Polish Polskapresse, which publishes 9 regional daily newspapers, generated a net profit of 12,8 million PLN (about 3,1 million EUR) in 2004 and is said to do even better this year reports the Warsaw Business Journal. This follows a loss of 17,3 million PLN (approx. 4,2 million EUR) in 2003.

This success was possible by lowering costs mainly through merging titles. "The financial result is an outcome of good investments, management and marketing policies," says Dorota Stanek, Polskapresse president in the Warsaw Business Journal.

Source: Warsaw Business Journal,  

The Los Angeles Times reports that the American government has been planting stories in the Iraqi press that promote the idea of Iraqi democracy and self-rule. The American government adopted this strategy in Iraq despite it having been declared illegal in the United States in the spring of 2005 and having spent millions of dollars to properly train Iraqi journalists in freedom of the press.

The Pentagon hired the Lincoln Group, a public relations firm, to translate articles from the American military into Arabic and transmit them to Iraqi publications and advertising agencies. Occassionaly, articles were taken from other publications translated verbatim without proper sourcing.

During the winter of 2005, it was revealed that the Bush administration had been selling government "news" broadcasts to television stations without making it clear that the messages had come from the government. This practice was declared illegal.

It was also found that the government was paying journalists to speak favorably of government programs.

In Iraq, the government via the Lincoln Group, has also been paying about 12 Iraqi journalists who had not spoken out against the occupation.

At a time when the aging Chilean ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet is under house arrest for what looks to be the rest of his life, one crime committed during his stranglehold on the country is affecting the nation's most recognized newspaper. El Mercurio and its tabloid sister La Segunda have been asked to apologize over political cartoons depicting the crime.

The brother of, Lumi Videla, a woman killed in a what appeared to be a political motivated assassination, has asked that the papers apology for satirical cartoons that were printed in 1974. One cartoon depicted a human canon ball being shot behind the walls of an embassy. Another cartoon shows a worker discreetly sweeping human remains out the door of the Italian embassy.

Refugees escaping Pinochet's rule fled to embassies and Videla's body was left outside of the Italian embassy.

Source: La Nacion (in Spanish)

According to Mediapost, "Weather.com's decision earlier this month to start running advertorials for Scott's fertilizer--a first for that site--evidences the growing trend of online content paid for by sponsors, say online media experts. And while the watchdogs say there's nothing inherently wrong with advertorials, they stress that publishers should clarify that the content is paid for. Without such disclaimers, they say, consumers will eventually lose confidence in the Web as a source of information... The Scott's advertorial on Weather.com has not yet launched, says a company spokeswoman, so it's unclear how the site plans to handle any disclaimers. Although Weather.com has no corresponding print presence, experts say they consider it a journalistic site because it performs the traditionally journalistic tasks of collecting and analyzing information."

Source: Mediapost