Radio stations can expect to pick up local ad dollars, like sale-driven commercials from retail outlets, as newspapers shift their businesses online, says the chief executive of a top media buying firm. Weak advertising environments for the radio and print markets have companies in both segments experimenting with digital outlets while considering buyouts from private investors. But if some industry watchers lump the two together in their woes, Charles Courtier, global CEO of Mediaedge:cia, believes newspapers' move to the Internet could be a windfall for radio. "Most people don't think well of radio's future. I don't …

It's a cycle that sees no end. Circulation drops, costs rise, revenues are flat and yet the business needs to maintain its 20% plus margins. Thankfully, January is coming up, so newspapers can fall back on their usual strategy and jack up 2007 advertising rates. But this time there's a huge problem ahead--many advertisers are playing hardball. For 2006, many U.S. newspapers that lost circulation still asked for 6% increases. USA Today went for 8%. And with few exceptions, most metropolitan newspapers have reported their 2006 advertising numbers were less than 2005. Given the Internet's power to …

A full-page newspaper ad that portrayed British Prime Minister Tony Blair with a Hitler-style barcode moustache was not offensive, according to the UK's ad watchdog. The ad for the No2ID nonpartisan anti-ID card lobby group had a close-up photo of Blair with a barcode on his upper lip and text underneath it saying: "ID cards have worked well in Europe before." The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received complaints about it. In addition, the photograph of Blair had been retouched to make it look like a 1930s portrait, and the layout was designed to echo the Nazi …

Live TV is rapidly becoming a distant memory--even in the entertainment and sports world. Janet Jackson's nipples and Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s death have driven network execs to introduce delays into live broadcasts. Meanwhile, CNN's news and ESPN's "SportsCenter" are recorded and rebroadcast--over and over and over again. Take a moment to scan your cable guide in order to estimate the quantity of original, first-aired programming. Of the $45 per month subscribers pay for video, at least half is for replays. Essentially, the trade magazine claims, cable companies "are already centralized DVRs."

The New York Post will soon begin distribution in the San Francisco Bay Area, bringing the Rupert Murdoch tabloid's brand of crime, gossip and right-wing politics to one of the country's most progressive cities. The Post has been printed and delivered in South Florida for many years, and expanded into Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles earlier this year. It will will be printed in San Francisco on the presses of the San Francisco Examiner. Howard Rubenstein, head of the newspaper's PR agency, confirms that the Post will "distribute a minimum number of copies in San Francisco. It won't …