Standing in line at a Ralph’s grocery store here in So-Cal not too long ago, I refused to absorb ad impressions and other information from a small TV set babbling at me from in front of the register. Well, I tried, anyway. These unwelcome broadcasts cut into the important business of surreptitiously perusing the prurient rants of the scandal sheets and the near-bare bosoms exploding off the covers of the women’s and fitness mags, and resisting the overwhelming desire to rip through Cosmopolitan to find out what "secret spot" will "drive him wild," for surely I’m missing something here …

There is nothing more heart-pounding than launching a new national magazine, except relaunching a magazine you love in a very difficult marketplace. I began my New York career 23 years ago launching Working Mother magazine, and came back last year after 12 years of running other publishing companies to relaunch Working Mother and begin a new phase of its life. In this challenging time, when so many magazines have become casualties of the economic downturn, it is imperative that a publication speak with a clear voice to a distinct audience, creating a deep emotional connection with its readers. …

Maybe small is beautiful. I’ve been thinking about that lately, as I research the small creative shops that serve the interactive business. My 20-year career has been spent at creative and/or media agencies with billings in excess of $100 million annually. So working with smaller numbers in billings and employees astounds me. Here’s an example: a young, dynamic entrepreneur who came from the big agency business much like myself – we’ll call him James - runs a five-person interactive shop out of the Hamptons in Eastern Long Island. The delightful surprise is the caliber of marketers who send business …

So this is what it has come to: The networks, broadcast and cable, are green with envy over MTV’s The Osbournes, which by drawing in the neighborhood of 5 million viewers is a breakout success in the new "not-as-mass-as-it-used-to-be media" reality. While programming executives struggle with stars and scheduling in an effort to draw the largest possible audience, they particularly struggle to draw the coveted high school (and junior high school and college) hipsters who are the most immune to traditional marketing messages. But there’s a larger issue looming. It’s not just the TV audience that’s fragmented in recent …

We’ve all read the headlines about the sorry state of the magazine industry, but what do people who evaluate magazines for their clients really think of the category as an ad medium? We at MEDIA thought we’d ask. Thus, for the June MEDIA Debate we gathered three media executives to tell us what they’ve seen, and most importantly, what they predict for the future of the magazine industry. The panelists are: Serge DelGrosso, senior vice president, media director, Procter & Gamble, Bcom3 Group’s Mediavest Worldwide; Gary Capreol, vice president, associate media director, Cordiant Communications Group’s Bates Worldwide; and Neil Ascher, …