In particular, brands saw their highest video engagement when referred by Yahoo, although referrals from Facebook and Twitter registered the highest engagement rates across all media categories. Increased engagement rates were noted across all categories.

Broadcasters streamed 1.7 billion minutes, the most of any media category, while content uploaded by newspapers jumped 147% quarter over quarter.

Online ad spend increased by 13.9% to $25.8 billion in 2010, while spend on print advertising for newspapers rolls in at $22.8. Total print and online ad spend on newspapers comes in at $25.7 billion, falling 6.6% from $27.6 billion in 2009.

The 8.2% decline in newspapers’ print ad spend is not nearly as precipitous as the slide witnessed the previous few years: a 9.4% drop from 2006 to 2007; a 17.7% decline between 2007 and 2008; and a 28.6% plummet between 2008 and 2009. Still, print ad spend is less than half what it was in 2005 — $47.4 billion versus $22.8 billion this year. Online ad spend hasn’t picked up the slack in the least bit, topping out at $3.2 billion in 2007.

For 2011, eMarketer estimates online ad spend will grow to $28.5 billion, while newspapers’ print ad spend alone will fall another 6% to $21.4 billion. Online and print ad spend for newspapers in 2011 is predicted to drop to $24.6 billion, but online newspaper revenue will grow 8.6% to $3.2 billion.

Beyond the headline-grabbing loss of $37 million for the quarter, it should be noted that online ad revenue slipped 8.2% year over year. Okay, maybe that doesn’t sound so great, but it’s a lot better than second quarter’s drop of 15.5%. In other words, it seems we’ve seen the bottom of the canyon and we’re making our way back up.

But the real promising news bolsters a trend that appeared in Gannett and McClatchy’s earning reports — online advertising makes up a larger portion (23.5%) of total ad revenue than the year before (18.6%). Despite sharp print ad losses, Gannett and McClatchy noted a healthier online ad environment. Add to that The Wall Street Journal Office Network — a service that combines the Journal online with stock updates and scrolling news — reports that ad revenue is up 100%.

It would seem that advertisers are forgoing the old gray lady and her print brethren for their sexier digital grandchildren. Some of this may be the result of a faster recovery in online advertising, but the environment seems to be pointing to a sea change favoring Internet advertising over most other mediums.

Through its relationship with Microsoft, Advance Internet’s sales force will be able to offer Behavioral Targeting and Audience Extension capabilities to its local advertisers on the Microsoft Media Network.

“We have the number one local news and information sites in each of our markets,” Peter Weinberger, president of Advance Internet, said in a statement. “According to Media Audit, five of our sites rank in the top 10 of newspaper affiliated sites based on local penetration of adults 18+. Now through our agreement with Microsoft, we will be able to serve our advertisers with even better online marketing solutions.”

Advance Internet will become a certified reseller of the Microsoft Media Network, offering local advertisers access to 76% of the online adult population. The alliance with Microsoft allows Advance Internet to significantly increase its reach in all of its local markets. Advance Internet will also be implementing Microsoft Advertising’s Content Ads and Search Ads. Content Ads and Search Ads serve contextually relevant advertisements within articles and other content pages.

According to Content Bridges, the difference between this arrangement and those partnering with Yahoo Newspaper Consortium is that Advance Internet is maintaining its own ad platform, currently powered by 24/7 RealMedia, and integrating with Microsoft.

More recently The Guardian, one of the UK’s most widely-read publications, also polled young readers around the world about how they get their daily news, with similar findings: young people are increasingly turning towards the Web as the primary source for their daily news. Both surveys highlight the fact that traditional newspaper outlets should be looking for new ways to build readership among younger audiences.

Social media can be one means of engaging younger readers. Online readers of thelondonpaper, a leading publication owned by News Corp. targeted at twenty-somethings in the UK, were recently presented with a new, socially-oriented site redesign. Readers have responded very enthusiastically, in part due to the social media tools which are now integrated into the news experience. Since giving its one million weekly readers the ability to comment on articles and author their own blog posts earlier this spring, thelondonpaper has witnessed more than 2,000 percent increase in community activity.

Readers also appreciate the fact that thelondonpaper is utilizing Facebook Connect, a capability which enables any website to establish a 2-way connection with Facebook. Thelondonpaper is leading the newspaper industry in the UK by integrating with Facebook at this level. Leveraging Facebook Connect is an example of “Social Unification,” a concept which refers to readers’ ability to unify social connections and community contributions across multiple social destinations.

Now on thelondonpaper website, readers can easily syndicate their contributions from thelondonpaper to their friends on Facebook, and can also invite their Facebook friends to join them on thelondonpaper community. Establishing a 2-way channel between thelondonpaper and Facebook has been very beneficial to the paper, resulting in a 40 percent uplift in traffic since implementation.

Thelondonpaper case serves as an example to all publishers: the key to engaging young readers is social media. Because thelondonpaper understood the interaction patterns of its young, technologically-savvy audience, the paper was able to achieve dramatic business benefits in a short period of time.

Thelondonpaper’s successful execution is an excellent example for other newspapers around the globe to follow as they contemplate a broad shift to social media, which for most publications today is becoming a strategic imperative. By not doing so, they risk disconnecting from their readers altogether.

Google Labs is about to launch, Flipper, according to Techcrunch. It looks like it will make it easier to flip through google news, whether sections or sources. This looks similar to something the New York Times is working on and that’s the main problem it seems to me. If you look at the stories, it give more content for you to read on the Google news page. Instead of links, you can just stay on the page. I think news sites are going to have something to say about this.

But he’ll keep on trying. Murdoch last month said papers need to charge for content if they want to survive. He added that online advertising has not proved its worth for newspaper despite a massive upswing in users visiting their news websites.

So now, apparently, he is putting money where his mouth is.  According to the Daily Beast, Murdoch has a super-duper, double secret plan to save the industry (or at least his empire). He has set up a global team, based in New York, London, and Sydney, to create a system for charging for online content. The team is said to be looking at hardware to deliver the content in a user-friendly way.

Of course, others have hoped to do the same thing, and the new Kindle is no exception. But while niche, highly specialized, content might have a chance, newspapers, like my beloved New York Post are doomed.

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Heck, I said it when I was working at a newspaper and saw declining advertising revenues slash and burn the newsroom. The problem is that a move like that might eventually work, but it won’t anytime soon. The scant data out there shows that print is an important marketing tool for online and without it, a news site will suffer a massive drop in its readership and advertising.

And newspapers need to figure this out. Advertising, already in its worst slump since the Depression, suffered by far the sharpest drop in generations during the first quarter of 2009, down 30 percent for some papers, according to the New York Times.  Online advertising is slumping as well, and even when it was going well didn’t make up for the off line stuff.

Meanwhile, Steven Brill, creator of Court TV and American Lawyer magazine, L. Gordon Crovitz, a former publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and Leo Hindery Jr., who has headed communications companies like Tele-Communications Inc., Global Crossing and the YES Network, and now runs InterMedia Partners, a private equity firm that specializes in media.media are building an automated system to allow newspapers and magazines to charge for online access, including an “all you can read” subscription that would allow access to multiple publications.

What’s more interesting is that they have hired a high-powered law firm to protect copyrights. Seems to me that places like the Huffington Post better be ready to pay up.

Dozens of companies have been trying to develop the sites less because of a journalistic mission than the lure of local advertisers migrating to the Web. The Kelsey Group projects that small businesses will spend $32 billion by 2013, and Peter Krasilovsky, a program director at the Kelsey Group, told the New York Times that many have never advertised outside the local Yellow Pages and are an untapped market.

According to a poll of US marketers by Bredin Business Information, marketers are increasing their online activities, becoming more focused and conducting segmentation research to better target their customers. Borrell Associates estimated SMBs spent $7.4 billion on local online marketing in 2008.

The problem as always is content. Will local news sites, such as Patch, be able to to pay enough for quality journalists and capture enough of a local audience to be scalable?

The ad was in NBC’s new drama Southland, had a thick, black border and the NBC logo and word “advertisement” above it.Apparently, the papers’ reporters are in an uproar because they believe it was an assault against the wall that is supposed to between paid advertising and news stories. One reporter (anonymously, of course) told Reuters that “This place already had horrible morale problems with decimating layoffs, but now to have our publisher whore out the front page is more than we can stand.”

According to a petition peddled by reporters, “The NBC ad may have provided some quick cash, but it has caused incalculable damage to this institution. This action violates a 128-year pact with our readers that the front page is reserved for the most meainingful stories of the day. Place a fake news article on A-1 makes a mockery of our integrity and journalistic standards.”

As Reuters notes, newspapers are pushing the boundaries between advertising and editorial content as they struggle to compete in the Internet age. Many used to run front page ads way back at the beginning of the 20th century, and some, like The Wall Street Journal, are trying it again. LAObserved also points out that this Sunday, there will be a wraparound advertisiment, looking like news stories, about the movie “The Soloist,” which was based on Steve Lopez’s columns about a talented, mentally unstable, homeless guy.

Are readers really fooled (apparently so). When I was at the New York Daily News, I saw a wraparound frontpage story on an author. Why because, he had a new book coming in, and there was certainly advertising attached to that. I understand the reporters outrage, but that horse has already left the barn.

*In a hilarious (sad?) side note. The UCLA student paper wrapped its paper in a fake ad wraparound. Guess Times was just copying the kids.

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