Google was working on some interesting ideas for its general election coverage, if only one had been called. It was planning to replicate its Australian election site google.com.au/election2007 for the UK, with news gadgets offering feeds of everybody else’s stuff that can be sorted by issue and by constituency. Who needs newspapers? More interestingly, there were plans to find ways for YouTube members to put questions to politicans - loosely in the manner of the YouTube/CNN presidential debates in the US (the Republican candidates are due to meet on the net on November 28). Although there were negotiations with broadcasters, the real problem in Britain is that there is not the same tradition of head-to-head debates.

— Viscount Rothermere loves newspapers now, particularly the regional ones that he tried to sell off only a couple of years ago. At an analysts’ day this week, his Daily Mail and General Trust, publisher of the Hull Daily Mail, said that its British regional titles were integral again, and there are now plans to hit Eastern Europe, with Bosnia, Serbia and Romania targets for expansion in a business with a presence in Slovakia, Croatia and, of course, Hungary, where an earlier Lord Rothermere was offered the throne back in 1927. Profits of £92.5 million in the year just finished are expected in the turnaround operation.

— One day, Universal Music may just have to be stopped. Kanye West and Akon have helped to push its market share in the first nine months of the year up to 32 per cent, from 31.3 per cent. Warner and EMI (despite its woes in the UK) are also up a bit, at 16 per cent and 9.5 per cent, respectively, leaving the still misfiring Sony BMG the only loser, plunging to 21.9 per cent, from 24.5 per cent a year ago. That’s despite having the bestselling album of the year so far, the self-titled effort from Daughtry, which has sold 2 million so far. Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black, by the way, already the UK’s bestseller, has managed 1.2 million and lies 12th.

— Peter Fincham’s fate is clearly putting off rivals, with Roly Keating, the BBC Two controller, ruling himself out of the same job at BBC One, even though he is acting in the role for the moment. Alison Sharman, ITV’s daytime controller, and Jane Root, who runs the Discovery Channel, also cried off. However, the BBC shouldn’t worry. In the end, the lure of the job proves too great for somebody good.

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