Mobile Advertising Bits: NI Newspapers Forms Measurement Group; Vodafone's Ad-Funded MMS Alerts

??? News International Newspapers Launching Mobile Ad Measurement Group: News International Newspapers has formed an industry group to give mobile advertisers more accurate, independently verified measurement tools, reports NMA.co.uk. The Sun, The Times, News of the World and satellite broadcaster Sky???all owned or part-owned by News International, are the founding members of The Leadership in Mobile group, which has appointed mobile research firm Mediacells to audit the member sites. The group will publish reports on a monthly basis, starting in April. They are also talking to other publishers, including rivals ITN and ITV (LSE: ITV), to join the initiative. In February, the operator association GSMA announced the UK's top five operators were joining together to pin down common metrics and measurement for mobile ads.

??? Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) UK Rolling Out Ad-Funded MMS Newsletters: Vodafone UK is launching four ad-funded MMS newsletters from April to boost mobile ad inventory, reports NMA.co.uk. The newsletters, which will include pictures and video, for cars, entertainment, games and technology, and includes content from publishers such as Emap (LSE: EMA), will be free to subscribers who have opted in to receive the free alerts. Consumers will have to give personal details, which Vodafone will use to create segmented databases of users, allowing advertisers to buy into user profiles. Vodafone ad partner Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) is talking to media agencies to drum up advertisers to sponsor the alerts.