Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail & General Trust is believed to have taken the lead in the race to seize control of the Telegraph titles with a seemingly unbeatable cash bid approaching £700 million. It is understood that the newspaper group took pole position over its two rivals – the Barclay brothers and 3i – after… Continue reading Lord Rothermere Tables £700 Million Bid For Telegraph Titles

Scottish Media Group has announced the appointment of Chris Masters, a former oil and manufacturing boss, as its new non-executive chairman following the departure of Don Cruickshank earlier this year. Masters joins SMG with no direct media experience, but has held senior positions with several high-profile companies, most recently as non-executive chairman of heating unit… Continue reading SMG Appoints Media Newcomer As Chairman

Sport Newspapers, publishers of the Sunday and Daily Sport, faces the prospect of legal action after being referred to the Office of Fair Trading by the advertising watchdog.The argument erupted earlier this year after the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that a front-page flash on the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport was misleading consumers.The statement in… Continue reading Pricing Blunder Lands Daily Sport In Hot Water

The Daily Mail & General Trust revealed a positive set of interim results today with rises in both profits and advertising revenue, but it was careful to warn of complacency in a still volatile market. The group’s national newspaper division, Associated Newspapers, saw advertising revenue increase by 6% year on year, with rises recorded in… Continue reading DMGT Sees Revenues Rise In Positive First Half

Multi-channel TV now reaches 56.7% of UK homes, says the latest Digital Television Uptake report from industry watchdog, Ofcom. The report shows that in quarter one 2004, total UK multi-channel homes had grown to nearly 14 million, up from below 13.5 million on the previous quarter. Free-to-view households grew by 18% to 3.6 million households,… Continue reading Multi-Channel Television Statistics Q1 2004

WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell sounded an uncharacteristically optimistic note on the prospect of a global advertising recovery when he unveiled the company’s annual report yesterday. Sorrell is usually reluctant to be overly upbeat when predicting the industry’s fortunes and has so far refused to call an end to the worst advertising downturn in… Continue reading Sorrell Heralds Global Advertising Recovery

GMG Radio has set up a dedicated interactive division to sell advertising across the websites of its three leading local radio brands: Real Radio, Jazz FM and the recently launched Smooth FM.The new commercial operation, led by Jazz FM managing director, Carter Tanner (pictured), will sell both bespoke online campaigns and airtime support advertising across… Continue reading GMG Offers Web Solutions Through New Interactive Division

May highlighted further improvements in advertising conditions, as many media owners and agencies posted upbeat revenue results this month, following the trend set in the previous quarter. In the newspaper sector, things were looking up for Trinity Mirror who saw revenues rise by nearly 5% for the first four months of 2004 but at Times… Continue reading INSIGHTanalysis: Media Healthcheck – May 2004

The number of at-home global active internet users for a number of selected countries fell by more than 419,000 during April 2004. For the second consecutive month, Switzerland grew more than any other country, up by nearly 4%, while the US lost more one million surfers. Active Internet Users By Country, April 2004     … Continue reading Internet Users Fall During April

Hachette Filipacchi has secured a cross-media deal that will see it cash in on the success of its market leading teen glossy Sugar with the launch of a series of branded television programmes on MTV Hits.The agreement, which begins later this week, will see MTV Hits broadcast a series of specially created Sugar TV shows… Continue reading Hachette Launches Sugar-Branded Programmes On MTV