The new chief executive of Dow Jones & Co., Les Hinton, said he expects Dow Jones flagship, the Wall Street Journal, to see “a 40 per cent increase year-on-year in actual audience” in the Asia-Pacific region for its Web site, The Australian reported Thursday.

Hinton also said it is increasingly unlikely that the entire wsj.com site will become a free, completely ad-based site.

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Many new media experts believe that no matter who wins the tussle between Microsoft and Yahoo, newspapers will end up being the ones “who get squeezed,” Editor & Publisher stated Wednesday in a special report.

The back-and-forth between the two online giants can only distract Yahoo as its online ad tools are rolled out for its newspaper consortium, according to the report.

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Due to changing consumer habits, U.S. advertisers and marketers are about to switch their investments to new digital and out-of-home media platforms, according to the latest forecast from research firm PQ Media.

The report pointed out that companies will spend over $160.8 billion in 2012, 82 percent more than in 2008, on 18 emerging markets, which include online videos, store-based TV screens, sponsored events, TV and movie product placements, mobile phones, video games and digital video recorders.

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The BBC will relaunch its news and sports Web sites next week, adding a video service, more photos, and an increased emphasis on breaking news and live events, the Guardian reported Wednesday.

Migrating video content from a pop-up player to an inserted Flash video player that is embedded in the page is hoped to further increase traffic numbers. Just during trials of the new player, it increased user numbers by more than 10 times.

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The Freedom Newspaper is accusing the Gambia Telecommunication Company (GAMTEL), the country’s main Internet service provider, of blocking the online paper’s Web sites’ IP-address because of a story it carried about the company, online newspaper Foroyaa reported Wednesday.

The Freedom Newspaper reported March 9 that GAMTEL was on the edge of total bankruptcy for its misconduct.

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According to research firm TNS Media Intelligence, U.S. ad spending lagged in the fourth quarter because marketers cut newspaper and radio ads due to the weakening economy.

Ad spending dropped 0.1 percent compared with the same quarter in 2006. It rose 1.3 percent from the third quarter of 2007, and slid 0.2 percent from the second, according to TNS.

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