This month's issue focuses on the role of color in media. If it's okay with you, I'd like to confine this column to just one - the color green. Let's face it, it's the color that's been on all our minds as we put this magazine to bed, though the color red also seems to be lurking in the background - not to mention hopes for the resurgence of a shade of black. Mixed metaphors aside, I'm talking money here - and/or the lack thereof. How could I not?

Some things are just universal. In the case of teenagers, for example, it's pretty much expected they'll spout off incendiary things at their peers, parents and anyone else unfortunate enough to stand within a 50-foot radius.

Do you feel weak? Maybe that's because you had a Rice Krispie treat for lunch. Or maybe you're undergoing the physiological effects of pink. We don't mean to suggest that you are suffering from an eye infection, listening to "Get the Party Started," or that you're wearing a pair of sweatpants with PINK emblazoned on the rear. While you may very well be doing all of those things right now, we were hoping that the color of these pages would make you feel like a 12-year-old girl in an interrogation room.

"I think everyone should wear more orange," my friend said, decisively, and I looked at her again, a woman with dark hair and fair skin and freckles and a slight flush on her cheeks, and I saw that she looked amazing in orange - as pretty as Kelly Kapowski on the '90s sitcom Saved By The Bell, everyone's favorite girl, sweet and glowing in a tight orange minidress, innocent in a low-cut orange unitard with a white jacket over her shoulders - orange just lit her up, my friend, I mean, though Kelly Kapowski looked pretty awesome, too.

Early this year, Danish sculptor Jens Galschiot and his art workshop, Art in Defense of Humanism, decided to make a statement at the Olympics in Beijing against China's human rights violations. Since overt activism was essentially banned, Galschiot, ever the artist, turned to color as a covert protest. He and his followers encouraged everyone - athletes, spectators and organizers - to wear or carry something orange in a country that revered red. The Color Orange Project garnered modest support at the Games, including from runner Usain Bolt, who wore an orange bracelet during his legendary 100-meter sprint. But sadly for …

The TBWA/Chiat Day/Tequila office in Los Angeles has bright yellow beams on the ceiling to make the creative teams think and work harder, jokes Justin Prough, creative director responsible for Nissan's campaigns.

When Steve Pougnet ran for mayor of Palm Springs, Calif., last November, he turned to color and branding strategist Paul Haft to help him win the election with visually compelling graphics that would support his platform and forge an emotional link with voters.

It may be not the first thought that pops to mind, but TV viewing is an awful lot like a trip to the grocery store. First off, grocery stores still command the greatest share of food purchases, although that share has declined. TV is still the No. 1 medium people spend time with: TV still clocks in at over four and a half hours per day for adults and three hours a day for teens.

When you read this article in Media, what exactly are your eyes scanning? Chances are it's not an archetypal bundle of cellulose and ink, but just another Web page on your laptop, PC or mobile device. As are most magazines today, Media is available in both paper and digital incarnations - and, as is the case with other publications, an increasing number of its readers prefer the latter form.

In these tough economic times, it seems that any and every news story (no matter what it's about) begins with the phrase in these tough economic times. It started with vacation and travel pieces. "Paying more at the pump" became a prerequisite for any story about family road trips. Carpooling and mass transportation coverage followed suit as gas prices soared. Now, since the credit crisis, just about anything is fair game.