• by December 15, 2003

HERE'S SOME REAL COMPETITIVE MEDIA INTELLIGENCE -- If the Riff could lunch anywhere today, it would be at a table within earshot of Neil Klar's and Mike Lotito's. Klar, who owns ad cost data firm SQAD, and Lotito, a former top agency media director who now runs media auditor Media IQ, consider themselves competitors, but that's not stopping them from getting together for a bite in New York today. What makes their meeting so intriguing is that Klar is backing Media Performance Monitor America, a strategic media monitoring firm that competes with Lotito's. Lotito, meanwhile, has been cultivating an advertising cost database that could well compete with SQAD's new NetCosts. Both men represent a major seachange for the media buying business: Klar, by creating a Wall Street-like ad price ticker; and Lotito by working behind the scenes with marketers and their agencies, hope to correct a marketing intelligence imbalance that has favored the media - especially the major TV networks.

AND HERE'S SOME REAL COMPETITIVE MEDIA INTELLIGENCIERS -- The Riff thought the Walt Disney Co. board was a complex amalgam of personalities and egos, but the likely new owners of New York Magazine could have more drama and intrigue than one of the magazine's cover story exposes. A team led by New York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report publisher Mort Zuckerman and comprised of media industry heavy-hitters like Deutsch Inc. chief Donny Deutsch and Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein, plus billionaire investors Nelson Peltz and Jeffrey Epstein, reportedly have made what is expected to be a successful bid to acquire New York magazine from beleaguered publisher Primedia. In fact, the only high-profile name that apparently is not associated with the bid is New York magazine's own media critic, Michael Wolff, who was part of an erstwhile partnership with Deutsch to buy the mag. Look for Wolff to skewer the deal in an upcoming column. Or, maybe not.

OKAY, BUT HOW'S ABOUT TELLING US WHAT'S ON NEXT WEEK -- Just when the Riff was starting to feel like there's too much stuff on TV for any viewer to possibly sort through, the folks at TV Guide magazine have announced plans to bring back 50 years of old TV listings. To commemorate its 50th anniversary, TV Guide is reissuing "limited edition Collector's Classics" culled from its archives. And just to prove that they're truly collectable, each issue will come with a numbered certificate of authenticity. That should help rationalize the $14.99 price for each of the reprints, which are exact replicas of the olden days of TV, including feature stories, program listings and the original advertising. So if you still haven't figured out what to get that someone special for the holidays, consider the joy they'll have thumbing through the July 4, 1953 issue of TV Guide featuring George Reeves as Superman on its cover. Or how about the March 26, 1966 edition featuring Batman, or the July 28, 1979 one showcasing The Hulk.