The Swedish government intends to eradicate the press advertising tax amidst claims that it is “unfair” and “ideologically wrong”, reported the European Journalism Centre last Monday.

"Advertising is part of a company's marketing, which is a central and healthy part of a market economy - nothing that should be subject to penal taxes," said Culture Minister Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth.

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Over one year after being launched, French online-only news site Rue89 increased its capital by acquiring new investors, such as Verdoso Media and Hi-Media.

This venture may allow Rue89 to evolve and to proceed with its status as an independent news agency, according to the company's press release.

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Text-messaging is the most important feature U.S. mobile users are looking for while buying a new handset, according to a new study conducted by Amplitude Research on behalf of Access Systems Americas, Media Post reported Thursday.

About three quarters of mobile phone subscribers surveyed said text-messaging is the most critical among other 18 mobile features. Mobile camera was ranked on the second with 67 percent, followed by e-mail (63 percent) and online access (61 percent).

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The Los Angeles Times Wednesday announced its plan to cut 250 jobs across the company, including 150 editorial positions, or 17 percent of newsroom jobs. According to the newspaper’s Web site, the move is "a new effort to bring expenses into line with declining revenue. In a further cost-cutting step, the paper will reduce the number of pages it publishes each week by 15 percent," Editor and Publisher reported.

"You all know the paradox we find ourselves in. Thanks to the Internet, we have more readers for our great journalism than at any time in our history. But also thanks to the Internet, our advertisers have more choices, and we have less money," according to Times Editor Russ Stanton in a memo to the staff.

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Magazine publishing has taken a leap towards the future with the beta launch of MagCloud, a print-on-demand service. MagCloud’s method will help improve control and revenue in the field of magazine publishing, Folio Mag reported.

MagCloud lets users upload PDF pages and takes care of everything else like printing, mailing and subscription. Derek Powazek and HP Labs developed the software.

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Newspaper readership in South Korea is down, due to competition from the Internet and television, the Korea Press Foundation has announced, Monsters & Critics reported.

Three or four out of every 10 adults surveyed between May 3 and June 9 said they were newspaper subscribers, compared to seven out of every 10 saying they were regular newspaper readers in 1996, the KPF said Monday.

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Fairfax Digital (FD) announced Wednesday that it will be selling eBay.com.au’s online display advertising, which may nearly double Fairfax’s page impressions and unique online users.

“This agreement means greater opportunity for advertisers to leverage eBay’s significantly higher than industry average click through rate and highly engaged audience, with each user spending an average of almost two hours per month on the site,” said eBay Vice President Simon Smith.

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American newspaper companies are dealing with debt and loss of market share value with job layoffs and other cost-cutting solutions, a trend brought on by continued losses in earnings and weak investor confidence.

As Alan D. Mutter wrote in his Newsosaur blog, the general trend for newspapers is declining market value.

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Online media and technology, and marketing and interactive, were the two bright spots in the overall cloudy media M&A market for the first half this year, according to a review by Jordan Edmiston Group, Folio reported.

The number of M&A transactions in the media, information, marketing services and related industries reached 404 during the first six months of 2008, up 1.8 percent from 397 during the same period in 2007. However, deal values totalled US$23.2 billion, plummeting 64.8 percent from $65.8 billion last year.

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According to a new study, "How People Use® the Video Marketplace," released by Knowledge Networks, the traditional forms of video, especially DVDs, still dominate the video rental market, Media Post reported.

"While consumers are indeed turning to new video technologies, such as online streaming and mobile video, most of their video-related spending continues to be on conventional sources such as DVD rentals and purchases," Knowledge Networks stated in the new report.

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About three quarters of Canadians ages 16 and older went online for personal reasons during the 12 months ending in June 2008. These figures are up from just over two-thirds one year prior, according to the "Canadian Internet Use Survey," conducted by Statistics Canada, eMarketer reported.

Personal Web use in Canada rose five percent between 2005 and 2007.

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The E.W. Scripps Co. on Tuesday officially divided into two companies, one company running newspapers local television stations and the other operating online businesses and cable TV channels, the New Mexico Business Weekly reported.

The online and cable unit is now known as Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., and the newspaper, local TV, licensing and syndication unit will continue under the E.W. Scripps name and its current stock symbol, SSP, on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Two MPs have attacked Fairfax Media's plans to centralise part of its New Zealand newspaper sub-editing into hubs that would edit world, features and business pages, saying the move will devalue regional coverage, The Dominion Post reported Wednesday.

The hubs would be in Wellington and Christchurch, and would create as many as 40 redundancies, according to Fairfax's announcement Monday. Fairfax publishes The Dominion Post.

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Star Tribune Co. has not made regular quarterly payments to some debt holders, and a quarterly interest payment due Monday on US$96 million in second-tier debt was not made, which puts the company in default on that debt, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

However, other debt was paid, with the company's chief executive stating in an interview with the Star Tribune that a lending group holding senior debt of almost $400 million was paid Monday, according to the newspaper's Monday report.

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The Korea Communications Commission has cleared the way for Web-based television to launch later this year, following a four-year delay, The Korea Herald reported Saturday.

The KCC has finalised ordinances of the new IPTV (Internet protocol television) law, which will make available IPTV unrestricted services.

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