• by John Gaffney , October 21, 2002

Don’t Call It A Comeback: The media business is in a nice spot right now. Magazines are loaded with September success. Newspapers (surprise) are now spotted with good business news. Radio is putting the finishing touches on a great year. Every pundit that I’ve seen or read over the past few days that speaks of this fall bounty carries a caveat: don’t count your money. The only thing happening right now is solid businesses performing as solid media businesses should perform. Carry another caveat close to your Palm Pilot. This current month of September is being driven by a confidence that advertisers didn’t have last year at this time. Seems to me that agencies and clients are resolute in their messaging and sure that they’re doing the right thing for the right time. It’s a good time to be in this business. Doesn’t mean it’s not all screwed up. Just a good time.

Magazine Of The Year: All due respect to US Magazine and Real Simple, which were among the honorees at the Ad Age/AMC magazine awards yesterday. But for my money, if you’re a business magazine that is still around to talk about how bad things were this year, you get my vote for magazine of the year. Easy enough to ride the steep slope of the market. But to ski where there’s no snow is tougher than tough.

Shameless Plug: The AWNY Career Conference (ACC) brings 700+ students from the entire U.S. to attend industry workshops here in NYC. This is the same Career Conference that Shelly Lazarus, CEO of Ogilvy & Mather attended years ago that so inspired her to enter the field of advertising. If you want to volunteer time, talent and inspiration, you have an opportunity to "give back". Check out the AWNY website at www.awny.org.