The companion Web site of Condé Nast Portfolio, the 2-year-old business lifestyle magazine experiment, is coming back to life. The site will become part of American City Business Journals' site Bizjournals, which is owned by Condé Nast parent Advance Publications. Portfolio folded with its May issue. "At the time, we knew we had a good asset in the digital property," says David Carey, group president at Condé Nast. "The question was, where would be best to operate it, because we needed to replace all the content produced by the Portfolio team." Most of the magazine's print and online …

The Tucson Citizen can remain dead as a print newspaper, a federal judge ruled this week, saying the Arizona attorney general's office had not shown that folding the daily was a violation of antitrust law. U.S. District Court Judge Raner Collins says there is no evidence that there is a "ready and willing buyer to pay the fair and reasonable liquidation value of the paper's assets." On Saturday, when the Gannett-owned Tucson Citizen published its last print edition, Gannett terminated its joint operating agreement with Lee Enterprises' Arizona Daily Star. But Gannett said the two would remain partners, …

Only 51% of marketers rated magazines as "highly effective" for building brand equity, per the Association of National Advertisers. That's down sharply from 67% in February 2007. The April ANA survey found that TV, radio, newspapers and outdoor all slipped in marketers' eyes, along with magazines, but brand building is supposed to be magazines' strong suit. How do magazine publishers respond? Basically they say you can't look at magazines alone anymore -- it's all about the media mix. Sally Preston, group publisher at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, maintains that the fascination with everything new, along with digital media's emphasis …

For years, ABC seeded its prime-time schedule with shows produced by the company's production studio. But times are tougher now, and the Disney-owned network is breaking with tradition. This week, ABC announced that most of the new shows on its slate come from outside suppliers. Warner Bros. Television is producing five of the new shows. 20th Century Fox Television is providing two, and one comes from Sony Pictures Television and producer Mark Burnett. The move might even save ABC money because most shows fail, losing millions for the studios that produce them. Even successful programs typically lose money until …

Competing TV stations have been sharing resources since January as they respond to a financial train wreck that has local TV broadcasters across the country reeling. Despite the excitement of the presidential election -- or maybe because it moved viewers to cable news -- ratings for local evening news shows nationwide dropped 11.4% from November 2007 to November 2008, per Nielsen. In Philadelphia, for instance, nearly $200 million in revenue, 25%, vanished from the TV market between 2004 and 2008, and an additional $50 million will be missing by 2012, say forecasters. "The situation is more dire than …

Comcast and the NFL Network have reached a new long-term agreement for Comcast to carry NFL games on its cable systems, after settling their outstanding legal disputes. The two sides clashed for several years over financial and strategic issues, but both agreed on Tuesday to drop their legal actions before the FCC and a New York state court. The new agreement consists of an array of video content, including the live Network, video on demand for Comcast's Digital Classic cable customers and the ability to offer the NFL's RedZone Channel when it is created. Comcast will move the …

Fox Networks Group CEO Tony Vinciquerra is criticizing Nielsen Media Research for not acting promptly to correct rating inconsistencies. Vinciquerra says he's frustrated by Nielsen's recent admission that its TV ratings may be off by as much as 8%. "All evidence points to people watching more TV. Yet the [ratings] numbers are going down. I'm having a hard time reconciling all of these facts. I want to know what are they going to do about it," he says. Vinciquerra believes he's not just speaking for Fox. He says Nielsen is doing a disservice to broadcast and cable networks, …

Upper-level marketers are more eager than agencies to jump back into the ad fray and increase spending in this year's upfront, according to a survey by Advertiser Perceptions. In the Spring 2009 Media Economy Report, 37% of directors, VPs and other senior executives said they plan to increase their ad spending compared with last year's TV upfront. About 39% said they will maintain their ad spending, while a quarter intend to decrease it. The percentage of upper-level marketers willing to boost spending is more than double that of lower-level marketers, agency planners and agency buyers. The study also showed …

Hearst Magazines is getting more personal as a way to deal with the ad slump. Cathie Black, president, and Michael Clinton, CMO, have personally hit the road on a 10-city tour, armed with a new presentation that offers a more customized approach to advertising. Clinton says the new presentation was hatched about two years ago and the results are now showing up from brands such as Dior Beauty, Intel and Pantene. Dior Beauty, for example, recently decided to advertise in five Hearst titles, including Marie Claire, Seventeen and O, The Oprah Magazine. Since all three magazines are read by …

The NASCAR Media Group is not even two years old, but it is looking ahead to 2014 when its current deals for TV, radio, mobile and the Internet expire. It is seriously considering whether to start its own network at that time, as Major League Baseball, the NBA, NHL and NFL have done. "We want more control over the process of creating and distributing our content," says Jay Abraham, NASCAR executive. Currently, Speed channel, in more than 75 million homes, serves as a de facto NASCAR network, with exhaustive coverage through the week and on race weekends. NASCAR …