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The ongoing audience and advertiser erosion in broadcast network television will accelerate this year, as consumers shift more of their time and money to other technologies and media, and as more ad dollars migrate to cable. Television-driven media concerns will continue to refute these permanent, dramatic changes as a fluke even as it eats through their bottom line. That is the troubled picture the Morgan Stanley media research team painted in a client call and corresponding report this week that mirrors many of the ongoing concerns and prognostications I have written about in this newsletter during the past year.

Online recruitment advertising hit $3.1 billion last year, with Monster.com and Yahoo! leading the way. But a new study out from Borrell Associates said newspaper-operated Web sites are poised for significant growth in the sector.

The juggernaut of online dating services, Match.com, is trying to bring its members into even closer virtual contact by incorporating an old-fashioned device: the telephone.

Radio ad spending, which enjoyed a brief respite earlier this year, continued to slump in November, with a fall in local and national ad revenue compared to a year ago. And while radio companies said fourth-quarter revenues would be hurt by comparisons with 2002's political spending, that wasn't the story behind the 4 percent decline in overall advertising revenues in November 2003. National ad sales, which wouldn't be affected by political ad spending, dropped 6 percent during the month compared with November 2002. Local ad sales dropped by 4 percent. The data was released Tuesday by the Radio Advertising Bureau.

Auto enthusiasts who attend the North American International Auto Show, kicking off this week in Detroit, may be part of a dying breed. Jupiter Research predicts that more than a third of all new car sales will be "Internet-generated" by 2008.

As viewers, especially young men, change their TV habits, ad firms are forced to alter their advertising strategies.

Three years ago, digital media company Loudeye began compiling its vast repository of digital music files. The idea of swapping music across the Web was new. No one had yet tried to get consumers to pay to download individual songs. But with consumers fast getting used to the idea of buying songs online, scores of companies are readying launches of digital music initiatives.