Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg characterised allegations over the child abuse scandals on social networks, such as the fake claims about Lord McAlpine, as trial by Twitter. He denounced those spreading bogus and false allegations of child abuse on the internet saying they were going to harm the cause of justice for victims, while on a trip to Ireland. The scandal has led to the resignation of BBC Director General George Entwistle.

A mobile app to aid in decision-making and day-to-day government affairs is being trialled by the prime minister. David Cameron has been using it to keep track of live data relating to jobs, housing and other areas. It also monitors polls and posts on social media, giving the PM an at-a-glance view of how the country feels about him and his government.

Online sales, which most publishers see growing because digital is still an expanding opportunity, are again declining at Trinity Mirror. Reporting results for the 17 weeks to October 28, the Canary Wharf-based outfit said digital revenues fell by one percent from the previous year. Only with the accountant's addition of Communicator Corp, the smart email marketing and loyalty services vendor Trinity Mirror acquired in December 2011, are digital sales up - by eight to nine percent, to GBP14 million ($22.3 million) for the period.

Eighty-seven percent of UK agency executives feel that video is equally or more effective than display advertising, according to BrightRoll's 2012 UK Video Advertising Report. The annual survey found that online video is on a continued path for rapid growth, with more than half (52%) of UK respondents agreeing that video is equally or more effective than TV.

Media industry veteran Jack Klues, long-time boss of Publicis Groupe's VivaKi media operation, is to retire at the end of the year. CFO Frank Voris is taking over with Rishad Tobaccowala as chief strategy and innovation officer (the media man presumably). At the same Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice has announced that Vivaki will become a 'separate business unit' open to all PG's agencies as opposed to just the big media agencies.

The online service will allow TiVo users to manage their boxes through tools including remote record and managing 'My Shows'. Virgin Media has launched its Virgin TV Anywhere, which is a cloud-based entertainment service for its customers, challenging the BSkyB's rising Sky Go service. Available only for UK customers, the new TV Anywhere service streams programmes to computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones through a Tivo set-top box that assists in using the smartphone and tablet apps.

The jokes, collected under the hashtag #PolitcallyCorrectFootballChants, take the crude humour of football chants and replace expletives with less offensive terms. In one example, for instance, a well-known football chant about pies is changed into: "You portly gentleman, you portly gentleman, you seem to have eaten all the pies". One of the most popular examples so far, which has been retweeted more than 150 times, was by spoof Mario Balotelli account @balotellinot.

Vincent Bollor's Havas has become the latest major marketing group to report anaemic growth in the three months to the end of September, with its European advertising business going into reverse despite the London 2012 Olympics. The marketing services group reported 2% year-on-year revenue growth to EUR428 milliion (GBP342 million) in the quarter, matching the recent financial results from fellow French rival Publicis Groupe and Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP which both warned of an advertising slow down.

Pearson are reportedly looking to sell the newspaper in a deal which could net the FTSE 100 media group a GBP1bn-GBP2bn payday. Pearson is said to be mulling a sale of the financial daily, which has suffered from falling readership, within months so that it can focus its efforts on a fast-growing education division. Bloomberg Media Group (which revealed the purported sale), Thomson Reuters and News Corporation are likely bidders.

Axel Springer says its acquisition foray in to web classified ad services is helping to make up for its declining print market. On Tuesday, the group said its Axel Springer Digital Classifieds group is buying 80 percent of Belgian property listings site Immoweb from its founding Rousseaux family and Produpress for EUR127.5 million ($164 million) - the latest in a spree nearing EUR1 billion this year.