A media-buying firm says it can now buy print ads at a sub-ZIP code level. Interpublic's Newspaper Services of America claims to have developed a new analytical tool that can help its clients -- which include Home Depot, Sears, CVS and Bridgestone -- target consumers even more narrowly on a geographic basis than has been possible to date. The tool lets advertisers that use major newspapers to blanket a whole metro area focus more precisely on individual neighborhoods so they can hone in on the homes of their most-desired customers via a combination of newspaper zoned editions, …

The White House and its allies are now using an ad campaign in attempt to twist congressional arms to approve a controversial new electronic spying bill that would give the executive branch expanded power to probe into the private communications of Americans -- and release telecommunications companies from liability for alleged [past] law-breaking associated with the program. Administration supporters have rolled out a $2 million television advertising campaign that features images of Osama bin Laden into the districts of about 15 Democratic members of Congress who are seen as potentially vulnerable in the 2008 general election. The group …

Pepe Jeans is going with a more upscale look and new ad campaign to attract those young contemporary consumers who gravitated toward premium brands. Hala Jbara, the company's U.S. director of marketing says Pepe has "stepped away from some of the fashion bells and whistles...and focused on the details." He adds that the new styles are an attempt to achieve a more vintage look and the wide selection on offered by retailers forced company's hand. "[Retailers] had to become very broad and offer a lot of things to a lot of different people," Jbara says. To reach …

Robert Jarvik, the inventor of the artificial heart, is defending his role in an ad campaign for Pfizer's Lipitor that was yanked from the air as the result of a congressional probe into whether it was misleading. Jarvik had appeared in the spots as a doctor offering medical advice. While he did attend med school, he isn't actually licensed to practice medicine. "I assure the public, from the bottom of my heart, that I have been sincere and honest in my role as Lipitor spokesman," Jarvik says. He adds that the campaign "fairly represents me as a world-recognized …

CBS is turning to pay cable net Showtime for programming again, this time in a deal with mixed martial arts promoter ProElite that will bring the sport -- the fastest-growing in the country -- to broadcast TV for the first time. According to the mixed martial arts site MMAjunkie, ProElite -- which partnered in 2006 with Showtime to create the Elite Xtreme Combat -- will now create events for CBS to air in prime time every other month. The deal could be announced next week, although neither CBS nor Showtime execs are talking yet. If the deal goes …

Even as it rocked the television industry over the last three months, the writers' strike had a big positive effect on cable ratings, with seven of the top 10 ad-supported networks in February seeing their prime-time viewership swell by double-digit percentages. From Jan. 28 to Feb. 24, Nielsen reports that the top 10 nets averaged a 24.9 percent increase in total viewers in prime time, a figure inflated by CNN's surge of 133 percent for its coverage of the presidential primaries. But even with that factored out, the other nine nets averaged a more than 15% gain.

While Americans are increasingly turning away from print media, a new study finds that our neighbors in Canada are still quite fond of their newspapers. Six of ten of those surveyed in the Great White North say they'd rather look at the ads in a newspaper than watch them on TV, according to an Ipsos Reid survey for the Canadian Newspaper Association. And that view is shared in almost equal proportions across all gender, age, education and household income levels. The survey also found that 45% sometimes read the paper as much for the ads as for the …

Sam Zell, the billionaire who bought Chicago-based Tribune Co. in December, is preaching a message of change at his new properties -- insisting to its Daily Press employees that the press must evolve rapidly to keep up with big changes in the media landscape. Zell says he wants to give greater autonomy to Tribune properties, so that business and editorial decisions are made at the local level and "not in a tower in Chicago." Zell also blasts Tribune's corporate culture and structure as inefficient:"My job is to throw grenades ... My goal is to be as outrageous as …