NEWS July 24 – Media Centres Opened to Help Homeless Youths

Communities Minister Iain Wright has launched a network of ten media training centres, which aim to train  young homeless people in some of the skills needed to take up jobs in the media and music industries. The centres will be based in Birmingham, Bradford, Brighton, Exeter, East London, Plymouth, Ravenhead, Sunderland and Yeovil. BBC Training & Development is sending staff on placements to the media centres to give training, mentoring and practical tips to young people on how to get in and ahead in the media industry The centres, based in hostels for young homeless people run by the Foyer Federation, will give residents the opportunity to develop skills ranging from radio and music production to cinematography.

NEWS July 2 – Virgin Media For Sale?

Last summer the thought of a “For Sale” sign being hoisted over Virgin Media would have been unthinkable, but since then the media company, formed by the merger of Telewest and NTL, has failed to see a similar growth to its competitors in the media industry. Bids of $9billion and $10billion including debt were refused last summer but with Goldman Sachs appointed to look at Virgin’s strategic situation a possible buyout by the American Private Equity firm, Carlyle Group, looks more and more likely. With share prices last Friday sitting at $24.37 an offer of between $30 and $35 might make a, with debt, price of around $11billion look like a very attractive proposition.

NEWS June 28 – Russian Media Industry Set to Expand

The Russian media and entertainment industry is set to expand to over $21billion this year. More people than ever are expected to use the internet and go to movies fuelling this expansion. Spending on internet advertising grew to $3.7billion this year and is forecast to be one of the largest growth areas in the industry. Film receipts and movie sales and rentals have increased by more than 13% and are expected to double during the next five years.

NEWS June 5 - Newspapers prospering despite themselves

It would appear that despite the doom and gloom predictions of many analysts, more readers are buying more newspapers and advertisers are devoting a larger percentage of their advertising budgets to newspaper advertising. At the first session of the World Association of Newspapers Congress in Cape Town the WAN chief executive said that industry was creating a bad impression that was not borne out by facts.