Media

Stories of big salaries for TV bosses have consistently angered the public. Today, ITV announced that the company's incoming boss Adam Crozier will receive a staggering base salary of £775,000 with a total package over the next few years worth £11.1m.

Crozier, who is pitched to earn slightly less than his predecessor Michael Grade, will join ITV from Royal Mail on 26th April 2010. His package includes a pension contribution of £69,750, as well as a 'golden hello' of £200,000 in cash and £420,000 in shares.

Do you read the adverts on this site? And would you pay for what you're currently reading? If you're like the readers surveyed in a major new US study of media consumer behaviour the answer to both questions is likely to be 'no'. And this gets to the heart of the current debate about the media's future.

The annual State of the Media study was carried out by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. It found 77% of regular consumers of online news rarely, if ever, click on an online ad. With 53% of adults in America getting their news online, a sustainable online business model looks some way off.

If you had to guess what an innovative start-up business based in London that is securing major clients and has won a prestigious design award does, you probably wouldn't go for 'print newspapers'. But that's exactly what the Really Interesting Group's Newspaper Club does.

The club allows anyone to print their own 12-page newspaper for prices from 30p a copy. It has already been used by Penguin, Last.fm, the BBC and Wired UK.

Pink Floyd have won a court battle with their record company EMI over digital downloads.

The news could have a significant impact on the music business, but according to one leading commentator "it's not the art vs commerce squabble it's being painted as".

If businesses in a given sector make an average profit of 10% in a year, does this mean they are in crisis? If that sector is UK regional newspapers, the answer would appear to be 'yes'.

Website Paidcontent:UK says £509.7m was knocked off the value of five leading local newspaper groups in 2009.

JK Rowling is the most inspirational entrepreneurial female role-model for young women in the UK, new research carried out by The Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) has revealed.

The Harry Potter author came out top of the survey, ahead of other respected names such as Stella McCartney and TV's Dragon's Den star, and successful business-woman, Deborah Meaden.

Trinity Mirror may have stemmed falling profits, but the way it did so and its future strategy raises fundamental questions.

Chief Executive Sly Bailey (pictured) says the results show TM is "continuing to develop the business for longer term growth", but commentators have used words such as "ominous" and "fragile".

Trinity Mirror, which publishes the Mirror, People and Record newspapers, made pre-tax profits of £72.7m in the 53 weeks to 3 January 2010. The group, which also publishes regional newspapers, saw circulation fall and advertising revenue decline, but reports an increase in online users.

The performance comes on the back of a year in which Trinity Mirror axed 1,700 jobs, 20% of the total, closed 15 offices and one print plant, and shut or sold 30 regional newspapers. New online brands such as mirrorfootball.co.uk and 3am.co.uk took the group's number of monthly unique users to 17 million.

Has the BBC got itself into hot water over plans to axe services to minority audiences?

Judging by the public response so far, the answer is yes.

What is interesting is that the BBC is to go through a consultation process before it makes a final decision on the future of services such as 6 Music and the Asian Network.

But the fact that these services have been named already would appear to indicate that a decision has already been arrived at.

Despite staggering losses of £2.7bn in 2008, ITV bosses have today announced a return to annual profit with a £25m surplus.

In 2009, ITV television advertising revenues were down 9% at £1,291m but still ahead of the total market which fell 11% into the red.

Voting for your favourite act in The X Factor has made a major impact on ITV's profits. Revenue from phone voting and competition entries made £30m of the company's adjusted profits of £108m for 2009. There were almost 100 million 'viewer interactions', with 10 million votes cast in the X- Factor final.

But profits are down 4% on 2008, with advertising revenues falling 11% to £998m in what ITV says is "the worst television advertising downturn on record." The TV company's share of peak time viewing across all channels grew to 28.2% (up on 2008's 27.8%) and online users rose substantially.

It's fair bet the TV advert you remember the most from last year featured a gorilla playing a drum kit to the strains of the Phil Collins hit In The Air Tonight. The latest issue of ad industry creatives magazine Shots gives a fascinating insight into how the ad came to be, and its affect on Cadbury's sales.

During the ad's on-air period, sales of Cadbury's Dairy Milk boomed by 9%, with sales figures helping to drive the return on investment to four times the normal level of the fast moving consumer goods market. Over the whole of 2009, Dairy Milk sales grew 11%, helping Cadbury post a 30% rise in profits.

Let's face it, It is easy to criticise the BBC, it's a national pastime.

I heard someone on the train yesterday saying 'we pay our license fee for this rubbish'.

I thought he was talking about one of the string of reality TV/talent shows but in actual fact he was talking about Radio 6 Music, BBC Four and BBC Three.

Radio 6 Music as well as the Asian Network look set for the chop in BBC cutbacks and who knows what lifespan BBC Three and Four have.