by Tatiana Repkova

Online ad spend in the UK overtook national newspapers and broke the £2 billion barrier in 2006. According to research published today by the Internet Advertising Bureau advertising online grew by 41.2 per cent to £2.016 billion as marketers moved their budgets away from traditional platforms. In 2006 newspaper advertising recorded growth of 0.2 per cent to £1.9 billion and a market share of 10.9 per cent, the internet's share of all UK advertising revenues rose to 11.4 per cent, up from 7.8 per cent in 2005. In 2006, the internet was just over half the size of the TV advertising market, which experienced a fall of 4.7 per cent to £3.9 billion last year. Online boosted the declining UK ad market and brought overall growth of 1.1 per cent of the UK industry as traditional media combined fell by £466.1 million year-on-year - a 2.9 per cent decline. The growth of paid-for search increased by 52 per cent to £1.2 billion of total online ad spend (a 57.8 per cent share). Online classified advertising rose 45 per cent to £379 million, a share of 18.8 per cent. This is in contrast to traditional press classified advertising that, according to the results, experienced a significant decrease of 7.8 per cent year-on-year. http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story3245.shtml; March 28, 2007

by Tatiana Repkova

A Taiwanese daily will launch a free commuter paper March 26, which will offer readers a chance to be front page news. The iUpaper, to be published by the United Daily News, will hand out an estimated 180,000 free copies every day from Monday to Friday at Taipei's subway stations, the commuter paper said in an advertisement.

More than one million people ride the Taipei rapid transit system a day, and Upaper wants them to provide the paper with their own photographs or personal stories. "As long as you are bold enough to show off, you will have a chance to be a cover figure," the ad said. During a 10-day promotional period following its debut, the paper will announce a dress code each day and send out photographers to snap pictures of commuters wearing matching clothes, it said. Pictures of 10 commuters will be selected and printed in the paper. Upaper will have a mixture of political and entertainment news as well as relevant information about living in Taipei, it said. Another mass-market Taiwan daily, the Apple Daily, publishes the Sharp commuter paper that emphasises a mixture of entertainment, crime news and sensational gossip. http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-eastasia.asp?parentid=66428; March 26, 2007

by Tatiana Repkova

The formerly paid paper Curentul has been converted to a free distributed daily and also became tabloid style February 1.

Paid circulation before the February conversion was only 4,000, and has jumped to 126,000. Total circulation of free dailies is now 326,000 - ± 23 percentpercent of the total market. Curentul plans national circulation later this year, which would increase circulation to 300,000 - now it is mainly distributed in Bucharest and Cluj.

According to our sources, Curentul obtained European Development Funds to make the conversion. The paper also uses newsstands for distribution.

Free dailies Compact (Ringier) and Express (in Arad and Timisoara) are also published in Romania. Compact was started in 2006 with a circulation of 150,000, which is expected toraise to 160,000 this month. Circulation of all free dailies in Romania is audited by BRAT. http://www.newspaperinnovation.com/index.php/2007/03/21/third-rumanian-f... March 21, 2007

by Tatiana Repkova

Retired army general Solomon Mujuru plans to launch a daily newspaper to prop up his wife's faltering presidential ambitions, New Zimbabwe.com has revealed.

Vice President Joice Mujuru, the ex-general's wife, is determined to fight for Zanu PF's leadership. Solomon Mujuru's supporters see the newspaper project as the best way to get Joice Mujuru's message across, sources said. General Mujuru has put former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) journalist Musekiwa Khumbula in charge of recruiting a capable team of journalists for the planned newspaper, which sources say will be called The Express. Khumbula is a corporate affairs consultant for Innscor Africa, whose chairman is Ray Kaukonde, a Mujuru loyalist and governor for Mashonaland East province.

Mashonaland East was one of two provinces, with Harare, which refused to back President Mugabe's plan to extend his term by two years when it expires in 2008. Kaukonde is one of the leaders of the “Stop-Mugabe-Campaign,” which Mujuru's loyalists called the “Look East” policy at last year's annual Zanu PF conference, the term being a bastardisation of Mugabe's “Look East” policy which promotes trade with Asian countries.

by Tatiana Repkova

In a 10 percent increase from the previous year, 747 million people aged 15 and up used the internet worldwide in January 2007, according to comScore Networkspercent

Among the top 15 countries (ranked by penetration), Internet audiences in India, the Russian Federation and China increased the most in 2006, growing 33, 21 and 20 percent respectively. China now represents the second-largest Internet population in the world, with 86.8 million users, after the United States, which rose two percent year-on-year to 153.4 million users. As a measure of engagement, comScore also analysed the top 10 countries ranked by average hours online per visitor for January 2007. Canada topped the list, with the average user spending 39.6 hours (and 41.3 hours/ month among broadband users) online during the month. Rounding out the top 5 were Israel, South Korea, the United States and the United Kingdom – all countries with high broadband penetration.

www.comscore.com; http://www.fipp.com/Default.aspx?PageIndex=2002&ItemId=13599; 21 March 2007

by Tatiana Repkova

The Palestine Times is the only English-language Palestinian daily newspaper and as of March 17, it is being distributed throughout Israel, The Jerusalem Post reports. The founder and editor-in-chief of The Palestine Times, Othman Haj Mohammed, says his purpose is to show the "real image of Palestinians."

"My message is simple. I want to show our readers an image of Palestinians as a real, human society with all its needs. With its stories of failure and success, its sad moments and its happy moments. The Palestinians are not only about Fatah and Hamas. They are about culture, arts, social issues and about helping the environment," Haj Mohammed said.

Moti Mizrachi, a newspaper stand owner in Jerusalem, told The Jerusalem Post that he was looking forward to reading the paper, but added it would be inaccessible for many Israelis to read it since it is written in English. "Most Israelis don't really have the energy for that... usually only the academics, the university students read in English, and those people already know more about what goes on with the Palestinians," he said. Mizrachi added that he was interested to read what Palestinians say about themselves and their government, especially in light of the recent adoption of a Palestinian unity government.

Israelis should read The Palestine Times to get a "first-hand view," Othman said. "We are trying to show the Israelis that we are human beings. All of the emphasis is on the political scene and fighting."

by Tatiana Repkova

A new tabloid newspaper from Al Nisr Media, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Al Nisr Publishing, hit the streets March 15. XPRESS will come out once a week and will be distributed free throughout the UAE, Al Nisr Media announced in a statement.

The 72-page newspaper will cover local, international and sports news as well as entertainment and leisure. Al Nisr Media promised XPRESS would be a "community paper" that would raise issues of concern to readers. Al Nisr Media said one of the newspaper's strengths would be its "cutting-edge" design which was developed by Garcia Media, one of the world's top newspaper design consultancies.

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/03/15/10111246.html; March 15, 2007

by Tatiana Repkova

The Chicago Tribune will introduce a weekend home-delivery-only edition of its free tabloid RedEye in May - the latest development in the evolution of free alternative dailies that target young adults.

The new edition will be available Saturday mornings and up to 100,000 copies will be delivered free, newspaper officials said. Five-year-old RedEye, one of a growing batch of U.S. dailies targeting young urban professionals with short, edgy stories on entertainment, sports, fashion and celebrity gossip, has expanded and improved its financial situation since dropping its cover charge in October 2005. It stepped up daily distribution to about 150,000 from 100,000 last September, nine months after the demise of the rival Chicago Sun-Times' Red Streak. Revenues grew by more than 50 percent in 2006 and the paper registered its first full-year profit, according to Brad Moore, RedEye's general manager.

"Demand amongst readers and advertisers has just been incredible," said Moore, who declined to provide specific figures. "When you take a look at the demand, this was a logical step to expand." He said the new edition will be home delivery only because readers are home on Saturday mornings, and advertisers such as restaurants, supermarkets and home goods stores can target specific markets with zoned preprint ads.

by Tatiana Repkova

Fairfax Business Media will launch new online services for its daily finance tabloid The Australian Financial Review as it prepares to compete with a new Web siteWeb site from its sister digital division.

In a moved tipped earlier this week by The Australian, Fairfax Digital Media yesterday launched Business Day, an online business site which will draw from the resources of the company's two metropolitan broadsheets, The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's The Age. In the meantime, the AFR has been advertising for staff for afr.com.

"There are a lot of things coming in that space but we would rather surprise people," Fairfax Business Media Chief Michael Gill said. "Our plan is we are basically aiming to be ready to transfer the whole of our business into the digital model we have got. That says we are planning to do a lot more. Our digital model for the AFR is the same as we have in print. The newspaper is $2.70 - there are not many newspapers priced like that. The web model is very similar - we are trying to build a channel to the premium audience."

New online services would be launched "within a month or so - we are pretty close," Gill said. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/wireless/story/0percent2C8262percen... March 14, 2007

by Tatiana Repkova

Thailand's army-backed government on March 13 approved a ban on alcohol ads and raised the drinking age to 20 in its latest move to curb youth drinking. The new law, which still needs approval from the junta-appointed parliament, bans advertisements for alcohol in all Thai media, said Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla.

Ads that are included in broadcasts from overseas, such as sporting events, will still be allowed, he added. The law raised the drinking age from 18 to 20 and prohibits alcohol sales near schools, temples and government offices.

"The government has seen the need to reduce the chance that teenagers will be able to reach for alcoholic drinks and especially to stop them from becoming heavy drinkers," Mongkol told reporters. "Along with more education, we need to introduce measures to control drinking by under-age people to minimise both social and economic effects of over-drinking."

The ban was originally proposed in October, but implementation was delayed while the government resolved technical issues in the law. Under the new regulations, health authorities will also place warning labels on alcoholic beverages to alert consumers to potential risks of drinking. Violators of the new rules will face up to one year in prison or a 100,000 baht (2,840 dollars) fine.

by Tatiana Repkova

The Fair Trade Commission fined the country's three largest newspapers a combined W552 million (US$1=W944) for offering excessive numbers of free copies for marketing purposes. It was the first time the FTC has fined the publishers for the distribution of free copies.

Charging that the Chosun, Dong-a and JoongAng Ilbo in 2002 offered through their distributors free copies in excess of 20 percent of paid copies, the commission fined the Chosun Ilbo W240 million and the Dong-a and Joong-Ang W174 million each. The FTC inspected the three major dailies based on complaints filed by a pro-government group calling itself Citizens' Coalition for Democratic Media and other civic organizations. Experts questioned the move.

Professor Park Chun-il at Sookmyung Women's University said the“commission has interpreted the concept of paid newspaper copies for expedience." Prof. Kim Woo-ryong at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies said it is “unfair to regulate premium newspapers while leaving free newspapers untouched." Others questioned the motive of the FTC, which has its hands full dealing with violations by big corporations, decided to swoop on the newspaper market, which accounts for no more than 0.001 percent of GDP.

Kim Won-joon, the director of the FTC's Business Group Division said the core issue was whether paid newspapers constituted money collected from distributors or money received from the subscribers.