The Times and the Sunday Times in the UK will begin to lead separate online lives in May and they will charge for their services, £1 for a day and £2 for a week, in an effort to make news production economically viable. “The move opens a new front in the battle for readership and will be watched closely by the industry,” reports the BBC. The new policy starts in June. UK news media, like those in the US, have seen dramatic falls in advertising revenue and in September 2009 the UK became the first major economy to spend more on Internet than on TV ads.
US newspapers announced this week that their advertising revenue fell by 27 percent in 2009, making it the worst year for the industry since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two of the three unions representing workers at Edipresse, French-speaking Switzerland’s largest media group, have told the company to start serious negotiations about the conditions for layoffs or face possible industrial action.
The unions representing the print and the technical workers rejected the company’s layoff terms, Wednesday 28 October, and demanded “serious negotiations”. The company has until noon 2 November to respond. An agreement had been reached with Impressum, the union representing journalists, but the print and production workers are reluctant to accept the terms of the layoffs.
