Newspaper recycling bins are being set up in several stations around London in an attempt to get readers to recycle their newspapers, Brand Republic reported Monday.

Associated Newspapers, which owns free daily Metro, is placing the bins in Watford, West Ruislip, Stanmore, Cockfosters, Hainault and High Barnet stations.

Associated Newspapers is also running ad campaigns and messages in the paper to push readers to recycle.

“Last year we worked with our contractors Tube Lines and Metronet to recycle 40% of all litter left on the Tube and on our stations. We want to increase the amount of newspapers we recycle and hope that the introduction of the first recycling bins on the Tube will help us do that,” said Marian Kelly, London Underground's environment manager, according to Brand Republic.

Gannett Co., Inc. has borrowed US$1.2 billion "demonstrating the growing rush by businesses to lock in funding as commercial paper markets shut down around them," the Financial Times reported Saturday.

Gannett is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher, as measured by total daily circulation. Its assets include flagship USA Today and the weekly USA Weekend, along with many others.

Gannett, which has been hit by declines in the U.S. newspaper market and turbulent U.S. economy, made agreements with Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Barclays to repay commercial paper, the Financial Times reported.

Earlier last week, Gannett announced it took the “prudent liquidity measure” of drawing down on its facilities as of September 30. Standard & Poor's rating services stated last week that Gannett had “significant untapped availability under its $3.9bn of committed revolving credit facilities, far in excess of (its) total commercial paper obligations.”

After the huge and unexpected losses from the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers almost three weeks ago, investors are leaving money market funds with investments in bank and company debt.

Numerous companies will likely follow prominent UK advertising firm WPP Group in relocating their headquarters abroad amidst tax concerns in the country, WPP Chief Executive Martin Sorrell has announced, the Financial Times reported Monday.

The firm recently became the sixth and the largest company to move overseas when it moved to Ireland due to the “complexity” of the UK tax policy, reported the Financial Times. Modifications to the taxation on foreign revenue may augment the tax costs of companies that gather large portions of revenue from abroad, according to Bloomberg.

“It's clear from what I have heard that the government must rethink its strategy on taxation, as many council members reaffirmed that the current system is highly likely to drive more great wealth-creating enterprises like Sir Martin's WPP to base their headquarters overseas where they feel the tax demands are fairer,” said UK's Mayor Boris Johnson, according to the Financial Times.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown reduced the corporate tax rate from 30 percent to 28 percent while he was finance minister in March last year. However, he was criticised for moves such as the taxation of foreign dividends and the restructuring of the charges of capital gains, according to Bloomberg.

BBC Global News is expanding its partnership with YouTube by signing an agreement to add six new BBC video channels, each for a different language, BBC announced Friday.

The new channels will be in Urdu, Persian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic and Russian, and will be launched at the end of the year on the existing BBC World News channel, the BBC announced on its Web site.

The stories will be broadcast daily across the different language YouTube channels and each one will be adapted to its particular viewers. The videos will also be available via the Google Video search, according to a BBC statement.

For nearly four months, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and the national postal service, Ukrproshta, have been in disagreement over the costs of subscription and distribution of printed publications. The two sides have now agreed that an increase of 27 percent would be acceptable, Gipp.ru reported.

Initially, Ukrposhta intended to raise prices by 60 percent by 2009, but then dropped the figure to 55 percent, and then to 44 percent.

The change to a 27 percent increase in costs came about after talks with Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko, who asked the country's Justice Minister Nikolai Onishuk to refuse the Ministry of Transport and Communications' call for a 44 percent increase in subscription and distribution prices of newspapers and magazines, according to Gipp.ru.

Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza is continuing its “photography school” by opening a new online video school for readers, Journalism.co.uk reported Friday.

Online lessons from staff photographers for readers, known as the “photography school of masters,” ran successfully from July 18 for eight weeks. Around 25,000 readers presented over 141,000 photos.

According to Grzegorz Piechota, editor of the Gazeta, the video school, run by Slawomir Idziak a Polish cinematographer, will have a similar set up as the photography school where readers are given homework, asked to contribute videos, and compete for a €3,000 prize awarded at a film festival presenting the school's videos.

“It is something completely new for us. Of course, we have video reporters at Gazeta and they produce online new shows, the company runs a video-sharing Web site, but we - the print guys - have never tried it before,” Piechota said, according to Journalism.co.uk. “Asking readers to get involved was natural: we always design our editorial projects in a way that engages readers. The thinking is: if it is interesting for us, it may be interesting for others. Everybody has a camera now and just a few are photography masters.”

Readers are asked by the school to use their mobile phones to take videos. The school is led in collaboration with TVN, Polish commercial TV broadcaster, and its sister news channel.

The mobile device market's focus on Europe may shift to the United States in the future, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said, suggesting that the country and its Silicon Valley may lead the mobile industry because there is “a lot of activity” there, Network World reported.

Kallasvuo said customers are demanding much more from their mobile devices, which has led Nokia responded to offer its Ovi portal that synchronizes and shares personal files such as music, games and images. The company also plans to launch its Nokia E-mail Service soon.

These new, evolving features might put the Web into perspective when people are on the move, with regard to information on users' locations and their friends' locations, Kallasvuo, said, according to Network World.

Nokia sells nearly 40 percent of the handsets around the globe and is increasingly investing in features that will complement mobile phones, according to Network World. The firm recently reported that it would be buying Oz Communications, a Canadian mobile messaging company. The mobile phone market is growing with regard to customer involvement, as users become more “willing and able to use mobile communications in new ways,” Network World reported.

Apple did the mobile industry a “big favour” when it launched the iPhone, Kallasvuo added. However, Nokia may have taken care to compete with the iPhone by releasing its first touch-screen device 5800 Xpress Music, Network World reported.

Almost 75 percent of Facebook and MySpace users feel “closer” to brands that involve them in “give-and-get” communication within a social networking framework, Brand Republic reported Friday.

Dialogue with the customer may build a brand's value on MySpace and Facebook and in order to become more popular amongst consumers, a brand may have to aim beyond being solely a “friend” or “fan.” According to research by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, 12 percent of Facebook users became fans of a given brand while 23 percent of MySpace users became friends with brands.

Nearly three-quarters of users featured in the study mentioned that if a brand listened to their thoughts and reacted to comments and inquiries, then might feel more connected to it.

The research suggested that brands may pitch ideas or topics to users, hence encouraging discussions. There may not have to be a need to focus on the brand itself or to have only positive feedback, according to Brand Republic.

“Negative comments need to be answered, not ignored, and comments kept up, not removed, as an exercise in transparency,” writes Brand Republic. “The conversation with consumers has to be of interest to them, such as giving them something to engage with, rather than directly asking for feedback on a project.”

Looking to cost-cuts, Japan's two largest newspaper publishers, Asahi Shimbun Co. and Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, will merging their printing facilities, Editor & Publisher reported Wednesday.

The companies are asking other publishers to join their consolidating measure.

As of 2011, Asahi will print about 200,000 copies of Yomiuri Shimbun for readers in that district and eastern Tokyo, at its Funabashi plant in Chiba. By 2013, Yomiuri's Sakaide plant will print about 150,000 Asahi Shimbun copies for the Shikoku area along with western Japan's Kagawa, according to E&P.

Asahi is closing it Marugame plant in Kagawa.

The companies are also discussing joint deliveries from the consolidated printing facilities, E&P reported.

The total number of mobile phone subscribers in China reached almost 616 million at the end of August, surpassing U.S. and European markets by far, Mobilewhack.com reported. In fact, there are double the number of mobile phone subscribers in China as there are people in the United States.

Cell phone users increased by 1.3 percent each month and by 19.5 percent each year, according to the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

"China is the major market in the world for basically anything. With a good product and a good marketing campaign, your company can make lots of money of the Chinese market. In the cell phone business that appears to be the case" as well, Mobilewhack stated.

Fixed phone line users amount to slightly over 354 million people. Mobilewhack.com wrote that almost one in two people use a mobile phone, whereas only 1 in 4 use a fixed phone in China.

According to Phones Review, nearly 57.3 billion text messages were sent in August alone in China, with an average of three messages sent per person, per day.

The Tampa (Florida) Tribune has announced it will trim the newspaper's size and cut staff numbers, the St. Petersburg Times reported Thursday.

Well-known columnist Joe Brown, was laid off on Monday, along with four other editorial staff members. Earlier in the year, U.S. newspaper company Media General, the Tribune's owner, announced it would cut 250 jobs by the end of the year at all its Florida holdings, including a television station and Web site.

Janet Coats, the Tribune's editor, would not give much information on how the paper would look when its smaller design launches Monday, but there is talk that Tribune will reveal a two-section edition on weekdays, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

Due to plunging advertising revenue and rising expenses, Media General is considering significant changes, especially to its business and editorial structures.

“The old (economic model) for newspapers is fading away…(but) I don't think the Internet will save newspapers, either. You need 22 Internet readers to produce the same revenue as one newspaper reader,” said Brown, the St. Petersburg Times reported.

Coats said that “people tend to be skimmers during the week, reading more in depth in the weekend. People use the paper differently now, and we have to reflect that.”