A growing number of Americans in this economic downturn are clipping coupons from newspapers and in-store circulars and finding them online. Coupon use rose 15% in the last three months of 2008, compared to 2007, say researchers at Valassis, one of the top coupon companies. In a typical year, Americans redeem $3 billion worth of coupons, with fewer people being embarrassed to pull out albums choked with coupons for various household goods. "There's less negative stigma attached to coupon use during slower economic times," says Ron Larson, marketing professor at Western Michigan University. Nearly 57% of consumers in …

For 30 years after its inception in 1968, "60 Minutes" on CBS was one of the highest-rated shows on television. Then its ratings tanked -- bottoming out at an average of 11 million last year. But just when the show was being written off as old hat, it's back in a big way, with up to 15 million per episode through February. The turnaround is largely due to a renewed commitment to hard news, including coverage of the banking crisis and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with exclusive sit-downs with the Obamas and Captain Sully and …

President Obama will appear on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on Thursday in an in-studio appearance, in what is believed to be the first presidential in-person visit to a late-night talk show. It is now a common practice for presidential candidates to reach audiences who may not be regular news junkies via talk shows, but that hasn't been the case for a sitting commander in chief. Obama's visit is an attempt to win support for his economic agenda in an informal setting. Previous presidents have appeared on late-night talk shows and prime-time comedies and dramas while …

DIY Network this week will unveil a 2009 programming slate designed to put a positive spin on the crippling recession. Particularly timely, given the housing crisis is "Operation Salvage," in which people pick through the detritus of abandoned homes for castoffs worth restoring such as Victorian mantels and antique brick. Other new DIY programs include a landscaping hour, "King of Dirt," hosted by Brooklyn landscaper Gino Panaro. Launching on tax day, April 15, is "10 Grand in Your Hand," which shows homeowners how to shave up to $10,000 from their home improvement projects. Series host John DeSilvia, a …

California state Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, is pushing H.R. 6209, otherwise known as the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act. The bill would require the Federal Communications Commission to "prescribe a standard to preclude commercials from being broadcast at louder volumes than the program they accompany."

Later this month, readers of five dissimilar sibling titles -- Time, Fortune, People, Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly -- will find each magazine giving big editorial coverage to the subject of new forms of 3-D media. Corporate executives ordered up the 3-D content and each magazine will handle it in its own way. For instance, Time is reporting on the new wave of 3-D movies, while Sports Illustrated is running a 3-D photo section. All the magazines will include 3-D glasses. Added together, the magazines' paid circulation guarantees to top 12 million. All the 3-D issues be …

With the NCAA Men's Division Basketball Tournament, known as "March Madness," rights-holder CBS has gone a little mad. The network is offering the tournament's 63 games on more screens and in more formats than ever before. It is extending its traditional TV and radio game coverage to tourney highlights on CBS College Sports Network and out-of-market pay-per-view packages in HD on DirecTV. An on-demand "highlights and memories" package is accessible to video customers from 20 distributors. There are also mobile offerings on iPhone and iPod, plus AT&T and Verizon Wireless video products. By offering varied means to …

In this struggling economy, U.S. network news programs are looking beyond Wall Street and Washington to mainstream America, giving voice to the financial woes of everyday people. Former "NBC Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw, said last week he will motor down a cross-country highway, capturing recession stories along the way. Segments will air on NBC news programs as "Dispatches from the Road," this spring. ABC has embedded producers at a Texas cowboy hat manufacturer struggling to stay afloat and with suburban Washington state parents who lost their jobs. CNN's Anderson Cooper will also file recession-related dispatches from …

Although the TV business is being upended by YouTube, Hulu and the like, the major broadcast and cable networks are suffering less than other sectors, thanks to the continued demand for national television advertising. Since the meltdown began in earnest last fall, panicky advertisers are plowing the lion's share of their marketing resources into the old-media outlets that they know can move the goods. The largest national TV players have been weathering the storm much better than local TV and radio, newspapers and magazines, digital and outdoor advertising. The larger cable nets also have the built-in bulwark against …

As more magazines try putting advertising on their covers, it would be better to do it simply. Most recently, Scholastic Parent & Child magazine has begun running ads on the lower-right corner of its cover. Other magazines have been tiptoeing up to the practice. Soon the American Society of Magazine Editors, which tries to maintain industry norms governing the independence of editorial from advertising, may have to change its aversion to such ads. In newspapers, the taboo against page-one ads has fallen without any appreciable damage to the independence or reputation of the papers that carry them, among them …