Unilever disclosed that its global expenditure on traditional television advertisements had dropped by one-fifth over the past three years and was set to plummet further. The news came at the biennial Royal Television Society conference in Cambridge, which also heard from the consultants Spectrum Strategy who forecast that conventional real-time viewing could drop to just 50 per cent of the time spent watching television in this country by 2012.

Hollinger International, the company that owns the Chicago Sun-Times, posted net earnings of $234.7 million in 2004, helped by the $1.3 billion sale of the Daily Telegraph of London. The company reported an operating loss of $11 million.

What is left to say about Crispin Porter & Bogusky? The name has been invoked almost as often as Starbucks, Apple and Google by the seismographers who would chart the rending shifts in today's marketing landscape. Ad gongs have been bestowed, myriad tributes written and rivals turned an unpleasant shade of green.

French advertising group Havas said on Monday its MPG media buying unit had lost a contract with automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen to U.S. rival Omnicom in France but had won a contract in Germany.

Everybody loved "Raymond" one more time at the Emmys, honoring the show Sunday as best comedy series for its final season and denying newcomer "Desperate Housewives." Another first-year hit, "Lost," won best drama honors.

Ailing ad giant Interpublic Group added "employee misconduct" to an already long list of financial woes yesterday. The firm said in a regulatory filing that it had fired an undisclosed number of staffers and expects more will follow after an internal probe turned up instances of "falsified books and records," "violations of laws" and "misappropriation of assets," among other problems.

Time Warner stock jumped yesterday as investors cheered the possibility of a wide-ranging Internet partnership with Microsoft. Time Warner has been in discussions with Microsoft about selling a stake in its beleaguered America Online unit and merging AOL with Microsoft's Web unit MSN.

The cash register at Goody's clothing store here flashed $106.01 - for a dress shirt and three pairs of Levi's - but as Lori Smith reached for her credit card, a nearby voice brought the transaction to a halt. "Tell you what, why don't you let me take care of it?" said Scott Evans, his delivery as smooth as a car salesman's as he directed Ms. Smith to a partner brandishing stacks of $1 bills. Mr. Evans explained that they were there on behalf of NBC, promoting an unscripted show, "Three Wishes," which will have its premiere on the network …

Under continuing pressure from legislators and advocates for family health, the ad industry is stepping up its review of children's marketing.

In the absence of Olympic and political ad dollars, local TV revenue dipped 7.2 percent to $3.9 billion in second quarter, offsetting a 4.6 percent gain in network TV and a 3.1 percent gain in syndicated TV, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising, which released its analysis of estimates from TNS Media Intelligence/CMR on Thursday.