Twenty-five of the 90 alternative weeklies surveyed by The Media Audit have collectively added more than two million readers via their websites, says a recent MediaAudit release. Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, said "These are not gross website visitor numbers, they represent the net gain from the websites." According to Jordan the alternative weeklies didn't immediately embrace websites "but most eventually became aggressive and achieved some very impressive gains."

Based on a telephone survey of 752 US consumers in the Spring of 2006, In-Stat reported that 10 percent, or more, of communications service users, whether it be home phone, wireless phone, Voice over IP (VoIP) or Internet plan to switch providers in the next 12 months. The majority of respondents, however, indicate that they are satisfied with their communications service.

According to a new survey by VoiceQuilt, Trends in Gift Giving, 47 percent of all U.S. women buy gifts for 10 or more occasions throughout the year, 25 percent say they gave gifts for 15 or more events, and nineteen percent say they gave gifts for 20 or more occasions in the last 12 months.

A deeper drilldown on Online career and educational sites to explore visitor demographics, advertisers and advertising technologies used.

According to a recent Hitwise competitive intelligence study, MySpace.com passed Yahoo! Mail in the first week of July, becoming the number one ranked website in the U.S. based on market share of visits. And, among Social Networking sites in June 2006, MySpace accounted for 79.9 percent of the total market share of visits.

Adriana Waterston, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Horowitz Associates, says "...We know that historically, African-Americans are big spenders when it comes to television and entertainment services, and have been loyal to cable. This study shows indications that the competitive market for African-American subscribers is heating up, as it already has for Latino subscribers."

According to Analysys International, Internet based provider of business information about technology, media and telecom industries in China, China's Internet advertising market will reach RMB 6.87 billion in 2008 as shown in its recently released report "China Internet Advertising Market Annual Report 2006". (That equates to .860 billion US ($860 million)

According to the BIGresearch August Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey of over 8,500 consumers, only 24% of households said high gas prices are having no impact on their spending. But when broken into income groups, 30% of those making more than $50K per year reported no major impact, compared to only 22% of consumers making less than $50K per year.

A valuable analysis of the recently recently released Census Bureau statistics from the American Community Survey (ACS) 2005, by Kang & Lee Advertising, shows that the three fastest growing Asian populations since 2000 are, in rank order, Asian Indians, Vietnamese, and Filipinos. Saul Gitlin, Executive Vice President, Strategic Services, Kang & Lee Advertising, said "The American Community Survey ...is an important 'bible' for companies active in the Asian American market in that it allows us to fine-tune our understanding of key market demographics...

According to research released by PQ Media, global paid product placement spending surged 42.2% to $2.21 billion in 2005 with double-digit growth expected to continue in 2006 and beyond, as brand marketers scramble to effectively engage consumers worldwide. Patrick Quinn, president of PQ Media, said "Product placement has evolved from a novel marketing tactic to a key marketing strategy on a global scale, as brand marketers seek more effective methods to make important emotional connections with consumers... there is a new media order emerging worldwide in which fear of ad-skipping technology, doubts about traditional advertising's effectiveness, and declining government media …