Backpacker, Esquire, Wired and The New Yorker were the top winners at the 44th annual National Magazine Awards, winning three Ellies each. A normally boozy, raucous affair, the award ceremony didn't feel much like a celebration this year, given the seemingly endless waves of layoffs, magazine closings and reports of hemorrhaging ad pages in 2009. A noteworthy moment in the proceedings was when four of the magazine industry's iconic editors -- Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner, Tina Brown, Vogue's Anna Wintour and Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter -- presented photographer Annie Leibovitz with a general excellence Ellie. It was the first …

Hoping to appeal to skittish advertisers by offering more flexibility, USA Today is selling four new front-page ad units. The new units include pyramid- and staircase-shaped formats and are roughly the same size as the strips currently available on its section fronts. The strip format is always a challenge to creative directors and the change is a way to loosen up the restraints to allow for more inviting creative work, according to newspaper execs. The new ads are priced the same as the strips, at $97,500 Monday-Thursday and $119,400 Friday.

Packaged-goods companies are reaping the benefits of the recession when it comes to advertising. Procter & Gamble, the world's largest advertiser, forecasts that a buyer's market in advertising and media will continue this year as car companies and banks scale back their marketing spending. P&G says its selling, general and administrative expenses fell $800 million, or 13%, in the first quarter, compared to last year, which "reflects lower marketing expenses and increasing media delivery." P&G's global marketing budget is about $8 billion. "It's been a buyer's market," says chief executive AG Lafley. P&G got more for less from its …

In a new marketing campaign, NBC Sports will attempt to tie together its broadcasts of seven championship events, including the Kentucky Derby and Wimbleton. Under the rubric of "Championship Season," NBC will run print ads and on-air promos that tout spring and summer sports telecasts that reach high-end consumer niches. Along with tennis and horse-racing championships, the telecasts include golf's Players Championship and U.S. Open Championship; and hockey's Stanley Cup Final. Over the years, NBC has gradually distanced itself from many big-ticket sports properties. Yet the network does broadcast events, such as tennis and golf, that tend to …

The Associated Press and Google have been debating content and compensation issues for months. Tom Curley, CEO of the AP, warns that if Google doesn't strike the right deal soon, "They will not get our copy going forward." The AP plans to create landing pages and Web-based "news maps" directing users to original AP stories and away from secondary sources that post material "borrowed" from the AP. But it needs Google's cooperation to pull it off. A 2006 licensing deal requires Google to pay the AP to carry AP content on the Google News site, but in general …

MDC Partners says its first-quarter revenue dropped 10% to $126.7 million, after what CEO Miles Nadal described as a "very difficult" period. The company, whose subsidiaries include Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners, says organic revenue dropped 6.7%. MDC's new business wins totaled $1.1 million. "Our first quarter demonstrated that our retainer businesses continue to grow, and our disciplined approach to managing expenses and capital investments was successful. We believe that revenue growth will accelerate in the second half of the year," says Nadal. The CEO told analysts he is keeping his initial 2009 …

Satellite radio provider Sirius XM Radio has adopted measures that would make it less attractive to buy chunks of company stock without board approval. The company says the poison pill-type plan is designed to protect its ability to carry forward existing losses to offset future earnings and reduce its federal income tax liability, per a SEC filing. Under the plan, the radio company will give its shareholders of record as of May 11 one "right" for every share of common stock they own. Each fractional share of the preferred class would give the stockholder about the same voting …