According to the latest forecast by Carat, global advertising spending will grow by six percent this year, downward slightly from the group's September 2007 forecast of 6.2 percent growth.

Mainardo de Nardis, CEO of Aegis Media, said that some important factors driving the strong global growth include the Beijing Olympics and the U.S. Presidential elections. “The growth in ad spend for this year is six percent, up from 4.6 percent in 2007."

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Mobile Internet reach among mobile phone users in Western Europe will reach 38 percent (125 million people) by 2013, according to the latest estimates by Forrester Research.

Currently about 42 million Europeans surf online on a regular basis using their mobile phones.

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A senior official at the Chinese state council information office announced that the country welcomes closer ties with other countries to develop China's growing digital media sector, but also warned that foreigners should not use “Internet issues” tamper with the country's “internal affairs,” the Guardian reported last week.

Cai Mingzhao, a vice minister with the information office, explained China's digital media policy to a roundtable discussion held at Reuters' London offices Thursday.

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The UK-based Eastbourne Gazette will launch its new youth newspaper, called The Jigaroo, next week, the paper reported Monday.

The youth publication will be available in the newspaper, and is being produced by an editorial team of students.

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As demand for the paper newspapers are printed on shrinks, the cost of that paper is on the rise in the United States, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.

Paper companies spent much of 2007 idling the machinery used to make the paper, and sometimes even having to sell that machinery. This decrease in supply means paper companies have more power over pricing their products, and have turned to raising prices in the face of shrinking demand and revenues as readers turn to online.

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National newspaper web traffic in the United Kingdom decreased month-on-month in February, falling back after high visitor levels the month before, according to figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulation Electronic, Journalism.co.uk reported last week.

The five UK national newspapers reported that monthly figures for unique users visiting their sites in February were down in the short-term, but long-term, figures looked promising.

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