A study released this week by Consumer Health Sciences is the latest in a line promoting the value of pharmaceutical advertising, which has exploded in the 10 years since the federal government loosened rules about drug advertising. But it remains controversial, as critics have wondered whether the ads themselves generate demand instead of solving existing medical conditions.

The consumers who respond to DTC advertising score lower in physical and mental health and spend more money on prescriptions than the general population. Specifically, they're 29 percent more likely to have concurrent diseases, spend 21 percent more time going to the doctor's, and buy 29 percent more prescription drugs than the general population.

LIke hundreds of other media organizations that still use paper as the principal means to deliver news in an increasingly electronic world, Newsday, The Chicago Sun-Times and the Spanish-language daily Hoy have been under pressure in recent years to maintain their readership and, ideally, increase it.

Yet few newspapers or magazines have acknowledged, as each of those newspapers did recently, that they falsely pumped up their circulation to convey the illusion of vitality to advertisers and investors.

The flurry of disclosures, coming less than a year after it was revealed in a New York courtroom that Gruner & Jahr USA Publishing had inflated the circulation of Rosie magazine, has prompted some worried questions from advertising executives and Wall Street analysts. They wonder if newspaper and magazine publishers are policing their circulation practices aggressively enough and if the longstanding measures to monitor accuracy are still sufficient in an increasingly competitive climate.

Internet advertising will continue its torrid pace over the next five years, more than doubling its market share to a projected $11.4 billion in 2008, according to a new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

IST, the online phenomenon that is equal parts soapbox, singles bar and garage sale, is trying to boost revenues. But proponents of the Web site's public service attitude need not fear — the company is just trying to cover its costs. "We get so many job listings and we review them all manually. It takes up a disproportionate amount of time for our customer service people. The best way for us to separate the wheat from the chaff is to have a modest fee," Craigslist Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster told The Post.