A report by Marin Software showed that the updated version of Google’s search page Google Instant has led to a 9% increase in overall impressions for paid search ads. Further, the report showed a 5% growth in clicks on search results. Ed Stevenson, European managing director, said: “Google has won with a two per cent increase in revenues, whilst advertisers and agencies have won with higher volumes and a reduction in CPCs, so it is a win-win situation.”

Tagged: brand media

Yahoo has adopted ‘Priority Inbox' functionality, enabling its 279 million users to have greater control over email viewing. The service, which was originally launched by Google in August, is expected to offer marketers with the opportunities to help relationship building. However, it is reported that the function creates challenges as messages can easily be trashed. Simon Robinson, Marketing and Alliances Director, EMEA, said: "This is good news for marketers as priority inboxes have the potential to improve the reputation of direct mail by encouraging marketers to use permission and preferences more effectively."

Tagged: brand media

News International's chief marketing officer Katie Vanneck has reported that its websites The Times and Sunday Times have shown an increase in online access, following the erection of paywall on the sites. Domestic monthly unique browsers for the times.co.uk increased to 75%, compared with 35% browsers recorded by ABC audit in February. Further, it is reported that the frequency with which users are accessing News International’s online content has increased from an average of once every two weeks, to three times a week, representing a six-fold rise. Katie Vanneck said: "Within four months, we’ve seen a 40% growth in our subscriber numbers if you look at our total multichannel reach of subscriptions." She further added: “We’ve got over 200,000 subscriptions across all our different channels… For the iPad, which is probably more intuitive for a digital-reading experience than a browser- based experience, we’re seeing 74% of all subscribers coming once a day or more".

Tagged: brand media

A survey by Hotwire and Institute of Ideas involving 164 people in the financial services sector found financial services professionals expressing a need to restore the confidence of the general public in the sector. The study showed 60% of respondents believing that regulation would not restore ‘confidence’ and ‘pride’ in the UK banking industry, while only 3% believed financial services companies had done a good job in communicating their responsibilities to shareholders and customers. The study found 58% responders identifying corporate communications as a key aspect to uphold the reputation of the sector while 34% indicated increased transparency as the key aspect.

Tagged: brand media, finance investment

An annual mobile survey by Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) and ABC Interactive (ABCi) has highlighted the extensive developments taking place in the market. The survey showed 87% of respondents saying that mobile had received more attention at their publications, while 65% publishers believed that digital delivery of their publication was important to their strategic future, as against 55% last year. 63% of respondents believed that e-readers would become “vital” distribution channels for their publication. The survey also found ABC’s publisher members experimenting with charging for mobile content. 43% of consumer magazines said they currently charged for mobile apps, followed by 39%of business publications and 21% of newspapers. Mobile continues to drive website traffic, according to the survey. 75% of respondents believe that mobile will be responsible for a five to 50% rise in their website traffic in the next two years.

Tagged: brand media

ABCe figures for September showed that Mail Online was the most visited national newspaper website for the month, drawing an average of 2,670,371 daily browsers, reported Press Gazette. The website’s audience increased 4.62% from 2,552,511 visitors a month ago, while its year-over-year visitor grew 50.6%. Additionally the website has posted the highest total number of global daily browsers of 46.9 million through the month. The Guardian website was second with an average of 2,038,493 browsers for the month, an increase of 4.99% month-on-month and a rise of 16.15% year-on-year. Independent’s website saw a 12.86% rise on its July figures with 553,593 daily browsers, up 37.03% from the corresponding period a year ago. Mirror Group Digital recorded a 5.26% month-on-month increase in the number of average daily browsers to 525, 914, a 22.95% rise year-over-year. Daily Telegraph’s website was the only site to have experienced decline on August by 0.68% with an average of 1,669,773 visitors each day in September. It remained the third most visited national newspaper website. Online visitors to this website grew 2.69% year-on-year.

Tagged: brand media

The Financial Times is offering online payment service PayPal, for FT.com's new subscriptions. The development is aimed at making payments easier for users wanting to subscribe. PayPal will also be used for the newly launched FT Press Cuttings tool. PayPal is looking to expand by offering new payment solutions for media publishers.

Tagged: brand media

The Times and Sunday Times websites have lost around 88% of their online visitors in the UK after paywall was introduced, according to Nielsen. The traffic fell from 3.1 million in Q2 2010 to 1.78 million, three months after the paywall. The average number of unique users going behind the paywall in Q3 was 362,000. The study further suggests that only one in five visitors accessed paid content.

Tagged: brand media

Daily Mirror is to erect paywall for its readers under a similar move by competitor, News International. Parent group, Trinity Mirror, will be finalising the contents within various categories to be put behind paywall in due course of the year. However Daily Mirror's general news will continue to remain free. Managing director at Trinity Mirror's nationals division, Mark Hollinshead said: "Our view is that people will not pay for ubiquitous content that is free elsewhere. But there may be a willingness to pay for unique, high-value content."

Tagged: brand media

The National Union of Journalists, NUJ, has criticised the government’s plans to reduce the budget for the BBC World Service effective next year, under its comprehensive spending review, reported Press Gazette. The union expects cuts between 25 to 40% on an annual budget close to £300m, and other measures may include service closures and redundancies in both the UK and across the globe. In another development, the Guardian has reported that the BBC is facing an overall cut of £556m to its annual licence fee income of £3.7bn, as it is being forced to fund the cost of free TV licences for the over-75s. NUJ General Secretary, Jeremy Dear, said: “The World Service is a vital source of quality journalism; people all over the world rely on the BBC to tell them the truth in times of crisis. If the Government slashes these essential services they will land a blow on objective news reporting and undermine Britain’s international reputation.”

Tagged: brand media