Results from the first survey to include French language free dailies Le Matin Bleu and 20 Minutes in Switzerland are out today, showing German language 20 Minuten to be the largest daily newspaper in the country, while Le Matin Bleu is the most read daily in the country's French speaking region.

20 Minuten counts 1.2 million readers, while Le Matin Bleu has 353,000 readers, according to the Swiss readership survey conducted by Publicitas between April 2006 and March 2007. 20 Minutes saw readership of 276,000.

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Shares of several newspaper companies dropped on Monday after a Wachovia Capital Markets analyst predicted lukewarm ad revenue for the second half of the year.

John Janedis said the sector’s ad revenue in August was lukewarm, and predicted the third quarter would be below expectations. He cautioned that the Journal Register Co., Lee Enterprises Inc., New York Times Co. and Gannett Co. have the most risk exposure relative to 2008 consensus earnings estimates.

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France's Le Monde has launched a bold Web 2.0 experiment, LePost.fr, a separate unit from the national daily and its LeMonde.fr Web site.

Le Monde's interactif unit was charged with shaping LePost.fr to differ from other newspaper Web sites, offering a mixed, continuous stream of news from both staff reporters and readers who also contribute to the site, which launched Sunday.

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Spiegel magazine group will likely buy British publisher Pearson's 50 percent stake in the daily Financial Times Deutschland, according to a Handelsblatt newspaper report.

The deal is expected to be complete in the coming weeks, the article states, citing sources at Germany's Spiegel and publisher Gruner + Jahr, which owns the other half of the FTD.

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Richard Zannino, the chief executive of Dow Jones & Co., prepared the way on Monday for job losses at the company after it is acquired by News Corp.

In a letter to Dow Jones employees, publisher of the flagship Wall Street Journal, Zannino said the main goal of the $5.2 billion takeover deal is to "increase profits by strengthening and growing our products and brands, not by slashing costs."

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Fairfax Digital will use the $12 million acquisition from online managed funds Web site InvestSmart to build news and lifestyle portals on its site.

InvestSmart will merge with Fairfax's Direct Access investment products Web site to create a business that will have access to more than $1 billion in managed funds, it was announced in a deal Monday, The Australian reported Tuesday.

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Total U.S. advertising expenditures declined 0.3 percent to $72.5 billion in the first half of 2007, the first time that ad spending has fallen for two consecutive quarters since 2001, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

"While the protracted downturn in automotive spending has been a prime contributor, the overall results reflect weakness across a wide range of industries and advertisers. Given the uncertainties about near-term economic growth and consumer spending, we expect core ad spending will continue to face challenges during the second half of the year," Steven Fredericks, president and CEO of TNS Media Intelligence, said in a statement.

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