The world's newspapers enjoyed buoyant advertising sales in 2003 but overall reader numbers were in marginal decline, according to a report on the state of the industry delivered at the 57th annual World Newspaper Congress.

Want to get an NBC executive's blood boiling? Just suggest that "Dateline NBC" may have besmirched its reputation with its series of shows about the network's entertainment fare. In one month, NBC's signature newsmagazine devoted some five hours of programming to the season finale of "The Apprentice" and the series finales of "Friends" and "Frasier."

In a potential setback for ambitious efforts to create an annual Advertising Week in New York City, patterned after events like Fashion Week, the National Television Academy of Arts and Sciences has abruptly canceled plans to present new honors that would have been called the Advertising Awards for Excellence.

David Bradley, chairman and owner of Atlantic Media, is actively researching the prospect of creating a national weekly news magazine. "We hope to get something into an internal prototype by the fall," says John Galloway, chief operating officer of Atlantic Media, publisher of The Atlantic Monthly. The new title won't be closely associated to Bradley's venerable flagship book, which is based in Boston.