Lasting Tribute enhances offering to enable families to create living memorials to their loved ones

31st January 2008

FAMILIES can now create living memorials to their loved ones at the same time as sharing memories and images on Associated Northcliffe Digital’s online obituaries website www.lastingtribute.co.uk.

There are already tribute pages to hundreds of thousands of people on the website to which their friends and relatives can add messages, memories and images. But from this month visitors to the site can also have a tree planted in memory of a loved one in any UK county, or buy a tree to be delivered so they can plant it themselves, or order a memorial rose.

In January 2008, the site reached the milestone of welcoming its 500,000th unique visitor and there has been lots of praise from those visitors, with comments like:

- “I just wanted to say a huge thank you for your Lasting Tribute site. After attending Alex's funeral a few days ago and feeling bereft I have this site that I can go to and read the wonderful tributes that his friends and family have left and know I am not alone suffering his loss.”

- “Having lost my partner in a tragic accident I just find the site helpful to see others leaving tributes to the man I loved and also I will be printing them off and putting them in a memory box for our daughter who will grow up never remembering her daddy. The site is just a great idea.”

- “I think this site is a wonderful thing. I lost my brother in 2006 and am still grieving for him. It is a wonderful way of expressing my thoughts and helping so much in more than one way. it's also so very nice to read the memories and tributes from others.”

Many of the site’s tributes originated from notices placed in the regional and local newspapers owned by AND’s sister company Northcliffe Media.

Lasting Tribute also has a presence in the virtual world Second Life. Called Tribute Island, it includes virtual tributes to many of the well-known names who also have pages on Lasting Tribute – including Pavarotti, Princess Diana and Frank Sinatra.

Tribute Island also has a military cemetery with individual headstones for almost every British soldier killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts of recent years. A video has been uploaded to YouTube which shows some of the features of Tribute Island. See it here.

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MailOnline closes in on top spot

24th January 2008

MailOnline has closed the gap on Guardian Unlimited to just 2.3 million unique visitors, new audited figures from ABCe reveal today.

It had a global audience in December of 13,629,821 Unique Visitors who looked at 105,981,970 page impressions. That’s up 116% up on the UV figure for December 2006 (6,324,204).

Meanwhile total page impressions are up 167% on December 2006 (39,656,732). MailOnline’s UK-only traffic was 3,724,892 Unique Visitors in December. It was up a massive 175% year on year (1,356,371).

54,027,196, or 51% of the total MailOnline page impressions were looked at by UK users. It means MailOnline is now 3m unique visitors ahead of Telegraph.co.uk and 2.4m unique visitors ahead of Timesonline. It generated 9m more UK page impressions than Timesonline. In December MailOnline had an average of 275,769 UK visitors a day (up by 198% from December 06).

It had 744,355 global visitors a day (up by 97% from Dec 06) or more global visitors a day than The Telegraph, The Times and the Sun.

The latest ABCe figures confirm other data from leading independent web metric firms which show that MailOnline is now one of Britain’s market-leading newspaper websites.

According to Hitwise, MailOnline has now been the biggest UK newspaper website for 10 out of the last 11 weeks with an 18.22% market share in the week-ending 19/01/08, compared with just 9.75% a year ago.

Meanwhile ComScore figures for December 2007 clearly show MailOnline as Britain's biggest newspaper website among global users and reveal that in the UK, Mail Online readers spend longer on the site per day than Telegraph, Times, Guardian, or Sun readers and take longer to look at each page.

They also visit more often every month than users of The Sun, Telegraph, Times and Guardian websites.

Mail Online users also consume more pages per month, compared to visitors to the Times, Guardian or Telegraph sites.

The findings are backed up by data from Neilsen ratings which show that MailOnline UK users spend an average 34 minutes on the site a month - over TWICE as long as UK users of the Times, Telegraph or Guardian.

For further details please contact:
Martin Clarke on 020 7938 7176 or Stephen Miron on 020 7938 6489.

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Primelocation.com report significant fall in prime country property asking prices in December, while prime London prices stall

21st January 2008

The prime London sales market ends 2007 with average prices rising by just 0.1% since November and with annual price growth of 13.0%, down from a peak of 31.2% witnessed back in June. Perhaps the most surprising element of the prime property market in 2007 has been the speed with which market sentiment changed, from the record price growth and property values achieved in the height of the summer, to the struggling and increasingly cautious market currently being experienced not just in London but across the country. Many are already heralding 2008 as the year of the buyer’s market, a dramatic turnaround from the seller’s market of 2007.

Prices are in decline across all areas of prime London, with the exception of the Central/South West region, where a marginal increase in average prices of 0.3% is propping up the average figure for the prime London market and keeping it in marginal positive price growth. Meanwhile, the prime country sales market has seen the largest fall in prices recorded since the Index began back in January 2004. The drop of 1.3% in average prices since November comes on the back of three successive months of falling prices. Average annual price growth has also slowed dramatically, dropping from 10.4% in September to 6.5% by December, the fourth straight month of declining annual price growth.

New instructions declined significantly in December, with the number of properties on the market up just 0.8% compared to November, the lowest rise in property volumes since February 2007.

Keep up to speed with changes in UK property values with the Primelocation.com House Price Index. Our unique property market indicator shows trends in house prices and rental prices in different regions across the UK. Click here to read more.

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Jobsite Research Reveals 7th of January is The Best Day of The Year To Post Job Vacancies

January 7th 2008

January 7th 2008 is the busiest day in the year for UK jobseekers with nearly half of all UK employees likely to search for new career options online according to new research from www.jobsite.co.uk.

The Jobsite research of over 1,500 UK employees reveals a staggering 42 per cent of people are planning to hunt for work this month (January), with the majority planning to start their search for a new job on the 7th January. The second most popular day is the 31st January when most people recieve their first pay cheque of 2008. 61 per cent of jobseekers plan to spend more than two hours a day on their New Year jobhunt whilst 41 per cent of employees will be searching for vacancies when they should be working.

The research also reveals that posting vacancies online will be the most effective method of attracting candidates this year, as jobhunters are now most likely to search for a new job via the internet – 48 per cent of people polled say this is the easiest way to look for work. A further 22 per cent will look through ads in the papers, whilst one in 10 will only apply for a job if they hear about it from friends or family.

Keith Potts, CEO of www.jobsite.co.uk, which carried out the research, says: ‘’The New Year is often seen as a good time to make changes and start afresh. With time off over Christmas to reflect on your current job situation it’s perhaps unsurprising that the first Monday back in the office – which this year is the 7th January - sends most people looking for something more fulfilling.”

Potts adds: “To capture and retain the interest of these high quality, semi-active jobseekers who are speculatively looking to see what’s out there, recruiters need to be highly visible during this peak time .The jobhunting cycle tends to be 3 months for candidates, so if recruiters can reach this surge of new jobseekers today, they can ensure a steady supply of candidates this quarter.”

The poll of 1,500 candidates revealed that almost half of people have used the Christmas break to think about their career, with 62 per cent saying they think the New Year is an ideal time to have a new start. While money is the most significant driver behind jobhunting in January, 51 per cent of UK workers also crave more job satisfaction. And more than one in ten say they are unhappy in their current job.

For more information or a further breakdown of the research please contact:

Jobsite

Cheryl Morgan (cheryl.morgan@jobsite.co.uk)

Vicky Taylor (vicky.taylor@jobsite.co.uk)

0870 774 8500

Band & Brown PR

Michael Sheen (michael.sheen@bbpr.com)
0207 419 7000

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