• number of Americans in poverty highest since 1993
    Bad news for America and bad news for marketers: the number of Americans living in poverty increased to 46.2 million in 2010, or 15.1% of the total population -- the highest level since 1993.  Meanwhile consumer sentiment, as measured by the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, was minus 49.3 in the week-long period ending September 4 -- the second-lowest level all year. And as MediaPost's Sarah Mahoney reports, anxiety over the economy and personal financial well-being is at record levels among female consumers.  In conclusion: happy Tuesday!
  • 33Across Taps Sojern's Arkin As President
    Social media-based audience targeting platform 33Across has named Matt Arkin president. Arkin, who most recently was chief revenue officer of Sojern, will report to 33Across CEO Eric Wheeler. 33Across also announced that it has hired Allie Savarino Kline as vice president-marketing from a similar position at Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT).
  • GroupM's Maxus Opens In L.A., Toronto, Mexico City
    GroupM's Maxus unit this morning said it is opening new offices in Los Angeles, Toronto and Mexico City to help service existing clients, as well as some new account wins. Maxus, which is a sister media services network to MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare, specifically cited its recent win of the Universal Studios portion of the NBCUniversal account, as the reason for opening in L.A. Maxus said the office would be staffed with 20 people, effective Oct. 1, and would be headed by Pamela Haupert Sullivan, who has been named managing director of the Los Angeles office, joining from …
  • WPP's Maxus Ramps Up In North America After Big Wins
    Maxus, WPP's fast-growing fourth agency network is expanding its North American operations in the wake of two huge wins this summer that will bring roughly $2 billion in new business to the agency. The agency is opening a new office in Los Angeles, and establishing a beach heads in Canada and Mexico. New presidents have been named for both markets and offices will are being established in Toronto and Mexico City, where they will be based. "These investments demonstrate our commitment to the Maxus network," stated GroupM Global CEO Irwin Gotlieb. "The Maxus team has a lot of …
  • Reader's Digest Taps Telecom Vet Guth As CEO
    Robert Guth has been named president-CEO of The Reader's Digest Association. Guth joined RDA's board in April, following more than 25 years in the technology and telecommunications sector, including four years as CEO and two years as chairman of telecommunications company TelCove.
  • Magazine newsstand sales tumble 47.5% in ten years
    The combined newsstand sales of 68 major American magazines declined by nearly half from 2001-2011, a MediaPost analysis of Audit Bureau of Circulations data revealed. According to ABC FAS-FAX circulation reports, this group of leading weekly and monthly magazines saw total average newsstand sales plunge from 22,019,953 in the six-month period ending June 2001 to 11,562,028 in the six-month period ending June 2011 -- a 47.5% decline over the course of the decade. Check out the full article here.
  • Nike Auctions Off Marty McFly Shoes For Parkinson's
    Hang on to your flux capacitors, kids: Nike says it is finally selling the shoes that "until now, have only existed on the feet of Marty McFly." The Beaverton, Ore.-based Nike says it is auctioning off 1,500 pairs of the footwear first seen in "Back to the Future II" in 1989, with proceeds going to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation and its fight against Parkinson's. The Nike MAG shoes rely on an "electroluminescent outsole, space-age materials and a rechargeable internal battery good for 3,000 hours," brags the foundation's website. "And while they are not recommended for playing sports, …
  • Social Media Now Akin To Cable TV Penetration, Nielsen Report Reveals 80% Of Web Uses It
    In a finding suggesting that social media – both social networks and blogs – is now akin to the kind of penetration that cable TV has for the TV universe, reaching 80% of active U.S. Internet users. The new report, "State of the Media: The Social Media Report," can be read in its entirety on the Nielsen blog – http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/ -- but its topline finding is its new social media penetration estimate. Other findings include: - 60 percent of people who use three or more digital means of research for product purchases learned about a specific brand or …
  • Actor Cliff Robertson, 88, Former AT&T Spokesman
    Cliff Robertson, an actor who won an Oscar for "Charly,"  died Saturday on Long Island, the New York Times reports. He was 88 and lived in Water Mill, N.Y. He had been a spokesman for AT&T for 10 years in the 1980s and '90s.
  • Netflix Awards MEC Its Latin America Media Assignment
    Netflix has awarded media planning and buying duties to WPP's MEC for the Latin American region where it is currently launching its service offering, according to sources. The movie and TV program-distribution company just launched in South America earlier this week with service to Brazil. The company has indicated that it will expand to 43 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean this month, including Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Central America and Mexico among others. MEC, which handles media duties in the U.S. and Canada, declined to comment. A Netflix rep also declined to confirm or deny that …
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