Poland’s rapid growth in Internet usage over the past few years illustrates how unpredictable factors can drive consumer behavior.

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Web 3.0 semantic tools can enhance consumer experiences as well as build the ground floor for more advertising revenues. And it’s not the distant future, it’s today.

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No matter your medium, 2008 has been a tough year for publishers. Print, online, broadcast – it doesn’t matter. For almost every one of our clients and prospects, economic travails and the shifting media environment have been brutal. And for the lucky few who have avoided a debacle in 2008, the only good news is that they see the disaster coming and can try to face it head-on.

Under the motto “Cashing in on digital success” about 220 newspaper professionals from all over the world gathered in Budapest in late November. The 16th conference of IFRA’s Beyond the Printed Word focused on digital revenue, relevance and reach.

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Mobile, video, geo-location services and local OOH – “out-of-home” – media. Hot topics, all, at the BIA Kelsey Group Interactive Local Media conference in the heart of Silicon Valley a few weeks back.

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Despite gloom and doom elsewhere, China’s major online advertising companies seem to be in good health and confident about future business. So far they show no sign of being affected by the financial tsunami that has hit most countries and which is also slowing China’s economic growth. 

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Sam Zell was interviewed by CNBC about the Tribune Co. bankruptcy, the Blagojevich scandal and alleged extortion attempt against the Chicago Tribune, and more. We link to the interview.

The Tribune Co.’s troubles started when Sam Zell tried to apply the same strategy he used in the shipping container business to the newspaper industry, then got hit by the downturn in advertising in general and real estate in particular. A new initiative by The Los Angeles Times to offer foreclosure properties for sale from a separate joint venture may help turn around at least part of the mess.

The advertising slowdown has everyone looking at ways to save money or make their spending more effective. Behavioral targeting is coming onto more people’s radar for both those reasons.  But advertisers need to be smart if they want results.

In a move which surprised friend and foe, the German publishing group Axel Springer Verlag today acquired 33.3 percent of the shares of Oslo-based StepStone ASA.

Over 10 percent of viewers leave an online video a mere 10 seconds after starting it, and 53 percent are gone after a minute, according to new data from video analytics company TubeMogul.

Sneakerplay, an online community targeted at people who love their sneakers, is taking its last run around the track.

The Swedish directory media group Eniro AB has entered into an agreement for a long-term, strategic partnership with Mktmedia, a development company for 33 Swedish newspaper newspapers.

Google has introduced extensive magazine archives and current magazines within its online Google Book Search.

That banjo music you hear is from separate NPR interviews of New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller and Wall Street Journal Managing Editor Robert Thompson. It’s well worth a listen.

The McClatchy Company will “streamline operations” further in 2009, investors were told at the annual UBS Globe Media & Communications Conference in New York. Meanwhile, one report suggested the company was shopping The Miami Herald, one of the company’s key properties. McClatchy refused to comment on that report.

Caroline Little, who ran WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive for almost five years, will begin in January as CEO of U.S. operations for Guardian News & Media, the U.K. company. 

In a sign of the increasing importance of the Web, the Pulitzer Prize Board says that online-only newspapers will now be eligible for the Prize.

MySpace is launching a new toolbar that will bring a stream of MySpace data, including notifications, friend activity, mood and status for themselves and their friends, right to the top of the browser.