The iPad and its kin are helping a large and growing segment of the population to buck the 24-hour news cycle. Instead, they're returning to a more leisurely, old-fashioned way of consuming the day's news - not over coffee in the morning, but on the couch after work. That presumably leaves them time to savour longer narratives - formats that media-watchers once feared would perish in the no-attention-span internet age.

Hard-line religious activists in Russia are really offended by Facebook's new same-sex marriage icons and want the social networking website banned from the country. Russian Orthodox activists in the southern city of Saratov claim the icons are "gay propaganda," and have told Facebook to stop "flirting with sodomites." The group sent Facebook a 24-hour ultimatum to the site's offices in Russia, which Facebook has reportedly ignored, according to news service RussiaToday. Undeterred, the activists have threatened to sue Internet service providers who provide access to Facebook.

Speaking at a digital radio event held in London, Davie, the BBC's director of Audio and Music, said: "I do support, and I know this isn't everyone's view, pressure now to say that if we are selling consumers new radios they should have both digital and FM [receivers] in them. My view is that's the right thing to do." Davie told The Telegraph: "If there is a clear chance of digital switchover in the future - then it makes sense for people buying new radios to create sets which contain FM but also benefit from DAB." The Government is due …

Editor-in-chief Jesse Angelo has forcefully made clear following reports last week in The New York Times and the New York Observer that News Corp. top brass had "identified the iPad tabloid as a money loser to be watched as belts tighten across the company's publishing units." In a hard-hitting memo, Angelo congratulated staff on the Daily's new weekend magazine, and added, "As for the latest misinformed, untrue rumors of our imminent demise, I would urge you to ignore them. Angelo said all media outlets, "including the ones writing about us", are under pressure to prove themselves as businesses.

With a fortnight to go until the London 2012 Olympics begin, the BBC has released its Olympic app for iPhones and Android smartphones. The app channels BBC's existing coverage and features the same live feeds, interactive text commentary, information page on sports at the Games and profiles of athletes and countries that currently exist on the BBC Olympics mobile site. In addition to live coverage, BBC is also offering a catch-up and highlights service via the app, as well as a customisable menu - all of this aims to create what Phil Fearnley, BBC News and Knowledge general manager calls …

Social TV is a space that's coming together slowly but surely, and synchronizing or checking in is probably one of the most important factors in that evolution - one reason Shazam's audio-recognition-powered push into the second screen last year was so interesting. But very close synchronization has remained elusive because live TV streams get delivered through a variety of technologies - cable, IPTV, satellite and so on - and they all have different latencies. In other words, even when people are watching live TV, they aren't necessarily watching it at precisely the same time. That's where a Munich-based startup called …

Online advertising remains one of the fast-growing mediums as figures from information provider Nielsen suggests a growth in ad spend across the board. In terms of regions, Europe continues to show strong growth at 12.1% overall, despite a background of euro zone troubles and recession. Latin America and Middle East/Africa showed the most impressive growth, rising by 31.8% and 35.2% respectively.

Marketing executives looking to slash budgets on the back of a slump in business confidence in the second quarter, according to a new report. The influential Bellwether survey, which gauges the outlook of the UK marketing industry, found that almost a third of respondents felt the financial prospects for their company had deteriorated since the start of the year. The proportion of UK marketers that felt prospects for the advertising industry as a whole had deteriorated climbed from 25% to 35%, compared with the first-quarter report published earlier this year.

The European Union is proposing changes to ease licensing rules that prevent internet music stores, including Apple's iTunes, from selling digital music across the 27-nation bloc. The tactic raises concerns that economies of scale mean only major existing businesses such as Amazon's MP3 store and iTunes would survive, potentially damaging consumers' interests and threatening smaller businesses. The EU has sought to promote pan-European licensing for years, and the commission issued an antitrust decision in 2008 against national agencies that collect royalties on behalf of artists.

Although the bill still needs to be signed by President Vladmir Putin to become law, Russia's parliament has voted to approve a law that would give the government the power to force certain internet sites offline without a trial. Supporters of the amendment to the Act for Information say it will help the authorities block sites containing images of child abuse and other illegal material. But opponents have warned that censorship could later be extended.