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Seven out of 10 Scots continue to read newspapers, either on print or digital, at least three to four times a week, a telephone survey conducted by Ipsos MORI Scotland, also called the Scottish Public Opinion Monitor, has revealed, AllMediaScotland.com reported yesterday.
 
While the affluence of area in which people live does not affect newspaper readership, the supposed disinterest of young readers towards newspaper content has been overstated, according to AllMediaScotland.com. Despite lower income households being more likely to have less or no Internet access, 70 percent of low income residents reported reading newspaper content regularly. This is almost equal to the 73 percent in the country's most affluent areas.

UK publishing group Archant has stopped publishing two of its free titles, The Harlow Herald and East Herts Herald, and replaced them with a weekly "newszine" called Scene, MediaGuardian reported today.

The new publication will have four local editions for Harlow, Broxbourne, Hertford, Ware and Stortford, according to Press Gazette. The 55,000 copies will be mainly distributed door-to-door although paid-for-sales, free pick-up and hand distribution will also be available, HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk revealed.

Sport24.com, the French-language sports news site, is launching a free iPhone application that will stream live footage in an "innovative" format, Le Figaro reported Thursday.

The app will feature content in horizontal format, something which is not that common, according to Le Figaro. The format is reportedly popular following the launch of the iPad.

The latest addition to the list of potential buyers of French daily Le Parisien includes Serge Dassault, the owner of right-leaning Le Figaro, Le Monde reported yesterday. Other interested parties include prominent German publisher Axel Springer and UK-based Mecom.

Bolloré, the French publisher of free dailies Direct Matin and Direct Soir, said that it was looking at all the options on the table. President Vincent Bolloré (left) said on Wednesday that the possible acquisition was "interesting" but that it poses "a certain number of problems" for a firm like his, AFP said. He added that the daily had quality content, an important logistics base and views that did not contradict those of his dailies, according to Les Echos.

To celebrate the browser's second birthday, Google has released the sixth version of Chrome, The Inquirer reported today. The "new stable" Chrome 6 is "faster and more streamlined," Product Manager Brian Rakowski wrote in the company's blog.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, the new version is able to process Javascript three times faster. Google further boosted the minimalist user interface of its browser so it is more simple to use, as the two menus are combined into one, the buttons' location has been shifted, and the URL treatment has improved, as has the Omnibox address box and colour palette.

Full-size image via Google

Popular microblogging service Twitter announced the launch of a free iPad application late Wednesday night, The New York Times reported. Twitter for iPad will let users tap away messages on the 9.7 inch touchscreen while any related content (such as pictures, websites or videos) will be available in a separate window, according to MSNBC.

In a company blog post Leland Rechis, Twitter's user interface designer, stressed that Twitter for iPad makes use of the tablet's "fluid touch interface" so that users can move around information "smoothly and quickly" without the need for opening multiple windows or clicking buttons.

It is still unclear whether News International's paywall for The Times' and Sunday Times' is "working," as the paywall is just two months old, and the websites have not yet made statistics public.

In the Independent today, the tagline for Ian Burrell's article on Rupert Murdoch's much discussed paywall states: "advertisers don't like it. Analysts are unconvinced. The paywall at News International may not be winning many fans, but the man behind it is determined to keep it standing." But François Nel, director of the Journalism Leaders Programme at the University of Central Lancashire's School of Journalism, Media and Communication in the United Kingdom, and also an SFN research partner, crunched the numbers, and the result is that the paywalls may be doing better than most people think. A lot better.

UK free commuter daily Metro has entered into a video content deal with ITN to expand its online offerings, Journalism.co.uk reported yesterday.

Beginning today, Metro.co.uk is now offering its online readers with "up-to-the-minute" videos from ITN, spanning multiple genres that include UK news, world news, sports, showbiz, music, fashion and video gaming, DigitalSpy.co.uk reported

Apple has sold 120 million iPods, iPads and iPhones since 2007, when it launched its iOS operating system, chief executive Steve Jobs announced yesterday, paidContent revealed.

This represents an increase of 20 million in the last three months. Every day, the company is activating an average of 230,000 devices, Mashable reported. These numbers only include activations and not system upgrades, Jobs said.

Steve Jobs presented Apple's results during an event in San Francisco. Photo: paidContent