The Mail Online won the Chairman's Award at the 2012 Online Media Awards which took place last month at the Emirates Stadium. Having overtaken the New York Times as the world's most-visited online newspaper, drawing in over 80 million monthly users, deputy publisher Pete Picton spoke with The Drum's Cameron Clarke, explaining what he thinks is the secret behind the publisher's success.

Music magazine NME has teamed up with Spotify to create a music recommendation app. The title has partnered with the platform bridging the interests of both the NME and the Spotify communities of music lovers. The app, which can be found within Spotify, allows users to read interviews with the title's "favourite new bands" without leaving the music platform. It also includes recommendations by way of an "NME recommends" stamp. Announcing the innovation in a blog post, the NME said the Spotify app "enables users to read interviews with our favourite new bands, check out the best new albums/tracks with …

Social media may do more harm than good when it comes to personal well-being, a small study from the University of Salford in the UK indicates. About half of the survey's 298 participants, all of whom identified themselves as social media users, say that their use of social networks like Facebook and Twitter makes their lives worse. In particular, participants noted that their self-esteem suffers when they compare their own accomplishments to those of their online friends. In addition to confidence issues, two-thirds claim they find it difficult to fully relax or sleep after spending time on social networks. A …

Telefnica and Visa Europe unveiled a strategic partnership that will see joint investments by both firms in a range of mobile commerce products and services. This move, which comes only a day after Telefnica Digital announced a range of other strategic initiatives, means Visa Europe will become Telefnica's preferred mobile payments partner across the continent, according to a statement from the Spanish-based operator. The agreement expands an existing m-commerce relationship between the two firms that covers the UK and Ireland, but will now ramp up to include other European countries together with the joint development of products and services around …

The United Nations Human Rights Council has unanimously agreed that access to the Internet is a basic human right, signing a resolution ostating that access to the Internet and online freedom of expression should be guaranteed. The motion was led by Sweden and supported by countries including America, Brazil and Tunisia. It follows the Arab Spring, and Tunisia's envoy said that the Internet played a vital role in mobilising people during this time, explaining: "The most important result of the Tunisian revolution is this right to freedom of expression."

A live flood warning system has gone online as the UK experiences unseasonable amounts of heavy rain. The system aims to allow people to track areas that are in danger of imminent flooding. The FloodAlerts map offers people real-time updates on areas at risk in England and Wales. The system, developed by Shrewsbury-based firm Shoothill, uses data from the Environment Agency's nationwide network of monitoring stations.

The BBC's director of global news has today said that research shows audiences trust news shared by their family and friends more than news from "most traditional media". In a speech to the World Media Summit in Russia, Peter Horrocks said: "If we want our news to be believed, we need to get our audiences to share it. If they believe us, they will share it." He said the BBC's standard is now to ask "do you trust our news enough to share it with your mother, brother, or friend?". During the keynote speech in Moscow, Horrocks also warned of …

Unruly has opened the doors on its social video lab that aims to help brands and agencies create video content that gets shared more frequently at its London headquarters. In the basement-lab, brands can pre-test videos before they are released online using eye-tracking technology and tools that measure a viewer's emotional response to content. The social video company's viral video chart is being used to drive the video analytics used to measure the success of content.

Researchers from Oxford University have mapped where in the world tweets are being sent from, dailymail.co.uk reports. In a bid to see which countries are the most prolific tweeters, they collated geo-tagged tweets and created a map to show just where in the world tweets are coming from. Larger countries such as America and Brazil lead the way, taking 30% and 22%, respectively. China, however, with its strict censorship rules, barely registered. The UK and Indonesia came in joint third, taking around 6%. Others in the so-called "first sextile" of most prolific tweeters include France, Spain, Canada, Russia, Germany, Malaysia, …

Currently, there is a focus on artists opposed to consumers, according to one of Sony Music's top marketers. Vice president of marketing services at Sony Music Fred Bolza claims that currently the industry is doing a poor job at marketing, Marketing Week reported. Bolza explained that declining CD sales and a rising market for single track downloads and steams has presented marketers with the "challenge of reinventing the industry".