AAN News
Promos Cut Into Advertising's Share of Marketingnew
Media-based advertising, which fended off a threatening shift toward consumer and trade promotion spending during the late 1980s and early 1990s, is once again losing share of marketing budgets. While U.S. ad spending has pulled out of recession and managed to expand at moderate rates, promotional and trade spending have been growing at much faster rates, according to the results of an annual study released last week by the Promotion Marketing Association and PROMO magazine.
Media Daily News |
04-05-2004 9:32 am |
Industry News
Unread Papers Pile Up As Newsday Faces Suitnew
A Long Island Press investigation uncovers evidence of dumped papers and other circulation irregularities on the heels of a $100 million federal racketeering lawsuit filed against Newsday, one of the largest dailies in the country. The Press's Christopher Twarowski finds mounds of Newsday circulars decomposing in wetlands behind a distributor's home, discovers piles of apparently unread papers in a town's recycling bins, and interviews shopkeepers who claim the paper credits them for fewer returns than they send back. The plaintiffs' attorney alleges that advertisers "have been ripped off untold amounts."
Westword Wins Investigative Award for Rape Storynew
The Denver weekly's Julie Jargon won an Investigative Reporters and Editors Certificate for her story "The War Within," about two female cadets who were punished and kicked out of the U.S. Air Force Academy after they complained of being raped. IRE judges noted that the article "is a great example of tackling a sensitive story at a powerful institution."
Investigative Reporters and Editors news release |
04-01-2004 6:11 pm |
Industry News
Freedom Underground Sneaks Deserter into Canadanew
In March, Indianapolis activist Carl Rising-Moore helped an Army private, Brandon David Hughey, cross the border into Canada after the young man decided to desert rather than serve in what he believes is an illegal war. NUVO's Jim Walker profiles the contemplative, defiant Vietnam War era veteran who has become conductor of the new underground railroad. In an accompanying piece, Becky Oberg describes Hughey's safe passage into Canada, where he was met by the CBC and some Quakers.
Author Explores Drug Policy's Human Costnew
A series staff writer Jennifer Gonnerman wrote for the Village Voice in 2000 laid the groundwork for her new book, "Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett." The book, which was featured on the front cover of the New York Times Book Review March 21, describes Bartlett's life post-release. After serving 16 years for a drug offense, she tries to reconnect with the children accustomed to seeing her in a prison visiting room. "What jumps out at you from 'Life on the Outside' is the extent to which imprisonment has been normalized," reviewer Brent Staples writes.
New York Times Book Review |
04-01-2004 12:02 pm |
Industry News
Study: Women Prefer Humorous Adsnew
Marketers looking to target women might try putting more humor in their ads. So say preliminary findings in a yearlong study prepared by Oxygen Media and Grey Global Group's MediaCom. The study focuses on women and humor. Initial findings were released today.
AdWeek.com |
04-01-2004 10:42 am |
Industry News
Free Dailies Get New National Ad Networknew
In another sign that commuter and youth papers are not a fleeting industry fad, free dailies now have their own national rep firm. Fittingly, perhaps, the Free Daily Newspaper Network (FDNN) launched today is headed by a former publisher of the Metro commuter dailies that spurred mainstream publishers in many cities to create their own free quick-read papers: James McDonald, now president of Journal Newspapers, which circulate in suburbs of Washington, D.C.
Editor & Publisher |
04-01-2004 9:34 am |
Industry News
Alt-Weekly Intern Becomes Book Authornew
Marty Beckerman was in a Washington, D.C., bookstore in March pushing copies of his new book, "Generation S.L.U.T.: A Brutal Feel-Up Session with Today’s Sex-Crazed Adolescent Populace." Mike DeBonis reports on the early success of the 21-year-old American University student. While Beckerman was a summer intern at New York Press in 2002, then editor John Strausbaugh helped him connect with a literary agent. The young author tells Washington City Paper the deal he struck with MTV/Pocket Books should get him through a semester of college.
Washington City Paper |
04-01-2004 4:13 pm |
Industry News
Vince Foster Photo Decision Narrowly Protects Privacy
Alice Neff Lucan |
04-01-2004 12:12 pm |
Legal News
New Mexico Governor Could Sway Latino Votenew
Bill Richardson is rumored to be on the short list to be the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, but he downplays his interest. James Oliphant describes the man who might become the first Hispanic on a presidential ticket as part Music Man and part minister with "a super-sized portion of patron thrown into the mix." The Santa Fe Reporter writer accompanies Richardson to the Nambe Pueblo and interviews him about a career that included offering a Sudanese rebel commander an immunization program in exchange for hostages and serving a troubled stint as U.S. Energy Secretary.
Tags: Santa Fe Reporter
Extra Effort to Sign Up Means Fewer Organ Donorsnew
Organs for transplant are in short supply in British Columbia, in part because the Canadian province has a good road safety record and far fewer deaths from gunshot wounds than the U.S. Writing for The Georgia Straight, Gail Johnson compares various countries' approaches to identifying transplant donors—some assume consent unless the person opted out earlier. British Columbia's registry program requires potential donors to take more initiative they did under a driver's license decal program, and not even 15 percent of residents have signed up.
Boston's Weekly Dig Satirizes Its Larger Rivalnew
The new issue of the Dig looks a lot like The Boston Phoenix, with bylines that are plays on the names of Phoenix staff writers. The Boston Globe Names columnists Carol Beggy and Mark Shanahan report that the parody is the latest episode in a dispute over advertising tactics (third item). Dig publisher Jeff Lawrence has challenged Phoenix publisher Stephen Mindich to a one-mile footrace on April 19, with the loser required to make a donation to charity. Mindich hasn't responded.
Boston Globe |
03-30-2004 11:54 am |
Industry News
Philadelphia Weekly Relaunches with New Logo and Brand
03-30-2004 6:56 pm |
Press Releases
Catholics Pressure Legislators to Ban Gay Marriagenew
Will a Catholic legislator who backs same-sex marriage now burn in hell for it later? The most hard-line opponents seem to want lawmakers to think so. Some Catholics are conducting a vociferous campaign in the hope of thwarting a Massachusetts high court ruling that it's unconstitutional to prohibit same-sex couples from marrying. Kristen Lombardi reports for The Boston Phoenix that the church's behind-the-scene lobbying efforts have left at least 10 legislators feeling denounced and harassed.
How Being Overweight Became the Norm
Think you're too fat? You can always blame Richard M. Nixon. By expanding farm subsidies and loosening regulations while he was president, Nixon "sowed the seeds that would end humanity's long war against hunger, making food cheap and plentiful to all Americans," Jim Duncan writes. "For that we now lay upon his grave the blame for the nation's epidemic obesity." The Pointblank cover story includes interviews with two women back in prison for using meth to lose the weight gained during a previous incarceration.
