Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) has bought 25 weekly regional newspapers from Trinity Mirror for £64.15 million. Trinity Mirror is selling Kent Regional Newspapers, East Surrey and Sussex Newspapers and Blackmore Vale Publishing, which form part of its regional business in London and the South East. The three businesses are being acquired by Northcliffe… Continue reading DMGT Buys 25 Trinity Mirror Regional Titles

Rupert Murdoch’s $5 billion (£2.5 billion) bid for Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal, has finally been accepted, with a formal announcement expected next week. According to a report in Business magazine, the announcement is expected next week once the majority shareholders, the Bancroft family, have formally agreed to the sale. News Corp… Continue reading Murdoch Dow Jones Deal Set To Go Ahead

New research from Thinkbox has revealed that UK adults spent more time watching broadcast TV in May than the equivalent month 10 years ago.Thinkbox said that viewers are spending an increasing amount of time watching commercial TV, with figures released by BARB showing that UK adults have consistently increased their TV viewing time over the… Continue reading TV Viewing On Increase Says Thinkbox

The commercial radio trade body, the Radio Centre, has called on communications regulator Ofcom to set out a road map for the future of radio, insisting the watchdog needs to take a more radical approach to deregulation.Unveiling the details of its 70-page submission to Ofcom in response to the regulator’s ‘Future of Radio’ consultation (see… Continue reading Radio Centre Urges Ofcom To Be Bold

ITV’s net advertising revenues were down 5% for the first half of the year, with ITV1’s ad revenues down 9% year on year to £595 million. The figures, revealed in a trading update for the six months to June 30, show that ITV’s revenues from interactive gaming dropped 67% to £9 million following the furore… Continue reading ITV Ad Revenues Down 5%

Google’s purchase of ad-serving company DoubleClick for £1.5 billion has come under fire from BEUC, the European consumers’ organisation. BEUC has asked the EU competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, to investigate the deal, which could lead to Google being forced to divest large parts of its operations if it is found to be in breach of… Continue reading Google DoubleClick Deal Under Pressure From Consumer Group

Digital Marketing Group has acquired Graphico New Media, a full service creative digital agency with skills in mobile marketing, and Hyperlaunch New Media, an award-winning digital creative marketing agency. DMG is paying £8.6 million for Graphico and £3.5 million for Hyperlaunch. Graphico’s core business area lies in the design, development and maintenance of web-sites, from… Continue reading Digital Marketing Group Acquires Two Agencies

The NRS is to take an increasingly web based approach to readership measurement according to NRS chairman Simon Marquis, speaking at yesterday’s MediaTel Group ‘Future of National Newspapers’ seminar. Marquis said that not only is the NRS currently measuring publishers websites, with the data to become available by early next year, but it is also… Continue reading Web Based Approach Is Future Of NRS

The structure of agencies and the creativity of advertising for newspapers were brought into question at the ‘Future of National Newspapers’ seminar held by MediaTel Group in London yesterday, with panellists urging agencies to become more integrated. Stuart Taylor, commercial director at Guardian News and Media, said that agencies are “too structured separately”. He conceded… Continue reading Agencies Must Consider Restructure For Digital Age

This year, Britain is set to account for over half of all online ad spending in Western Europe, rising to a 52.6% market share in 2010, according to new research from eMarketer. Steady economic growth, further advances in broadband, mobile internet access and associated ad-serving technology will help fuel this growth, according to the UK… Continue reading UK To Spend £2.6 Billion On Online Advertising In 2007