With the Feb. 10 publication of its 2009 Swimsuit Edition, Sports Illustrated is expanding into the realm of event or "experiential" marketing. The first event is a Feb. 12 flight from New York to Las Vegas with the magazine's 19 swimsuit models, corporate sponsors, clients and SI leaders. President Mark Ford defines the new marketing focus as branded entertainment. "We had a business that was really magazine-centric. This is another big step for our brand to expand our footprint," across additional media platforms, he says. For future efforts, the mag will outsource most of its experiential planning to …

Two weeks after threatening magazine publishers with price hikes, a pair of wholesalers that together account for half the magazine market, have ceased operations. Anderson News and Source Interlink set a Feb. 1 deadline for the new 7% price hike. But publishers and distributors, including Time Inc. and distributor Curtis Circulation, refused to pay. Some of them believed Anderson and Source would back down at the last minute -- but it looks like the wholesalers weren't bluffing. Magazines with on-sale dates of the week of February 2 will still be distributed. Hudson News and News Group--two other major …

In September 2006, Tom Freston fell off the face of the media world when he was abruptly fired as CEO of Viacom. He had built MTV and Nickelodeon into two of the most widely distributed cable networks on earth. Now he has surfaced, helping Oprah Winfrey start a new TV network. Last June, he signed on as a consultant to Winfrey -- a role that understates his deep involvement in the creation of OWN: the Oprah Winfrey Network. The new cable network, all about the Oprah ethic of living a meaningful life, is supposed to launch in at …

Researchers at the NYU Stern School of Business found viewers rated their overall experience of watching a TV show higher when commercials were included. These same viewers said they preferred to avoid ads. Though these findings seem contradictory, researchers think when people take a break from watching a TV show -- by sitting through a few commercials -- the interruption often refreshes the novelty of the program. The report's authors performed six studies testing aspects of this theory. They say people often adapt to the experience of watching television, so each successive minute is slightly less enjoyable than …

Many publications have increased their reliance on verified, or free public-place copies, per Rapid Report research. The upticks come at a time when publishers are facing sharp declines in single-copy sales. At Hearst Magazines' Marie Claire, for instance, verified averaged 39,167 in the second half, up from a mere 587 in the first half. At sibling publication Seventeen, verified almost doubled, to 120,000 copies in November, up from an average of 67,036 per issue in the first half of 2008. A Hearst rep notes that at both titles, verified still accounts for less than 5% of total circulation. …

Some parents whose children watch the ABC Family cable program "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" are startled by the show's frank focus on the sex lives of high school students. The titillating themes, in their view, are out of place on a channel with the word "family" in its name. But "Secret Life" has become ABC Family's biggest hit, drawing an average 3.8 million viewers an episode and boosting ABC Family's revenue and ratings, making 2008 the channel's best year. The edgy strategy is sparking debate about boundaries. Michele MacNeal, a mom who heads watchdog group …

In another challenge to ad-supported broadcast and cable TV, Netflix may offer its subscribers the option of streaming to their TV sets premium movies and series from HBO and similar TV channels. Netflix subscribers already enjoy streaming access to some 12,000 non-premium movies and TV shows, along with DVDs. Netflix revealed that it's considering such an idea through a question on a recent consumer survey. The company is trying to weigh the pros and cons of whether adding such a service (and paying the corresponding licensing fees) would entice new customers to start paying an extra fee, or …

Super Bowl viewers who wore 3-D glasses to watch ads for DreamWorks' "Monsters vs. Aliens" movie and SoBe Lifewater saw the first 3-D commercials ever to be broadcast. But while the idea of 3-D ads is exciting to agency creative directors, it will probably be quite some time before the technology becomes an advertising staple. The main problem is getting consumers to wear those special glasses. Peter Arnell, creator of the SoBe spot, thinks people will start seeing a proliferation of "pocket technologies, such as people carrying 3-D glasses in their pockets" or keeping them in their homes next …

Branded cities, such as Southern California's new El Portál, are urban real-estate developments with out-of-home advertising opportunities written into their DNA. At El Portál, which will begin construction in May, community spaces and town hall locations will include large and sophisticated digital displays, totaling 4,500 square feet. Three high-definition LED advertising billboards will beam down on a plaza, where up to 4,000 people can gather. The façade of a Regency Theatre movie house will be covered in interactive screens where the public can watch anything from local sports events to user-generated content, including commercial messages. Lest this …