Northern European newspaper group Mecom is seeing a 63 percent plunge in operating profits, due mostly to Denmark's highly competitive newspaper market, the Times Online reported Wednesday.

The group's income in the first half of the year dropped by £5 million (€6.33 million) to £3 million (€3.8 million), on advertising down 13 percent.

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Investors are interested in media companies in India because they continue to trade at high premiums, target under-advertised and geographically diversified audiences and serve audiences willing to pay for media, Salil Pitale, head of media and telecom at Enam Securities, told the Future of News event in New Delhi Friday, afaqs! reported.

Criteria for investing in Indian media falls into four major categories: predictability, sustainability, profitability and derisking, he said.

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Paid circulation in Germany has dropped from 25 million to 20 million between 1998 and 2008, making the country highly attractive to free newspapers, Newspaper Innovation reported Friday.

However, even though Germany seems to be a blank slate in regard to freesheets, plans by Metro, Schibsted and Dagsbrun have not worked, as German publisher Springer “is said to have a 'war fund' of €300 million ready and could launch competitor Gratissimo ‘within days’ while WAZ – the second German publisher – also wants to fight a free daily at any cost,” Newspaper Innovation stated.

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MySpace will relaunch its classified-listing section on Monday through a partnership with Oodle, CNET reported Monday.

Though it's no Craigslist, MySpace said its existing classifieds section attracts a million visitors per month. With the improved technology from Oodle, the social networking site can better search, filter, and tweak listings, which can draw in more users, CNET reported.

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Mid-Day Infomedia is looking to branch out to Pune next, as it focuses on new media and the top metro areas in India, afaqs! reported Monday.

Mid-Day aims to launch editions in the top 10 metro areas in India, with limited print runs.

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Fairfax Media is looking to expand into South Australia, less than a month after launching WAtoday.co.au, based in Western Australia, The Age, owned by Fairfax, reported last week.

Fairfax launched the Perth-based site June 10, and last week bought the rights to AdelaideToday.com.au and SAtoday.com.au.

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The BBC's plan that would have 65 Web sites across the United Kingdom provide on-demand news and sports video puts local press in danger, and will have a negative effect on commercial competition, announced The Newspaper Society, which represents local UK media companies, Media Guardian reported Tuesday.

The BBC plans to spend £68 million on the sites, which will give the corporation “free rein to trample over commercial rivals,” who are already providing local online content, the Newspaper Society stated.

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The Wentworth Courier's 15 year hold on real estate advertising in Sydney's eastern suburbs is over, after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Thursday revoked the paper's exclusive dealing notification it has held since 1993, The Sydney Morning Herald reported Friday

The complaint that the deal was anti-competitive was placed by Fairfax Media, which reported the deal gave the Courier “immunity from court action.”

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Telegraph Media Group’s editor-in-chief told the Google Zeitgeist conference that the arrival of multimedia reporting means he now sees CNN and the BBC as the Telegraph's main competition, Journalism.co.uk reported Friday.

Will Lewis, who spoke at the event last week, told delegates that when it comes to online, the Telegraph is looking past traditional competition on Fleet Street and concentrating on consumers’ needs.

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The new free Dutch business daily, De Financiële Pers, was a two-day test run, an editorial in Friday's edition stated, Newspaper Innovation reported Friday,

De Financiële Pers is a business spin-off of free daily De Pers, which De Pers launched in a joint venture with business platform IEX.nl.

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Dutch free daily De Pers has launched spin-off business daily De Financiële Pers today, Newspaper Innovation reported Thursday.

The paper will be distributed throughout business centres in major cities.

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Financial Times Group announced it is planning to launch a magazine in China, a move to expand the Financial Times brand into “fast-growing markets,” The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The magazine will target China's increasing number of affluent people in the business world, stated the London-based Pearson Plc, owner of the Financial Times Group.

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The Business Standard is aggressively launching Hindi and Gujarati editions, agencyfaqs! reported Thursday.

It launched its first Hindi business Daily on February 16 in Mumbai and New Delhi. Over the next 10 days, the Business Standard it launched Hindi editions in Lucknow, Chandigarh and Bhopal, and Gujarati editions in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Rajkot. Two more editions of the Hindi version are scheduled to be launched in Patna and Kolkata in March.

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Trinity Mirror has launched a new free weekly newspaper, to be delivered to and around 10,000 homes in Daventry, England, and surrounding villages, Holdthefrontpage reported Friday.

The Daventry Post will be delivered every Thursday, and compete with the Johnston Press title Daventry Express.

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Hindi daily Nai Dunia is preparing to venture out of it's home in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, and spread across the entire Hindi-speaking belt in about six months, the Business Standard reported Wednesday.

Vinay Chhajlani, director of Nai Dunia News & Network Private Ltd, would not name specific states the newspaper plans to launch in, but did say Nai Dunia is “in an aggressive mode and ready to venture outside Madhya Pradesh.”

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