The Independent: Will the internet survive the economic meltdown? - by Sly Bailey

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Will the internet survive the economic meltdown? - by Sly Bailey

With the credit crunch kicking in, it stands to reason that online publishing is in for a torrid time. Doesn't it? Some of the signs, admittedly, aren't great. Yahoo shares are at their lowest value since 2003. Even the mighty Google's grip on growth is loosening, and its net revenue was actually down in the second quarter of 2008 compared to the previous period . Meanwhile, research published last week by media analyst group Enders suggested that growth for UK online media advertising would be considerably lower than the 28 per cent that had been expected for 2008 – its revised estimate is a more modest 18.5 per cent. Financial, recruitment and property advertisers are all cutting their spending plans, the report suggests. Similarly, venture capital groups are becoming worried about their investment exits. There has been virtually no company flotations this year – a common method for a venture capitalist investor to recoup money on a digital publishing investment. The result is that one source of investment capital is drying up.

But before we get carried away on this wave of despair, there are some more healthy predictions out there. On Wednesday, the Internet Advertising Bureau will unveil its own research for the first half of the year. Its chief executive, Guy Phillipson, will tell a Westminster eForum seminar on online advertising that the internet advertising spend has been above expectations for the six months to June, despite the downturn. "We're seeing serious consumer demand, and an increasing realisation that online is the most efficient way of satisfying that need," he says. "Since 1999, online has grown from nothing to a euro 4bn industry in the UK. It's simply the best direct response medium ever invented."

Spiegel On-Line: The Mini-Penis Scandal: US Publisher Turns away from German Cartoon Nudity - by Franziska Bossy and Elke Schmitter

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The Mini-Penis Scandal: US Publisher Turns away from German Cartoon Nudity - by Franziska Bossy and Elke Schmitte

The drawings are harmless really. But a US publisher has decided not to publish a series by children's book author Rotraut Susanne Berner. The problem? Cartoon breasts and a half-millimeter-long willy.The drawings are harmless really. But a US publisher has decided not to publish a series by children's book author Rotraut Susanne Berner. The problem? Cartoon breasts and a half-millimeter-long willy.

American kiddies, obviously, could never be expected to handle such a depiction of the human body. The US publisher, somewhat awkwardly, asked if they could be removed."It was really a sensation," Berner told SPIEGEL ONLINE. At first. As it turned out, there were a couple of changes that had to be made before the books could be unleashed on the America public. First off, smokers had to be removed from the illustrations. But that wasn't all. One image shows a scene from an art gallery -- and for realism's sake, there is a cartoonish nude hanging on the wall along with a tiny, seven-millimeter-tall statue of a naked man on a pedestal.