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 …

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, …

What could have been the final debate of the Democratic presidential primaries was a huge success for MSNBC, leading the cable news channel to its highest ratings ever. More than 7.8 million viewers tuned in to Tuesday's debate between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, according to Nielsen Media Research, making it the third-most-watched debate this cycle, behind ABC's Democratic debate on the eve of the New Hampshire presidential primary and CNN's Kodak Theatre offering this month. And it was far above anything else ever shown in MSNBC's 11-year history. Its previous record was the 3.7 million viewers who …

Credit agency Experian has charged identity-theft insurance company Lifelock in a lawsuit that charges it with "misleading advertising and fraud." Experian claims that Lifelock has illegally put fraud alerts on credit files it manages that "have caused damage to both Experian and consumers and threaten to degrade the effectiveness of fraud alerts over time." So far, more than 720,000 people have signed up for Lifelock's service and the company is currently running a $50 million ad campaign in which the CEO hands out fliers with his Social Security number to people on the street. A mobile billboard …

Brian Tierney, the (relatively) new owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philly.com says that his goal is to attract new readers online and to be "realistic" about print demos, which aren't about young people. "We're targeting women 35+," he says. "We're being very, very tactical" with beach promotions and the like. He adds, in remarks to the National Newspaper Association's annual convention, that "No other industry kicks itself in the rear end more than newspapers... Newspapers magnify their own problems to their audience." Further, "we don't talk about the good things. The conversion from print to online at …

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 …

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 …

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.