A marketing chief for global super-company Unilever has argued that now is the time for brands to align themselves more with publishers by producing innovative, interesting content. Hamish Priest, who works for Unilever's Dove brand, claimed that 2013 was "the beginning of the journey" for brands to become more like publishers.

The UK newspaper sector must shift from being the only industry to separate its online success from its offline performance, CEO of News UK Mike Darcey has said, adding that the current method of performance measurement presents a misleading view of the state of newspapers.

Costello, who will serve for two years, takes over from former Hachette UK Chairman Kevin Hand, who now becomes PPA Deputy Chairman for the next 12 months. The formal handover took place at the 2014 PPA Chairman's Reception on 3 February. It was sponsored by digital magazine platform Readly, a strategic partner of the PPA.

Children's magazine brand Ben 10 is to launch its first digital offering thanks to a partnership between publisher Egmont and digital publishing technology firm Picsean. An iPad app created for the brand, whose target audience is UK boys of primary age, will offer youngsters a more interactive experience to accompany the print product.

Rippla, a site which aims to track the "social media ripples" of news organisations, has announced a new beta release with a focus on distinguishing hard news from link bait on the web. The site - which has the tagline "cut through the crap" - has been revamped with a bigger emphasis on surfacing content being discussed by "influential people".

The Daily Mirror has made an offer of amends following a GBP50,000 libel case brought by Coronation Street star Michelle Keegan over claims she had tweeted endorsements for products in exchange for expensive gifts. The newspaper was following up an undercover sting by Channel 4 Dispatches with the story "Corrie stars caught in TV sting" on 8 July 2013.

Tory MP Stewart Jackson put it to Mark Thompson that there is a "golden thread running through your time at the BBC - you never wrote anything down". He cited severance payments and DMI. "What did you ever write down?" Jackson added. "The ambience around your regime is not healthy." Thompson came back strongly on this point: "Please don't characterise [my time as director general] as a period where every project went badly." He cited the iPlayer and the 2012 London Olympics as major projects delivered successfully during his tenure.

The NekNomination Facebook page had been encouraging readers to take part in the game and had attracted more than 10,000 "likes" since it was set up a week ago. The web page has now been taken down after complaints from the family of Jonny Byrne, 19, from Co Carlow in Ireland. He died after jumping into the River Barrow in Carlow on Saturday.

Media communications agency, Havas Media Group, has appointed Mike Potts as its first chief data officer after a recent restructure. Potts moves within Havas, having joined in April 2013 following its acquisition of data analytics firm ElisaDBI (now DBi), which he founded and served as group managing director.

The Daily Mail was the most complained-about newspaper in 2013, racking up more than a third of all complaints made. According to Hacked Off director Professor Brian Cathcart in the Huffington Post, the Daily Mail accounted for 1,214 complaints about national dailies to the Press Complaints Commission, 36.4 per cent of the total, ahead of the Sun in second place with 638 (19.1 per cent).