News

(CJES/IFEX) - Andrei Mikhailov, founder of "Khronograf Togliatti", the only independent publication in Togliatti, a city in the Samara region, has reported that serious pressure is being exerted on the newspaper. Mikhailov told CJES a defamation lawsuit was filed against the newspaper with the Togliatti Central District Court by Vladimir Avetisyan, managing director of the Russian holding company...

(RSF/IFEX) - Hussein Al Zubaydi, a journalist with the weekly "al-Ahali", was killed by gunmen in unclear circumstances in Baghdad on 19 February 2007, while the bullet-riddled body of Abderrazak Hashim Al-Khakani, a journalist with radio Jumhuriyat Al Iraq, was discovered in a Baghdad morgue on 20 February. He had been kidnapped a week earlier in the east Baghdad neighbourhood of al-Jihad...

New York, February 26, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about the safety of an Iraqi newspaper editor who disappeared in central Baghdad on Saturday. Jamal al-Zubaidi, 56, an economics editor for the Baghdad-based dailies As-Saffir and Al-Dustour, was last seen leaving As-Saffir’s offices in the central Karada neighborhood around 1 p.m. on Saturday, his son Riyah told...

Last year, almost 18,000 media employees lost their jobs—the biggest group of layoffs since the dotcom bubble burst in 2001. Some of the world's biggest “old-media” companies—including MTV Networks (MTVN), NBC Universal, Disney and Discovery Communications—are axing staffers in handfuls and hundreds. In one of the biggest reductions, Time Warner's AOL began cutting 5,000 employees in December...

NEW YORK: Newspaper executives have been making strides in reducing churn, holding on to paid circulation -- even though it's heavily discounted -- and slinging out less valuable circ, like hotel copies. And while those efforts are laudable, there's another anchor dragging down print revenue: single-copy sales. It's a long way indeed from the days when the popular image of newspapers was based on...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc.'s new online search advertising system has increased the number of people who click on links that pay the Web media company money, a research firm said on Monday. Data collected by Internet usage measuring firm comScore Networks showed that the number of Yahoo search users who clicked on ads -- known as the click-through rate -- rose 5 percent in the first week...

Microsoft Corp and three newspaper/magazine companies have unveiled a software service that allows readers to download stories and read them even when not connected to the Internet. The News Reader, which is now available to readers of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, enables readers to automatically transfer a sampling of stories from the newspaper's website onto their computers by clicking on a...

Time Warner is the world’s largest media owner, generating almost twice the revenue than its nearest rival News Corp in 2005 and making $30bn which makes up 13 per cent of the total worldwide media spend, a new report by media agency ZenithOptimedia has said. Time Warner headquarters in New York. Time Warner said its annual earnings more than doubled to $6.55 billion in 2006 after the world's...

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has launched an initiative to develop a new measurement standard for newspaper readership, both print and digital. Newspaper salesman Dallas Airs sells a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle at his newspaper stand in San Francisco in 2006. Several media research firms have created combined measurements to show the advertising community and media investors...

LABOR has recruited high-profile media personality Maxine McKew to take on Prime Minister John Howard in his NSW seat of Bennelong. Ms McKew confirmed last night that she was seeking ALP preselection for the seat held by Mr Howard since 1974. Last year's electoral redistribution significantly reduced Mr Howard's majority and it would take a swing of 4.2 per cent for Labor to win his seat in the...