In this year's protracted upfront negotiations, ABC, Fox and CBS have begun offering slight declines in their CPM, reportedly in the 1% to 3% range. Buyers say that among the three, Fox is not going as negative as its rivals, thanks to popular programming such as "American Idol" and the network's Sunday-night animation lineup. NBC is said to be offering mid-to-high single-digit percentage decreases in CPM. But CBS and ABC have been telling buyers they don't consider pacts with NBC something they need to match. It's unclear whether the networks' willingness to offer rollbacks will result in …

U.S. TV broadcasters are turning to pawn shops, plastic surgeons, mortgage brokers, landscapers and other nontraditional sources to replace a 20% drop in auto ads. Auto ad revenue at local stations plunged 52% in the first quarter of 2009. Local station owners, such as Nexstar Broadcasting Group and Gray Television, are selling small local businesses on the notion that TV is now affordable. "We're out just beating bushes that we should have been doing a long time ago," says Robert Prather, president of Gray Television. Indeed, the price of an average 30-second local TV spot dropped as much as …

Bennett Zier, CEO of left-leaning Air America Media, waves off any definition of Air America as simply a radio network. He prefers to call the media company "a progressive Web site that has its own radio network, and a radio network that has a Web site." To expand its target market, the company plans to relaunch a redesigned Web site this summer. The new site will have multiple audio streams, multiple video streams and new types of content. High-profile hosts, such as Montel Williams, Ron Reagan and Rachel Maddow will be featured on the site, says Zier. Air America …

TV networks are migrating to mobile devices; CBS, ESPN, MTV and Disney recently launched programming specifically for phones. Some are live broadcasts that air the same commercials as seen on TV. Others are on-demand videos with pre-roll ads. In the month of June, for instance, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow smartphone app pulled in $750,000 in revenue. Fans can watch 3-5 minute snippets of the show or the entire episode. Total revenue for the U.S. mobile TV broadcasting market, subscription-based and advertising-funded, was about $200 million last year and is expected to jump 50% in 2009, per Strategy Analytics. Ford, …

The number of ad pages booked by the three major business titles, BusinessWeek, Forbes, Fortune, has fallen by 64% from 1999 to the first half of 2009. The three magazines carried 6,193 ad pages in the first six months of 1999. In 2009, that number shrank to 2,204. That means it's likely the final year tally for the three won't crack 4,500 pages, a benchmark that all three managed to surpass on their own a decade ago. Why the persistent drop for the business bibles? Business-to-business advertisers have found many more efficient, targeted ways to reach their customers. …

The New York Times Co. has sold its famed New York City classical music radio station WQXR-FM in a deal that will net the publisher $45 million. The agreement involves subsidiaries of Univision Radio and WNYC Radio, operator of a listener-supported public station. Univision Radio is paying the Times Co. $33.5 million to exchange its FCC 105.9 FM broadcast license and transmitting equipment for the Times' license, equipment and stronger signal at 96.3 FM. Then WNYC Radio is buying the FCC license, equipment, call letters and Web site for 105.9 FM, from the Times Co. for $11.5 million. …

In the first of several e-commerce partnerships it plans for its Web sites this year, Condé Nast is allowing users to buy wine at its food site Epicurious.com. Content from the site comes from sibling magazines Gourmet and Bon Appétit. The deal calls for wine site Snooth.com to provide wine suggestions for Epicurious' recipes. When users click on a wine pairing, they'll get more information on the wine and will be able to click through to a retailer to buy it. Winemakers can pay to have their wine offered as an appropriate choice for a given recipe. …

Discount brokerage Charles Schwab has awarded its estimated $100 million media buying and planning account to Universal McCann after a review. Other contenders included Aegis Group's Carat and the incumbent, Omnicom's PHD. The win is UM's third big score in recent weeks, following its additions of Dyson in May and BMW in June. PHD won planning and buying duties on the account after a consolidation review in 2005.

Chipotle Mexican Grill will sponsor free screenings of the documentary "Food, Inc." in 32 U.S. cities starting today. The food chain is also promoting the film in all of its 860 restaurants. At first blush, the sponsorship doesn't seem like an obvious match. "Food, Inc.," examines unsavory practices within America's food industry. It discusses the ills of modern food production practices and the influence of major agriculture companies in shaping government policy. But the sponsorship gives Chipotle an opportunity to showcase its eco-friendly "food with integrity" philosophy to an interested audience. Chipotle says that 35% of the …

Target's clothing line by fashion designer Anna Sui may no longer be associated with the show "Gossip Girl." Apparently Target's top executives got nervous at the last minute about being closely associated with the controversial show. Many of the characters in the series frequently get wasted, use drugs and have promiscuous sex. Insiders say that a party scene in the show was set to shoot at Sui's flagship store in SoHo last week. In the scene, party-goers were to wear clothes from Sui's Target collection and Target symbols were going to be part of the set. But the store …