Recently by Savita Sauvin

The Daily and Sunday Express newspapers of the Express group have launched an online casino service on their news sites called express-casino.com, in collaborative partnership with Casinos Austria International, PressGazette.co.uk reported yesterday.

The white label online casino service launched on October 1, and will be operated by CAIGames.com, the online gaming platform of Casinos Austria International, according to a press release by the gaming company. The gaming hub on the news website features an extensive choice of online casino, slot machine, video poker, jackpot and instant games.

Image Source: Casino Austria International

Having launched the second phase of its "Mon Journal Offert" (My Free Newspaper) project last week as part of a €600 million government bailout programme, the French Ministry for Culture and Communication is offering readers between the ages of 18 and 24 a free copy of the daily paper of their choice once a week for a year, according to a report by our sister publication, Editors Weblog last week.

The French government is furthering this initiative to encourage its citizens to become loyal newspaper readers by giving away an additional 210,000 free newspaper subscriptions as a part of the state intervention to save the country's news industry, MediaGuardian reported today. In the next three years, the programme is expected to cost more than £13 million (€14.47 million). The scheme had already given away 300,000 subscriptions, according to Editors Weblog.

Yahoo plans to unveil a new feature called 'Y Connect' this autumn, emulating the Facebook Connect strategy to allow media publishers, Web developers and other websites to integrate elements of their services with Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal reported.

This move by Yahoo is aimed at helping Internet companies track user engagement and better target advertising offers, while increasing traffic to its site - a strategy already used by Facebook, the WSJ pointed out.

Having recently crossed the 3 million mark on August 29, location-based startup Foursquare has processed its 4 millionth user registration today, according to a report by the company.

Despite the previous service problems faced by Foursquare earlier this year, the company is now adding close to 20,000 users per day, up significantly from the estimated 15,500 per day rate when it crossed the 3 million mark, Mashable.com reported. "Foursquare's impressive growth can be attributed to a number of things, most notably the release of version 2.0 for iPhone and Android (Android), a Symbian release and celebrity attention from the likes of Conan O'Brien and hip-hop artist Big Boi," Mashable's Jennifer Van Grove explained.

UK title The Independent is prepping to launch on Oct. 26 a new daily, called "i," which will target readers in their 20s, MarketingWeek.co.uk reported today. The launch date's announcement comes after weeks of industry speculation suggesting The Independent could change to a freesheet, a notion that has been dismissed by owner Alexander Lebedev.

i's launch is "targeted at readers and lapsed readers of quality newspapers, and those of all ages who want a comprehensive digest of the news in printed form," the publisher reported today. It is hoped that the quality daily will complement The Independent newspaper, which remains priced at £1, and will be available for sale at newsstands from Monday to Friday at a cover price of 20p.

Image Source: MediaWeek.co.uk

As mediation talks broke down in the Tribune Co. bankruptcy case this week, the U.S. publisher is also being scrutinised following a report by The New York Times' David Carr on the inappropriate work culture ushered in as executives took their places under Sam Zell in 2008. Tribune management and work culture quickly came to "resemble a frat house, complete with poker parties, juke boxes and pervasive sex talk," Carr writes in the detailed article.

Zell took the company private in 2007 in an US$8.2 billion deal. Under the leadership of Zell and Randy Michaels, a former radio executive who was promoted to chief executive at the company in December 2009, it was initially thought the two would "breathe innovation and reinvention" into the company. Rather, the new leadership definitely changed the work culture, but through questionable management behaviour, sources told Carr.

Image: Wall Street Journal

Boston.com has chosen to deploy a content recommendation platform from Outbrain, a New York-based company to increase traffic and boost revenues on its news site, while enhancing readers' experiences, Editor & Publisher reported.

Through deployment of this new content recommendation tool, the news site will provide "related links" and automatically alert readers to additional stories that maybe of interest to them at the end of each article, according to a press release posted on MarketWatch.com. The Outbrain's technology uses complex set of algorithms to identify and serve up stories targeting different audience segments, while helping readers find relevant new stories at ease with simple related links.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation plans to launch a content-led, paid-for news content aggregation platform that promises to create new digital revenue streams for its core print titles and third-party publishers as well, MediaWeek.co.uk reported today. The news aggregation platform plans to launch before the end of 2010.

While the project, under development for a year, is not being named yet, its involves content aggregation from News International's core print titles: The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and News of the World, along with content from third party publishers.

Image: Aftercollege.com

Continuing its expansion foray into new verticals, The Huffington Post announced plans to launch a new section dedicated to the topic of divorce, MediaBistro.com reported yesterday. The new section will go live on November 2.

The new section will be headed by journalist and author Nora Ephron, who conceived the idea and will now serve as a founding editor along with Willow Bay as the senior editor. The niche section will target a large number of people, as approximately half of all U.S. marriages ends in divorce, the article stated.

Multimedia and marketing research company The Media Audit has listed the top 10 newspaper-affiliated websites of United States based on "daily newspaper and website reach analysis," with Michigan's Annarbor.com/MLive.com topping the list, Editor & Publisher reported yesterday.

Advance Publication websites in Ann Arbor, New Orleans and Syracuse held top three positions, according to the findings by the Houston-based firm. The websites for Ann Arbor include AnnArbor.com/MLive.com, which reaches 56 percent of adults in the Metropolitan Statistical Area in a month; New Orleans website NOLA.com, which reaches over 53 percent of adults; and Syracuse.com, which reaches slightly less than 49 percent of the market, according to a report by RBR.com.

Image Source: RBR.com

With newspapers around the world opting for centralisation of operations and outsourcing to reduce costs, Australian newspapers are joining the trend as well. Following the success of sub-editing hubs in Queensland and South Australia, News Limited plans to centralise sub-editing and design operations of its New South Wales newspapers and create a sub-hub called NewsCentral NSW at its Sydney headquarters on Holt Street, Surry Hills, Panpa.org.au reported.

Aiming to be "a centre of excellence,'' allowing integrated production for both print and other platforms, this move by the publisher is based on making sub-editors more capable of handling varied content on mobile, websites and other digital platforms, according to a report by The Australian last week. The centralised production unit is scheduled to launch on February 13, 2011.

The Moscow News yesterday re-launched its Arabic edition in the United Arab Emirates 17 years after its closure, RIA Novosti reported. Anbaa Mosku will cover Russian affairs and is a part of Russian government's new strategy to step up relations with the Arab world.

"The advent of this publication will not only serve as a portal through which the Arabic-speaking community in London can observe Russian affairs, but as a long-awaited bridge of communication between the Middle East and Russia," Svetlana Mironyuk, editor-in-chief of RIA Novosti was quoted by MyNewsDesk.com as saying. The bi-weekly independent newspaper is now distributed in 13 countries across Middle East, North Africa, London and Russia with a circulation of more than 190,000 copies.

Colombian daily El Tiempo, owned by media group Casa Editorial El Tiempo, introduced changes on both print and online editions yesterday, ColombiaReports.com reported today. The most prominent changes include switching from a broadsheet to a tabloid size, as well as switching the paper's signature colour from red to blue, and changing categories for online in both print and online, due to a new concept created by the publisher. The changes will change the way ads are sold for both platforms.

The redesigned print edition of El Tiempo unveiled yesterday presents a different approach to content and its flow throughout pages, according to a blog post on GarciaMedia.com. The changes to the newspaper's print and online editions have been carried out in co-ordination with the García Media Latinoamérica team at Buenos Aires.

Image Source: GarciaMedia.com

Advertising spending in Indonesian newspapers have "increased significantly since 2006," up more than 20 percent on average, a Nielsen media research firm executive told The Jakarta Globe yesterday. Conventional media advertising in newspapers and TV continue to dominate ad spending in the country, and ad spend has seen an overall increase of 54 percent year-on-year, Maika Randini explained.

With newspapers offering large display spaces, telecom companies have contributed to the largest advertising spend in conventional media accounting to Rp 1.3 trillion in the period between January to March 2010, out of the total ad spends in both forms of media amounting to Rp 13 trillion (US$1.46 billion), according to figures by Neilsen. The ad spends have seen an overall increase of 54 percent in comparison to last year figures.

Image: Maciej Dakowicz's flickr photostream

After the successful launch of its titles Vogue and GQ in India, the Condé Nast group will unveil the Indian edition of Condé Nast Traveller today, the Hindustan Times reported yesterday.

This will be the sixth edition by the Condé Nast Traveller magazine for Indian consumers. With this launch, the group intends to replicate the success of Vogue and GQ in India, by following a unique targeted marketing approach that will position the magazine as an ultimate travel companion for every affluent traveller, MediaMughals.com reported today.