Media Trends

In today's Sunday Style's section, the reality of fashion and popular culture magazines is exposed. What is found there may not please those looking for the fictional renderings recently made popular by books, film and TV. Krishtine De Leon, one of six interns picked to star in an MTV reality series set at Rolling Stone, expected an office out of “Almost Famous,” the 2000 movie about the early-1970s heyday of the …

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The Wall Street Journal (paid sub. req.) looks at one prominent media company's scramble to become a player in marketing services. Meredith Corp., whose magazine titles include Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle and Ladies' Home Journal, is spending an undisclosed sum to acquire Los Angeles-based digital-ad agency Genex and Arlington, Va., word-of-mouth-marketing firm New Media Strategies. The acquisitions …

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According to the Charleston Post and Courier, Augusta-based Morris Communications--the publisher of 27 daily newspapers, several lifestyle magazines, visitor magazines, books, outdoor boards and more--has gone to court to protect one of its brands. In a lawsuit filed this week, Morris Publishing Group alleges that Pink! "virtually mirrors, and in some cases, directly copies" their title Skirt! The lawsuit alleges …

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Well, maybe not. Edward E. Whitacre Jr., former CEO of SBC Communications and now head of a newly super-sized AT&T, seems to have flip-flopped on the net neutrality issue. In 2005, he said Google and Yahoo were "nuts" for expecting free use of his company's network to deliver their content. But now, according to the LA Times, he's saying that AT&T will not sell premium delivery of Web content for the next two …

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First, Time made 'You' its "Person Of The Year." Now, Ad Age has named 'The Consumer' Agency Of The Year. From the lead article: From an agency perspective, there are exactly three ways to look at the rise of consumer control. The first view is like something out of the Book of Revelation -- all conquest, war, famine and death. Happily, the ad industry, thanks to countless foretellings of the death of the 30-second …

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Okay, I'm Paul Revere and the message I'm delivering on my daring midnight ride is a resounding call-to-arms: America, the porn industry needs your help! According to the New York Times, for every dollar Americans spent buying tickets to Hollywood movies last year, they spent about 90 cents viewing sex movies in various formats. Sound good? Well, it's not. The sex-related entertainment business grew in 2006 by just …

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Writing in The New York Times, Louise Story takes a stab at what's ahead for advertising: Not surprisingly, many agencies are focusing on how the digital world will continue nudging the offline world in new directions, and consumer-generated content is in the forefront of everyone’s mind. But ad executives also say they think companies should pay attention to shoppers’ interest in knowing more about the products they …

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Some intelligent people are discussing "the de-portalization of the Internet." The image below--care of Edgeio--is a graphic representation of the changes currently underway. Fred Wilson, a.k.a. "A VC" says: Back in the first Internet era, it was all about amassing as large an audience as you could on your website. But the first Internet era was at time when consumers weren't that comfortable with vastness of the …

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