The so-called video game generation is made up mostly by people in the 26- to 34-year-old range, according to an M:Metrics survey.

In Germany, more than 35 percent of people ages 26 to 34 play video games, followed by those ages between 18 to 24, and ages 35 to 44. Less than five percent of Germans over age 45 plays video games, according to the study, conducted in September 2007.

In Spain, about 35 percent of people between 25 to 34 play video games, and more than 20 percent of people ages 35 to 44 play video games. There are still nearly 20 percent of Spaniards between 18 to 24, and 10 percent of those between 13 to 17 and 45 to 54 who so, according to M:Metrics.

The situation is similar in the United Kingdom. More than 25 percent of Britons between 18 to 34 play video games, and about 20 percent between ages 35 and 44 play the games, but less than 10 percent of other age groups do so.

In France, the video game generation is relatively younger. More than 35 percent of French people between ages 18 to 24 play video games, while more than 25 percent of those ages 25 to 34 and more than 15 percent of those between 13 to 17 said they play video games. People over age 35 are less likely to play, according to M:Metrics.

The UK Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards will meet next week to discuss findings of a study on how newspaper Web sites gather traffic data, Journalism.co.uk reported.

The committee decides how online measurement standards are developed, and in May ordered a review on how the Audit Bureau of Circulation Electronic (ABCe) audits newspaper Web site traffic.

ABCe allows several different technologies to collect the traffic data, which are then compared side-by-side. Because how data is collected varies, many across the industry believe the final results are not accurate, according to Journalism.co.uk.

Newspaper publishers are allowed to choose one of the ABCe-approved technologies to track the online data, but newspaper groups earlier this year became wary of the system when Telegraph.co.uk gained more than six million unique users in two months, after it switched from one approved technology to another approved technology. The first tool was HBX SiteCatalyst, and the second the Telegraph used, was WebTrends7 On Demand, Journalism.co.uk reported. The Telegraph maintains the traffic increase was due to its quality editorial offerings, but rival groups remain skeptical.

The Web standards committee passed the matter on to its Internet Technical Group for further review, which will report back to the committee next week. The group is expected to give recommendations on usage of the analytic tools.

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.

The partnership is expected to generate between US$250 to $450 million in incremental operating cash flow for Yahoo! in the first year after it is implemented, Jerry Yang, chief executive officer, and Roy Bostock, chairman of the board, said in the letter to shareholders.

Yang and Bostock explained that the Google agreement will help meet some of Yahoo!'s key strategies: “to capitalise on the increasing convergence of search and display advertising,” and “to open our platform to other developers to optimise monetization for our advertisers and publishers and provide the best experience for our users.”

The non-exclusive agreement will also provide Yahoo! with operational flexibility, something the Microsoft deal would not have, and also doesn't prevent Yahoo! from looking at other strategies that could also increase stockholder value.

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.

More than 14 percent of people ages 18 to 24 said that mobile video influenced them, and 15.9 percent said text messaging did, according to the study, eMarketer reported.

"Given the state of our economy, mobile advertisers have a unique environment in which to build strategies that influence consumers to buy via their cell phones, especially the media-elusive 18- to 24 year-old segment," Gary Drenik, president of BIGresearch, said in a statement.

Another study conducted by Ketchum and the USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center reinforced this idea. The research found young adult influencers use mobile media more than other age groups, according to eMarketer's recent study “Mobile Social Networks.”

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.

The decline has happened in all regions of the United States, with the biggest declines happening in the Central Northwest part of the country, Reuters reported.

The turndown is due to an extended economic slowdown and employment declines, which is expected to continue into the summer and autumn, Ken Goldstein, labour economist at the Conference Board, said in a statement, according to Reuters. In the first five months of 2008, the number of jobs has continued to fall, he stated.

In April, the Conference Board announced it will continue to compile the index for research purposes only, as print advertising is “no longer representative of changes in labour market demand,” according to Reuters.

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.

“We are not rushing this process, and I can assure you we will not accept anything but full-market value for these assets,” Zell said in a statement; however, he didn't give specifics on the possible sale, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Zell is talking to real estate groups on how to best make money off properties owned by the Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. Requests for proposals from these firms went out Wednesday morning, a source told the Chicago Tribune. Payments on debts this year should be covered by money made from the $650 million sale of Long Island, New York-based Newsday to Cablevision Systems Corp. Meanwhile, next year's sizeable debt payment will hopefully be covered by the expected sale of the Chicago Cubs baseball team and its home base, Wrigley Field, also a major Chicago landmark, Zell has said, according to the Chicago Tribune report.

U.S. online users ages 12 and older spent 6.1 hours daily on video-based entertainment, according to a survey conducted in June 2008 by Solutions Research Group.

According to the survey, about four hours per day are spent on traditional television, including live, digital video recorder and video-on-demand viewing. Time on video games, online and PC video, DVDs and video on mobile devices totalled about two hours, eMarketer reported.

The research company estimated total hours with video-based entertainment will increase by about one-third to nearly eight hours per day on average by early 2013.

Although total video-consuming time is expected to go up, most of it will go to online video, not TV, eMarketer reported.

Another study from Deloitte also indicates the shift away from TV to the Web. About 70 percent of respondents in the Deloitte's survey said the computer has become more of an entertainment device compared to the TV.

Among the youngest group, 80 percent see the computer as an entertainment device more than TV. However, it is surprising that over half of the oldest respondents said so, according to eMarketer's recent study “Online Video Content: The New TV Audience.”

Internet ad spending will surpass radio this year, with about 9.5 percent of global ad budgets allocated to online media, according to Steve King, head of research firm ZenithOptimedia.

“Internet has already overtaken cinema and outdoors. This year it will overtake radio. In a couple of years it's going to overtake magazines as an advertising media,'' King said at a presentation in Paris Wednesday, Bloomberg reported.

Online ad spending will rise 26 percent this year, mostly from search-related ads, according to ZenithOptimedia. The overall ad market worldwide is expected to grow 4.7 percent.

According to King, consumers spend 15 percent of their time online, while only nine percent of advertising budgets are allocated to the Web, which indicates room for growth. The increasing Internet usage will also attract more online ad spending - with 19 percent of the global population having online access this year, up from 17 percent in 2007, King said, according to Bloomberg.

Internet ad spending will overtake magazines in 2010, King said at the conference. This year, radio will make up nine percent of all ad budgets. “Radio is still growing, funnily enough, because of digital,” he said.

The two major dailies in Boston are cutting costs once again, with management at the Boston Globe asking unions to take an across-the-board 10 percent pay decrease, and the Boston Herald announcing plans on Tuesday to outsource printing operations and lay off 130 to 160 production-related workers, the Boston Herald reported Wednesday.

The Globe recently completed a round of employee buyouts, while the Herald's production staff being cut will come from press operators, electricians and other production-related staff, and will take place later this year.

Dan Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Globe's largest union, said he would fight the pay cut.

“The Boston Newspaper Guild has given enough in the name of company equity,” Totten told the Herald. “Globe and New York Times (which owns the Globe) management must now give back.”

Patrick J. Purcell, owner and publisher of the Herald, said there are no current plans to cut employees in the paper's newsroom. He said outsourcing printing and cutting jobs is due to the newspaper's unreliable print quality, due to presses that are 50 years old. The outsourcing move may happen in late September or early October, the Herald reported.

“My personal goal has been, always, to keep Boston a two-newspaper town and the Boston Herald alive,” Purcell told the Herald.

Global advertising group Publicis Groupe will launch its digital agency network Digitas in Australia in 2009, the France-based group's global chairman and chief executive announced, The Australian reported Tuesday.

Kenny confirmed the Australian launch in an interview at the International Advertising Festival at Cannes.

“If you want to be at the forefront of growth, because the growth will be coming from digital, you have to think differently,” said Maurice Levy, president of Publicis. He said his group is making strides in the digital realm, and is quickly rolling out Digitas as a stand-alone global operation, The Australian reported.

Publicis bought Digitas in March 2007 for US$1.3 billion.

Publicis saw its digital revenues increase to about 15 percent of overall revenues last year, up from eight percent of total revenues in 2006. In the first quarter of this year, Publicis made 18.4 percent of the group's revenues from digital, according to The Australian.

European publishing group Mecom cut 30 journalists at German title Berliner Zeitung, Media Guardian reported Tuesday.

The cuts accounted for about a quarter of the overall editorial department at the newspaper, which was acquired by Mecom in 2005.

This move came after a company-wide, cost-saving programme for BV Deutsche Zeitungsholding was launched, the Berliner Zeitung's parent company announced last week, Media Guardian reported.

The company owns several publications in Germany, including the magazine Tip, and the Hamburg daily newspaper the Hamburger Morgenpost.

According to German paper the Taz, between 150 and 200 job cuts will come from 930 positions within the whole Deutsche Zeitungholding group.

Mecom owns more than 300 titles in Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Poland and Ukraine and has more than 11,000 employees, Media Guardian reported.