According to preliminary figures released by Nielsen Monitor-Plus, advertising spending for the year's first quarter rose 2.4% over the same period last year. The gains were reported across major media, led by Spanish-language TV, which was up 19%, followed by cable, which saw a 12.4% gain.

According to information from BIGresearch's newest Simultaneous Media Survey, when it comes to new media the 18-24 year old age group has cornered the market and complicated most marketing models advertisers use today. When marketers wonder what happened to 18-24 year olds usage of traditional media like TV, the answer is they are early adopters of new media. New media includes internet, picture phones, instant messaging, blogging, cell phones, MP3 players, satellite radio, text messaging, TiVo/Replay and TV and web radio.

According to the latest Nielsen//NetRatings Quarterly Travel Benchmarking Survey, 54 percent of online travel shoppers begin travel research with an online travel agency, but then are evenly split between travel agencies and airline suppliers' Web sites when it comes to the actual purchase of online travel. In comparison, 37 percent of online travel shoppers begin research at a travel supplier Web site, and 9 percent begin with a travel meta-search provider.

A new study of media use by members of various ethnic groups in the US, reported recently by eMarketer, finds heavy usage of targeted Web sites, and surprisingly low Internet usage by some groups, Hispanics in particular. The study, by Bendixen & Associates and sponsored by New California Media, found that 45% of all African American, Hispanic, Asian American, Native American and Arab American adults said they prefer ethnic television, radio and newspapers over mainstream media.

According to Hitwise, consumer Internet searches for the terms "real estate bubble" and "housing bubble" reached a 12-month high the week ending May 28, 2005. The market share of these terms across all major search engines like Google, Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and others, skyrocketed 311 percent and 174 percent respectively versus the prior week.

The latest Simultaneous Media Survey from BIGresearch details a new hurdle for advertisers, multitasking, the engagement in other non-media activities while consuming media, and the numbers are large. According to Joe Pilotta, VP of Research, BIGresearch, "The complexities of everyday life seem to be increasing, and as a result consumers are multitasking as a way of coping."

Nielsen//NetRatings, focusing exclusively on Internet users who consume newspapers and excluded online users who obtain their news from other online news and information sources, reports that a significant 21 percent of Web users who read newspapers, have transferred their readership primarily to the online version.

According to IDC's final PC market data, the Spanish PC market saw strong double-digit growth of 24.7% in the first quarter of 2005, building upon an already robust final quarter last year. In particular, the desktop market showed exceptional strength, growing at almost the same level as notebooks as it caught up from a relatively weak performance in 2004

The latest CIO Confidence Poll from Forrester Research recorded the lowest levels in CIO sentiment regarding their future climate since the poll began in Q1 2004.

An Internet Retailer web-based survey, completed in May, on the future of web retailing reveals that 35.5% of merchants and others who responded believe that their e-commerce revenues this year will grow by at least 35%. Only 9.5% of retailers surveyed expect annual revenues this year to grow by less than 10%, clearly a sign of the bullish prospects that retailers hold about the market.