Forty percent of voters in the 87 metropolitan markets surveyed regularly by The Media Audit describe themselves as heavy users of the Internet. What that portends, says Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, is that "...the Internet is a very serious factor in American politics. The Internet doesn't just provide marketers' access to voters; it also provides voters' access to marketers, other voters and data."

According to the just published World Association of Newspaper's third annual Digital Classified Survey, newspapers in developed countries increased overall revenues by 4.2 percent in 2005 from a year earlier. Revenues from print classified advertising increased by more than 5 percent during the period, a major improvement compared to the decline of 12 percent reported the previous year, when overall revenues grew by more than 4 percent.

According to the latest study by Shop.org and Forrester Research, says Webtrends, the US eCommerce industry has experienced a compound annual growth rate of 33%. Forrester predicts that revenue in 2006 will continue to grow another 20% to top $200 billion. And, 41% of the retailers WebTrends surveyed said that the holiday season accounts for more than 20% of their annual revenue.

A deeper look into the sites, demographics, advertisers and ad methods and techniques for the Online apparel and beauty categories July, 2006

According to the latest data from Mediamark Research, 8.6% of U.S. adults reported having a DVR in their household. That percentage rose to 11.2% of adult households in the Spring 2006 release. (March 2005 to early May 2006.) The report summarizes that U.S. adults whose households have a digital video recorder are more upscale than those that do not and are more likely to be heavy readers of magazines and newspapers. They are also heavy users of the Internet.

In a recently released analysis of consumer activity at general news sites, comScore Media Metrix reported that more than half (54 percent) of all U.S. Internet users visited sites in the General News category in June 2006. In June, Yahoo! News reached 31.2 million unique visitors (one-third of all category visitors), followed by MSNBC, which captured 23.4 million (one-quarter) of those who visited General News sites in June 2006.

A recent study and Whitepaper by the Winterberry Group finds that the traditional marketing model is changing fast. Technological advances have ushered in a proliferation of channels that has diminished the impact of tried-and-true platforms such as television and print. At the center of this industrial transformation, says the Whitepaper, the role of the agency has been challenged. Once considered core to the marketing effort (and a trusted counselor to executive decision makers), the agency has seen its portfolio of responsibilities fundamentally altered

A recent survey by ShopSmart magazine, reported on Business Wire, finds that 76% of American women enjoy shopping, but one-third say the most stressful part is waiting in check out lines, followed closely by 29% stressed by interacting with salespeople. The average woman, says the report, spends 385 hours annually shopping.

comScore Media Metrix introduced "Competitive Search Marketing Reports" by examining the effectiveness of search campaigns conducted by the most-visited online travel agencies. The analysis showed that more than 50 percent of the total click-throughs to these sites were generated by sponsored ads, compared to just 11 percent across all Web search activity.

The Global Market Research Report, conducted every year by ESOMAR, available in September 2006, reveals that the Market Research industry remains healthy with longer term compound annual growth rates of 4-6%. Top line results indicate that global market research turnover tops $23 billion in 2005 with a growth rate of 4.3%. Europe maintains its leading role with 45% of the global market, and the use of online studies grows by 80%.