Movie-themed cable network AMC last year started testing a research tool called AIM, which paired advertisers with psycho-graphically targeted film packages. The goal was to show how targeted research could help advertisers stray from obvious or stereotypical movie match-ups. Now the network is getting beyond the testing phase, with advertiser Shell-Pennzoil onboard. The network has presented Shell-Pennzoil with a diverse slate of contextually relevant action, sports and drama movies to run its ads. The recommended movies didn't skew toward any one genre. AMC hopes AIM will help it carve out a niche in the competitive cable environment for …

Newsweek will cut an issue this summer, in yet another sign of the deteriorating print advertising climate. The Washington Post-owned weekly typically skips a week of publication around the Fourth of July and another in August, printing double issues instead. This summer Newsweek readers will receive three double issues: two in August, and one in July. The decision comes less than a month after Newsweek unveiled a redesigned magazine that dropped its focus on breaking news in favor of columns and narrative features. Newsweek said it also is curtailing its guaranteed circulation and targeting a more highbrow audience. …

Both Time and Newsweek are seeking to avoid the fate of U.S. News & World Report, which after years of semi-relevance gave up on the idea of weekly publication entirely. But recent tactical retreats by the newsweeklies, such as reduced circulation, are a decade too late. In contrast, The Economist has been growing for years. Its U.S. circulation is nearing 800,000, and it will inevitably overtake Newsweek soon enough. How does it do it? The Economist prides itself on distilling the world into a compact survey. Another word for this is blogging, or at least what blogging might …

An elaborate marketing campaign paid off for "True Blood," which opened its second season on Sunday as the most-watched program on HBO since the finale of "The Sopranos." The vampire drama drew 3.7 million viewers for the 9 p.m. airing and another 1.4 million for the 11 p.m. telecast, making it the largest Sunday audience for the series. The first showing was up 157% compared to the series premiere Sept. 7 and up 51% in comparison to the Nov. 23 finale.

David Letterman's comments about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and one of her daughters has prompted a hotel chain to pull its advertising on CBS' site -- and spawned a campaign to fire the 'Late Show' host. Embassy Suites, part of Hilton Hotels, pulled its ads on CBS' site because of complaints. The company was not an advertiser on Letterman's show. "We received lots of e-mails from concerned guests and assessed that the statement was offensive enough ...that we elected to take the ads down," says an Embassy Suites rep. Michael Patrick Leahy, one of the organizers of a …

Brian Graden, president of entertainment of MTV Networks' Music and Logo group, is leaving as part of a broader reorganization at the company. Graden has been talking for at least six months with MTV's senior execs about stepping down at the end of his contract. Graden is credited -- or blamed -- for moving MTV away from pure music toward reality programming. Among the shows he's developed are "South Park" and "The Osbournes." An 11-year veteran of Viacom, Graden, is believed to be among the highest paid executives at the company, earning about $7 million per year. MTV …

Consumer-goods giant Reckitt Benckiser has launched a global review of its media assignments. The U.K.-based conglomerate spends an estimated $1.3 billion annually in measured media worldwide. Its brands include Vanish, Clearasil, Woolite, French's Mustard and Lysol. In the U.S., MPG is the incumbent agency. Other shops on the global roster include OMD and Zenith Optimedia. In the U.S., Reckitt spent about $500 million on ads in 2008, up 20% from 2007, per Nielsen. Through March of this year, the client spent about $130 million in domestic media. With operations in 60 countries, Reckitt reported revenue of $10.8 …

This week, industry watchers are trying to identify realistic potential buyers of The Boston Globe and establish what the paper might be worth. "Given the state of the world, the ad market, the newspaper market and vagaries of the online future, my best guesstimate of a price is a buck," writes newspaper analyst Ken Doctor. A buck essentially represents a gentleman's agreement. In exchange for taking a headache and distraction off the hands of parent New York Times Co., the buyer gets the great potential of the Globe brand, a top news site and new contracts and cost reductions. …

The traditional TV industry -- cable companies, networks and broadcasters -- is where the newspaper industry was about five years ago, according to Henry Blodget. There are murmurs about how longstanding business models will come under pressure as Internet distribution takes over. But so far, the revenue and profits are hanging in there, so the big TV companies don't really care. But in the next five to 10 years, as Internet-based distribution gains steam, most TV industry incumbents won't able to support their existing cost structures. Already, there are fewer choke points in each market. With an Internet …

Want to know where the news media is headed? Watch the upheaval in Iran this week. As the Iranian regime shut down other forms of communication, Twitter survived, with remarkable results. For instance, the rooftop protest chants that became deafening in Tehran on Saturday were by promoted by a Twitter message. That a new information technology could be improvised for this purpose so swiftly is a sign of the times. It reveals in Iran what the Obama campaign revealed in the United States. You cannot control people any longer. They can bypass your established media; they can broadcast …