The UK's newspaper industry should have a new system of measurement that stretched multiple platforms ready for use by early 2016. The timetable comes after a review into the current metrics was announced in the summer and a formal request for proposals (RFP) will be published on 31 October 2014 inviting research and data analytics businesses to bid to supply a new measurement system. The deadline for submissions is 5 December with a view to trialling the new system from mid-2015.

Publicis Groupe ZenithOptimedia's GBP200 million European media business for O2, including the GBP50 million account in the UK, has been snatched away from them, following an intervention from Havas Media stakeholder and Vivendi chairman, Vincent Bollore. According to sources, French industrialist Bollore, chairman of entertainment behemoth Vivendi, is believed to have struck a deal with Telefonica's chairman Cesar Alierta, resulting in the dramatic U-turn. Havas Media is expected to take control from January 2015.

Just under half (44 percent) of loans are taken out through mobile devices, research from Hitachi Personal Finance has found -- up from 36 percent 12 months ago. Mobile users account for 26 percent of loan applications, while tablet users account for 18 percent, the research states. This comes after a YouGov survey found that 42 percent of UK consumers now use smartphones and tablets to search and purchase travel and financial goods.

Drinks giant Diageo is "very keen" to see a Great British Bake Off-style programme produced for its spirit brands, including Smirnoff and Baileys. Speaking to The Drum, Richard Barlow, customer marketing director GB, said the potential "is huge" as consumers are increasingly demanding more content around Diageo brands. "If we can have a programme that millions of people tune into to watch people bake cakes, why can't we have a programme where people come and make drinks? I could absolutely see that as the future.

Paul Budnitz and his co-founders launched a version of Ello a year ago as a private social network for 100 of their close friends. They had become sick of sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram and Twitter and the constant stream of "sponsored" content and "suggested posts." "Those social networks used to be fun but they became cluttered and full of ads," Budnitz says. "I couldn't find my friends through all these sponsored posts. It's like us having this conversation and an ad popping up every 30 seconds or so. It feels violating, right?"

According to Google's results for the third quarter, the search giant's UK revenue totalled $1.62 billion, up 17.3 percent year-on-year from $1.39 billion in the same period in 2013. The UK accounted for ten percent of total revenues between 1 July and 30 September, equal to the proportion a year earlier. Google's total global revenues, which include revenue shared with third parties (traffic acquisition costs or TAC), were $16.52 billion from 1 July to 30 September, up 20 percent year-on-year.

The video streaming company Netflix suffered a double whammy yesterday, reporting slower-than-expected subscriber growth shortly after learning that HBO, the premium network responsible for "Game of Thrones" and "Girls," will launch a rival online service. Netflix shares, which barely moved during official trading hours but dropped 27 percent after the company reported that subscriber growth in the third quarter, at three million, was 690,000 short of its own expectations, and slashed its forecast for the fourth quarter.

The Web sites of the UK's national news brands reported record traffic in September as people returned to work after one of the warmest summers on record to an agenda dominated by the Scottish Referendum, the Ebola scare, the return of football's Premier League, and internationally, by the trial of Oscar Pistorius. Daily Mail & General Trust's MailOnline continues to set the pace, achieving its biggest day ever for traffic last month, with more than 14.3 million global daily unique browsers on the 2nd of September.

Digital specialists are becoming less relevant as businesses increasingly turn to "generalist" marketers who can work across all channels, a panel of senior marketers has said. Speaking at the Adobe Digital Marketing Symposium in London today (16 October), Abode's EMEA marketing director John Watton suggested that digital skills are now central to all roles and that marketers should offer a rounded "blend" of skills. "We need more generalists who can look across the channels and drive the right mix for whatever we're trying to do," he said.

John Lewis is to up its digital innovation spend by 25% next year to try and break down the barriers between its on- and offline retail channels as it looks to gain a single customer view. The retailer, with Manning Gottlieb OMD, is using the funds to bring to market digital innovations in areas such as location-based and augmented reality marketing. It aims to remove channel conflict from the customer journey, whereby sales through newer marketing channels grow at the expense of those from more traditional outlets.