The Guardian is filling a gap in its digital leadership by hiring Zeit Online chief editor Wolfgang Blau as its first ever digital strategy director. What will he do to grow the brand online? Read more at paidContent »
As TV and telco operators mull their mobile and tablet options, another software vendor is hoping to get their attention, funding itself for a larger worldwide push. Read more at paidContent »
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 at paidContent »
As domestic newspaper circulation shrinks, The New York Times and Financial Times are launching editions for Latin America in Brazil. But why is one in print and the other digital-only? Read more at paidContent »
The Guardian still has time to innovate before it really must turn a profit. For now, its boss has given accountants an assessment of its commercial position that is an “open” as its journalism. Read more at paidContent »
Wall Street is flocking back to The Gray Lady, as analysis convinces investors to buy a New York Times that is wringing more money out of readers in print and online. Read more at paidContent »
US politicians want to outlaw Chinese mobile phones – but China’s state news agency is happy to use an American technology vendor to power its mobile advertising ambitions. Read more at paidContent »
It’s the world’s number-two music market, but Japan is not yet replete with music subscription services. Spotify wants to change that, aiming to launch there in the new year, paidContent learns. Read more at paidContent »
Sydney Morning Herald publisher Fairfax was spooked by the escalating cost of licensing video for its new TV site. So now it’s adding cheaper content by legalising BitTorrent videos on producers’ behalf. Read more at paidContent »
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 at paidContent »
Fresh from raising €100 million, French music service Deezer’s CEO Axel Dauchez tells paidContent he wants to tip-toe around the US and Spotify while using funds to go global. Read more at paidContent »
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 at paidContent »
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 at paidContent »
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 at paidContent »
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 at paidContent »
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 at paidContent »
Though plastic sales may be waning, value may remain in ascribing physical characteristics to virtual content. But do “digital album signing” and “second-hand MP3s” add up to real innovation? Read more at paidContent »
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 at paidContent »
Why distribute your video over third-party internet boxes when you can make your own internet TV? Chinese portal LeTV wants to own each piece of the online video chain. Read more at paidContent »
Whilst adding Viacom as a US investor, Zeebox wants to augment The X Factor not just with tweets but with a parallel live tablet video stream. Is this second-screen convergence, or just multimedia overkill? Read more at paidContent »
Consumers may not buy all kinds of web content, but Google is now courting publishers who want to charge with a rebooted version of its micropayments system. Read more at paidContent »
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 at paidContent »
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 at paidContent »
A popular service delivering extra live TV streams to UK viewers is being shrunk by the BBC as it looks to move the idea online to cut costs and spurn innovation. 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 at paidContent »
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 at paidContent »
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 at paidContent »
New laws make downloading, as well as uploading, content illegally an offence punishable by a prison term and a large fine in Japan, in contrast with the emerging approach elsewhere. Read more at paidContent »
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 »
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 at paidContent »
Ad spending online will grow by 16 percent next year and hit 21.4 percent by the following year, according to a ZenithOptimedia forecast. Read more at paidContent »
Mobile now takes more than 16 percent of paid search spending in the US, according to research. But its growth tailed off in the last quarter. Read more at paidContent »
NMA, a magazine for UK digital marketing professionals, is merging in to Econsultancy, a rival site that was bought by its publisher Centaur this year, to create a beefed-up niche outlet. Read more at paidContent »
Internet Explorer can’t catch a break in Europe. On the day the EC says it will charge Microsoft over browser bundling non-compliance, Russian web service Mail.ru launches its own rival software. 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 at paidContent »
Magazine publisher Future’s early enthusiasm for Apple’s Newsstand storefront appears to be paying off. The company has sold £5 million in titles there, and now wants to diversify and globalise its digital business. Read more at paidContent »
As multi-tasking during TV viewing becomes more popular, social TV sidekick app Zeebox launches in the US with investment and support from Comcast, NBC and more lined up, as it goes head-on with Yahoo’s Intonow. Read more at paidContent »
With no iPhone 5 support and multiple competing variants, mobile payments may be having an evolutionary emergence toward what many expect will be a revolutionary disruption. But, already, NFC helped process 4.5 billion rubles’ worth ($138 million) of mobile payments in Russia in the first six […] Read more »
Having blocked search crawlers since 2010, News International’s The Times will now let engines index a couple of sentences from articles. But don’t bet on the ‘wall’ coming down entirely – this is a try-before-you-buy offer. Read more at paidContent »
MailOnline’s celebrity gossip and photo galleries may have drawn millions of readers at breakneck speed, but it is now monetising the audience even faster, earnings show. Read more at paidContent »
