Advertising spending for U.S. newspaper Web sites increased 18.8 percent to 3.2 billion in 2007, according to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America.

Spending on newspaper Web sites has now grown to account for 7.5 percent of all newspaper ad spending last year, an increase from 5.7 percent in 2006.

For last year’s fourth quarter, advertising spending on newspaper Web sites rose by 13.6 percent to $847 million compared to the same period a year ago. It was the thirteenth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth for online newspaper advertising since the NAA started reporting online ad spending in 2004.

“Even with the near-term challenges posed to print media by a more fragmented information environment and the economic headwinds facing all advertising media, newspaper publishers are continuing to drive strong revenue growth from their increasingly robust Web platforms,” NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm said.

Advertising expenditures at newspapers and their Web sites totaled $12.6 billion for the fourth quarter of 2007, while spending for print ads in newspapers totaled $11.7 billion. That compared with total advertising expenditures of $14 billion and print ad spending of 13.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Getting mobile users to do anything besides talk is challenging. Users are more likely to interact with mobile multimedia if the cost is low and getting them to view mobile ads that pay for content is not easy according to a study from 3ple-Media.

Over half of respondents in the study said they would pass along ads to others in exchange for a variety of incentives. Free downloadable music tracks had the highest percentage of “quite likely” and “most likely” responses, second only to free talk time minutes.

When considering unsolicited mobile messages, 96 percent of respondents considered the messages as spam if they came from brands. Messages from operators were less likely to be viewed in the same way.

“There’s a debate within many mobile carriers: do they simply become a mobile IP connectivity provider, or also seek to ensure ARPU growth by becoming their subscriber’s mobile multimedia service provider?,” said StJohn Deakins, chief commercial officer for 3ple-Media.

Western Europe has the highest levels of text messaging usage and also has the lowest level of trust with 12 percent saying the trusted mobile advertising. The second lowest level of trust came from the Asia-Pacific region with 17 percent and is another leading region for text messaging use.

Making sure messages coming from mobile carriers instead of brands could help to improve those numbers, but the offer itself is also important.

A new study from comScore finds that non-newspaper readers are likely to be younger, and they are actually heavier than average online newsreaders, while heavy newspaper readers are more likely than average to read traditional print news brands online.

“That current generations are growing up getting their news online for free is an indicator that print circulations are likely to continue their decline,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore.

“But the Internet represents a significant opportunity to extend - and even improve upon - existing news brands and reach out to new consumers with living, breathing real-time content. Just because print circulations are declining does not mean there are fewer news consumers. In fact, just the opposite is true.”

Heavy print newspaper readers show a strong skew towards older age segments, while the non-newspaper reader segments skew younger. Thos who are 65 and older are 3 times more likely than average to read print editions of newspapers 6 times per week, while those between the ages of 18 to 24 are 38 percent more likely to not read print newspaper at all during an average week.

To better understand the news consumption habits of heavy, light and non-print newspaper reader segments, comScore looked at their tendency to visit several key news source online, using a selection of key print, TV and Internet news brands.

Based on their heavier than average visitation across most key news sites, those who do not read print versions of news papers are not necessarily light news consumers. In fact, they show a high tendency to visit the majority of sites, including print (e.g. LA Times), TV (e.g. FoxNews.com), and Internet (e.g. Topix.com) brands.

Both heavy print newspaper readers and the non-readers show similar heavy consumption of print news brands online, which indicates that print news sites are not just an extension of their offline brands but have a stand-alone brand presence online. For example, the Web sites for three of the largest U.S. city newspapers- the New York Times, LA Times and Chicago tribune show above average visitation from both heavy newspaper readers and non-readers.

TV news brands are also heavily visited by non-print readers. Non-readers were 29 percent more likely than the average Internet user to visit FoxNews.com and 15 percent more liely to visit CBS News Digital.

“Non-newspaper readers are a particularly important segment to reach because they are heavier than average news consumers - they just prefer to consume it in a digital format,” continued Flanagan.

“That they are receptive to print, TV, and Internet news brands indicates a broad opportunity online, but the brands that will ultimately win over these key news consumers are the ones that successfully integrate cutting edge digital content with high quality journalism.”

Segments were defined based on the number of days respondents said they read a print version of a newspaper in an average week, excluding the Sunday edition.

Heavy Newspaper Readers: 6 times per week
Medium Newspaper Readers: 3-5 times per week
Light Newspaper Readers: 1-2 times per week
Non Newspaper Readers: 0 times per week

A new JupiterResearch and PayPal study found that online shoppers value payment security and payment choice more than rewards when making purchases online.

More than half of the survey respondents consider the security of their financial information as the deciding factor when they make purchases online. An additional two thirds of shoppers feel more secure when they don’t have to provide any financial information, even on sites they trust.

“Today’s consumers demand security and convenience when they shop online, and merchants must answer with an extremely safe, fast and easy buying experience,” said Cliff Hopkins, senior director, PayPal merchant services.

“When merchants offer PayPal on their sites, they allow 141 million customers around the world to shop with peace of mind because they don’t have to share their financial information online.”

Other key findings from the study include 66 percent of shoppers favor online stores that offer multiple types of payment options. Sixty-one percent of online shoppers choose sites that offer both credit and debit card payment options and 55 percent consider payment methods they will use before they click on the checkout button.