In a letter to shareholders Wednesday, Yahoo! once again defended its decision to forego a Microsoft takeover and instead partner with Google in a non-exclusive agreement to have the ability to run sponsored search advertising supplied by Google alongside Yahoo! search results.

The agreement with Google was announced June 12.

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Online newspapers in Norway generated nearly €290 million in 2007, up 61 percent from about €180 million in 2005, according to the International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA).

Display and classified revenues were at €129.25 million in 2005, and increased to €183.15 million in 2007, with a growth of 41.7 percent. The online sector's overall share of advertising revenue, however, dropped from 72 percent in 2005 to 53.3 percent in 2007.

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U.S. mobile marketing continues to be immature, with just 6.9 percent of adults surveyed saying they purchased electronics due to the influence of a video on mobile phones, while 6.4 percent said they were influenced by text messaging, according to BIGresearch's “Simultaneous Media Usage Study,” eMarketer reported.

However, mobile media was twice as effective among younger users, the study found.

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Free dailies earned 316 million Swiss Francs in ad revenue in 2007, making up 24 percent of all newspaper ad revenue in Switzerland, Newspaper Innovation reported Thursday.

Overall, Swiss newspapers generated total ad revenues of 1.34 billion Swiss Francs (€826 million) in 2007. Of the total ad revenues in Switzerland, free dailies accounted for five percent.

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The number of help wanted ads placed in newspapers in the United States fell one point in May, and 10 points year-over-year from May 2007, Reuters reported Thursday.

The data, from private research group the Conference Board, said the index of help wanted ad volume was at 27 in May last year, falling to 18 in April this year and 17 in May.

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Publicis Groupe has established an ad network that depends on the four largest American-based Internet companies that are defining online advertising: Microsoft, Google/DoubleClick, Yahoo and AOL

Although most agencies already work with these systems, Publicis wants to “formally identify the relationships it has with these companies and how it plans to tightly coordinate its campaigns across these platforms,” paidContent reported Wednesday.

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Neo-Gothic Chicago landmark Tribune Tower may be the next Tribune Co. property Sam Zell puts on the chopping block.

The Tribune Co. chairman and chief executive announced Wednesday he is looking for ways to “maximise the value of the headquarters building,” and would use proceeds from the sale to pay down the company's debilitating US$13 billion debts, the Chicago Tribune reported late Wednesday night.

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