Weekly Comms News Round Up 29/08/2013

It’s nearly the end of August! The summer has flown by and guess what that means?
Well it’s time to dig out those cardigans but for top tips for what to wear this winter, keep an eye on our fashion week features. Here’s also my weekly pick of comms news stories curated via @CisionUK.

Twitter rolling out new conversations UI for Web, iPhone and Android  by @beijingdou via The Next Web
Twitter has revamped the way it displays conversations on the Web, iPhone and Android by adding a vertical blue line to indicate the tweets are connected and displaying the tweets in chronological order.

Up to three tweets in a conversation will be displayed on the home timeline, though of course you can always expand to read the whole thread. Conversations can also be shared over email for non-Twitter users to read.

Regional newspaper website traffic brings relief to decline in print sales  by @JoshHalliday via the Guardian
Print sales of regional newspapers might only be going in one direction, but their websites are recording huge surges in readers. Three regional newspaper publishers – including the owners of the Scotsman, Northern Echo and Manchester Evening News – passed 10 million monthly online readers for the first time in the six months to June.

Johnston Press, the 246-year-old newspaper publisher, recorded a total of 11,144,376 visitors including those of the Scotsman, Yorkshire Evening Post and Sunderland Echo.

Spotify ads: which is right for your brand? by @BTWOMGLIKEYAH via Econsultancy
The global music streaming giant Spotify made £370m in revenue for 2012 with increases in both users and advertisers. Spotify has a selection of ten main advert formats. Some are interruptive, others arrive during extended terms of no-use of the application, and some are clickable.

These ad formats will suit various types of businesses. The high-end or in need of last-second promotion (movie studios, album launches) will enjoy the light boxes and homepage takeovers, while small businesses with low budgets may prosper with trendy playlists.

Here’s How the New York Times and Twitter Got Hacked by @jonrussell via The Next Web
Hacking group the Syrian Electronic Army has added another major media company to its list of scalps after it took the New York Times’ website offline, and affected Twitter’s image service.

Today’s efforts are just the latest in a series of attacks on Western media from the SEA — an independent group that is supportive of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – but how did it take down one of the world’s largest newspapers and affect one of the Internet’s most influential social networks?

Infographic: What’s in a brand’s logo? by Jennifer Faull via The Drum
What does a logo really say about a brand? 123Print have tried to answer this very question by looking at the colours, fonts, and designs of some of the world’s most famous brands. 41 per cent of companies just use text in their logos, while nine per cent don’t use any text at all and instead opt for an iconic symbol, like Apple or Starbucks.