The Sun-Times Media Group Inc. will suffer a US$8 million financial blow in the fourth quarter for job cuts at its flagship Chicago Sun-Times and other newspapers.

The one-time, pre-tax charge largely comes from severance expenses for those employees, as the publishing group, formerly controlled by Conrad Black, takes measures to reduce annual operating costs by $50 million before June, Editor & Publisher reported Wednesday.

The cost-cutting measures were announced in December.

“We have made significant progress in a relatively short time period,” CEO Cyrus Freidheim Jr. said in a statement, according to the Canadian Press. “These reductions come during a tough period for the news industry, but we firmly believe that resizing the organisation and continuing to invest in growth areas, such as online media, are key to creating shareholder value.”

Positions to be eliminated include jobs in advertising, circulation, distribution, editorial, executive, finance, IT, marketing and production departments, E&P reported.

A study by Northwestern University found that teenagers find online news troubling and a reminder of the world's dangers, contrasted by time spent on YouTube, social networking and music downloading sites, which they viewed as a treat.

For the study, "If It Catches My Eye: An Exploration of Online News Experiences of Teenagers," researchers interviewed 65 teens in the Chicago area in 2007. Findings suggests news organisations should cultivate teen audiences by understanding what they are interested in and diminishing their angst, according to a Editor & Publisher report.

It also found that a small portion of teens keeps up with the news and considers what they learn from it as an important part of their emerging identity, E&P reported.

Other findings include:

- Teens get most of their news online from the biggest online portals and news aggregators which pop up online first, instead of local media Web sites. Thus, news organisations should develop widgets, partnerships and news feeds tailored for teens so their content is there when they are online.

- Teens' favourite sites for online news scored high for being easy to use, useful, trustworthy and for providing them with something to talk about.

- Because news is sometimes stressful for teens, news outlets should actively experiment to diminish negative associations and make news a better springboard for talk, action and change.

The Australian federal police commissioner's call for a media blackout during all terrorist operations, including ones gone awry, is going too far and has been “howled down,” the Herald Sun has reported Wednesday.

Commissioner Mick Keelty announced in a speech to the Sydney Institute Tuesday that no public comment should be made about investigations of terrorism until they are finalised in court. The Federal Opposition, civil liberties and media groups say Keelty's proposition actually undermines his own efforts to combat terrorism.

“Many argue that justice delayed is justice denied, and that justice includes the scrutiny of those responsible for upholding it,” Christopher Pyne, Opposition justice spokesman, told the Herald Sun. He said press freedom must be defended, as long as national security is not at risk, and that the Australian media has a stellar reputation of not crossing boundaries when it comes to sensitive national security concerns.

Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance Federal Secretary Christoper Warren told the Herald Sun that his group is very concerned about the proposal, as Keelty's speech indicates he does not understand the role of the media.

Michael Pearce, vice president for Victorian Council for Civil Liberties, SC, called Keelty's proposal “a ridiculous suggestion” and “an appalling idea.”

Wachovia Equities Research anticipates U.S. newspaper advertising revenue will fall 8.2 percent in 2008, not 6.1 percent, as the firm had previously forecast.

The harder fall suggests a “newspaper ad recession,” Editor & Publisher reported Tuesday.

According to a Wachovia industry note released Tuesday, “the year has started below our expectations,” due to lower page counts. “We've seen this scenario before, and trends typically haven't improved. In fact, we think the deterioration of newspaper fundamentals is broadening and deepening.”

Print ad revenue is expected to take a 9.7 percent dive, not 7.6 percent as was previously estimated, according to Wachovia estimates for the year. John Janedis, senior Wachovia analyst, lowered ratings on Journal Register Co. and The New York Times Co. from “market perform” to underperform,” and McClatchy Co. from “outperform” to “market perform,” E&P reported.

Local advertising revenue is anticipated to fall not 3.5 percent, as was previously expected, but instead is now expected to fall 4.7 percent

Classified advertising for both print and online is expected to drop 17 percent, mostly due to poor showings in help wanted, forecast to drop 22 percent, and real estate, forecast to drop 23 percent. As help wanted and real estate advertisements slow, the note predicted online ad revenue will increase 13 percent, not 15 percent, as was previously forecast, according to E&P.

Financial management and advisory company Merrill Lynch cut its forecasts for advertising growth in Australia due to a downturn in global earnings, The Australian has reported Wednesday.

The company's media analyst, Alice Bennett, cut her 2008 forecast for growth from 7 percent to 6 percent.

If the popular prediction that there will be a consumer recession in the United States this year holds true, Bennett said her ad growth forecasts would fall even more, The Australian reported.

“We estimate a 75 per cent correlation between Australian advertising growth and US corporate earnings growth,” she stated in a note, according to the report. “If this scenario eventuates, our 6 per cent ad forecast for 2008 will likely prove too aggressive given 35 to 40 per cent of Australian advertising comes from multinationals.”

Bennett stated that although many buyers and marketers in the media sector are forecasting a 7 to 8 percent ad growth this year, “we would expect many of these forecasts to be revised down over the coming months to reflect the more macro-driven concerns with the U.S. slowdown.”

She predicts local ad growth in Australia of 3 percent in her bear-case scenario, according to The Australian.

Spanish media group Vocento SA announced monday its CEO Belarmino Garcia Fernandez has resigned.

The group announced in a statement that Jose Manuel Vargas Gomez, formerly Vocento's general manager for the national market, will replace Fernandez.

Fernandez became CEO of Vocento, which owns ABC newspaper, in April 2007, after being the head of France Telecom's Orange in Spain. Vocento gave no reason for Fernandez's resignation, according to Thomson Financial News.

Many Asian telecom operators are expected to see opportunities for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) soon in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Standard & Poor's (S&P).

Mergers and acquisitions will be hot in this region for the pursuit of economies of scale, S&P credit analyst Yasmin Wirjawan stated in a report Friday.

"M&A is likely to involve telecom operators in India, Indonesia and (South) Korea. (A) few major operators, namely Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, TM International Bhd, SK Telecom Co, and Chunghwa Telecom Co will continue to seek opportunities outside their home market," she added.

However, the report pointed out growing risks facing regional telecom operators, despite their healthy financial profiles.

The Singapore-based analyst told the Taipei Times that telecom operators will face continuous policy challenges in fields, such as open access and licenses.

"Regulatory conditions continue to be a key risk," Wirjawan said. "Incumbents across the region have retained their dominance in local vocal and network access services, which continue to be subject to rate regulation and pro-competitive measures," Asia Media reported.

Reuters and Bloomberg make millions selling financial news first to businessmen and women around the world who are willing to pay to get into the market first. Updated information and share prices that are available for free online are usually delayed 15 to 20 minutes for the average reader to whom it isn't important to make immediate buy or sell decisions, Philip M. Stone of FollowtheMedia wrote Tuesday.

And as volatile as the markets have been lately, professional investors can't afford not to pay premium prices for real-time information – so why give it away for free?

“With financial journalists around the world, and (Rupert) Murdoch's pledge to increase their reporting numbers, WSJ.com certainly has the power to break some financial news first, and that information can help its readers make more money, or lose less,” Stone states on FTM. “WSJ.com currently charges for that information, so why give that information away, as Murdoch was publicly suggesting as late as last November?”

The Baki-Kheber's bank accounts, which hold revenues from newspaper sales in Gaya, Gasid and Azermetbuatyayim, were arrested beginning Sunday, the Azeri Press Agency reported Monday.

The freezing of the accounts have been imposed on revenues from the sales of the Baki-Kheber because the newspaper is in debt AZN 2179.4 (€1,754.52, US$2,588.79), according to a letter from Yasamal district court Zaur Abdullayev, which was sent to Gaya, Gasid and Azermetbuatyayim.

The three firms have been told to transfer sales revenues to Yasamal district court officers' department's bank account, according to APA.

In May 2005, the Azerbaijani Appeals Court took AZN 2179.4 from the newspaper's bank account and gave the money to a resident of the Ujar region, Shahlar Alakbarov. The court also ordered the newspaper to suspend its publication, which was restored in September 2007. No reason for the fine and suspension was given.

Also Monday, Reporters Without Borders reported two newspaper journalists in Azerbaijan were sentenced to forced labour after a Baku court found them guilty of libelling a senior official.

Avaz Zeynalli, editor of independent weekly Khural, and Vugar Gurdanli, a journalist at the paper, were both sentenced to forced labour in two separate cases stemming from articles published in 2007 about government corruption.

A group of investors holding just under a 5 percent stake in the New York Times Co. urged the company to buy up more digital firms, according to a regulatory filing Monday.

Hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners and investment firm Firebrand Partners, which together own about 4.9 percent of the outstanding shares, stated although they think the publisher should spend more on digital companies, they are not looking to change the company's dual class share structure, Reuters reported Monday, citing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Also Monday, the group, made up of Harbinger and Firebrand, stated it plans to nominate four board members to the New York Times with experience in “capital allocation” and Internet media, according to Reuters.

On Friday, The New York Times and Media General, Inc. stated the group is looking to elect members to their boards at the next yearly meetings.

“The current board, while impressive in stature, has not been effective in inspiring the requisite bold action this media environment demands,” Firebrand founder Scott Galloway stated in a letter to the New York Times dated Jan. 27 and filed with the SEC on Monday, according to Reuters.

More than eight million people living in the United Kingdom listen to Web-based radio services every week, and about two million download podcasts every week, according to a survey conducted by research firm Ipsos Mori.

Survey results suggest Internet radio has hit the mainstream in the UK, finding that more than 12 million people have listened to Internet radio, and 8.1 million listen every week either through live streaming or "listen again" services, MediaGuardian reported Monday.

The survey found that 75 percent of British users do not listen to less live radio as a result of listening again online, with 50 percent tuning into new shows as a result.

The situation is quite similar as for podcasting, with one-fifth saying they now listen to more live radio and nearly one-third saying they listen to new radio shows after sampling them via podcasts, MediaGuardian reported.

Only eight percent of respondents said they tune into less radio because of the availability of podcasts. Of the 4.3 million who have downloaded podcasts, about 1.9 million listen to at least one podcast each week.

Two-thirds of podcast listeners subscribe to their shows through iTunes, with about half tuning in during the evening. Of these, 80 percent listen through their computers and 61 percent through their MP3 players, according to the survey.