Companies

The Belgian court copyright infringement ruling against Google News will not ultimately damage the search engine service, but it will bring the company to the negotiating table with publishers who are concerned about how their content is being used online. Losing Copiepresse's content will not in itself cause Google News too many problems. Many publishers see the Google News service as a fantastic...

Newspaper giant Gannett Co. on Tuesday purchased Central Florida Future, the University of Central Florida's independent student newspaper. The company's Central Florida unit, Florida Today/Cape Publishing, paid an undisclosed amount for the Future, a free paper published three times a week during the academic year. It also bought the Seminole Chronicle, a weekly circulated in Oviedo and Winter...

London’s freesheets are now engaged in rubbishing each other over the litter they have been indirectly creating in the city. News International said the attacks on it showed that Associated was “rattled” by the success of thelondonpaper, which recorded a January circulation figure of 436,435 – a rise of 6.19 per cent on December – compared to 400,997 for London Lite, which was up just 0.07 per...

The financially-ailing Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has reached tentative contracts with bargaining units from its 11 different labour unions, lifting a cloud of uncertainty surrounding the future of the 220-year-old daily, the newspaper reported. Votes on the three-year contracts, which would run from January 2007 to March 2010, will take place in the next two weeks, said Newspaper Guild President...

A Belgian court has ruled that Web search leader Google Inc. may not reproduce extracts of Belgian press reports, upholding an existing injunction, news agencies reported on Tuesday. Google, the owner of the world's most-used search engine, must pay 25,000 euros ($32,500) a day until it removes all Belgian news content, the Brussels Court of First Instance ruled, according to a Bloomberg News...

Ubiquitous broadband network connections and digital devices that permeate every situation of daily life will allow people to use information, communication and services at work, at home and on the move, says a report by one of the world’s leading organisations for the newspaper and media industries. A screen shows Internet services available through an broadband-connected digital video recorder...

Less than a year ago, Gary B. Pruitt, the head of the McClatchy Company, was hailed as the white knight of newspapers. While others saw the industry headed for the dinosaur graveyard, Mr. Pruitt rode in to buy the Knight Ridder papers, or some of them anyway. Although he was the only bidder, he pronounced the industry very much alive. BusinessWeek said Mr. Pruitt was “widely considered the best in...

Steve Spendlove realizes that after last month's layoffs of most of the news-gathering staff at tiny KFTY-TV in Santa Rosa there will be less local coverage. The Clear Channel executive overseeing the station knows there won't be reporters to investigate local scandals, let alone do those fluffy woman-turns-100 features that make TV anchors cock their heads and smile at the end of a newscast. But...

A protest at the sell off of dozens of newspaper titles in the Midlands has been made in parliament. Lynda Waltho, MP for Stourbridge, West Midlands, tabled an Early Day Motion raising concerns at the sale of Trinity Mirror's Midlands Newspapers group It is made up of more than 30 titles in the West Midlands, Warks, Staffs, Derbys, Northants and Leics. The motion, which has been signed by 12 MPs...

Last week, media stock Global Broadcast News, part of the Television Eighteen India (TV18) group, made a sizzling debut on the bourses with 104 per cent gains. Brokerage house Edelweiss Securities sees an upside for TV18, in the media space. Analysts say TV18 reported better-than-expected revenues of Rs 64.80 crore, a growth of 67.1 per cent y-o-y and 22.1 per cent q-o-q. The growth in revenues...