As magazines struggle to recuperate after the worst ad slump in decades, media companies and traditional publishers are attempting to beat the odds with titles spun off from successful brands. Sometimes they work--think ESPN the Magazine--and sometimes they don't, like Sports Illustrated for Women. Next week, an icon of teen life will launch its own magazine. Will MTV Magazine, the stepchild of the TV channel, confirm branding as the industry's new panacea?

One of the advertising industry's funniest and most lauded radio campaigns is making the remarkable, albeit risky, transition to TV.

A multiethnic coalition gave the major U.S. television networks high marks on Monday for boosting the presence of Latino talent in prime time, but said Asian Americans have made far less progress and native Americans remain almost invisible on the airwaves.

Douglas Johnson, a recently enlisted foot soldier in the battle to stem the nation's declining newspaper circulation, was darting among the commuters streaming from Grand Central Terminal on Friday morning, desperate to get some attention for New York City's newest paper.

Their differences may seem academic -- until the impact of each intertwined element of a successful sales drive lifts the bottom line.

The fall television season is upon us. As viewers check out the new shows, producers, writers and actors anxiously await their reactions. What do the critics say? Do ordinary viewers agree? Which programs will survive the season, and which will die after only a few episodes? Are there any hits? What's the buzz?

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.

The marketing battle among restaurant chains has taken another turn as Quiznos Sub, the fast-growing chain of about 2,500 sandwich shops, has appointed a new advertising agency to help usher new customers through the doors amid the frantic competition.

If, by most accounts, national ad spending trends remain relatively strong in the back half of 2003, there are signs of continuing shakiness in the gradual industry rebound.

When the dust settles on the great b-to-b ad recession of 2001-2003 (2004?), and the trade mag biz gets back to normal (whatever that might be), what will the landscape look like?