edition saw readership increase from 100,000 in 2001 to 157,000 in 2007, with circulation at about 90,000.

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Watanabe, Nakae win Japan's prestigious newspaper award

Japan's Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association Wednesday announced Tsuneo Watanabe and Toshitada Nakae are the winners of the Newspaper Cultural Award for the current fiscal year.

Watanabe is chairman of the board and editor-in-chief of The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings. Nakae is the former president of The Asahi Shimbun.

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