"Guardian" staff have been warned that 250 staff will have to go as the title's publisher seeks to cut GBP54m a year from its annual running costs. A further 60 positions are expected to go by not filling vacant positions. The job cuts will include editorial and compulsory redundancies have not been ruled out. The heavily unionised workforce of the "Guardian" has previously indicated that compulsory journalist cutbacks would be a trigger for strike action.

UK sales of smartwatches surged after the release of the Apple Watch last April. Ownership of smartwatches in the UK has more than doubled year-on-year, from 320,000 to 720,000, according to research from YouGov. Its quarterly study found that over the past three months, total wearable-device ownership has grown from 2.85m to 3.6m. The wearables sector could receive a further boost on Monday, when Apple is expected to unveil the next iteration of its smartwatch.

Milkshakes will be exempt from the forthcoming "sugar tax" announced in today's budget -- despite some of them containing more sugar than Coca-Cola. Mars Flavoured Milk, for example, contains 12.8g of sugar per 100ml, while Frijj Chocolate Fudge Brownie has 12.9g. These compare to 10.6g in 100ml of Coca-Cola. While all of the sugar content of Coke is from added refined sugar, milk drinks contain a mixture of added and naturally occurring milk sugars. Semi-skimmed milk has 4.8g of sugar per 100ml.

Chancellor George Osborne today pledged to introduce a business rate discount for office space occupied by local newspapers in England in his budget proposals. The announcement would see up GBP1,500 knocked off the cost of the tax to local publishers, but this is limited to a maximum of one discount per local newspaper title and per "hereditament" (meaning property). The discount would apply for two years from 1 April, 2017.

Advertising could account for about half of data usage for people reading articles on their smartphones, according to a study by Enders Analysis. The small-scale study looked at six unnamed "popular publishers," both with and without an ad blocker, and found that anywhere between 18% and 79% of the data downloaded was from ads. In addition, between 6% and 68% of the downloaded data was from JavaScript, which is used to deliver more interactive elements of both editorial and advertising on pages.

Nearly two-thirds of people who watch video-on-demand services such as Hulu, All4 and ITV Hub say they would like to block the ads on them. In a survey of global users of video-on-demand services by Nielsen, 62% of respondents found ads on those services annoying or distracting and a further 65% said they would like to block them. Neither Netflix or Amazon have ads on their paid-for on-demand services, but others such as Channel 4 and ITV in the U.K. and Hulu in the U.S. run ads.

A revolution is coming in the way brands and organisations gather customer insights. That's the view of Stan Sthanunathan, senior vice president, consumer & market insights at Unilever. Speaking at the Market Research Society's Impact 2016 event, Sthanunathan said: "The pace of change has never been slow but it's only going to accelerate exponentially." He said brands can spend too much time researching consumer groups when they need to act fast "Real-time is the new currency," he said.

A spokesperson has explained Instagram's proposed timeline changes: "As Instagram has grown, it's become harder to keep up with all the photos and videos people share. This means some people don't see the posts they might care about the most. "We're focused on optimising the order and making it more personalised -- all the posts will still be there, just in a different order. Ad frequency and order will stay the same." However, Instagram has yet to clarify whether the changes will be optional or statutory.

BMW is plotting the first marketing push for Retail Online, its fledgling e-commerce platform, which it claims -- perhaps surprisingly -- is performing well since the launch last year. The online store raised more than one eyebrow when it was announced in a first for the car market, with many questioning whether people were comfortable enough with e-commerce to make such a high-value purchase. BMW claims customers have responded well to the "open all hours' offering" and that it is seeing positive results.

The Independent's new subscription app, the 'Independent Daily Edition,' has been bolstered by a six-figure marketing campaign launched by ESI Media yesterday to encourage sign-ups to the publisher's latest digital offering. The aim is to encourage consumers to download the app for a one-month free trial, which is priced at GBP12.99 a month, as well as promoting other benefits including auto download by 5am and offline reading.