• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 27, 2010

I love Jon, and I know he really loves us trade hacks, but he can never resist taking shots at us – especially when he’s on the opening panel kicking off some trade publishers’ annual pre-upfornt conference. In this case, it’s Outfront 2010, brought to you by MediaPost’s MEDIA magazine.

Asked by MediaPost West Coast Editor Wayne Friedman to comment on the amount of obfuscation and the lack of transparency in last year’s upfront marketplace, Nesvig naturally blamed the trade press.

“The reporting doesn’t particularly help, as people are trying to get deals done,� Nesvig said, reciting an old saw, but he noted it was particularly vexing last year, because there was so little actual information flowing about upfront deal-making, and he implied that reporters were filling in the blanks more than usual.

“Last year, for the first time I could remember, we had to sign a number of nondisclosure agreements with agencies and clients,� Nesvig shared, adding that one of the weirdest things for him to see during the height of last year’s upfront media hype, was a TV news program “interviewing journalists so they could tell them what was going on. Which always scares me.�

Frightening indeed, Jon. Which is why some journalists like to put the conversation live, on-stage, and without the benefit of NDAs, so that our audiences can get it straight from the horse’s mouth.