Although online advertising growth is slowing, it will grow 19.5 percent on average each year until 2012, representing the highest growth levels of media around the world, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' annual Global Entertainment and Media Outlook, paidContent reported Wednesday.

In general, PwC predicts global ad revenues will reach US$2.2 trillion by 2012, growing an average of 6.6 percent each year.

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Several newspaper networks netted more unique traffic than Google News in May, Nielsen Online data shows, Editor & Publisher reported Wednesday.

Yahoo News had 35.8 million unique monthly visitors, beating out Google News, which had 11.36 million. NYTimes.com also beat the online giant, with 21.3 million uniques.

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Professional social networking site LinkedIn has secured US$53 million from global private investment firm Bain Capital and other existing investors to expand in Europe, Media Guardian reported Wednesday.

The investment values the company at $1 billion. Other investors include Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Greylock Partners.

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The China Times will lay off almost half of its 1,200 staff due to financial difficulties, mainly stemming from business and advertising declines in Taiwan, union and newspaper officials announced Wednesday, Monsters & Critics reported.

“In the face of a widening deficit and streamlining of the newspaper, a large-scale redundancy in terms of people and facilities is inevitable,” Chou Sheng-yuan, the newspaper's publisher, stated in a letter to employees.

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U.S. online ad revenues reached US$5.8 billion in the first quarter this year, up 18.2 percent over the same period in 2007, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

However, it was the first time in three years that online ads experienced a sequential decline, lower than the highest $5.9 billion in the last quarter of 2007. The 18.2 percent gain, although healthy, shows that online ad growth has been slowing over the past year, paidContent reported.

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McClatchy Co. cut 10 percent of its workforce this week, or 1,400 jobs, pointing to tumbling ad revenue, low cash flow results and poor stock performance as reasons for such drastic cost-cutting measures. It was a tough business decision made during a very difficult time for U.S. newspapers, and other newspaper companies across the country are taking many of the same measures.

Yet, when such a sweeping step is taken, especially when that step is to put loyal, hard-working employees out on the street during a time when finding a journalism job in the United States is beyond difficult, (not to mention under-paid, in many cases) it's only natural for a critical eye to be turned on management, as journalism professionals across the country and around the world wonder if such a drastic step could have been avoided. The Lexington (Kentucky) Newspaper Guild was perhaps the first to make a statement on the matter, and on Monday released a statement criticising CEO Gary Pruitt for his high salary and sizeable 2007 bonus, all while his company was suffering financially.

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Media General released its revenue results in May, revealing online as the only unit marking growth, Media Post reported.

Total revenues were US$64.3 million, down from $71.3 million in the same period last year.

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Two Stockholm free dailies, Metro and City, have lost readers in the first four months this year compared to the same period in 2007. Metro’s daily circulation dropped from 554,000 to 545,000, while City (Bonnier) has 482,000 readers now versus 518,000 in 2007, Newspaper Innovation reported.

Another free paper, Punk.SE, was still published in the first three months of 2008, but closed down in May. Readership for the next period is expected to rise again.

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