As if any more evidence were needed that the newspaper industry is slogging through a period of unprecedented contraction and pain, Tribune-owned Newsday, of New York, has announced that it's firing 72 employees and that 40 vacant positions will be eliminated. It was only a month ago that 59 newsroom employees left the paper, mostly through buyouts. Yesterday's announcement emphasized that no journalists were among the 72 full-timers who were axed. Also yesterday, in another sign that newspapers across the country are hurting, the Chicago Tribune, also a Tribune-owned daily, eliminated 28 editorial jobs.  Additionally, the Trib-owned Los Angeles …

Call it a case of coincidence if you will, but industry observers were nevertheless amused, if not thoroughly surprised, when it was revealed that Martha Stewart Living Ominimedia and Time Inc. were both recently contemplating the launch of similar magazines bearing the exact same name--Blueprint.  The lifestyle magazines, aimed at young women just getting started in life, may never see the light of day.  Time Inc. has passed on the concept. MSLO has not yet made a final decision, although Martha Stewart herself referred to the magazine on "Larry King Live" last week. One kicker in all of this:  …

The American Press Institute will spend $2 million to fund a study aimed at developing industry-saving strategies.  Called “Newspaper Next: The Transformation Project,” the study begins with the premise that, according to API president-exec director Drew Davis, "Newspapers are at... a strategic inflection point. Customer preferences are changing, technology is changing, and in every case of change like this... businesses have ceased to exist."  True enough, there is little more than grim news lately for those who love print newspapers.  Ad Age, in reporting the API's initiative, referred to it as "a little late."   …

Although France is said to be experiencing a difficult advertising environment at this time, NBC Universal has decided to take its Sci-Fi cable channel into that market, hoping to expand the network's overseas presence. "Some of our competitors have been doing very well internationally, but some have also invested a lot of money they are still trying to recoup," said Patrick Vien, vice president of NBC Universal Global Network in an interview with the Reuters news service. "The number-one rule for us is not the number of assets, it's the profitability of them." Three months ago NBC Universal launched a …

Knight Ridder is based in San Jose, Calif.--not San Diego, as was reported in yesterday's edition. MediaPost regrets the error.

As Nobel Prize winner in economics Herbert Simon famously observed, people spout lots of thoughtful-sounding verbiage about their spending habits, but ultimately they almost always choose to do what is in their own best economic interests. So it should come as no surprise that consumers profess to want advertising-free media, but they won't actually dig into their wallets to pay for it. So said Crispin Porter + Bogusky's chairman Chuck Porter yesterday at the Reuters Media and Advertising Summit in New York. "Every focus group we have had, people said, 'We don't want commercials on the radio. We will pay …

TiVo recently announced the launch of a feature permitting users to view ads on demand. But what will prompt users to actually seek out TV advertising? What should the interface look like? What kind of incentives can be deployed? These questions are being addressed by a team of agency experts partnering with TiVo to develop the service. "The new product is important in helping us figure out the future," said Larry Spiegel of the Richards Group, a Dallas-based agency. Starcom USA's 16 account directors are meeting with TiVo researchers to assess advertiser's concerns. Said Tracy Scheppach, Starcom's TV-video innovations director: …

Merrill Lynch securities analyst Lauren Rich Fine, in a research note issued this morning, lowered the firm's ad-spending growth estimates for 2005, from its previous estimate of 3.7 percent to 3.2 percent. Additionally, Merrill's 2006 estimate has been revised downward as well. Officially, it now sees ad growth next year coming in at 4.5 percent, while it has earlier had predicted a figure of 5.2 percent. The revisions in Merrill's estimates are even worse than they immediately appear. If direct mail is factored out of the estimates, the growth rate for major media this year will have been only 2.3 …

Following weeks of speculation over where Fox would schedule the next season of "American Idol," its powerhouse amateur-hour show, the network announced yesterday that it would keep it where it's always been, on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. This clears the way for rival networks to complete their lineups for the upcoming season, as no one wants to go directly against the seemingly unstoppable Fox extravaganza. NBC, which is in a rebuilding mode, has been particularly eager to settle on a schedule. With an "Idol"-less Thursday, there's a possibility that NBC will move its freshman hit, "My Name Is Earl," to …

NPR host Bob Garfield, speaking to a group of about 300 at Ball State University this week, said new technologies are wrecking traditional media and that, during this period of transition, a certain amount of chaos is inevitable. According to an account of his speech, which appeared in Ball State's student newspaper, Garfield, author of the book The Chaos Scenario, said the current fragmentation of media is responsible for a significant loss of advertising. Speaking apocalyptically, the talk-show host said, "The collapse of the old media model will unleash vast forces, and much of it will be coming at you. …