No, for you Steve Winwood fans out there, that headline isn't a typo. I'm not going to talk about Winwood's 1980 hit album "Arc of a Diver." Instead, I'm addressing the value of a network -- or at least the evolving value of a network, and the performance "arc" it can provide to advertisers and publishers alike.

One of the biggest providers of TV content to mobile devices, MobiTV, streams programming from MSNBC, ABC News Now, CNN, Fox News, Fox Sports, ESPN 3GTV, MLB, NBC Mobile, CNBC, C-SPAN, The Discovery Channel, TLC, The Weather Channel, and others to cell phones.

Bands and films may generate great buzz in online chat rooms and on blogs, but TV shows tend to prompt the most rabid responses. Take the onslaught following revelations about the hatch of "Lost," or in the wake of Constantine's unceremonious ejection from "American Idol" last spring. BuzzMetrics, now affiliated with VNU-owned Nielsen Media Research, has taken on the task of measuring such online banter. The buzz firm is tracking the top 30 new network programs of the 2005-2006 TV season via its TV*BuzzMetrics service. Through sophisticated data-capturing techniques and regular monitoring and analysis, BuzzMetrics hopes to …

A few well-chosen words, a striking image, and bam! You have a print ad. Why tinker with the magic formula? Verizon did. It's been running ads for SuperPages.com entirely made up of text. The sociable "We know around here" campaign appears on subways, billboards, coffee cups, and bus shelters. "It's like you're sitting down talking to a friend about your favorite business," says Alisa Brown, Verizon's marketing manager, consumer traffic. Club Med tried the approach, too, placing wordy ads in New York City subway cars and on large posters. "We just thought it was a …

Our show suffers the most from lack of awareness," says Yvette Lee Bowser, the creator and executive producer behind the UPN sitcom "Half & Half." So the 40-year-old, who has been creating sitcoms since the "Cosby Show" spin-off "A Different World" 18 years ago, beefed up that awareness by having the show's record executive character, Mona, create a real-life blog -- and listen to readers for how some show scenes should play out. New entries for The Mona-Logue (www.themonalogue.com) appear minutes after each episode airs, with Bowser typing out each entry herself. "Television is becoming an entirely interactive medium," …

In preparation for a focus group of six 12-year-old girls, Tina Wells, CEO of Buzz Marketing Group, set out a variety of refreshments. To her surprise, five out of six girls reached for a Diet Coke. "My first thought was, you're too young to be drinking that," she says. But then she realized girls that age often imitate their mothers. And chances are, their mothers drink diet soda, too.

Yes, we've heard of point-of-purchase advertising, but point-of-pain? That's what Procter & Gamble's Tide Coldwater brand has relied on since the energy-saving product launched in January of 2004. Tide Coldwater inserts ad messages about the product into heating bills across the country. "Consumers really have an interest in ways they can easily save on their energy costs," says Randall Chinchilla, Tide spokesman. "We want to reach consumers where they are most receptive to our message," he adds. "And right now, that means wherever they are taking out their wallet to deal with high energy costs." For the second year …

If you're looking for an untapped out-of-home media market, how about drivers? Liquid-crystal display TV screens are finding their way into rearview mirrors in cars. The rectangular screens can be easily clipped onto existing mirrors and retrofitted to work with in-car entertainment systems. In-mirror monitors have been on the market for a few years as navigation aids, but they are quietly moving into general-purpose viewing. "We built them for navigation and rear assistance," says Michael Blanes, national sales manager at Savv Corp., a Cerritos, Calif.-based provider of mobile multimedia products. "But there are two video feeds in …

A new voice, unpolluted and idealistic. A voice full of nerve and grit. For the next few months, graduate students in the Creative Media track at the Virginia Commonwealth University Adcenter will contribute their views on the future of the business to Media magazine. So far, we've learned that creativity doesn't occur on demand. It springs from a combination of previous experiences, insights, and inferences. To best serve your media plan, you need to know more than the number of eyeballs reached and the findings of behavioral studies. You need the ability to draw creative inferences. Many …

At a time when newspapers across the U.S. are facing a shaky future, both in terms of revenue and circulation, a new and innovative sales technique is prompting some advertisers to give newspapers a second look.