Weekly news round-up: Tablets and mobiles

Tablets are in the news daily, but this week saw a first: a newspaper company planning to launch its own tablet device.

On Tuesday reports surfaced that U.S. publisher and television station-owner Tribune Co. is developing a touchscreen tablet device that it will offer to newspaper subscribers.

The tablet will likely run on a version of Google's Android operating system and feature software for the owner's hometown newspaper, current. Tribune is expected to offer the tablet for free or at a small cost to people who sign up for extended subscriptions of one of its newspapers.

Also in the tablet space, a study was released by Gfk MRI's Starch Advertising Research showing that tablets appear to be a more effective ad platform than e-readers for magazine brands. In general, 55 percent of people who read magazines on tablets said they "noted" a magazine ad displayed on their devices. The figure among those with e-readers was 41 percent, compared to 53 percent among those who read hard copy magazine ads in 2010.

In addition, magazine ads on tablets tend to drive more engagement than e-readers, the study found. Among the group who "noted" a magazine ad on a tablet, 26 percent said they had a better perception of the advertiser than before, versus 19 percent for e-readers.

On the mobile front, a survey released Wednesday announced it had found that location-based advertising isn't as important on mobiles as previously thought. Rather, people seem to be more interested in mobile ads that are personalised. Mobile ads and offers that target users by their interests and tastes were viewed as more effective, according to the survey of more than 2,000 adults in the United States, conducted by Luth Research for mobile marketing company Upstream.

Personalised offers were ranked at 59 percent, whereas location was ranked at 8 percent by feature phone users. Meanwhile, 60 percent of smartphone users said they preferred personalised offers, and 14 percent chose location.

Facebook launches zip code targeting

Facebook launched zip code targeting Wednesday, which would bring special value for local advertisers as well as political advertisers who look to reach specific districts, according to the announcement on Inside Facebook, ClickZ reported.

“Advertisers can now target ads including Sponsored Story campaigns down to the zip code level throughout the U.S,” according to a Facebook spokesperson. They could only target geographically to cities, states, and provinces before, but can target individual ads to up to 2,500 zip codes.

Zip code targeting has been used long by direct marketers, which enable them to select specific demographics in areas within cities. Starting from next week, as long as Facebook users have put their zip code in their profile information, advertisers can utilise that data, Biz Report reported.

"Targeting via ZIP codes brings about location targeting functionality to 5-digit ZIP codes within the United States, specified by the United States Postal Service (USPS), and opens up another avenue for advertisers to market to their desired audience," Facebook's developers blog noted.

Image: Inside Facebook

Mirror Group to charge for some content

UK publisher Mirror Group will begin charging for some content in the autumn, in hopes of stemming dropping digital revenue, paidContent reported today.

Mirror Group Digital's revenue is down due users leaving MirrorBingo, a main source of revenue, for other bingo sites. However, the publisher's overall audience for its digital content is up 28 percent, to 14 million, over the year ending in June.

Mirror Group's newspaper arm, Trinity Mirror, is benefiting from News International's troubles, the Financial Times reported.

“In the four weeks since the News of the World closure, the Sunday Mirror increased its circulation 71 per cent year-on-year, reflecting an increase in market share from 27 percent to 47 percent. This helped the group report 4 percent growth in July national circulation revenues, helping offset a 15 percent decline in national advertising,” Numis analyst Lorna Tilbian told the FT.

Google+ adds games

Google+ will be adding games, keeping up with Facebook as it aims to make a spot for itself in the social media landscape.

However, unlike Facebook, games will be kept in another section and “won't clutter the streams of those who aren't as enthusiastic,” Google announced today in a blog post.

The new social network will offer games such as Angry Birds, Zombie Lane, Sudoku, Bejeweled Blitz and more. Users will be able to access games through a “games” option at the top of their Google+ streams.

Of course, Google+ isn't offering games just to be nice. The growing social network wants user data in return, PC Mag pointed out. To play, users must gave the app permission to view certain personal information, including the user's e-mail address, and even a list of people in their Circles.

Google+ now has about 25 million users.

Study: Sunday papers still the primary source for coupons

Even though the newspaper industry is facing challenges, people are still turning to the Sunday editions for coupons, Media Post reported.

According to Scarborough Research, coupon usage for household items, such as groceries, increased 24 percent since 2006. Although 22 percent of these coupon users get coupons on digital media, including email, text messaging and the Internet, Sunday newspaper inserts is still the primary channels, (49 percent), followed by in-store coupons (43 percent), direct mailings (33 percent) and in-store circulars (26 percent).

"If you look at FSI's, they've been the dominant source of coupons for a long time. To chip away at a share of that is [hard] because it's such a large base," said Brian Condon, executive vice president for commercial development for Scarborough, to Marketing Daily.

In addition, the electronic coupon users, whom Scarborough calls "Digital Deal Seekers" (defined as adults who live in households that usually obtain cents-off coupons through email, text messaging or Internet sites or those who went online for coupons in the past month), tend to patronize local businesses than average adults. This can be partially attributed to the "Groupon effect,” Media Post reported.

"What we found was that the people who fit into this category were more active shoppers and supporters of local businesses," Condon added. "Plus, people that are redeeming coupons are people who are active shoppers and have an intention to use coupons."

Image: skeeter_turkey via flickr

Australian newspaper readership rising

Newspaper readership is up 0.8 percent on weekdays and 0.3 percent on Saturdays in Australia, while the number of copies sold is down, The Sydney Morning Herald reported today.

The Age saw readership increase by 4.6 percent, The Australian financial Review by 5.8 percent and The Australian by 0.7 percent, Roy Morgan Research data shows. However, readership of The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, The Weekend Australian and The Sun-Herald all saw declines.

However, the audit does not count newspaper apps on smartphones and tablets, which “boost the real circulation of newspapers,” Newspaper Works chief executive Tony Hale pointed out, according to The Australian.

Audit Bureau of Circulations data shows print sales down, decreasing 4.2 percent in June compared with the same period last year, The SMH noted.

Image: Valeran Lothaniel's flickr photostream

Study: China will exceed Japan in media spending this year

Advertising in China is catching up and will become the world’s second largest advertising market by the end of this year, according to a new study by eMarketer.

In 2010, Japan was on the second spot with total media ad spending of $34 billion. But due to an only 0.4-percent growth in spending last year, as well as the effect of the tsunami and continuous economic difficulties, the ad spending will drop 3.7 percent to $32.7 billion this year, eMarketer estimated.

Meanwhile, China will see its spending up 14 percent to $38.3 billion. The U.S., however, will still be the world’s leading country, with total media ad spending projected at $157.4 billion in 2011.

“One key reason for Asia-Pacific’s growth in ad spending is that the region’s two most populous countries—India and China—also boast two of the world’s fastest-growing economies,” according to Kris Oser, eMarketer director of strategic communications and author of the report, “Worldwide Ad Spending: Online Drives Growth.”

“In 2010, China surpassed Japan as the world’s second-biggest economy. And this year marks another major milestone for the country,” Oser added.

Online is an area China is still catching up. According to eMarketer’s estimates, Chinese advertisers this year will spend $4.6 billion on digital, far behind Japan’s $7.2 billion. However, by 2014, the two countries will be even at $9.5 billion, and China will win out in the following year and become the biggest online ad market in Asia Pacific.

Image: eMarketer

Magazines see mixed sales results in 2011

The first half of the year has been big on news, but different news magazines have seen different results.

Time magazine, the top news weekly in the United States, watched newsstand sales rise by 16 percent  and circulation increase almost 2 percent over the period, The New York Times reported. Meanwhile, Newsweek's circulation dropped by 5 percent, but single sales increased almost 3 percent.

However, the magazines with the biggest circulations aren't necessarily news magazines. The most circulated magazines in the United States includes O, The Oprah Magazine, at 2.46 million; AAA Living (2.47 million), Maxim (2.5 million), American Legion (2.3 million), Southern Living (2.8 million), and Prevention (2.9 million), among others, according to the Huffington Post.

Overall, single-copy sales of U.S. magazines were down 9 percent in the period, The Associated Press reported. However, overall circulation was down only 1 percent.