There is little disagreement among ad buyers that they have a lot of leverage heading into this year's upfront television marketplace. They plan to seek price rollbacks, significantly greater flexibility on terms, and more options to pull out of or reduce spending commitments made in the upfront. CBS says its price may be up and possibly its will sell less inventory this year. Other network sellers say it's anyone's guess how pricing will shape up and warn buyers about coming to the table with unrealistic expectations. Cable TV could come out a winner in the potential standoff. "Advertisers …

Paris-based luxury goods and fragrance marketer LVMH has placed the U.S. media portion of its ad account into review. The company spent $185 million in major domestic measured media in 2008, per Nielsen. Incumbent MediaCom will defend the account in the review, says insiders. The client's brands include Louis Vuitton, Moet & Chandon, Fendi, Christian Dior, Donna Karan and Celine.

Univision has finalized more than 50 retransmission-consent deals with video providers, adding Insight Communications and AT&T's U-verse to its roster with multiyear agreements. The U.S. Spanish-language media leader reached a contract with top cable operator Comcast in January and earlier this week concluded a retransmission-pact with DirecTV. The company says it also has accords with such distributors as Atlantic Broadband, Baja Broadband, Etan Industries, Grande Communications, Guadalupe Valley Communications, Qwest Communications, Service Electric and TVMAX. Next up could be a deal with Time Warner Cable. Univision's carriage contract with the nation's second largest operator expires at the end …

As the economy slumps, the ethnic media is getting cut off at the knees. For instance, Ming Pao Daily in New York is slated to shut down entirely, while Hoy New York abandoned print at the end of last year. At the venerable Ebony and Jet in Chicago, all employees must reapply for the jobs that remain. With the loss comes some serious harm. Ethnic media do a great deal of unrecognized work for journalism and they cultivate democracy in ways that the mainstream seems to have abandoned. Univision, for instance, has led bipartisan citizenship and voter registration …

It may come as consolation to some -- or maybe not. Layoffs in the media business don't come close to the carnage in some other sectors. In the first two months of this year, 7,453 jobs were lost at media companies, per a new Challenger, Gray & Christmas report. In contrast, the industry suffering the most is retail, which slashed 72,727 jobs in January and February. Automotive had the second-most job losses, at 70,058, followed by industrial goods, with 51,545 jobs lost. Challenger breaks its data down into 25 industries. Fourteen industries suffered more layoffs than media. In …

The New Republic is quietly considering a sale. Martin Peretz, the editor-in-chief who was a part owner of the magazine until 2007, is negotiating to reacquire the assets of the magazine from CanWest Global Communications. Winnipeg, Canada-based CanWest acquired a 30% stake in the magazine in 2006, and bought the remaining assets in early 2007 on behalf of its subsidiary, CanWest Media. Before that, Peretz had been a partial owner for more than 30 years. CanWest Global reported a net loss of $33 million for the fiscal first quarter of 2009, compared to a $41 million net …

For vulture investors like Carl Icahn, Charlie Ergen, Carlos Slim and John Malone, media debt is a siren song. They are buying up media companies' debt not to save struggling companies, but instead to generate high yields, to have a voice in a potential bankruptcy or to gain control of a company on the cheap. Malone, the head of Liberty Media, was primarily looking to capture the hundreds of millions in tax credits gained from inheriting Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Slim's New York Times investment, which carries a steep 14% interest rate, simply offers too rich a return …

The Wall Street Journal's quarterly lifestyle magazine WSJ., was slated to go monthly this year. But a big decline in advertising means those plans are being put on hold. Nonetheless, publisher Ellen Asmodeo-Giglio insists that the magazine remains "a priority" to owner Rupert Murdoch and that it has brought in new advertisers that are often bundled with newspaper and digital buys at the Journal. In the national edition of the fashion-themed March issue of WSJ. there are 27 ad pages out of 92 total pages. By contrast, September's premiere issue had 51 ad pages out of a total …

Where are major marketers to turn for mainstream programming that includes black audiences? Many advertisers believe that programming on Black-owned BET is too young or too racy for family-friendly brands, while TV One can be too niche. Broadcast TV and mainstream cable have given only limited support to African-American entertainment, says Monica Gadsby, CEO of SMG Multicultural. Her agency insists that it is up to marketers and producers to figure out new distribution models for such programs. To address the problem, SMG this week hosted a lineup of producers and talent. Each gave 20-minute presentations on their …

More than 600 users participated in the recent Webinar on the Traffic Audit Bureau's new outdoor ad rating service "Eyes On," which will debut next month. Four years and $20 million in the making, the outdoor industry's first ratings could be a game-changer for the business, with measurements that allow outdoor to compete directly with TV and radio. Eyes On ratings were initially released for only 10,000 outdoor units in Chicago. Next month, the new system will be rolled out in more than 200 markets covering ratings for about 400,000 units. Chris Gagen, Posterscope USA's managing director, claims that …