Warning that failure to act responsibly online will lead to the government interference, the "Deal or No Deal" host called social media "an incredible communications weapon but, like all weapons, it can be used for bad as well as good." The YouTube video in which he issued his plea was posted after Edmonds met with the student who set up a Facebook page called "Somebody please kill Noel Edmonds". The TV presenter said he was glad to have met up with the student and called the event "very much a student prank."

After he was stopped by armed men and forced into the boot of his Golf 3, a man used his mobile to send a desperate text to his girlfriend. She turned to Twitter, posting, "Be on the look for DSS041GP. My boyfriend has just been hijacked and is in the boot. Please RT." One friend sent it to Twitter user PigSpotter, who has become a mini-celebrity in South Africa by posting about speed traps. PigSpotter's 110,000 followers took up the cause and, an hour later, K9 Law Enforcement tweeted, "We have co-ords."

A report from Ipsos finds that Internet users in the UK and the U.S. were more inclined to prefer email, at 87% and 86%, respectively. Internet users in the BRIC markets, however, were less partial to email-based marketing messages, with 76% of Brazilians preferring email, 68% of Russians, 66% in India and 57% in China. While respondents in Russia, India and China also preferred email over text, a greater proportion (32%, 34% and 43%, respectively) preferred receiving promotions via a text message.

The move is a step toward the Swedish company's embracing the web. With the Spotify Play web widget, playlists and song titles are embedded on pages by web authors and users can play corresponding tracks by clicking it. It means new streams for Spotify to serve and pay royalties for but it also means more ears will be exposed to the service's advertising and a new pool of free listeners to convert to premium. Already, Huffingti Post, MSN UK and Vogue. com are using the widget.

The publisher's UK wing is launching a new, designed-for-tablet women's lifestyle title on iTunes Newsstand and on print newsstands. The quarterly is an off-shoot of Good Housekeeping and has been created with "tablet-friendly features such as smaller articles, greater emphasis on visuals, smart phone-friendly typefaces and an interative contents page," says Hearst.

The WPP Group media agency holding company predicts digital ad spend this year will climb almost as much, to $98.2 billion, or nearly 19% of all measured media spending. North American last year had the highest level of digital ad spending, followed by Asia Pacific and Western Europe. The same pattern is expected to hold this year. Last year, digital advertising in the U.S. increased 12% to $32.2 billion, an amount that represents a 22% share of the overall domestic media market. In 2012, spending is expected to rise 10% to $35.4 billion, a 23% share of media dollars.

The gadget magazine has launched its iPad Edition with LG as a partner. Martyn Jones, publishing director at Haymarket Media Group-owned Stuff, tells The Drum: "This is a significant milestone for the world's biggest gadget magazine. It marks our ambition to evolve across exciting emerging formats, and to reach new consumers." The iPad edition was created in-house on the PressRun platform, with each new edition to coincide with the print publication.

A leading voice in online audience measurement in the UK, UKOM has signed a deal with comScore to be its partner in the UK market as of 2013. The selection of comScore followed an open tender and rigorous six-month selection process by UKOM, which is jointly owned by the AOP and IAB, and governed by a cross-industry board with representatives of the IAB, AOP, ISBA and IPA. UKOM collectively represents the media measurement interests of the UK's leading digital publishers, advertisers and agencies. comScore will become the exclusive supplier of data for UKOM in January 2013 and the contract will …

Police are using Facebook and YouTube to post emotional interviews with the mother and sister of a 15-year-old who was stabbed to death on 10 April 2011 in Edmonton, north London. In the online video, his mother Ingrid Adam said: "I have no words to describe how it feels to hear your son is dead." His sister appeals to anyone with information to come forward or face feeling afraid forever.

They are extending their joint venture to include The Digital Media Festival and Awards in Asia, which take place in November in Beijing. The awards will include the categories of media and entertainment, apps, gaming, online PR and online marketing. The partnership currently sees both companies running Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity and the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Festival. The management team running those festivals will be in charge of the one in China as well.