Getting Real With Newspapers: There’s a lot of conflicting information out there about newspapers these days. Nielsen says newspapers are up 8 percent for the year. The NAA says the uptick is closer to flat. A New York Times article on Tuesday says “the first wave of July results from the newspaper chains shows that national and help-wanted advertising is still sluggish, ensuring that the industry's 18-month decline is not over.”

Ads On Demand: I interviewed Jeff Hicks, who is a partner at Miami’s Crispin, Porter and Bogusky agency earlier this year. He told me something I had not heard up to that point. I don’t remember the exact quote but it was something to the effect that full-page ads and 30 second spots are restrictions placed on him by content owners. They are not necessarily the sacred spaces content owners think they are. Hicks went on to prove his point with the outrageous print campaign for the Mini.

Power To The People: Consumers will always give you the straight deal in the ad business. You just need to find a reliable way to hear from them. Case in point: the recent numbers from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index. The index is unique. It is run by the University of Michigan. It has no axe to grind. No stock to sell. No reports to sell either.

Somethin’s Wrong With My Radio: Our Media Daily News and everybody else keeps reporting on the latest monthly revenue figures from the Radio Advertising Bureau. And that’s cool, because it’s a good story to cover in this slow summer for news, and those numbers show a convincing turnaround for national advertising on radio, after it spent much of last year in the tank. But I still think radio needs a big time overhaul.

And Ken Lay Will Chair The Panel Discussion On Accounting: Gerald Levin, the former CEO of AOL/Time Warner, will be a keynote speaker at the fifth annual Middle Market Conference -- Mergers, Acquisitions & Finance, organized by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG).<

Housekeeping: Last year, Media Magazine hosted a very successful and insightful Forecast 2002 conference, which centered on the internet. Now we’re getting cocky and we’re adding a day for “offline” or “traditional” media, what ever you want to call it. What ever you call it, we’re calling it Forecast 2003. It’s at the Yale Club, NYC, Wed. Sept. 25. Breakfast and lunch will be served; cocktails to follow. The overall theme is changes in the foundation of all media.

Deep Thoughts On Magazines: I feel like pseudo-new age guru Jack Handey on Saturday Night Live, when I say that “it’s OK for your book to be down 10 percent in this economy. It’s OK.” Hey, it’s not OK or even acceptable to see anything but growth on the P&L. We all know that. But I keep looking at Publisher’s Information Bureau numbers every month and I keep seeing an entire industry somehow dodging a warhead. Year-to-date, the latest PIB report says, tech, apparel, financial services, and travel have dropped double digits over last year.

Gimme Rock Hard Abs, Hiking Boots And An Armani Suit To Look Good In: Let me get this straight. You take a men’s magazine that has carved a unique niche in terms of content and audience. You grow it to the point that your last issue jumped from 54 pages last year to 73 pages this year. In fact you’re running revenue 29 percent ahead of last year in a crap market.

Local Heroes: This is supposed to be a time of transition in the media business. And the hometown daily newspaper has been portrayed as the loser in this game of targeted demographics, interactivity and new age branding. Well, guess what? Punditry has lost again. The latest Nielsen outlook says local newspapers clocked an eight percent growth rate so far this year, easily outpacing any other media.

Hey, Call Jesse Ventura. This Can Work Over Here, I Tell Ya: According to Ananova news service, an advertising campaign against moaners has been launched in Austria. It is aimed at stopping people grumbling about the country's economy and making things worse by eroding confidence. Billboards feature the slogan "No more moaners" and an image of a miserable face with a red line through it. The campaign is the brainchild of the Austrian advertising industry and Chamber of Commerce.