Google named world's No 1 brand
Mark Sweney
guardian.co.uk,
Monday April 21 2008

Google: tops the BrandZ top 100 list for the second year running.
Google has topped a list of the world's most powerful brands, with new research estimating its value to be $86bn (£43bn).

WPP-owned research company Millward Brown puts Google at number one in its annual top 100 global brand power list for the second year in a row with a 30% year-on-year increase in its value.

Google beat General Electric to the top spot, with the NBC Universal owner's brand value estimated at $71.4bn.

The next most valuable brands are Microsoft at $70.89bn, Coca-Cola at $58.2bn and China Mobile at $57.2bn, according to Millward Brown.

"Google's rank has been driven by fantastic financial performance and equity value," said Peter Walshe, the global account director at Millward Brown.

The top five remained unchanged year-on-year, with each company recording an increase in brand valuation by between 15% and 39% compared with 2007.

However, Millward Brown's annual BrandZ research, which takes into account the financial performance of a company combined with a measure of brand equity determined by a 100,000-strong global consumer survey, produced a number of changes in the ranking of the brands that make up the remainder of the top 10.

IBM's brand value increased by 65% year-on-year to $55.3bn, moving the technology company up three places in the BrandZ list to sixth spot.

Apple was the biggest mover in the top 10, and a new entry, moving up nine places to rank seventh, with a massive 123% increase in brand value to $55.2bn.

"Apple's 123% rise has proved to be from a mix of a slue of innovative products such as the iTouch, iPhone, Leopard and computers for which consumers have given the brand a lot of credit," said Walshe.

Fast food giant McDonald's brand value grew by 49% - in eighth at $49.49bn, while Nokia was up 39% and in ninth at $43.9bn.

Cigarette giant Marlboro was the only marque to drop in the top 10, down four spots to 10th, with a 5% drop in brand value to $37.3bn.

"You have to remember that these are global valuations," said Walshe, explaining why in an anti-smoking era the tobacco company still did so well in the ratings.

"The business is expanding in markets including Asia and South America. It is only in the west that we see decline. Its brand contribution [to the brand valuation] is also extremely high."
Mobile operator Vodafone was the top-ranked British brand, up 12 places on the back of a 75% increase in value to $36.9bn (£18.5bn).

Millward Brown tracks 50,000 brands globally, which are whittled down for its annual BrandZ top 100 list.

French MPs back law to bar media from promoting anorexia
· Bill specifically aimed at 'pro-ana'
Offenders could face jail and fines up to €45,000

French MPs yesterday approved a ground-breaking law against the promotion of anorexia, making it illegal to publicly incite excessive thinness.
The bill, which would bar any form of media, including websites, magazines and advertisers, from promoting extreme thinness, encouraging severe weight-loss or methods for self-starvation, is the furthest any parliament has gone in the fight against anorexia and its public portrayal.

The law is specifically aimed at what French MPs called pro-anorexia "propaganda" websites. These sites, loosely termed "pro-ana" often support anorexia as a lifestyle choice rather than a medical disorder, sometimes personifying the condition as a girl called "Ana". The blogs and forums, which have developed in the US since 2000 and grown in France over the past two years, often include talk-boards frequented mainly by teenage girls and young women with advice on how to get through the pain of extreme hunger after eating a yoghurt a day, or how to hide extreme weight-loss from parents or doctors. Some use pictures of excessively thin models as "thinspiration" for self-starvation.

The law, which will go before the French senate next month, allows judges to imprison and fine offenders up to €30,000 (£24,000) if found guilty of inciting others to seek to become dangerously thin by depriving themselves of food to an "excessive" degree. If a victim dies, the offender risks three years in prison and a €45,000 fine.

Last week French MPs, fashion industry leaders and advertisers signed a separate voluntary charter on promoting healthier body images after a long consultation following the anorexia-linked death of a Brazilian model in 2006. Spain banned ultra-thin models from catwalks in 2007.
But Valery Boyer, the centre-right MP who tabled the bill, said the voluntary charter did not go far enough.

It is not clear whether the proposed law could affect the fashion industry or fashion magazines over use of models who are extremely thin. In an interview with Associated Press, Boyer said the legislation, if passed, could enable a judge to punish those responsible for a magazine photo of a model whose "thinness altered her health". She said: "We have noticed that the socio-cultural and media environment seems to favour the emergence of troubled nutritional behaviour, and that is why I think it necessary to act."

The French health minister Roselyne Bachelot said the law would allow "a larger public debate" on anorexia and its 30,000 to 40,000 sufferers in France.

Opponents said the bill was too vague in defining "extreme thinness" and describing who might be punished for promoting it. Leftwing opposition MPs largely abstained from yesterday's vote.
Didier Grumbach, president of the French Federation of Couture, said he was not aware how broad the proposed legislation was, but opposed sweeping measures.

Mail raises cover price by 5p
Stephen Brook
guardian.co.uk,


The Daily Mail increased its price to 50p today - prompting rival title the Daily Express to accuse it of "staggering hypocrisy".

Associated Newspapers' flagship daily said its 5p price rise was due to higher fuel charges, printing, production and distribution costs.
"We remain committed to bringing you the best-value package available through continued investment in the highest quality journalism, bigger papers and colour on every page," the Mail said in a statement to readers on page 2 of today's paper.

The price rise means that the Mail is 10p more expensive than the Daily Express, a fact its middle market rival wasted no time in pointing out on its front page today.

"10p cheaper than the Daily Mail and 10 times better," the Express proclaimed, before launching a virulent attack on the Associated Newspapers flagship, also on page 2.

The Express labelled the Mail "hypocrites" for the price rise, while the paper is running a campaign against cost of living increases.
"With great fanfare, the Mail duly announced its cost of living index. Funny that. Mail bosses couldn't have picked a better moment, because from today they've added their own unwelcome boost to inflation by putting up the cost of the Daily Mail by 5p to 50p," the Express said.

"It's just another fine example of staggering hypocrisy. This is an organisation that campaigns against waste and plastic carriers yet every weekend it wraps magazines and supplements in pointless polythene bags.

"Day in, day out it produces thousands of trashy free newspapers which nobody wants and which clog up our streets and our public transport until they end up in a landfill site.

"The Daily Express is not in the business of conning our readers with gimmicks and insincere campaigns. We promise to keep our 40p cover price for as long as is humanly possible because we know how much that means to you. The Daily Express is honest and offers the best value. And right now, that really counts."

On Saturdays, the Daily Mail remains 70p, while the Mail on Sunday costs £1.50

Text one is ‘The Sun Online’ homepage , the purpose of this text is to keep audiences informed of the day’s top stories. Text two is the’ BBC News report about the Tiananmen Square massacre’ (04/06/89), the purpose of this text is to inform audiences about what has happened during the massacre.

The BBC is an institution whose purpose is too inform, educate and entertain. Whereas the sun is a tabloid red top newspaper and was set up by Rupert murdoch who also owns myspace and sky. It rivals with the Daily mail.

The Tiananmen Square massacre is a piece of hard news it talks about an event which has happened worldwide and is there to make the audience aware of the situation, unlike the sun where majority of the stories are soft news they talk about the issues of celebrities and there daily life’s. The sun mainly targets the ‘white van builder man’ whereas the BBC report aims to target educated people who are aware of worldwide issues.

Sex sells and the sun is the home of the famous page three girl. Women on the sun newspaper are there to be objectified and are only there to sell the newspaper they have no real purpose and are there for the male gaze (laura mulvey). Women are there in every section dressed scadly clad or even naked. This demeans women and puts them in a negative representation. However the reporter in the BBC news story is a women and this represents women in a higher position. She uses an authoritive voice. But this reporter is still injecting the audience with the BBC’s ideologies and values through the hegemony (hypodermic needle model) she injecting them with white ideologies and values.

The sun is an online homepage. The internet is growing fast and today everyone is using the internet it is an easier way of gaining a larger audience.

Therefore both texts use females to sell their product and represent the ideologies and values that they are sending out.

Clicks may sound alarm for Google

Andrew Clark in New York
The Guardian,
Saturday March 29 2008

Google has suffered a second consecutive month of weak growth in advertising clicks, fuelling concern that the high-flying internet search specialist is suffering in the economic slowdown.

Statistics compiled by the research firm Comscore showed a 3% year-on-year rise during February in Google's "paid clicks" - the number of times users hit advertising links on its website. Although the number is an improvement on January's zero growth, it amounts to a sharp slowdown compared with monthly increases of between 25% and 40% last year.

Google maintains that the deceleration is a consequence of its strategy of focusing on quality. The Silicon Valley firm has been trying to eliminate accidental clicks and has been working with advertisers to make sure that links relate closely to users' search queries.

But the slowdown has contributed to a 36% slump in Google's shares since the beginning of the year and analysts are divided on whether the company's confidence is justified.

Scott Kessler, an equity analyst at Standard & Poor's in New York, said: "It's almost unfathomable that the company has not seen an impact from an economy that we believe is in the midst of a recession."

Others were more sanguine. Rob Sanderson, an analyst at American Technology Research, said the number of clicks is less important than Google's revenue, which is based on the clicks converted by advertisers into sales. "It's not clicks that advertisers are really buying."
Google's shares edged up in early trading on Nasdaq, reflecting relief that the numbers were no worse.

Anjali Lakhani
Media key concept essay

One print text ‘Radio Times (London)’ and one moving image text the opening sequence of ER. The purpose of the print text is to grab the reader’s attention just by looking at the front cover. Then there is the purpose of the institution the BBC, which is, too inform, educate and entertain. The opening sequence of ER is to keep the audiences attention onto the show and to set the pace and tone of the show for the audiences.

On the cover of the ‘Radio Times’ is an image of nurses dressed in a conservative way and with big smiles on their faces. The smiles on their faces suggests that they are happy with their roles, however there status of a nurse is low in a hospital and why are their no male nurses being shown or any female doctors? Whereas in ER there is gender equality an example we can look at is Parmindar Nagra who is represented as a successful Asian female surgeon who is highly educated and independent who is breaking out of the typical out of date stereotypes of Asian women. Females are being shown in a more positive way and this may be due to the feminist movement. ER is a multicultural show and is representing today’s society where in reality it would be more likely to find an Asian or black nurse/doctor in a hospital. By having a more diverse show the makers of ER can appeal to wider audience who can then create a personal identity with the characters (Galtung and Rouge). On the other hand if we look at the women on front of the ‘Radio Times’ cover they are all white thus reflecting society in the seventies, where there was many race riots and a less diverse Britain.

The opening of ER is fast paced. The shots are quick and so is the music, this can be to reflect the pace of a real ER therefore setting the tone for the audience. The fast beating music could connote the beat of a human’s heartbeat, thus basing the genre of this show to be hospital drama. The opening sequence uses iconic elements of a typical hospital drama such as the zig zag lines on the heart machine or the hospital equipment, the costumes of the doctors and nurses this is the mis-en scene. Similarly to the ‘Radio Times’ where the nurses are seen holding an x-ray an iconic element of the genre. The idea of the hospital drama can relate to the wider issues in the country such as the NHS. The NHS has always played an important part in Britain’s culture. The NHS in Britain is an important institution and the service that is provided to the public is free unlike the service, which is provided in America, which is not free.

The nurses in the ‘Radio Times’ cover are all fully covered and are not scantly clad. There uniforms show no flesh or no cleverage. We can link this to Laura Mulvey’s theory that women are only there for the male gaze, however the nurses on the ‘Radio Times’ are not being objectified, neither are the women in the opening sequence of ER, where women are seen as educated professional women with a high status. There is gender equality In ER and this represents today’s society where women are seen to be just as equal as men. They have the same jobs and earn more. The feminist movement helped for this situation to progress and allowed women to have more rights and freedom.

Express Newspapers forced to apologise to McCann family over Madeleine allegations
· Threat of legal action leads to unprecedented move· Undisclosed damages paid to fund trying to find girl


The Daily Express and Daily Star carried unprecedented front page apologies to Gerry and Kate McCann today for publishing more than 100 articles on the disappearance of their daughter, Madeleine, some of which suggested the couple were involved in her death .

After being threatened with legal action over the articles dating back almost 11 months to when their daughter first went missing, the newspapers, owned by Richard Desmond, also agreed to pay out what it called "a very substantial sum".

The apology is expected to be repeated in the Sunday Express and the Daily Star Sunday this weekend, following a statement due to be read out in front of Mr Justice Eady at the high court today.
The Daily Star said it was making a "wholehearted apology" to the couple for "stories suggesting the couple were responsible for, or may be responsible for, the death of their daughter Madeleine and covering it up".

It recognised "that such a suggestion is absolutely untrue and that Kate and Gerry are completely innocent of any involvement in their daughter's disappearance".

Under the headline Kate and Gerry McCann: Sorry, the Express said it had apologised because "we accept that a number of articles in the newspaper have suggested that the couple caused the death of their missing daughter Madeleine and then covered it up", before acknowledging "there is no evidence whatsoever to support this theory".

Earlier this month the McCanns instructed libel specialists Carter Ruck to write to Express Newspapers over dozens of articles believed to contain defamatory statements. Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns' spokesman, refused to comment last night but has previously said the couple were "grievously wronged" by much of the coverage of their daughter's disappearance. The "substantial sum" that Express Newspapers will pay in damages would go to the Find Madeleine fund.

Since Madeleine went missing last May while the family were on holiday in the Portugese resort of Praia da Luz, she has been the focus of intense press speculation.

The family initially courted the media in order to keep the case in the public eye but the coverage changed in tone when the pair were named as official suspects by the Portuguese police in September, shortly before they flew back to the UK.

Noting the spike in sales and web traffic that typically accompanied stories about the McCanns, many newspapers have published thousands of often contradictory stories. The Express titles were judged to be by far the worst offenders.

Often referring to speculative stories from the Spanish or Portuguese press, the titles have repeatedly used the device of reproducing their allegations in quotation marks. But legal experts say that is no defence in the eyes of the law.

"If you are repeating a rumour, you are liable for that rumour," said Caroline Kean, head of media litigation at media lawyers Wiggin. "There is nothing that has been said about the McCanns that could not have been published in a balanced way. It's when you move into over the top headlines and unbalanced reporting that you go beyond the protection that the libel laws give."
The McCanns hope their action will help draw a line under some of the more salacious coverage that has flourished in the absence of new developments.
Edgar Forbes, a media law consultant, said last week: "While much of the media coverage over the past 10 months has been as unhelpful as it has been inaccurate, some of it has been downright outrageous."

Last week, the Express removed all references to the McCanns from its online archive. In addition to sensational newspaper headlines, the online speculation provoked by their speculative articles is also believed to have angered the couple.
The titles have a habit of following a particular front page story for weeks on end - recent obsessions have also included Princess Diana - but Madeleine's case has featured more than any other in the past year.

The only comparable case in recent newspaper history involved the Sun in 1987 when it settled a libel case brought by Elton John for £1m and published the front page headline Sorry Elton for falsely alleging the singer had paid rent boys.

MySpace to host Five news bulletin

Channel Five has struck a deal with MySpace to launch a youth-focused version of Five News with Natasha Kaplinsky.

The deal, which Five claims is the first between a UK news broadcaster and a social networking website, will see the launch of a co-branded daily news bulletin on MySpaceTV.

Kaplinsky will present The MySpace News Bulletin, which will be recorded each weekday after the 3pm TV update on Five and posted online "within two hours" for MySpace users to view. It will be between three and four minutes long.

The bulletin will sit on a newly created Five News MySpaceTV channel, www.myspacetv.com/fivenews, that launches today.

Five's MySpace bulletin will include three highlights from the day's news and will be tailored specifically for the social networking website's target audience of 16- to 34-year-olds.

MySpace users will be able to share news clips and provide "immediate feedback" to the Five News team through ratings and comments on individual reports.

Chris Shaw, the senior programme controller at Five, said that the partnership "underscores our commitment to interacting with our viewers and reaching new audiences for news".

Five's newsgathering team will also use the MySpace bulletin to feed into the Your News section of Kaplinsky's existing TV news bulletin, which is given over to issues raised by viewers. MySpace users will be invited to upload their own content "for possible inclusion in [Five News]".

Five News' deal with MySpace follows the bulletin's relaunch last month with Kaplinsky as anchor.

Five News is produced by Sky News. News Corporation, the owner of MySpace, is the largest shareholder in Sky News parent company BSkyB.

· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.

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Key concept essay

The two trailers I will be analysing will be ‘To fast to furious’ and The Terminator’. The purpose of a trailer is to inform the audience of the film that is coming out and to persuade them to go and see the film. These two films are of the action genre.

Firstly the mis-en-scene of The terminator shows the predominant woman dressed in a tight red leather one piece suit she is also shown to be revealing some cleverge. Although she may be represented as a strong women who is fighting back against a man, her costume suggests otherwise that she is only there to fulfil a mans fantasy, this can relate to Laura Mulvey’s theory of male gaze. The woman is there only for the man to look at. The colour of her one-piece suit is red. The colour red connotes passion and love but it also is the colour of blood and anger, this suggests that she could a passionate woman again is only there to fulfil a mans fantasy. The representation of women is demeaning and women are being objectified. Similarly to the trailer of ‘To fast too furious’ the representation of women in this trailour is shown differently to ‘The Terminator’ but the representation is still negative. The women are dressed scadliy clad and are hardly wearing anything. They have no real purpose in the film as the film is about cars, therefore they are just there to sell the film and for male pleasures.

However men in ‘The Terminator’ and ‘To fast too furious’ are seen as the dominant sex, this can suggest we are still living in a patriarchal society where men are the stronger sex. The props used such as guns and cars are usually associated with the target audience however the use of guns can portray men to be violent and gives a negative stereotype of men in society. Social issues which can be linked to this point is that men and boys would be influenced by what they watch in the media, this story as been in the news recently.

The fast paced music and quick shots in both in ‘The Terminator’ and ‘To fast too furious’ can help us to recognise the genre of the film and the target audience. These types of shots is used to emphasise the fact that the film is an action film and has a fast narrative. In the narrative for the ‘The Terminator’ there is a binary opposition between man and woman and robot and man. These binary oppositions (Levis Strauss) can create an enigma for the audience because they want to see who will win such as the robots are the baddies and the humans are good. Binary oppositions is a common convention used in the action films and is an element which appeals to the target audience of men and young boys aged twelve and above. Similarly to ‘The Terminator’ ‘To fast too furious’ has binary oppositions in the narrative however the binary oppositions in ‘To fast too furious’ create a culture clash between white people and Chinese Asian people. This creates a negative representation of Chinese Asian people because they are portrayed as the bad people of the narrative and that they are evil.

The genre of film appeals to the interests of the target audience of men and young boys aged twelve and above. These types of audience are known for there enjoyment of cars, guns and fighting. By creating a film a film, which appeals to the target, audience’s interests and hobbies can make a film successful.

BBC enters a crowded marketplace as it unveils new Arabic TV channel
With al-Jazeera and others already in the field, has the corporation left it too late?

As they shuffle their scripts a week today the presenters of BBC Arabic's flagship evening news show, Hassad al-Yom al-Ikhbari, will have more than just the fate of yet another Middle Eastern news channel in their hands.

Hoping a reputation earned over 70 years of radio broadcasting in the region will translate to millions of viewers, the BBC World Service is relying on a controversial new satellite channel to re-establish its pre-eminence in one of the world's most competitive news markets.
As it promised to take on al-Jazeera and its rivals head-on, BBC Arabic faced accusations that it was little more than a British foreign policy tool and doubts over whether it could establish itself in an overcrowded sector.

Over a decade after its first attempt to launch an Arabic news channel foundered, BBC World Service director Nigel Chapman unveiled plans to broadcast 12 hours a day, upgrading to a full 24/7 service by the summer.

"Whenever we do independent audience research what's really striking is how highly-rated the BBC is for independence after 70 years of broadcasting in Arabic and also how people can differentiate very precisely between what the BBC does and what the UK government does with its foreign policy or any other objectives," he said.

The World Service claims to have proved over 75 years that while the Foreign Office has a say over where its money is directed, it has no influence over its content.
Paid for by British taxpayers, the £25m a year service marks a big strategic shift. It is the first in a series of World Service TV channels expected to launch in the next few years as it continues to adapt to changing media consumption habits. Later this year it will launch BBC Persian, broadcasting in Farsi.

If the first Gulf war in 1991 marked a seismic shift in 24-hour television news with the arrival of CNN, and the 2003 war in Iraq was characterised by the influential rise of al-Jazeera, the global news battle is now entering a new phase.

As the World Service is launching TV channels and investing in broadband-enabled websites, al-Jazeera is simultaneously striving to make a success of its global English language service.
Competing with BBC World and CNN International, it has been dogged by rumours of internal strife but claims to have established a loyal following since it launched in November 2006.
Some believe the BBC has come too late to the party in the Middle East and will struggle to make inroads against its well-resourced rivals, which also include the Saudi-backed al-Arabiya.
Its first attempt, a commercial joint venture with Orbit, collapsed in 1996 after the BBC broadcast an episode of Panorama critical of the Saudi royal family. Many of those involved went on to launch al-Jazeera, bankrolled by the emir of Qatar.

"It's not like the first time around when the BBC had an open market. Then there was no al-Jazeera and the BBC had an untarnished reputation," said Hugh Miles, author of Al-Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenged the World. "It's a very crowded marketplace. There is a limited pool of talented journalists and the BBC hasn't got the deepest pockets. You wonder whether the BBC will end up finding and training Arab talent, only for them to walk out of the door to rivals."
In all more than 500 channels are available via satellite in the area and rivals say the BBC's commitment to sober impartiality could prove a handicap as much as a strength as it strives to get noticed. Editors will have to walk a tightrope, balancing sensitivities on the ground while judging possible damage to the corporation's reputation abroad.

"I don't think we've missed the train," said Chapman. He pointed to research showing 80% to 90% of viewers were "very likely" or "fairly likely" to tune in, and insisted Britain's involvement in Iraq had not damaged the BBC's standing in the area. He set a target of 20 million viewers within five years.

Plans for BBC Arabic were announced in 2005, when 10 radio stations - mostly in eastern Europe - were closed to help pay for the extra investment required. Since then the government has agreed to boost World Service funding to £252m a year. Anchored from London and Cairo, it will draw on the corporation's network of more than 250 correspondents in 72 bureaux around the world. It will also have journalists throughout Europe, Canada, China and the US.

From the futuristic open-plan studios to the sharp suits worn by male and female anchors, the tone and visual grammar of the channel will be instantly recognisable to 24-hour news junkies.
Bulletins every half hour will be complemented by two editions of Newshour, an in-depth news analysis programme, at 6pm and 8pm.

The BBC has been signing up talent from rival broadcasters and reallocating its own staff for the past two years. Veteran broadcaster Hasan Muawad will take the inquisitor's chair for weekly show Fi as-Sameem, or To the Point, Hosam El Sokkari, head of BBC Arabic, will present a live weekly multimedia debate, while Open Agenda will explore a single issue in depth.

On potentially controversial decisions such as the screening of videos from al-Qaida, or footage of deceased British soldiers, Chapman said it would follow "exactly the same editorial values as any other part of the BBC".

He said he was reserving judgment on recent moves by the Arab League to draw up a new code of conduct for the media. He promised the channel would be "careful about religious sensitivities and cultural sensitivities without using that as a way of watering down the BBC's determination to do strong journalism which is fair to all parties".

Newspaper ABCes
Soaring online user figures offer solace - and challenges
Jemima Kiss
The Guardian,
Monday February 25 2008

Even given meteoric online readership trends, January's results from the ABCe are remarkable. The Mail Online's unique user numbers increased 165% year on year to 17,903,172. In the same period, Telegraph.co.uk increased 65% to 12,348,706; Sun Online grew to 13,322,535, up 40% from January 2007, and Times Online increased 39% to 15,087,130. Guardian.co.uk remained the highest traffic website with 19,708,711, a rise of 26% year on year.

Beyond the headline figures for the five newspaper websites that publish their monthly traffic data through the official industry auditor, however, the online data is characteristically complex. As much as the results will provide some comfort to newspaper executives watching their print sales ebb away, they also present a challenge to news organisations now publishing to a global audience.

Of the Mail's online audience, a staggering 72.3% - or 12.9 million users - are outside the UK. Those of both Sun Online and Times Online are around 62%, with the Guardian and Telegraph around 56%.

Most news sites have concentrated on their UK audience because that is where their commercial operations are focused and advertisers are comfortable. Few sites have established deals with localised advertising firms to roll out more relevant and valuable advertising, although Reuters last week started selling ads that will be seen by guardian.co.uk users in the US. Stephen Miron, managing director of the Mail on Sunday, said the majority of the Mail's overseas web traffic comes from the US.

"Clearly we think there is huge potential to monetise and explore the other side of the Atlantic, and we're analysing how we can do that," he said. "The UK does showbusiness and entertainment exceptionally well. We're more honest and don't have the same agenda as the US media."

Miron said that there hasn't been an "aggressive push" of the site's content, with no money spent on search engine marketing or stories designed to fit with the most popular search terms each day. Instead, he says, the site has pushed to the forefront without even trying to "put its foot flat to the floor".

Mail Online's dramatic traffic increase has intrigued the rest of the industry, who have watched its unique user figures accelerate since it started publishing its results through ABCe in August last year. The site's entertainment-led stories and celebrity picture galleries are driving much of the growth. Stories on the decline and occasional rise of Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears, along with the death of Heath Ledger, were big hitters, alongside the rest of the Mail's core Femail stories on Kate Moss, dieting and makeovers.

Sun Online has seen a similar sensation, with its video of Amy Winehouse allegedly smoking crack cocaine contributing to 9m video views last month. Sun Online's editor, Pete Picton, said the site's brief is to focus on the UK for the same reasons as the Mail - although last month, nearly 4 million people overseas viewed the site's showbusiness coverage alone.
Picton credits the site's showbiz editor Simon Rothstein with a big push on the stories that have international appeal. "The Sun should be on as many platforms as possible and, by the same token, theoretically, the Sun brand can be leveraged outside the UK. Showbiz is an area where lots of stories are global."

Online coverage from the Sun and Mail's sites competes with influential celebrity blogs such as PerezHilton.com and TMZ.com. Despite having the resources of a big news operation, it is still hard for the papers' sites to compete with the blogs' agility; TMZ reportedly has a team of 20 writers, while Sun Online has a full-time showbiz team of two. Does the site need to become more niche to compete with these sites? "The Sun is not about being niche," said Picton. "We go for the big stories that will be big traffic drivers."

For Times Online, Telegraph.co.uk and guardian.co.uk, many of those big stories have involved the US presidential primaries. As well as operating in the highly competitive UK newspaper market, sites are now competing with broadcasters, web video sites and blogs, and also with US news sites.

On Times Online, coverage of the presidential race has rarely been out of the site's top 10 stories. Editor-in-chief Anne Spackman said the site has seen those stories surge in both the US and the UK. "US readers come to us because we have cracking good stories, and we get those because we are so competitive with each other. That competitive climate means we get stories that no one else has. We also have that British voice that they respect."

Guardian.co.uk now has a Washington-based newsroom that allows the site to cover the elections round-the-clock, and, according to director of digital content Emily Bell, the site has the high-end readership of the New York Times in its sights.

The market for quality coverage is as strong as ever - but, despite strong growth in international user numbers, publishers have barely begun to expand the infrastructure of their businesses in a way that allows them to capitalise on this growth. With user numbers still far from saturation point, this is an issue that will only become more urgent.

Pakistan bans YouTube over anti-Islamic film clips
Associated Press
The Guardian,
Monday February 25 2008

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This article appeared in the Guardian on Monday February 25 2008 on p16 of the International section. It was last updated at 11:10 on February 25 2008.

Pakistan's government has banned access to the video-clip website YouTube because of anti-Islamic movies posted on the site, an official said yesterday.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority told the country's 70 internet service providers that the popular website would be blocked until further notice.

The authority did not specify what the offensive material was, but a PTA official said the ban concerned a trailer for an forthcoming film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders. The film portrays Islam as a fascist religion prone to inciting violence against women and homosexuals.

The unnamed official said the PTA had also blocked websites showing the controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The drawings were originally printed in European newspapers in 2006, but were reprinted by some papers last week.

The PTA urged internet users to write to YouTube and request the removal of the films, saying that the authorities would stop blocking the video-sharing site once that had happened.
Pakistan is not the only country to have blocked access to YouTube. In January, a Turkish court ordered the site to be blocked on account of video clips that allegedly broke the law by insulting the country's founding father, Kemal Ataturk.

Last spring the Thai government banned YouTube for four months because of clips regarded as offensive to the country's revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Moroccans were unable to access YouTube last year after users posted footage critical of Morocco's treatment of the people of Western Sahara.

Google shares fall to six-month low


Google: perceived by some as 'the next Microsoft' because of its monopoly of the search market. Photograph: AP
Google's share price has dropped below $500 (£254) for the first time in six months as investors grow concerned about increased competition from Microsoft's potential merger with Yahoo.
The hostile bid overshadowed Google's earnings statement last week, with investors focusing on profits that fell short of expectations despite a year-on-year rise of 40% for 2007 to $4.2bn.
Wider concerns about the US economy and a slowdown in advertising - which accounts for 99% of Google's revenue - had pushed the firm's share price down to $495 by the close of business in New York last night.
But the Gartner research vice-president, Andrew Frank, predicted that Google would remain market leader even if the Microsoft takeover of Yahoo - which would create a mass of online services known as a megacloud - went through.
"Microsoft views the megacloud business as part of its top-level strategic goals, but also likely realises that it is unlikely to ever top Google in advertising and search," Frank said.
"However, advertising and search are excellent potential cash flow generators. Microsoft must stay engaged in this area to diversify its revenue and limit Google's expansion.
"Microsoft must 'take the fight to Google's neighbourhood' while limiting the drain on Microsoft management," he added.
Google shares peaked at $741 in November and some analysts had speculated that the search engine giant was well on the way to eventually reaching $2,000 a share within 15 years.
Back in October, Henry Blodget on the Silicon Alley Insider blog said the company's growth would be strong as long as it "continues to eat the lunch of not only every major media company on earth but also the lunch of many technology companies".
Writing yesterday, Blodget said Google was perceived by some as "the next Microsoft" because of its monopoly of the search market.
"Google may not intentionally be exterminating competition with the same zeal that Microsoft once did, but it turns out that search is a natural monopoly.
"And Google's lifeline to Yahoo (in the form of an Eric Schmidt call to Jerry Yang) resembled not so much a gesture of Valley solidarity as a heavyweight wrestler momentarily taking his foot off a prostrate rival's throat."
· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.

Big Brother goes out with a whimper

Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack ended its low profile run on E4 with 644,000 viewers last night, January 28, eclipsed by Ross Kemp's increasingly popular series about British military operations in Afghanistan on Sky One.
The long-running reality show, shunted from Channel 4 to E4 after last year's racism row, captured a 3.1% share of viewing in multichannel homes between 8.30pm and 10.10pm, bringing the series to a subdued close, according to unofficial overnights.
By comparison, the final of Celebrity Big Brother scored 5.8 million viewers for Channel 4 in January 2007.
Last night's Celebrity Hijack live final - won by John Loughton, a 20-year-old politician from Edinburgh - also saw presenter Dermot O'Leary's last appearance on the show.
Celebrity Hijack brought E4 1.69 million viewers, the channel's highest audience to date for a homegrown programme, on its debut on January 3.
The show and its spin-offs, including Big Brother's Little Brother and Big Brother's Big Mouth, have dominated the E4 schedule over the past four weeks, but without the normal blanket tabloid coverage the reality show has had nothing like its usual impact.
Channel 4 decided to rest the format on its main channel after a race row erupted on the last series. The alleged bullying of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty and ensuing media uproar prompted Channel 4 to drop the show from its usual pole position in the channel's winter schedule.
Over on Sky One last night, Ross Kemp in Afghanistan continued to pull in viewers. The show won the 9pm hour with 1.1 million viewers and a 5.6% share of multichannel viewing.
The series, which sees the former EastEnders hardman travel to Helmand province to film military operations against the Taliban, debuted on Sky One with 941,000 viewers and a 4.6% share on Monday January 21.
Other good multichannel performers last night included feature film repeat Look Who's Talking on BBC3, which drew 622,000 viewers and a 3% multichannel share between 8.30pm and 10pm.

Who will win the news war?
Stephen Armstrong
Monday January 14, 2008
The Guardian

Tonight Sir Trevor McDonald storms out of retirement to bring back News at Ten on ITV, promising to "take the fight" to the BBC's Ten O'Clock News, much as Muhammad Ali predicted Larry Holmes would be "mine in nine" ahead of his 1980 comeback.

Both programmes offer Minority Report-style hi-tech graphics, giant video walls, glass-festooned studios, and weighty presenters. Sir Trevor is joined by Julie Etchingham from Sky News, while the Beeb offers Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce. The latter pair would clearly win in a real scrap, but otherwise there's little to choose between them.

News at Ten has only been away since 2004, so brand recognition is still strong. ITV is also promising to schedule one-hour dramas before the news (except on Fridays), to avoid frustrating movie bisection. The commercial broadcaster generally wins the 9pm ratings war, so should inherit a larger crowd.

Conversely, when the channels go head to head with World Cup games, royal deaths and global catastrophes, it's Auntie that the nation runs to. And yet last year a Guardian/ICM survey showed 60% of us trusted the BBC less after the phone-in scandals.


Adam Turner, broadcast director at media buying agency PHD, suspects the BBC will win on points - at least initially. "ITV messed up their news brand by moving it around so much, while the BBC still has great news heritage," he argues. "Having said that, we're not far off the time when everyone will have digital TV, offering 24-hour news channels, so this is more of a status battle between the broadcasters than a genuine public service."

Of course, the news audience is traditionally upmarket, demanding and engaged with the world. The Guardian readership, in other words. So really, the question is: which one are you going to watch?

This article is important because it is looking at two very important and well established media insitutions. ITV will be going into competition with BBC news, bbc have always had news at 10 itv introducing news at 10 again, with ITV you have many buyers trying to buy it and low viewer ratings. so it will be important to see which news at 10 audiences will watch.