MEASURE FOR MEASURECAST - In the oddly incestuous field of media research it's becoming increasingly difficult to tell friend from foe. And you don't have to conduct much research to find a better example of that than the on-again, off-again romance of Arbitron and VNU.

FETES OF CLAY - Ever wonder what's on the minds of the world's greatest magazine editors when they're in the process of producing the world's greatest magazines? Turns out, they're full of Clay. Yeah, Clay, the name, not the organic substance.

YOU SAW THE CAMPAIGN, NOW HERE'S THE POST-BUY (OR IS IT POST-VOTE?) ANALYSIS - The outcome of the 2004 presidential campaign has been well documented, but the efficacy of presidential media strategies is only now coming to light via an unusual post-buy analysis courtesy of Draft Inc. And while George W.

REST IN PEACE - Well, it's official. The demo is dead.

TRIUMPH OF THE SHILL: STERN HOSTS SATELLITE RADIO RALLY IN UNION SQUARE PARK -- The Riff often likes to take in the pastoral tranquility of Union Square Park to get away from all the noise of the media world. But on this afternoon, it was sadly not to be, as an estimated 4,000 Howard Stern fans were penned in on the North side of the park, waiting for their idol to make a special appearance.

HIX NIX PIX ADS - A variety of well regarded sources are projecting that cinema advertising - ads that appear before movies in theaters, not ads for movie theaters - is poised to become one of the fastest growing forms of ad-supported media. The problem, according to some new research, is moviegoers don't like the ads all that much, and would like to see movie theaters stop running them.

WE'RE KEEPING OUR EYE ON THE BALL -- Until this year, there were only two things we knew about Ball State University: That it is David Letterman's alma mater; and that it has a funny name. Now it's beginning to rival such ivory media towers as Syracuse's Newhouse School, NYU's Tisch School, and MIT's Media Lab as an academic authority about media.

QUITE POSSIBLY, HE WAS JUST A LITTLE TOO PERSUASIVE -- Was it just us, or was that Paul Woolmington we saw being zapped in the middle of a PBS special about, what else, zapping? Actually, the program was an episode of "Frontline" entitled, "The Persuaders," and it was all about the "surprising methods" being used by today's marketers to "decipher who we are and what we want." But it seemed to us to be more of a rant about the Madison Avenue's incessant state of advertising overkill.

BLESS ITS POINTED LITTLE HEAD -- Who else was tickled by Advertising Age's announcement about the launch of Point, a new high-end ad industry magazine from the Crain Communications team that is aimed at C-level execs. No, it's not the concept that's making us chuckle.

WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT AMERICA WHEN MORE PEOPLE WATCH THE SUPER BOWL THAN ELECTION NIGHT COVERAGE? - It's amazing, but true. According to Nielsen estimates, 55 million people watched the primetime coverage on the six major national TV networks - ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, CNN, and MSNBC - that covered the election.