Peter Bale, the executive producer at MSN UK, Wednesday warned major British newspaper Web sites of a "bump down" in user traffic due to Google News' recent content deals.

Bale told an audience at the Association of Online Publishers conference that popular UK Web sites such as the Guardian, the Times and the Sun should be aware of the ramifications of Google News' recent deal with news agencies.

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The U.S. general economy appears to be slowing down - the housing market seems to be on the precipice, and the stock market is experiencing bubblish volatility. However, the marketplace for media mergers and acquisitions broke a record during the first nine months this year, compared with any preceding year it has bee tracked, according to media industry investment banker Jordan Edmiston Group Inc. Wednesday.

With 637 transactions, valuing more than $95 billion in total, the first three quarters of 2007 have already tied with the whole year of 2006 in terms of the number of deals, and the deal value has far exceeded fully least year's $60.6 billion by 64 percent, according to JEGI.

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For consumers, slick ads are not the best persuader; word-of-mouth marketing is considered most valuable among all the ad platforms, according to a recent Nielsen Internet survey.

Seventy-eight percent of consumers said they trust other consumers' recommendations over all other advertising/marketing means. Ads in newspapers came next at 63 percent. Consumers' opinions from online blogs were in the third at 61 percent. Brand Web sites came closely behind at 60 percent.

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Yahoo has upgraded its search to “universal search,” a results-blending concept used by Ask.com, MSN and Google. Its search results will now include relevant photos from its Flickr, events posted at its Upcoming.org and materials from Yahoo Answers, reports the Wall Street Journal. Besides these, videos from YouTube, owned by Google, will also be included in Yahoo search results.

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The Sun-Times Media Group, Inc. announced Wednesday it will combine its Daily Southtown and Star newspaper titles into one, in an effort to regain profitability and growth.

Chicago-based Sun-Times stated it expects the move will lower the cost of newsprint, headcount and circulation sales, RTT News reported.

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