Trinity Mirror's freesheet turns paid

Trinity Mirror has relaunched its free Wales weekly and is now charging 80p per copy, Journalism.co.uk reported. With this change, all of Trinity Mirror's North Wales titles are now paid.

The Bangor Mail is trading in its part free, part paid model, which saw 81 percent of its print copies given away for free. It is now a fully paid-for title with a revamped website.

The weekly title has a strong readership and has been a consistently strong performer, Trinity Mirror stated, according to HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk.

The Holyhead & Anglesey Mail, the Bangor Mail's sister title, will also be redesigned and remain a paid title.

Facebook Comments elevate discussions on news websites

Linking a real name with each comment means less name-calling and insults on the discussion sections of news websites.

Using Facebook Comments puts a real name with each comment, which leads to a high quality discussion and more referrals for news organisations, Poynter reported today.

For example, the Los Angeles Times began using Facebook Comments on its blogs, but continued to use traditional commenting on its news articles. When comparing the two side-by-side, the blog comments were generally well-mannered and stayed on topic. The news comments sections, which allowed pseudonyms, were quite the opposite – even for the same topics covered in both the news and blogs sections.

Although Facebook Comments doesn't guarantee an environment completely free of name-calling and insults, putting real names with comments does mean Web staff have a lot less clean-up to do.

Reader's Digest makes in-app subscriptions available on iPad

Reader's Digest subscriptions are now available through the magazine's iPad app, at US$1.99 monthly or $14.99 yearly, GigaOM reported today.

Print subscribers also now have access to the magazine's digital version, so they don't have to pay twice to read on different platforms. However, free access for print subscribers will only last for six months, which means the magazine may be hoping to push readers onto digital platforms, which could be more cost-effective in the long term.

Readers requested in-app subscriptions, and the company expects “more Reader's Digest brands becoming available via iPad subscription – both in the U.S. and around the world,” said Dan Lagani, president of RD North America, according to paidContent.

Magazine publishers Conde Nast, Time Inc., Hearst and Meredith Corp. have all agreed to Apple's subscription plan. By the end of the year, Time Inc. plans to have all of its 21 titles available for download, making it the first major publisher to digitise its entire magazine portfolio, Folio Mag reported today.

Youku shares boost on report Tencent may be in talks to purchase stake

Youku.com Inc., the biggest video website in China, had gained the most in a week in New York trading, after Tencent Holdings Ltd. is reportedly to be in talks to buy a stake in the company, Bloomberg reported.

Youku’s shares rose 13 percent, the biggest advance since Aug. 11, to $27.01 Wednesday. Tencent’s shares were up 0.1 percent to HK$180.00 at the close of trading in Hong Kong Thursday.

Youku is “in talks with industry players all the time for strategic moves or partnerships,” according to Jean Shao, a company spokeswoman, in a telephone interview Thursday. She refused to comment on if the company talks with Tencent, as did Jane Yip, a spokeswoman for Tencent.

According to Chinese website Phoenix Tech Wednesday, Tencent was in talks to buy a stake in Youku and for Youku to manage Tencent’s online video unit. The report only cited “reliable sources” but didn’t identify.

Image: Keith Bedford/Bloomberg

Study: Facebook activities drop in mature markets

Though Facebook still dominates the social networking market, a new research, GlobalWebIndex, by Trendstream, found in some of the site’s biggest markets, including U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, the usage for activities, such as status updates, sharing content, messaging and installing apps, has plunged sharply declines, Media Post reported.

"Time has wearied users of Facebook," said GWI, while total worldwide usage continues to increase, thanks to the emerging markets.

The study interviewed about 100,000 individuals in 27 markets in June and July.

According to the study, In U.S., the proportion of users messaging friends on Facebook was down 15 percent in July compared to the previous month, while that of "joining a group" activity dropped 10 percent. "The trend is even more pronounced among U.S. college educated 20somethings, the original users of the platform," the report added.

By contrast, total active usage of all social network sites has boosted significantly worldwide across all age groups. For example, usage was up 26 percent among group ages 16 to 24 and up 35 percent among those ages 35 to 44.

In general, emerging markets such as Malaysia and Indonesia are the driving forces for the growth of social networks, while users in more mature markets, including U.S. and the U.K. are shifting focus on e-commerce. Some markets, such as Singapore and Turkey, have both activities significantly popular, but tend to skew slightly one way or the other, Media Post reported.

Image: GlobalWebIndex

Report: Interactive ads boost brands

Digital ads with more interactivity are good for business, new research has found.

Readers perceive brands with more interactive digital ads, such as those with photo galleries, sponsored videos and 3D product views, as being more “innovative,” research from Affinity's VISTA Digital Service has found.

Eighty-eight percent of readers said they enjoy the experience of an interactive ad with video more, and 89 percent said they believe the advertiser is “innovative” for incorporating the video into their ad, according to the service, which measures ad effectiveness on iPad apps and other mobile platforms.

Of readers viewing photo galleries through a digital magazine ad, 88 percent said they are able to learn more about the product, and almost nine out of 10 said the brand is innovative. Meanwhile, 92 percent said experiencing a 3D view of a product enhances their overall magazine reading experience, and the same percentage consider brands using 3D views to be innovators.

Image: eurotuner

Vid.ly: Capitalising on mobile video

As video-watching becomes increasingly popular on mobile devices, video encoding and URL shortening service Vid.ly executives hope the service will provide video publishers with enough value that they will be willing to pay for it, Giga Om reported today.

Vid.ly allows publishers to upload a single source file, which is then transcoded into 25 video renditioned and given an unique, shortened Vid.ly URL. Then, the correct file is served up to the individual user, based on the device she is using and the network bandwidth available.

Numbers from Vid.ly seem to indicate that although Android is the biggest mobile operating system, iPhone users enjoy videos much more often.

Since its launch in January, Vid.ly has served 5 million videos. Of those, 62.5 percent were watched on iPhones, while 23.98 percent were watched on Android phones, according to Vid.ly.

Users watched 11.12 percent on Blackberries, and 2.38 percent were watched on iPads, said Vid.ly founder Jeff Malkin, according to paidContent.

Study: Consumers know when they're being targeted by behavioural ads

Increasingly digitally savvy consumers know when advertisers are targeting their behaviour, and understand the basics of the practice, research from Harris Interactive shows, eMarketer reported yesterday.

U.S. Internet users have noticed ad relevancy increasing over the past few years; however, they don't see most online display ads as being relevant to them. Still, those who say at least a quarter of display ads are relevant has been increasing since 2008.

Internet users are also learning the lingo: 30 percent said they are aware of what “do not track” means; 84 percent are aware of the term “Internet cookies;” 66 percent recognise the term “interest-based advertising;” and 65 percent recognise “online tracking, according to eMarketer.

Image: eMarketer