The Philadelphia Inquirer has launched a new bimonthly “luxury and lifestyle” glossy magazine for the wealthy, bundled into 115,000 newspapers distributed to home delivery customers living in affluent postal code areas, the Associated Press reported.

The 56-page magazine, called I, is similar to The New York Times' T magazine and The Wall Street Journal's WSJ., and will be distributed six times each year. It will include subjects such as social events, dining, home decoration and fashion.

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Free dailies located in southern European countries usually close down for the summer holidays, and free dailies in Switzerland are now considering doing the same, Newspaper Innovation reported Friday.

Located between the North and South, the country's free dailies Le Matin Bleu (published in the French speaking part of the country) and .ch (published in the German speaking part), are considering closing in the summer time as well.

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Harbinger Capital Partners Master Fund holds a 19.3 percent stake in The New York Times Co., and over the summer placed even more bets that the company's stock would go up; however, as Times Co. stock has dropped by about 50 percent, Harbinger is pulling away from a number of those bets, Editor & Publisher reported Wednesday.

Harbinger bet on the changing price of millions of Times Co. shares, making about 30 “equity swaps” with a brokerage firm in London that specialises in derivatives, E&P reported. Harbinger predicted in a “long” position that the prices would rise, and expected to collect the difference when the swap concluded. However, if the price goes down, as is currently the case, Harbinger would pay out the difference.

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The Daily Mail & General Trust's full-year profit fell 9 percent after advertising expenditure at its UK national Associated Newspaper division dropped 10 percent in October, the Cumbrian Business Gazette reported Thursday.

DMGT is looking to save £100 million in its national and regional newspaper divisions to combat sinking ad revenues, and has already cut 400 jobs in the past two months, the Daily Telegraph reported. Media outlets in Europe and North America have been hit hard as businesses have tightened their belts and cut advertising spending.

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Media General Inc. Thursday announced its October revenues dropped 5.8 percent because the continuous publishing ad sales downturn offset the increasing revenues of interactive and political advertising, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

This group, which has newspaper and television operations, reported revenue for the period ended Nov. 2 declined from US$91.2 million to $85.9 million.

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UK regional newspaper publisher Johnston Press saw its share price go down again Wednesday, following a 20 percent drop Tuesday, allmediascotland.com reported Thursday.

Johnston Press publishes newspapers across the United Kingdom and Ireland, including The Scotsman, Evening Telegraph and The (Sheffield) Star.

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Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said his company has “moved on” and is no longer interested in buying Yahoo, pointing out that the focus is now on an Internet search agreement between the two firms, Reuters reporters Wednesday.

Following Ballmer’s announcement, Microsoft shares dropped by 3 percent to US$18.99 while Yahoo’s plunged by 19 per cent to $9.38. Earlier this week, Yahoo shares were up due to speculation that Microsoft may once again offer a bid for Yahoo after the firm’s Chief Executive Jerry Yang divulged the possibility of departing.

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The new voice-activated Google Mobile application for the iPhone is now available, CNet reported Monday.

The search application is able to execute a Google search based on voices, and uses the phone's location data to narrow results. For example, if a user tries to search a sushi restaurant, he can just say “sushi” and will get the closest sushi restaurants at the top of the search results. The application, CNet reports, is “freakishly accurate.”

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Ziff Davis Media will close the print edition of flagship PC Magazine with its January issue, following which it will be an all-digital brand, available at PCMag.com, MediaWeek reported Wednesday.

Due to the closing, seven print production staffers will be leaving, and print subscribers will be given a digital version of the printed magazine, according to the company.

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As the U.S. newspaper industry has struggled to cope with the advertising market downturn, circulation slumps and migration of print readers to online, publishers are increasingly looking at offshoring work to India as a way to cut costs, in addition to other cost-cutting measures, such as reducing staff and streamlining production and resources, a new report by Research and Markets shows.

“This trend is set to gain traction in the next few years,” the summary of “Offshoring by U.S. Newspaper Publishers” report states.

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Due to the worldwide appeal of Japanese pop music and video games, MySpace said it will increase the number of artists by more than double on its Japanese pages to get more clicks globally, Reuters reported Monday.

New sign-ups and page views are slowing in Japan, where people are opting for rival networking services such as mixi Inc. MySpace Japan, which launched two years ago, however, plans to buck the trend by expanding the number of sales artists can make on its site.

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The Internet and new technologies will only boost the newspaper industry to “new highs in the 21st century,” and will provide new opportunities rather than hurt newspapers, Chairman and Chief Executive of News Corporation Rupert Murdoch said in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio address on Sunday.

“Among our journalistic friends are some misguided cynics who are too busy writing their own obituary to be excited by the opportunity,” he said, according to ABC Radio National.

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Television viewership in the top four networks in the United States is slowing, the latest Nielsen Media Research data shows, Media Week reported Thursday.

Although its numbers are down, CBS won out in the U.S. network battle as the most-watched network between Oct. 30 and Nov. 12 (known as the sweeps period) with 11.33 million viewers, 470,000 more viewers than second-place ABC, according to Nielsen Media Research data. ABC has 10.86 million viewers, while NBC has 8.11 million. In fourth place is News Corp.-owned Fox, with 6.72 million.

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Computer giant Microsoft has thrown its hat into the social networking ring with the release of new Windows Live applications. There is a "race to simplify the Web," Windows Live General Manager Brian Hall told the San Jose Mercury News on Thursday.

Microsoft's latest offering will help it compete with Facebook and MySpace, while previous applications like Hotmail, Web storage tool SkyDrive, the Calendar, Messenger and social network Spaces will continue to be available. However, users will now be able to personalise home.live.com to adapt to individual choices. Hotmail and Messenger have been revamped, Hall said.

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Daniil Kupsin, owner of Russian business radio station Business FM, announced that he will launch an online business news source, RIA Novosti reported Thursday.

Bfm.ru will be run by Russian Internet journalist Anton Nosik and will feature nearly 30 reporters. Acceding to Nosik, the outlet’s users will have the chance to customise the site to match their interests and to add or delete parts of the site depending on content they wish to view. In addition, users can adjust the setting to receive news from other online sources.

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