Vital Stats

Executives' personal knowledge governs key decisions

Advertising (17%) and direct marketing (21%) are cited as the least important sources of information for senior business executives making key purchasing decisions. A survey of 384 board-level executives in the UK, US and Canada by communications consultancy Hill & Knowlton found that personal experiences and prior relationships trump all other communication channels, cited by 58% of respondents.

Overseas traffic boosts UK newspaper websites

December's ABCe figures show that, based on worldwide traffic data, Guardian.co.uk (22.8 million users) and Telegraph Online (21.1 million) are the two most-visited UK newspaper websites. Looking at UK unique user data, these are also number one (Guardian.co.uk 8.4 million) and two (Telegraph.co.uk 6.9 million).

Online retailers boosted by pre-Christmas visitors

Despite gloom on the high street, online retailers managed to attract significantly more visitors year on year in Q4 2008. Nielsen Online data shows the top 10 online retailers averaged a 37% increase in unique visitors, compared to the 2007 Christmas shopping period. The five major online retail sectors - such as home and garden - averaged a combined 19% increase in unique visitors.

Telecoms and media firms remain positive

Almost two in three telecoms and media companies expect the current downturn to be no worse than the 2000/2001 recession, according to research from Cobalt, the corporate finance specialist. In addition, 59 of the 100 companies questioned said sales growth would be positive in 2009, with by far the most market opportunities expected to remain in Western Europe and North America.

Digital marketing budgets look healthy for 2009

Despite the pressures facing the economy, it seems the biggest challenge facing marketers is not how much budget to spend on digital, but where to spend it. A survey of 100 leading marketers by Affiliate Window found that 31% feel the biggest issue facing them is that there are too many digital marketing options available and they don't know how to get the best from their investment.

Print titles still more popular than e-zines

There is a significant minority of consumers who are open to buying digital versions of magazines, or e-zines. But the majority would be unlikely to swap their print copy for a digital format. According to a survey of 1,633 users of magazine subscription site iSubscribe, 17% have read an e-zine, while 17% are not interested in doing so.

FT and Guardian shine in lacklustre October ABCs

The FT and The Guardian stood out as the only quality weekday national UK newspapers to increase their circulations in October, by 5.19% and 1.55% respectively. Collectively, the daily red-tops' average circulation was down 2.74% from September. The Sun lost 3% of its circulation month on month, to 3,060,447 copies.