It's déjà vu all over again in Vancouver, where the venerable alt-weekly is under attack from B.C. Liberal ministers. In what Publisher & Editor Dan McLeod calls "the biggest threat in its 36-year history," the Straight has been stripped of its status as a newspaper under provincial sales-tax legislation and assessed fines and penalties that will total more than one million dollars by year's end. McLeod, whose paper was "prosecuted frequently under a wide assortment of trumped- up charges" in its early years, calls the new attack "a politically motivated attempt by the government to silence one of its harshest critics."
David Corn, Washington editor of The Nation, was the first journalist to report that a July 14 piece by conservative columnist Robert Novak was potential evidence of a possible White House crime. In that article, Novak, citing “senior administration officials,” disclosed that the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson was a CIA operative. In a piece this week for LA Weekly, Corn explains how he broke the CIA-leak story, and why nobody noticed.
When it comes to buying advertising time, some habits die hard, like what appears to be a single- minded focus on targeting broad demographic groups. In television that demographic is adults 18-49 and in radio it has long been adults 25-54.   But advertisers are starting to move away from targeting all-encompassing groups, helped along in the past few decades by the emergence of media outlets that concentrate on niche audiences. In radio the percentage of ad dollars targeting the 25-54 demographic has been falling for the past seven years,
For years, NBC's central marketing pitch to advertisers, agencies, TV critics and the trade press alike has been the value of the network's adult 18-49 audience. It has even gone so far as to proclaim it is the only demo that really counts on Madison Avenue. But on Wednesday, the peacock network revealed its real demographic bottom line to Wall Street: adults 25-54.
Though a stalwart in the American pastime of drunken competition, foosball is just another "beer pong" to most -- something to do with friends as your head buzzes and liver throbs. But there is a tightly knit worldwide culture lurking beneath the game's surface that encompasses the most -- and least -- loved elements of professional sports: comeback wins, grudge matches, gambling, groupies, drug dealers, superstition, madness, tradition, titles, trophies and, of course, cash. Nathan North reports from the 2003 Pro Foosball Championship in Dallas.
A survey of California residents during the gubernatorial recall race shows diminished faith in political ads when they traditionally peak--as Election Day draws near. And the Golden State election may be an indicator of how media, advertising and voters interact in the next presidential election.
How fast the market for local advertising is recovering — or even if it is recovering — has become a subject of intense speculation along Madison Avenue. For those arguing whether or not there is evidence of a comeback, the answer echoes that from the old Certs commercial: Stop, you're both right.
Two years after the Taliban fled Kabul, there is still a lot of hope in Afghanistan. Optimism is frequently voiced, some of it even genuine, though it hardly balances the anger and despair. Ben Ehrenreich visits this damaged country and finds Westerners trying to help -- sometimes bizarrely -- and Afghans trying to cope, even to understand.
With the Tribune Co. majority-owned amNewYork set to debut this Friday, the European newspaper company Metro International is preparing to launch its own free paper in the Big Apple, reports New York Daily News' Paul Colford. According to Colford, Metro says its standardized format consisting of short articles is designed "to enable commuters to read the newspaper during a typical journey time of approximately 16.7 minutes."
