• The New York Times , Monday, September 22, 2008 11:15 AM

A story in Saturday's Times about the danger of texting while doing other things -- such as crossing the street or driving a locomotive -- contained an interesting statistic from CTIA-The Wireless Association: 7.2 billion text messages were sent in the U.S. in June, 2005; 75 billion in June 2008 -- a tenfold increase in 36 months.

Today's Times is crammed with glum financial stories -- "Wall Street Fastens Seatbelt"; "Foreign Banks Hope ... Bailout Will Be Global"; "Hedge Funds Face Chaos" are just a few -- leaving scant room for news about brands. The ad column rounds up "messages of strength" from the financial sector, along with sound bytes on the crises from advertising, media and analyst types. Hard to pin any conclusions on the half-page effort except that times are tough and the future is murky.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »