From the death spiral of ad downturn, digital audience migration and a thousand cuts, one man emerges to try some long-expected consolidation in the local news market. But can the proposed Local World company get going? Read more »
Scandinavian newspaper publisher Schibsted is keeping up its efforts to diversify and attract user payments by investing in a regional ebook service. Read more »
Magazine publisher Burda wants to take complete ownership of LinkedIn rival Xing, while rival Axel Springer is selling a games site to focus on its growing online content and classifieds business. Read more »
In Russia’s fast-growing internet scene, Mail.ru is successfully marshalling its diverse arsenal of social network and game services to attract paying users, while its social advertising prospects turn down. Read more »
Amazon’s global content strategy is becoming a step broader and more integrated through greater distribution for its Kindle range and inclusion of its video service Lovefilm on UK devices. Read more »
Going digital-only may not suit all publishers yet, but some organisations for which paper publishing has been a means to an end are now increasingly going digital. Latest is a title on which homeless people depend for an income. Read more »
The exclusive provider of ad services to a host of Italian online publishers is taking on money to fund development of new ad formats. Read more »
In the online local listings and reviews segment, US big boy Yelp is giving a five-star review to Hamburg-based peer Qype – and buying it to expand the breadth of its business overseas. Read more »
One of the many digital content services going global is music video outfit Vevo. Certain new countries mean a mobile-first approach – but that puts services at the mercy of a mobile ad ecosystem they say is still playing catch-up to desktop. Read more »
4G mobile networks promise fast content access out of the home. The UK’s first such network is bundling movies and free WiFi access – but will consumers pay the 4G premium? Read more »
Music service Rara has spent the last 10 months quietly tweaking its offering following a quiet launch. Now it will start going live properly. The catch? Every user is going to have to pay to play. Read more »
The digital vendor that powers music services for Samsung, HTC, RIM and others is taking on investment to expand its offering from downloads to streaming, radio and more. Read more »
‘Dead trees’ aren’t dead – they’re just dying. As news publishing’s funding dilemma grows more acute, everyone seems to know what The Guardian should do. Plenty of opinions were floated this week, as the paper denied it will stop printing. Read more »
TechCrunch’s CrunchBase has become a repository of information about tech startups. Now a Russian outfit wants to replicate the model, connecting investors with Russia’s fast-growing scene for a monthly subscription. Read more »
He quit HMV’s digital turnaround. Now new Trinity Mirror CEO Simon Fox says the UK news publisher must become leaner and abort its new Groupon clone to fund better apps and websites for its newspapers. Read more »
It can finally be confirmed that Levin is in charge of Poolworks, formerly VZ Networks, the company behind German Facebook clone StudiVZ. But why was the new owner’s identity such a secret? Read more »
Google has apparently offered to indicate when its search results point to its own properties, in its ongoing negotiations with EC antitrust investigators. But that offer likely doesn’t neutralise the original complaints. Read more »
UK mobile ad spending is more than doubling year-on-year, according to new figures, as two more vendors in the space take on new financing to exploit the sector’s growth opportunity. Read more »
The YouTube of sound is a clear success, but its big monetization play – beyond pro-account subscriptions – still remains a mystery. Read more »
Keen to drive up its digital ecommerce, the BBC’s commercial division will let buyers of some TV DVDs stream their contents through Flixster as part of UltraViolet’s DECE consortium. Read more »
Pearson may be a giant of corporate publishing. But now it is throwing DK’s rich encyclopedic image bank and dozens of classic novels in with the content it wants developers to re-use in their own apps. Read more »
It’s the most viewed YouTube viral ever. Now the stars of Charlie Bit My Finger will get their own professional web series, as agents aim to monetise viral amateur stars on TV’s big screen. Read more »
Looking to broaden itself from skateboarding dogs by increasing its volume of original professional video, YouTube is extending its original-channel deal with established producers, with 60 new channels in Europe and the States. Read more »
Deezer now stands a much greater chance of challenging powerful Spotify in the race to sign unlimited-music subscription customers, after reportedly taking a €100 million funding. But can any of their ilk be a success? Read more »
The march of time and the advance of content formats is leaving thousands of old movies unwatchable. Now the British Film Institute will digitise many to preserve them and make them available online. Read more »
Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino once said the FT would be sold “over my dead body”. Now her exit after 15 years is calling some to wonder whether things might change. Read more »
Google’s video site is already the number-five web service in Turkey. Now it will have to work under the fast-growing country’s laws. But that could mean a big growth opportunity for the service. Read more »
What happens when a UK newspaper starts charging its American online readers? Not enough, according to The Independent, which says it is likely to undo its model after a year in place. Read more »
As another deadline to launch passes, Virgin Media shows more evidence that it will soon finally unveil its iPad TiVo application, along with a full second-screen internet TV strategy. Read more »
Around the world, rival services are gobbling up emerging markets by rebadging Google’s software. Yandex is the latest, with its own Chrome-based web browser and alternative Android app store. Read more at GigaOM »
A data visualisation web app, GetBulb, wins a €50,000 loan note from DFJ Esprit in The Irish Times’ Digital Challenge. But what did the publisher learn from working with start-ups? Read more »
The industry is still figuring out how to exploit the fact that many TV viewers use mobile devices whilst watching. Even two pay-TV services part of the same mothership don’t fully agree on the opportunity. Read more »
AOL’s Huffington Post launches another national edition in tandem with a leading newspaper publisher. But, when it’s not relying on existing local brands, how is HuffPo doing under its own steam against dominant newspaper publishers? Read more »
If web users won’t pay for quality news, should they be made to cough up through one of the few digital bills they do pay? A news levy must now be collected through ISPs, one high-profile journalist says. Read more »
One of the recent crop of mobile personalised news aggregators is being acquired by an RSS advertising company looking to take its ads in to smartphones. Read more »
Adobe sounded the death knell for Flash on Android last month. Deciding there is no viable alternative video technology, the BBC is keeping Adobe’s alive through its own workaround app. Blame Android fragmentation. Read more »
It has a clear digital vision under former MSN chief Scott Moore, but Yellowbook publisher Hibu warns the cost of servicing its diminishing printed directory business may render its shares worthless. Read more »
GNM is beefing up its digital and commercial leadership with US-style C-level appointments, including a new role for digital development director Tanya Cordrey. Read more »
Consumers’ use of mobile devices whilst watching TV is becoming popular. But, with another viewing companion app due to launch next week, some in the industry are still debating the potential and the pay-back. Read more »
In a bold first-day speech, the BBC’s new boss says the corporation must stop thinking that online innovation means repurposing broadcast content and instead ‘create genuinely digital content for the first time’. Read more »
