The social networking audience is growing rapidly, up 11% year on year in 2008, and is expected to increase further over the next five years, according to a new report from eMarketer. In 2008, a staggering 80 million people, which is 41% of the US Internet user population, visited social network sites at least once… Continue reading Social networking users soar

The number of US women over age 55 using Facebook has grown 175.3% since September 2008, making mature females one of the fastest growing demographic groups on the social network, according to independent blog Inside Facebook. The number of men over age 55 also grew dramatically during the same four-month period (up 137.8%), but women… Continue reading Women over 55 flock to Facebook

Local news and information publisher Northcliffe Media has announced record audience figures across its network of local ‘this is’ websites.In a statement, Northcliffe said that its network of 233 websites had over 4.3m visitors in January alone – an increase of 39% compared to the same month last year. It added that these visitors made… Continue reading Northcliffe Media announces record audience figures

Sky has won a fifth package of Premier League rights to go with the four packages the broadcaster won earlier this week (see NewsLine).Sky will now have 115 exclusively live Premier League matches in each of the 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons.The satellite broadcaster will pay a total of £1,623 million for the five packages… Continue reading Sky wins fifth Premier League rights package

Buoyed by the increasing financial uncertainty in world markets, January saw free business title City AM‘s distribution figure grow 3.7% year on year to 87,655.The Evening Standard‘s circulation dipped slightly year on year, by around 0.5% to just under 293,000 copies, although it was up month on month.Evening freesheet thelondonpaper remained relatively static year on… Continue reading City AM enjoys year on year growth

Yahoo! executive James Wood has been appointed head of technology at NatMags’ Hearst Digital.Wood, currently Yahoo!’s head of entertainments engineering for Europe, will be responsible for the delivery of all Hearst digital and NatMag websites.The move follows last year’s announcement by Hearst Digital that it would be restructuring and bringing the technical delivery of its… Continue reading Hearst Digital appoints new head of technology

News Corporation has reported a loss of $6.4 billion (£4.37 billion) for the last quarter of 2008. News Corp’s ‘Other’ category reported an adjusted operating loss of $38 million (£25.9 million), down from $61 million (£41.6 million) a year ago. The media conglomerate also posted operating income of $818 million (£557.9 million), down 42% compared… Continue reading News Corp reports £4m loss in last quarter of 2008

US users of Apple’s iPhone are 23% more aware of mobile ads than non-iPhone users and 66% more likely to respond to them, according to findings from the Q4 2008 Mobile Advertising Report, based on a survey by Limbo and GfK Technology. The quarterly research also finds that US iPhone users are more than twice… Continue reading iPhone users more aware of mobile ads

The internet continues to be populated largely by younger generations in the US, as over half the online population there is between 18 and 44 years old, according to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project surveys. However, the surveys, taken from 2006 to 2008, show that larger percentages of older generations are… Continue reading Larger percentage of older generations going online in US

Metro International, the world’s largest free newspaper publisher, has announced an operating loss of €1.9 million (£1.7 million) in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared to an operating profit of €3.4 million (£3 million) in the same period in 2007. For the full year, total net sales were down year on year by 11% to… Continue reading Metro International reports fourth quarter operating loss