Less is More is obviously working, as listeners are responding to the “best programming environment in radio,” Clear Channel Radio claimed today. From New York to Cleveland to Dallas to Los Angeles and San Diego, more people in the country’s Top 25 radio markets listened to Clear Channel Radio stations between October and December of 2005 than did the year previously as well as the three months previously.
Open rates on marketing email and newsletter open rates were 29 percent lower in the fourth quarter of 2005 than in the third quarter, probably due to image blocking by Gmail and Outlook as well as the immense volume of holiday-season emails, writes ClickZ (via MarketingVox), citing eRoi’s “Q4 2005 E-mail Statistics” report, based on data from email campaigns sent by the company. Click-through rates also fell - 21 percent - for the same period.
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The Feb. issue of FamilyFun will sport cleaner graphics, bold photographs, and a streamlined approach, along with new columns and features, to coincide with the magazine’s 15th anniversary, the company has announced. Published by Disney Publishing Worldwide, FamilyFun is geared toward families looking for creative activities, birthday party ideas, kid-friendly vacation spots, family cooking, crafts, and home technology solutions.
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Sirius Satellite Radio’s action sports/music lifestyle channel will air four full days of coverage of the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado beginning tomorrow, the company announced. The latest stats and scores, breaking news, exclusive interviews with the athletes, and the inside scoop on what happens “after the boots come off” can be heard on Faction channel 28.
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ChoicePoint Inc. has agreed to pay $15 million in civil penalties and $5 million in consumer redress, and to modify its business practices, in a settlement over allegations of violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act, DM News reports. The FTC will distribute the funds to consumers who suffered identity theft based on a data breach. The civil penalty is the largest in FTC history.
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The decline of auto ads in newspaper-classifieds may be turning into a full-fledged landslide, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Tribune Co. said last week that auto-classified revenue at its newspapers sank 16 percent in December, Lee Enterprises Inc. reported a 15.2 percent drop in the same category for the fourth quarter, and McClatchy Co. said its papers saw a 20 percent decline for December.
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Barron’s Online has relaunched as a stand-alone subscription product and is no longer tied to Wall Street Journal Online subscriptions, reports SmartMoney. The site has more than 45,000 paid subscribers, and will offer an Open House from Feb. 11 to 18, when the site will be free, according to Dow Jones.
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A new design and marketing firm, 3iYing, has launched, geared toward providing brands and corporations with strategies actually developed by “smart girls” who range in age from 15-25, BusinessWeek writes. Chief executive Heidi Dangelmaier, who helped push Sega to make video games for girls, gathered a team of 20 by searching the New York High School of Art & Design and LaGuardia High School of Music & Performing Arts.
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The E! Entertainment network has hired Isaac Mizrahi to conduct interviews on its Academy Awards pre-show on March 5, WWD reports. According to the brief article, Mizrahi’s recent “outrageous behavior” at the Golden Globes, while generating criticism, also helped the network snag an average of 1.6 million viewers, far more than rival TV Guide Network. His naughty deeds included asking Eva Longoria for details on bikini-area grooming and feeling Scarlett Johansson’s breasts.
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Shows from Viacom’s MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon are now available on Apple’s iTunes music store for $1.99 each, including ad-free episodes of MTV’s Beavis & Butthead; Comedy Central’s South Park; and Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer, among others, reports MediaPost (via MarketingVox).
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Media buying agency Carat is calling on major TV networks to delay using Nielsen’s new measurement data based on playback of programs via DVRs for the balance of the 2006-07 season, Mediapost reports. According to a new position paper released yesterday by Shari Anne Brill, vp-director of programming at Carat USA, other big ad agencies including Magna Global USA and Mediaedge:cia also believe that live ratings should remain the standard measurement until the new DVR data can be better understood.
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Google’s AdSense has recruited some publishers for a limited beta test of rich media, including interstitials, expanding ads and floating ads, writes JenSense (via MarketingVox), according to which campaigns are likely to be site-targeted rather than contextual. The post surmises that rich media firms such as Fastclick and PointRoll are probably not pleased at the prospect of having to compete with Google if it were to offer the new formats to all publishers.
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Experian has acquired database marketing services and customer management company ClarityBlue, B to B reports. The combination of ClarityBlue’s data management technology and consultative service model with Experian’s client base and data solutions will improve the data-driven services Experian provides to clients, the company said, including services in emerging media such as SMS and video.
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