From Valentine's Day to Cinco de Mayo, most corners of the calendar have been drafted into service by advertisers, producing such heartfelt rituals as Presidents' Day car sales. Now marketers are exploring ways to capitalize on one of the few occasions that have remained relatively uncommercialized: election season.

With circulation declines hitting the industry, more and more newspapers are emphasizing readership and subscriber profiles. In 1999, the Audit Bureau of Circulations introduced a method for tracking reader profiles and did the same in 2001 for subscriber profiles. This month the board further revised these standards on the recommendation of the reader and subscriber profile committee, which consists of buyers, newspapers, magazines and researchers.

MILWAUKEE - People looking for work this spring could find the strongest U.S. job market in more than three years, even as companies remain reluctant to hire, a new survey shows.

Pointing to a sunnier overall economic outlook as well as to the continued strong ROI that marketers are getting from the Yellow Pages, Norton commended the industry for embracing change while at the same time tending to its core strengths. "We're not just paper anymore," he noted. "Most of the paper companies are online now, plus some of them have CD-ROMs and some are moving into wireless. Publishers are doing a good job of getting information to consumers wherever and whenever they want it."

Internet portal Yahoo has ramped up its efforts to capture a share of the local advertising market with an improved mapping tool that allows people to quickly find local restaurants, movie listings, ATM machines or other services.