A Superior Court Judge has declined to delay the trial in the San Francisco Bay Guardian's predatory pricing suit against its two main competitors, Village Voice Media papers SF Weekly and East Bay Express. The Guardian charges the two weeklies with selling ads below cost in an effort to put it out of business.
The decline in newspaper readership among the 18-to-24 demographic has led to a youth-oriented spin-off pub even at the 12,514-circulation Hays Daily News, reports Editor & Publisher. "I never got the impression this younger generation is even picking [the daily] up," says Patrick Lowry, editor and publisher of the News. In response, Lowry is launching the weekly Stir, a newspaper and Web site that will target the local university population. "The Hays Daily News is not immune to the national trends," says Lowry.
An elaborate Procter and Gamble marketing campaign that included ads in dozens of alt-weeklies is a sign of the rapidly changing advertising philosophies at blue-chip companies, reports the New York Times. The slick and subtly tongue-in-cheek $1 million campaign, "Men With Cramps," quietly rolled out in September and ultimately generated enough buzz to rate a mention on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.†The Times notes that other corporate heavies experimenting with non-traditional marketing include American Express, Cadbury Schweppes, Coca-Cola, Ford Motor, and General Electric. The P&G campaign was crafted to highlight the company's ThermaCare line of heat pads, which helps menstrual pain.
Freelancers Sherry Deatrick of Louisville Eccentric Observer and Jennifer Smith of Isthmus, and Byron Woods, theater and dance critic for the Independent Weekly (Durham, N.C.), have each received fellowships to attend the third National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater at the USC Annenberg School for Communication in Los Angeles. "All the American arts depend on media coverage and intelligent criticism," says NEA chairman Dana Gioia. "The NEA Arts Journalism Institutes provide professional development to improve both the quantity and quality of this country's arts journalism." The Institute, a $1 million NEA initiative, will be conducted next year from Jan. 30 - Feb. 9.
Brian Conley, and his wife, Patricia Conley, spent an evening in a Knox County jail after being arrested Saturday night on charges relating to public intoxication, reports the local daily. After leaving a Christmas party, the Conley's vehicle was stopped by Knoxville Police. When the police arrested Mr. Conley for public drunkenness, his wife "became combative and interfered with the arrest," according to court records. She was subsequently arrested for disorderly conduct. "The Conleys do dispute the events as they are stated in the incident report," says their attorney, who adds that Brian Conley "did the responsible thing by having his wife drive after the party."
Tampa's Creative Loafing is among 24 Florida companies selected by the Florida Venture Forum to present at its 2007 Venture Capital Conference, according to a press release issued by the Forum. The conference, which will be held in February, allows state businesses ripe for equity financing to interact with venture capitalists, investment bankers, and other financial intermediaries. More than 1,200 people attended the 2006 Conference, representing 185 venture capital firms from across the US.
The proliferation of dramatically packaged, high-end liquors have fueled alcohol industry profits, with revenue from liquor sales jumping 21 percent since 2002, the New York Times reports. Superpremium liquor sales alone, meanwhile, have increased more than 60 percent in the last two years. The article notes the role of celebrity associations in driving the high-end drinks boom, as well as the many new flavors hitting the market. "In the last two years, spirits companies have introduced more than 210 varieties of flavored vodkas, rums and tequilas," notes the Times, "and dozens more 'superpremium' varieties priced at an average of $25 a bottle and higher."
Mayoral hopeful Buck Dozier wants to create a $1 billion endowment to generate $75 million in interest that would be funneled directly to the city's schools, an idea first floated in an old Nashville Scene column written by the paper's former editor and co-owner, Bruce Dobie. "If this city can raise enough money to build a symphony hall," asks the daily Tennessean in an editorial promoting Dobie/Dozier's idea, "why can't the same be done for public schools?"
After years of being associated with publishers, RSS feeds are increasingly being used by traditional advertisers, says an Internet advertising executive. "Companies in virtually every industry segment are using feeds to communicate with customers or constituents via RSS," Brent Hill, VP of advertising services at FeedBurner, tells Adotas. Among the advantages of feed advertising, says Hill, is the uncluttered nature of the environment. "An ad appearing with an item in a feed is often the only advertisement on the entire screen. That's not true of many online environments these days."
Automakers, oil firms and even rental-car companies are increasingly conscious of their environmental image, reports MediaBuyerPlanner. The Web site points to recent high-profile "green" promotions by Chevrolet, Ford, and Honda. The latter has unveiled a campaign entitled "Environmentology," which touts Honda as the "most fuel-efficient auto company in America" and the one most "committed to developing environmentally responsible technology."
