Archived News

June 25, 2009 AdMob Report Examines the Distribution of Usage of iPhone Applications AdMob has examined the distribution of consumer usage of iPhone applications in its May 2009 Mobile Metrics Report. The report finds that, as is true with many other forms of media, the most popular applications generated the majority of usage by consumers.

June 24, 2009 Mortgage, Home Equity Direct Mail Volume Flattens Out, According To Mintel After months of plummeting, mortgage and home equity marketing direct mail is finally leveling off. Mintel Comperemedia reports that for the past six months,the number of home loan offers sent to Americans has been flat.

June 24, 2009 New Report Values America's 100 Leading Nonprofit Brands, According to Cone According to new research by Cone, the YMCA of the USA's brand is worth almost $6.4 billion, making it the nation's most valuable nonprofit brand. Brands were valued based on five years of consolidated financial data and a nationally representative consumer perception survey, among several other metrics.

June 24, 2009 Consumer Confidence Holds Steady in June, According to CEA-CNET Indexes Consumer confidence in the overall economy held steady in June, according to the latest data from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and CNET. The CEA-CNET Indexes also show that consumer confidence in technology and consumer electronics (CE) continues to improve.

June 23, 2009 Why Do Online Shoppers Abandon Purchases? High Shipping Costs Top the List, According to PayPal Survey A new PayPal survey reveals that nearly half (45 percent) of online shoppers have abandoned their carts multiple times in the past three weeks due to high shipping costs, security concerns, and lack of convenience. The average cost of abandoned goods in US shopping carts is $109.

June 23, 2009 Consumers Fed Up with Electronics Shopping, Gadgetology Survey Finds Shopping for electronic products such as digital cameras, camcorders, TVs, and other popular gadgets is no fun anymore, and consumers are fed up, according to the latest Retrevo Gadgetology study that reveals how people feel about the process of figuring out what product to buy.

June 23, 2009 Alternative Online Consumer Payments: Javelin Study Evaluates How Well Emerging Vendors Solve Online Transaction Needs Javelin Strategy & Research has released a report that evaluates providers of alternative payment solutions for online retail transactions. The report reveals that emerging payment methods from traditional payment providers have the advantage of trusted brands and established networks for issuance, acceptance, and processing.

June 19, 2009 Consumers Exposed to Display Advertising Are More Engaged and Spend More Money Online, OPA Study Shows The Online Publisher's Association (OPA) has released a new research study, assessing 80 of the biggest branding campaigns across 200 of the most trafficked sites over a month’s time analyzing consumer behaviors of those Internet users who were exposed to display advertising.

June 19, 2009 NextMark Select Introduces First Live Connection Between Data Cards and Data NextMark, a leading provider of direct marketing tools and resources, has announced a new service called NextMark Select which provides the first live connection between data cards and mailing list data. Cross Country Computer is the first service bureau to automate data card updates using NextMark Select.

June 17, 2009 Bing Continues to Show Growth in Search Activity, According to comScore comScore has released a follow up study on the performance of Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, during the second week of its public launch. The results show that Microsoft has continued to increase its position in the search market following the initial week of Bing’s debut.

June 15, 2009 New StrongMail Survey Shows Social Media is Emerging as a Direct Marketing Channel StrongMail Systems, Inc. has announced new survey data that points to the emergence of social media as a direct marketing channel and significant planned investment in email marketing and social media programs in the second half of 2009.

June 15, 2009 NEDMA announces Winners at the 28th Annual Award Show The New England Direct Marketing Association's (NEDMA)2009 Annual Awards event honored creative excellence and innovation in eight categories that include print ads, direct mail, catalog, interactive, integrated media campaigns and DM on a shoestring. Bruce McMeekin, founder of BKM Marketing and NEDMA VP, shared the honor of announcing this year’s winners with Bob Rotchford, past NEDMA president.

June 12, 2009 Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association (PDMA) Honors Direct Marketer of the Year and 'Benny' Award Winners The Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association has honored its 2009 Direct Marketer of the Year and made presentations to winners of the “Benjamin Franklin Award for Direct Marketing Excellence” (also known as the “Benny”). This year’s Direct Marketer of the Year award went to Scott Schultz, president of Schultz & Williams.

June 12, 2009 Even in Economic Turmoil, Historically Solid Brands Hold Steady in Consumers' Minds, Harris Finds Harris Interactive has released the 2009 results from EquiTrend, renowned annual brand equity study, showing that Consumers continue to turn to strong, trusted brands, particularly during periods of uncertainty.

June 12, 2009 Sales of Low-Cost Mobile Phones to Reach 700 Million by 2014, Juniper Predicts A new report from Juniper Research forecasts that, between 2009 and 2014, annual sales of low-cost mobile handsets will rise by 22% to over 700 million.

June 11, 2009 US Charitable Giving Estimated at $307.65 Billion for 2008, According to Giving USA Charitable giving in the US exceeded $300 billion for the second year in a row in 2008, according to Giving USA 2009. Donations to charitable causes in the United States reached an estimated $307.65 billion in 2008, a 2% drop in current dollars over 2007.

June 11, 2009 Local Search Brands Move Towards Mobile, comScore Finds comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has reported that the number of people who sought local information on a mobile device grew 51% from March 2008 to March 2009.

June 11, 2009 Online Interest in Prepaid Wireless Services Increases During Economic Downturn, According to comScore A new study by comScore, Inc., showed strong gains in online activity to prepaid wireless sites, as consumers increasingly turn to cost-effective wireless service alternatives during the economic downturn.

June 11, 2009 Online Moms More Influential than Ever, According to eMarketer Online moms are more influential than ever, according to eMarketer. Maria Bailey, author of "Trillion Dollar Moms," wrote that US moms spend $1.7 trillion annually and, according to the Marketing to Moms Coalition, they control 85% of household spending.

June 11, 2009 Gay Adults More Likely to Read Blogs and Use Social Networking Tools, Harris Finds According to a recent national survey conducted by Harris Interactive, a small majority of gay and lesbian adults online today are reading blogs. More than half (55%) of gay and lesbian respondents reported reading some type of blog, compared with only 38% of heterosexuals.

June 9, 2009 Email is Replacing Other Channels of Communication, Epsilon Global Study Reveals According to Epsilon’s Global Consumer Email Study, consumers around the world are using online communication tools and responding to permission-based email (PBE) in varying ways based on their country of origin. The study conducted is based on an April 2009 survey of over 4000 consumers in 13 countries.

June 9, 2009 Growth In Charitable Giving Outpaced Volunteering Prior to Economic Downturn, Canada Survey of Giving Finds Findings from the 2007 Canada Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating reveal that there has been modest growth in the total value of donations, the average size of donations, and total volunteer hours.

June 9, 2009 FCC Issues Consumer Advisory on Digital Transition Ignorance is bliss in some situations, but not when it comes to understanding the facts about the transition to digital television (DTV). With only four days to go until the switch, the FCC has issued an advisory to inform consumers about what it takes to get ready for the switch on June 12.

June 8, 2009 Locally Placed Search Advertising to Grow 30% in Next Five Years, According to Borrell Locally placed search advertising in the US is projected to grow 30% over the next five years, from $4.1 billion in 2008 to $5.3 billion in 2013. According to new research by Borrell Associates, this growth will be led primarily by advertising service providers that adopt scalable technology infrastructure.

June 8, 2009 Microsoft's Bing Overtakes Yahoo in Search, According to StatCounter Microsoft’s Bing overtook Yahoo! as the number two search engine in the US and worldwide on June 4, according to data from StatCounter Global Stats. StatCounter says that Bing grabbed market share from Google.

June 8, 2009 Weddings in Recession Have Fewer Bells, But Plenty of Bliss, Mintel Finds According to a new focus group presentation by Mintel, couples today are reacting to the challenging economy by planning weddings that are more frugal, while still experiencing plenty of wedding bliss.

June 8, 2009 Aero Fulfillment Names New Business Development Director Aero Fulfillment Services, a national provider of outsourced fulfillment services, has hired Christo Nikoloff as Business Development Director. Nikoloff is charged with developing new business along the East Coast corridor.

June 5, 2009 Mobile Content Consumption Grows on Social Networks, Frost & Sullivan Finds The past year has seen a steady rise in the consumption of [mobile] premium content on social networks and communities, as well as other new applications such as location-based services and mobile advertising. Ringback tones and mobile music, however, still remain the top revenue earners, accounting for about 21.4 percent (US$6.2 billion) of the region's mobile content revenues in 2008, and are expected to continue to top mobile operators' and content providers' billings in the next five to six years.

June 4, 2009 Coffee Wars, Starbucks Still #1, McDonald s #2 and Rising, Dunkin Donuts #3, Finds BIGresearch McDonald’s is waging an all-out assault on the coffee industry, and they seem to be gaining ground in the battle of the baristas. Although Starbucks is still #1 (9.2 percent of consumers frequent the coffee house most often for their java fix), McDonald’s has consistently grown since May of 2007, according to an analysis of BIGresearch’s May 2009 Consumer Intentions & Actions (CIA) Survey www.bigresearch.com. With the roll out of a multiplatform ad campaign estimated at more than $100 million, the Golden Arches will likely continue to build momentum.

June 3, 2009 Consumers Cope with Economy Through a Do-It-Yourself Mindset, Packaged Facts Reports After decades of extravagant spending, 2009 became the year many American consumers finally began to confront their fundamentally changed financial circumstances and sought to empower themselves by asserting more control over their lives. One increasingly popular strategy to survive the recession was to adopt a do-it-yourself (DIY) mindset by personally taking on routine chores and tackling major projects rather than paying others to do them.

June 2, 2009 Google Receives 80% of Canadian Searches in April 2009, According to Hitwise Hitwise, an Experian company, announced today that Google[1] search properties accounted for 80.17 percent of all Canadian searches conducted in the 12 weeks ending April 25, 2009. MSN search properties, Yahoo! search properties and Ask search properties received 8.84 percent, 7.34 percent and 2.75 percent, respectively. The remaining 41 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1 percent of Canadian searches.

June 1, 2009 ShopperTrak Reports a Decrease of 3.0% Year-Over-Year Retail Sales for Week Ending May 23 ShopperTrak released its NRSE GAFO Retail Sales estimates, showing a year over year decrease of -3.0 percent compared to the same week in May '08. The May month to date estimated run rate for NRSE GAFO Retail Sales decreased -3.6 percent compared to the same weeks in May '08. However, ShopperTrak did report an increase in sales of +1.5 percent as compared to the previous week.

May 29, 2009 Microsoft Unveils New 'Decision Engine,' Bing.com Microsoft Corp. has unveiled Bing, which it says is a new "Decision Engine" and consumer brand, providing customers with a first step in moving beyond search to help make faster, more informed decisions.

May 28, 2009 Searches for Free Items Among the Most Dangerous, According to McAfee Some of the riskiest searches on the Internet today are associated either with finding items for free, such as music or screensavers, or looking for work that can be done from home, according to Internet security company McAfee, Inc.

May 28, 2009 US Web Analytics Market to Reach Nearly $1 Billion by 2014, Forrester Forecasts Fueled by a need for marketing organizations to be more accountable to the business and a shift in marketing budgets' allocation for interactive channels, in order to match consumers’ migration online, the US Web analytics market will grow to $953 million by 2014, an impressive 17 percent compound annual growth rate, according to a new report by Forrester Research, Inc.

May 26, 2009 Top Search Positions Are Not Always the Most Profitable, NYU Stern Study Finds In their new research paper entitled, "An Empirical Analysis of Search Engine Advertising: Sponsored Search in Electronic Markets," NYU Stern professors Anindya Ghose and Sha Yang challenge the prevailing viewpoint that the topmost positions are always the most profitable ones for advertisers in search engine auctions.

May 26, 2009 Advocacy Study Ranks Banks on Small Firm Lending, Hints at Current Financial Trends According to a new report by the Office of Advocacy, the growth of small and microbusiness lending remained positive during the first half of 2008. The study finds that for the year that ended in June 2008, the total value of small business loans outstanding increased 4% and the value of microbusiness loans outstanding increased 6.8%.

May 26, 2009 Financial Services Firms Sink to Their Lowest Rating Ever, According to Forrester US financial services firms fell to their lowest rating ever in the sixth annual Customer Advocacy ranking by Forrester Research, Inc. Perennial standouts USAA and State Farm Insurance remain the highest-rated companies.

May 26, 2009 Streamed Mobile Music Revenue to Approach $5.5 Billion by 2013, Says Juniper Research According to a new report by Juniper Research, revenues from streamed mobile music services and full-track downloads are expected to exhibit strong growth over the next five years. The report found that the combined revenues from these services are expected to increase from $2.5bn in 2009 to nearly $5.5bn in 2013.

May 22, 2009 Health Insurers Prepare for Government Reform, Direct Marketing Campaigns Seek Public's Appeal, Says Mintel Comperemedia Congress is crafting health insurance reform proposals now, but insurance companies have already been getting ready for change. Mintel Comperemedia, a service that provides direct marketing competitive intelligence, saw health insurers increase marketing direct mail offers to individuals by 18% in the past 12 months.

May 21, 2009 Mobile Consumers Prepared to Support Green Initiatives, According to ABI Research Survey The results of a recent consumer survey conducted in North America by ABI Research suggest that nearly half of those mobile consumers surveyed are somewhat likely or very likely to be influenced by suppliers’ green credentials when purchasing services or devices.

May 21, 2009 Worldwide Mobile Sales Down 8.6%, Smartphones Up 12.7% in Q1 2009, Gartner Says Worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 269.1 million units in the first quarter of 2009, a 8.6% decrease from the first quarter of 2008, according to Gartner, Inc. Smartphone sales surpassed 36.4 million units, a 12.7% increase from the same period last year.

May 20, 2009 Internet is Only Retail Channel to Post Slight Increase in Beauty Product Purchases, NPD Reports According to a new study from The NPD Group, Inc., the Internet gained one percentage point, and was the only retail channel to experience an increase in the number of women who reported mentions for beauty products.

May 20, 2009 Web Users Use Social Media to Seek One Another, Not Brands Or Products, Knowledge Networks Reports A new report by Knowledge Networks gives showed that, while 83% of the Internet population (ages 13 to 54) participates in social media, 47% on a weekly basis, fewer than 5% of social media users regularly turn to these sites for guidance on purchase decisions in any of nine product/service categories.

May 19, 2009 Customer Satisfaction Rises Again, According to ACSI The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) continues to climb, registering a second straight quarterly improvement after a period of decline preceding the recession. For the first quarter of 2009 the Index jumps 0.4% to 76.0 on ACSI’s 100-point scale, according to the report released by the University of Michigan.

May 19, 2009 comScore Releases April 2009 US Search Engine Rankings comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the US search marketplace. In April 2009, Americans conducted 14.8 billion core searches, a 3% gain versus March.

May 19, 2009 Dataline Announces a New Database Service, Dataline Reactivation Dataline, Inc., a leading compiler of consumer information and modeling services, has announced a new database service, Dataline Reactivation, a data solution aimed at reviving and rejuvenating expires, lapsed donors, inactive catalog buyers and customers lost to competition.

May 15, 2009 USPS Provides Update on Standard Mail Summer Sale Program Details The USPS has released updated details on its Standard Mail Summer Sale. The basic ‘Summer Sale’ idea is to give eligible companies a 30% reduction on postage for all non-parcel Standard Mail volume sent through a company’s Permit Account(s) between July 1 and September 30 this year (2009) that is above the base volume a company’s mailing patterns suggest they would have otherwise sent.

May 15, 2009 Google Closing in on 73% of US Searches in April 2009, According to Hitwise Hitwise has announced that Google accounted for 72.39% of all US searches conducted in the four weeks ending April 25, 2009. Yahoo Search, MSN Search, and Ask.com received 16.27%, 5.68%, and 3.95%, respectively.

May 15, 2009 10 Most Heavily Used Web Brands Account for 45% of Total UK Internet Time: Nielsen Nielsen Online has revealed the staggering share of time accounted for by the ten most heavily used Web brands in the UK. This share is increasing. In April 2009, the ten Web brands on which Britons spent the most time accounted for 45% of all UK Internet time, compared to less than 42% in April 2008.

May 15, 2009 Graduates to Receive More Cash, Fewer Gift Cards This Year, According to NRF Survey Family and friends of graduates this year are choosing to be a little more practical with their gift giving, opting for the versatility of cash instead of gift cards. According a new NRF survey, 58.9% of Americans who will buy for graduates will fill envelopes with cash, up from 56.8% percent last year. Just 29.4% will give gift cards, down from 32.2% last year.

May 14, 2009 YouTube Maintains Top Ranking by Total Streams, According to Nielsen Nielsen Online has announced that YouTube continued to rank as the No. 1 video Web brand with 5.5 billion total streams in April. Meanwhile, Hulu continued its explosive growth trajectory, increasing 490% in total streams year-over-year, making it the fastest growing brand among the top 10.

May 14, 2009 Mobile Ad Growth Fueled by New Ad Formats on Smartphones, Report Brightkite and Gfk Brightkite and GfK Technology have released their latest Mobile Advertising Report (MAR), finding that 38% of US mobile phone owners recall seeing advertising on their cell phones in the first quarter of 2009, although for Smartphone users, 59% recalled seeing mobile advertising.

May 14, 2009 Online Media Generated Less Response in Q1 2009, According to Fournaise Group According to the Fournaise Marketing Group, marketing and advertising campaigns it tracked in offline and online media around the world generated 21% less response from the target audience during the first quarter of 2009 compared to the first quarter of 2008.

May 14, 2009 AOL and Philanthropy Project Launch Philanthropy Feature on AOL News MediaGlow, AOL's publishing unit, has announced a new feature on AOL News that provides information and news about philanthropic efforts across America, as well as the latest scientific information and advice about the benefits of living a philanthropic lifestyle.

May 14, 2009 eMarketer Forecasts Social Network Ad Spend to Fall According to eMarketer, Social networks continue to draw in millions of users, but advertising has not kept pace. eMarketer forecasts that total social network ad spending in the US will fall 3% to $1.1 billion in 2009, from $1.2 billion in 2008.

May 13, 2009 In Recession, Reduced Advertising Negatively Affects Consumer Perception, Ad-ology Study Finds More than 48% of US adults believe that a lack of advertising by a retail store, bank, or auto dealership during a recession indicates the business must be struggling. Likewise, a vast majority perceives businesses that continue to advertise as being competitive or committed to doing business.

May 13, 2009 M&A Activity to Pick Up in Second Half of 2009, According to ACG-Thomson Reuters According to a survey by ACG and Thomson Reuters, most middle market merger professionals anticipate that the M&A market will improve in the second half of 2009, led by distressed sales and by mergers in healthcare and life sciences, manufacturing and distribution, and financial services.

May 13, 2009 UK Online Newspapers Draw International Audiences comScore has released the results of a study examining domestic and worldwide visitation to leading UK newspaper sites. While online UK newspapers draw substantial domestic audiences, most attract even larger international audiences.

May 12, 2009 'Power Moms' Represent Nearly 20% of Online Population, According to Nielsen 'Power Moms,' or women age 25-54 with at least one child, today represent 19.2% of the active online population, and they wield more influence than ever before, according to Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company.

May 12, 2009 High and Middle Income Shoppers Spending More in Dollar Stores, Nielsen Finds The recession has been a boon to dollar stores, which attracted increased consumer spending in 2008, including spending among high and middle income shoppers, according to The Nielsen Company. Nielsen’s analysis of consumer shopping habits shows consumers at all income levels shopping more at dollar stores, with high income shoppers spending 18% more at dollar stores in the second half of 2008 compared to the prior year

May 12, 2009 NPD Finds Pockets of Opportunity in the US Fashion Accessories Market Despite the economic downturn, the US accessories market has displayed some areas of growth according to new information released by leading market research company The NPD Group, Inc. Watches and segments in the sunglasses category are areas that are showing signs of life.

May 12, 2009 Alliant Introduces 'Cognito,' a Precision High-Risk Address Suppression File for Direct Marketers Alliant Cooperative Data Solutions has developed 'Cognito,' a high-risk postal address file that lets marketers instantly identify the “riskiest“ addresses in the US, derived from the actual direct marketing behaviors of over 120 million consumers tracked in Alliant’s performance database.

May 11, 2009 Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association (PDMA) to Recognize Regional Direct Marketing Excellence and Direct Marketer of the Year at Annual Awards Event On Thursday, June 4, 2009, the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association (PDMA) will host its annual celebration of the region’s best direct marketing efforts and practitioners. The evening will feature a presentation of the Direct Marketer of the Year award, plus the winners of the 2009 Benjamin Franklin Awards for Direct Marketing Excellence. The PMDA has chosen this year to recognize Scott Schultz, president of Schultz & Williams, as its 2009 Direct Marketer of the Year.

May 11, 2009 AOL Launches New Customized Site for Pop Culture Enthusiasts AOL’s MediaGlow publishing division announced the launch of Where It’s At, a new website that serves as a guided tour of iconic pop culture landmarks from music, film and TV. Where It’s At is powered by MapQuest, and it’s one of 30 new sites MediaGlow plans to launch in 2009.

May 11, 2009 Q1 US Retail E-Commerce Spending Growth Flat Versus Year Ago, comScore Reports comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released its Q1 2009 retail e-commerce sales estimates, which showed that online retail spending remained flat versus year ago.

May 6, 2009 Postal Service Ends Second Quarter with $1.9 Billion Loss The US Postal Service ended its second quarter with a net loss of $1.9 billion, as the economic recession and longer-term financial pressures, such as the diversion of letter mail to electronic alternatives, continued to reduce mail volume and revenue.

May 4, 2009 Increasing Number of Mobile Internet Users to Drive US Mobile Search Ad Revenues to $2.3B by 2013, According to Kelsey comScore has released a study of US consumer search activity related to the recent swine flu outbreak based on data from the comScore Marketer search intelligence service. The data revealed that 501,000 people conducted 929,000 searches related to the swine flu during the week ending April 26, 2009, representing a nearly twenty-fold increase versus the previous week for both metrics.

April 30, 2009 Financial Sites Popular Among Older European Mobile Web Users, comScore Finds comScore has revealed that financial services sites, such as those offering banking and stock trading services, are the most popular among European mobile subscribers older than 55, while teenagers are more likely to visit social networking, entertainment and even comic sites on their mobile devices.

April 30, 2009 UK Web Users Keen on Social Networks, According to eMarketer People in the UK are embracing social media. eMarketer estimates that 395 of UK Internet users—more than 15.4 million people—will use social networks at least once per month in 2009. By 2013, that figure is expected to rise to 21.9 million, or 50% of UK Web users.

April 28, 2009 Recession Slows Tide of New Products to Marketplace, According to Mintel Fewer new products are showing up on supermarket shelves this year as companies cope with the changing economy. New data from the Mintel Global New Products Database shows total food and drink product launches have been cut in half since last year (a 51 percent decline from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009).

April 28, 2009 Majority of Americans Give Corporations Low Marks for Reputation, Harris Survey Shows According to the Harris Interactive RQ survey, bailouts, bonuses, and bad business behavior all combined to erode the overall reputation of corporate

April 28, 2009 Hulu Continues Ascent in US Online Video Market, comScore Finds comScore has released March 2009 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, showing that US Internet users viewed 14.5 billion online videos during the month, representing an increase of 11% versus February.

April 28, 2009 Mobile Application Revenues to Reach $25 Billion by 2014, Juniper Predicts Direct and indirect revenues from mobile applications are expected to exceed $25 billion by 2014, with growth fuelled by a raft of store launches targeting both high-end and mass market handsets, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

April 27, 2009 Customer Satisfaction with Nonprofit Websites Increases Donations, ForeSee Study Shows Visitors to nonprofit websites are more likely to donate money, volunteer time, and recommend the nonprofit to others if they are satisfied with their online experience, according to a new study from ForeSee Results.

April 27, 2009 comScore Study Highlights Rapid Emergence of Vertical Ad Networks A new study by comScore comScore, Inc. showed that the collective reach of vertical ad networks tracked by comScore has increased substantially in the past year, from 21.5% of the total US Internet audience in March 2008 to 57.1% in March 2009.

April 24, 2009 Marketers Integrating Social Media, Email at Record Pace, ExactTarget Study Finds A record number of email marketers plan to bridge the gap between online social networks and their email marketing campaigns in 2009, according to new research from Ball State University, the Email Marketer’s Club, and ExactTarget.

April 24, 2009 Customer Satisfaction with Online Financial Servcies Improves, ForeSee and Forbes Find Customer satisfaction with online financial services improved over the last year even as the financial sector of the economy deteriorated, according to a new report from ForeSee Results and Forbes.com.

April 23, 2009 Credit Card Direct Mail More Robust in Canada Than in US, Finds Mintel Comperemedia Our neighbors to the north still get their mailboxes filled with credit card offers, even as space opens up in ours. New data from Mintel Comperemedia shows credit card issuers haven't reduced mail solicitations in Canada as rapidly as they have in the US.

April 23, 2009 comScore Ranks Top 50 US Web Properties for March 2009 comScore has released its monthly analysis of US consumer activity at the top online properties for March 2009. Americans turned to the Web to plan spring and summer travel, and to manage their personal finances during the economic downturn. Twitter.com more than doubled its visitor base.

April 23, 2009 Chris DeWolfe to Step Down as CEO of MySpace MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe and News Corporation’s Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller, have announced that, by mutual agreement, DeWolfe will not be renewing his contract and will be stepping down in the near future. DeWolfe will continue to serve on the board of MySpace China and will be a strategic advisor to the Company.

April 23, 2009 Winterberry Group's Jonathan Margulies Explores the Future of Direct Marketing at PMDA Meeting On April 15, 20090, Jonathan Margulies, director, Winterberry Group addressed a room full of regional marketers gathered at the meeting of the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association (PDMA). Margulies shared a great deal of data related to the impact of the bleak economy on marketing and advertising – both above- and below-the-line advertising spending.

April 21, 2009 US Women Signal Shifts in Gift Giving, According to VoiceQuilt Study VoiceQuilt has announced the findings of the 2009 National Trends in Gift Giving study, a nationwide online survey of adult women about their motivations and attitudes behind gift giving. In response to today’s economy, 75% say they will spend less on gifts and 74% will focus on more sentimental or inspirational gifts.

April 21, 2009 Bumpy Road Ahead for Retailers as Consumers Intend to Keep Wallets Shut, According to ForecastIQ Analysis According to the latest ForecastIQ analysis, retailers targeting young consumers and discounters are predicted to see same store sales growth through the end of June. But the overall average for predicted same store sales growth for retailers across the board is down over last month.

April 21, 2009 Number of Online Banking Customers Grows, In Spite of Economy, comScore Finds comScore has released its annual review of the online banking industry. The study found that the number of online banking customers continued to grow strongly in 2008 despite the turbulent financial environment.

April 21, 2009 Canada Ranks as a Global Leader in Online Video Viewing, According to comScore A new comScore report showed that 21 million Canadians viewed more than 3.1 billion videos online during the month. The average Canadian online video viewer spent 10 hours viewing videos in February, up 53% from their average viewing time last year.

April 14, 2009 Advertisers in Europe to Compensate Agencies for Pitches than in US, Worldwide Partners Reports Advertising agency executives who want to be compensated for the ideas they present in new-business contests should be pitching clients in Europe, where over half of the agencies responding to a Worldwide Partners, Inc. survey say they are likely to receive some remuneration for their efforts.

April 14, 2009 Yahoo Shows 10% Increase in Active First Page Advertisers, AdGooroo Finds AdGooroo, a leading provider of online marketing competitive intelligence and keyword tools, has released its latest quarterly Search Engine Advertiser Update. The new report documents several trends that emerged during the first quarter, including the annual arrival of larger search budgets from travel companies, the surprising addition of Bank of America and several used car resellers to AdGooroo’s ranking of Top 25 US Advertisers by Search Engine, and a ten percent increase in active first page advertisers for Yahoo!.

April 14, 2009 Search Engines Compensate for Changing Consumer Behavior to Increase Profitability, Efficient Frontier Finds Advertisers and search engines begun to successfully adjust their strategies by mapping to recent changes in consumer behavior, according to the Efficient Frontier US Search Engine Performance Report: Q1 2009.

April 13, 2009 Recession to Cut Mobile Entertainment Growth By Nearly $13 Billion Over Next Five Years, Warns Juniper Research Growth in user spend on mobile entertainment services will slow dramatically over the next two years unless key markets emerge from recession, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

April 13, 2009 Slight Decrease in Paid Search Spending in Q1 '09, Covario Analysis Shows Covario, Inc., a leader in interactive marketing analytics, has announced the release of the Q1 2009 edition of its Global Search Spending Analysis series. Paid search spending contracted slightly, -1.4%, from Q4 2008, and is down from the same period last year when paid search advertising spending grew 2.4% from Q4’07 to Q1’08.

April 13, 2009 Mobile Advertising Figures Defy Economic Slide, BuzzCity Finds BuzzCity, a global provider of wireless communities and consumer services, has announced the results of its quarterly Global Mobile Advertising Index, which shows the global recession is having little to no effect on mobile advertisers or user habits. The Index documents the growth of mobile internet advertising and represents inventory sold across the BuzzCity Mobile Advertising Network in more than 200 countries globally.

April 13, 2009 Major Marketers Continue to Move Online to Reach Small And Medium Businesses, Reports BBI Major marketers targeting small and medium businesses (SMBs) are relying less on traditional marketing tactics because of the economic downturn, but that's one of the top ways SMBs like to receive product and service information, according to a new study released by Bredin Business Information (BBI).

April 9, 2009 Gartner Says 20% of Commercial Email Market Use a SaaS Platform by End of 2012 According to Gartner, the Software as a Service (SaaS) model for email solutions is proving attractive for many customers and will represent 20% of the commercial email market by the end of 2012.

April 9, 2009 Japanese Internet Users Glued to Entertainment Sites, Nicovideo Finds comScore, Inc. has released a report on the top entertainment sites in Japan based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service. In February 2009, nearly 74% of Japan’s online population visited a site in the Entertainment category.

April 8, 2009 Internet Integration is Key for Automotive Sales, Foresight Research Shows A new survey by Foresight Research shows that 80% of vehicle buyersare influenced to some degree by the Internet during the consideration, shopping or purchase process. 49% indicate that the Web was a “primary” or “secondary” influence.

April 8, 2009 Challenging Economy Lead to 14% Drop in Teen Spending, Finds Piper Jaffray A challenging economy and low consumer confidence has led to a dramatic 14% decline in fashion spending, according to a new survey by Piper Jaffray. The survey results indicate that spending in the junior apparel category has decreased 19%, but increased 9% for footwear and 8% for accessories.

April 7, 2009 Instant Messaging Most Popular Online Activity in France, comScore Finds

April 7, 2009 Classifieds Traffic Soars in Recession, According to Hitwise US online traffic to Classifieds websites increased 84% in February 2009 compared with last year, according to a new report from Hitwise. The report found that the industry has experienced positive month-to-month growth in share of US visits in all but one month in the past three years.

April 2, 2009 Burst Media Study Reveals Increase in Consumer Coupon Usage Burst Media has released the results of a survey that found that 34% of respondents are using coupons more frequently today than they were six months ago. The survey also uncovered that nearly 70% of respondents would print and redeem an Internet coupon for a product they would be interested in purchasing.

April 2, 2009 TV and Magazine Ads More Effective Than Ads on Internet, According to McPheters & Co. McPheters & Co. has released results of a study that explored the relative effectiveness of ads on television, in magazines, and on the Internet. The study showed that, though TV doesn’t deliver as many ads per half hour as do magazines, net recall of TV ads was almost twice that of magazine ads. Magazines in turn had ad recall almost three times that of Internet banner ads.

April 2, 2009 Image Direct and The Latino Coalition Launch ExitoUSA, Targeting Hispanic Small Businesses Image Direct, a marketing service provider, and The Latino Coalition, a nonprofit organization established to advocate and enhance the business development of Hispanic small businesses, have announced the launch of ExitoUSA, a multichannel outreach targeting one millon Hispanic small business owners.

March 24, 2009 Consumer Confidence Highest in 13 Months, According to CEA-CNET Research Consumer confidence in the overall economy increased in March to its highest level in more than a year, according to figures released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and CNET. Although consumers reported improved expectations for the broader economy, the CEA-CNET Indexes also show that technology spending continues to fall.

March 23, 2009 Consumers Willing to Go Green If it Saves them Money, Shelton Group Survey Finds Consumers are willing to buy energy-efficient products and services, if they see immediate savings, according to a survey conducted by The Shelton Group, which found that 71% of consumers cited saving money as a reason to buy energy-efficient products.

March 23, 2009 mSnap Has Been Sold to SmartReply, Creating 'Mobile Marketing Powerhouse' mSnap, one of the largest SMS mobile advertising networks in the US, has been sold to SmartReply, a leader in mobile marketing for top retail brands. The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc., a leading provider of independent investment banking services, represented mSnap in this transaction and acted as its exclusive financial advisor.

March 23, 2009 NPD Group Reports on the Sagging State of the US Prestige Beauty Industry According to The NPD Group, 2008 was the first year each beauty category truly struggled and total prestige beauty sales declined 3% versus 2007

March 23, 2009 comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 US Web Properties for February 2009 comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released its monthly analysis of US consumer activity at the top online properties for February 2009 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Among the gaining categories were Flowers/Gifts/Greetings and E-cards, and travel and tax preparation sites.

March 23, 2009 Yahoo Appoints Elisa Steele CMO Yahoo has announced that Elisa Steele has joined the company as CMO. Steele is responsible for Yahoo's brand, its global marketing strategy and its marketing functions including brand marketing, audience marketing, corporate communications, insights, policy and privacy, community affairs, and related central teams. She reports to Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz.

March 20, 2009 Consumer Technology Sales Fall Nearly 4% in 2008, According to NPD Group Consumer technology revenue declined 4% in 2008 to $112.3 billion, according to leading market research company The NPD Group's consumer tracking service. The decline follows a 4.5% gain in 2007.

March 20, 2009 Worried US Consumers Likely to Hang Up on High Cell Phone Costs, NMRC Finds Two out of five Americans with contract-based cell phones are likely to cut back on their cell phones to save money if, as is widely expected, the economy gets worse over the next six months, according to new survey by Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) for the New Millennium Research Council (NMRC).

March 20, 2009 Hispanic Web-Users Are Avid Downloaders, Scarborough Research Reports Hispanic Internet Users are avid downloaders of digital content, according to consumer and media research firm Scarborough Research. Scarborough's analysis finds that Hispanic Internet Users are 21% more likely to download digital content than the average adult online.

March 19, 2009 Advertising Builds Confidence for Financial Brands in Crisis, Nielsen IAG Study Finds At a time when financial institutions are pulling back on their advertising, a new study from Nielsen IAG shows that consumer confidence in the long-term health of these companies is dramatically influenced by advertising and marketing efforts.

March 19, 2009 Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association (PDMA) Presents 'Direct and Digital Marketing 2009 And Beyond' The Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association (PDMA) will explore the future of direct and digital marketing at a luncheon meeting on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at the River Crest Golf Club in Phoenixville, PA.

March 18, 2009 Only 50% of Donors Confident about Contributing to Not-for-Profits, Finds Cygnus More than half of individual charitable donors plan to give the same amount or more to philanthropic causes in 2009 despite the recession, according to a recent survey conducted by Cygnus Applied Research. However, nearly half will either give less or are unsure about their giving threshold in 2009.

March 18, 2009 Users Paid to Receive Direct Mail Through Incentive-Based Social Network PeopleString An incentive-based social network that pays users to receive regular direct mail as well as for performing a host of internet activities has been launched by BigString Corporation.

March 18, 2009 UK Online Video Audience Grows 10% During Past Year, comScore Reports comScore has released January 2009 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, indicating that the total UK online video viewing audience has grown 10% during the past year to 29.6 million unique viewers age 15 and older.

March 17, 2009 PRC Verifies Rate Cap Compliance for Market Dominant Products The PRC has issued its review of the USPS's price adjustments for market dominant products. Chairman Dan G. Blair announced the Commissioners’ decision that the increases for market dominant products are, on average, within the applicable 3.8% price cap for each class of mail. The rate adjustment includes a 2 cent increase in the price of the First-Class stamp, from 42 to 44 cents.

March 13, 2009 comScore Releases February 2009 US Search Engine Rankings comScore has released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the US search marketplace. Americans conducted 13.1 billion core searches in February 2009, down 3% versus January – a decline that is primarily the result of the shortened month.

March 13, 2009 Tim Armstrong Named Chairman and CEO of AOL Tim Armstrong, Google senior VP, has been named chairman and CEO of AOL, LLC, Time Warner Inc. Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes has announced. Current AOL Chairman and CEO Randy Falco and President and COO Ron Grant plan to leave the company after a transition period.

March 12, 2009 'Buy Local' Message Has Global Appeal, Needs More Local Support, According to Mintel According to a new survey by Mintel, just one in six adults (17 percent) buy local products and services as often as possible. These "True Locals" are willing to pay a higher price and they'll even buy local if competitive products are better.

March 12, 2009 Yahoo Sites Leads Search Market in Japan in Jan. '09, comScore Reports comScore has released its ranking of the top search properties in Japan based on data from the comScore qSearch service. In January, 6.8 billion searches were conducted in Japan, representing a 9% increase versus year ago and the highest monthly search volume on record.

March 10, 2009 US Mobile TV and Video Poised For Continued Growth, QuickPlay Survey Reveals QuickPlay Media, a leading provider of mobile TV and video solutions, has revealed the results of a new survey that shows that consumers are confident in the uptake of mobile TV and video, with 78% expecting an increase in usage by 2010.

March 10, 2009 Yahoo Sites Leads Search Market in Japan in Jan. '09, comScore Reports comScore has released its ranking of the top search properties in Japan based on data from the comScore qSearch service. In January, 6.8 billion searches were conducted in Japan, representing a 9% increase versus year ago and the highest monthly search volume on record.

March 9, 2009 AOL Latino Launches TecnoPadres.com AOL Latino has launched TecnoPadres.com, a Spanish-language resource for parents who want to learn, understand, and discuss technology as it relates to their children and their online safety. The new site is part of part of AOL Latino’s women's lifestyle network Tu Vida y Más.

March 9, 2009 ExactTarget Continues Record Growth with More Than 50% Increase in '08 Revenue ExactTarget, a leading provider of on-demand email and one-to-one marketing solutions, has announced it posted record-setting annual performance in 2008, boosting revenue by more than 50%.

March 9, 2009 Mobile, Broadband and Pay TV Could See $5 Billion Decrease, In-Stat Says According to In-State, about 15% of US consumers intend to cut on Subscription-TV, Broadband, and Mobile Services. As a result, In-Stat estimates that consumer spending across these segments could see nearly a $5 billion decrease during the next 12 months.

March 6, 2009 Mobile Web Trudges Forward, According to eMarketer According to eMarketer, the fact that mobile Web users in the UK visit so few sites is evidence that the mobile Web still offers a very limited range of useful content. There are not many worthwhile mobile Websites to visit, and the user experience is not yet compelling enough to support long sessions browsing via mobile.

March 6, 2009 eMarketer Revises E-Commerce Numbers eMarketer revised its US retail e-commerce forecast, estimating that US retail e-commerce sales (excluding travel) will shrink by 0.4% in 2009, falling to $133 billion. In 2011, eMarketer predicts that online sales will reach double-digit growth rates, similar to those seen prior to 2008.

March 5, 2009 YouTube Surpasses 100 Million US Viewers for the First Time, Finds ComScore comScore has released January 2009 data showing that US Internet users viewed 14.8 billion online videos during the month, an increase of 4% versus December 2008. YouTube led the growth charge, accounting for 91% of the incremental gain in the number of videos viewed versus December, surpassing 100 million viewers for the first time.

March 5, 2009 148 Million Mobile Data Roaming Subscribers This Year, Says ABI Research While the idea of mobile data roaming is not new, demand is clearly taking off, driven by the broadening rollout of 3G networks. This according to a new ABI Research Brief.

March 4, 2009 Amazon Introduces Kindle for iPhone Amazon.com, Inc. has introduced “Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch,” a new application available for free from Apple's App Store that lets customers enjoy over 240,000 books, including 104 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers, on the iPhone and iPod touch using Apple's Multi-Touch user interface.

March 4, 2009 Consumers Cut Back on St. Patrick's Day Celebrations, According to NRF Survey According to NRF’s St. Patrick’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, people celebrating the Irish holiday will spend an average of $32.80 on decorations, food and beverage and festive attire, compared to an average of $35.04 in 2008. Total spending is expected to reach $3.29 billion.

March 4, 2009 7.5% of US Adults Lost Money as a Result Financial Fraud in 2008, Says Gartner Approximately 7.5% of US adults lost money as a result of some sort of financial fraud in 2008, in large part because of data breaches, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. Analysts said this is having an adverse effect on consumer victims who are significantly changing their financial transaction behaviors.

March 3, 2009 Despite Recession, US Smartphone Market is Growing, According to the NPD Group According to The NPD Group, consumer sales of smartphones to US consumers represented 23% of all handset sales in the fourth quarter (Q4) 2008 compared to just 12% in Q4 2007. Led by the release of Apple’s iPhone 3G at $199, the average price for a smartphone fell 23% from $216 in Q4 2007 to $167 last year.

March 3, 2009 Light PC Internet Users More Likely than Heavy PC Internet Users to Access Mobile Content, comScore Reports A new study by comScore finds that light PC Internet users are 30% more likely than heavy PC Internet users to use their mobile devices to access Internet content.

March 3, 2009 MapQuest Enhances Business Locator MapQuest announced the re-launch and enhancement of Business Locator, an integrated search tool featuring one click integration that lets users display retail locations directly on their maps or along their routes.

March 3, 2009 Search Engine Optimization Pays Off, eMarketer Finds In a recession, marketers need to increase website traffic and drive better conversions—and search marketing is the best customer acquisition tool in the online space, according to eMarketer. By 2013, when total US search marketing will reach nearly $23.4 billion, marketers will be spending more on search engine optimization (SEO) than on contextual advertising, eMarketer says.

March 2, 2009 Kadence Announces New Study Revealing Most Recession-Resistant Brands A major new Kadence study, which investigated consumer perceptions of 650 leading US brands has shown a strong link between the affection consumers hold for a brand and its stock performance.

February 27, 2009 M&A for Media and Information Industry Will be Stronger than Headlines Suggest, JEGI Predicts M&A for the media and information industry will be stronger in 2009 than recent headlines suggest, according to The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI) of New York, NY.

February 27, 2009 Trust is Crucial Issue in 2009, According to Mintel Following President Obama's address to the nation Tuesday evening, Mintel expert Joan Holleran comments on the importance of recovering trust in America this year. Mintel expects trust-building to emerge as the paramount concern of 2009

February 24, 2009 More Than 16% of US Respondents Spent More Than $100 Last Year on Mobile Apps, Finds ABI A survey conducted by ABI Research in November reveals that a surprising 16.5% spent between $100 and $499. That level of spending is especially significant given the low cost of most mobile applications, ranging from as little as a dollar or two at Apple’s iPhone App Store, to at most about $25.

February 24, 2009 Consumer Use of Cash Declines, Card-Based Options Embraced, Finds Study Conducted by BAI and Hitachi Consumers’ use of cash is declining as they continue to embrace a range of card-based payment options, according a nationwide study conducted by BAI Research and Hitachi Consulting, and sponsored by First Data, MasterCard Worldwide, Metavante, and PULSE.

February 23, 2009 Homeowners Insurance Direct Mail Increases 19% in 2008, Reports Mintel Comperemedia While overall direct mail volume plummeted from most financial services companies during 2008, mail from homeowners insurance providers rose. Mintel Comperemedia reports a 19% increase in homeowners insurance direct mail sent to acquire new customers.

February 23, 2009 B-to-B Marketers Need to Keep Up with Business Technology Buyers on Social Media, Finds Forrester Despite the fact that 77% of business technology decision-makers engage with social media on the job, most B-to-B marketers are not effectively using social technologies to influence the purchasing decisions of their customers, according to new research from Forrester Research, Inc.

February 23, 2009 Economic Recession Gives Online Marketers Opportunity to Influence Purchase Decisions, According to JupiterResearch Nearly half of all online shoppers plan to spend less this year, but a majority of those reluctant to make certain purchases can be positively influenced by online shopping resources, according to a new study commissioned by Bazaarvoice and richrelevance, and conducted by JupiterResearch, a Forrester Research company.

February 20, 2009 comScore Releases January 2009 US Search Engine Rankings comScore has released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the US search marketplace. In January 2009, Americans conducted 13.5 billion core searches, a 7% gain versus December 2008.

February 20, 2009 comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 US Web Properties for January 2009 comScore has released its monthly analysis of US consumer activity at the top online properties for January 2009 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. The Tax category led as the top-gaining category as January marked the beginning of tax season, while Job Search, Government and travel-related sites also witnessed strong gains.

February 20, 2009 The Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association (PDMA) Presents 'Getting and Keeping the Job You Love!' The Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association (PDMA) is offering a program for both professional direct marketers and students, entitiled “Getting and Keeping the Job You Love.” The program will be held on Wednesday, Mar. 25, at Arcadia University in Glenside, PA, and features two panels of regional experts.

February 19, 2009 Social Network Marketing Continues to Evolve, According to eMarketer According to eMarketer, the number of Internet users visiting social networks at least once per month increased an estimated 11% in 2008, to 79.5 million, and will rise another 11% in 2009, to 88.1 million. Between 2008 and 2013, the number of social network users in the US will increase by an estimated 44.2%, to nearly 115 million.

February 19, 2009 Yahoo Introduces Yahoo! Mobile Yahoo has announced the upcoming launch of its new Yahoo Mobile service, a highly-personalized mobile starting point to the Internet. Yahoo Mobile will be available on the mobile Web, as an app developed for the Apple iPhone, and as an app developed for smartphones from Nokia, RIM, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola, as well as those powered by Windows Mobile.

February 19, 2009 80% of Web Users Are Concerned about Privacy Online, Burst Media Study Reveals Burst Media has released the results from a survey it conducted about online privacy. In addition to finding that privacy is a significant concern amongst Web users, the survey also revealed that concern increases with the age of the respondent.

February 19, 2009 Economic Downturn Will Create Opportunities for Mobile Advertising, Says Analysys Mason Prospects for mobile advertising in 2009 are promising despite the economic downturn, but realism is called for, says Analysys Mason, the global telecoms adviser during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

February 19, 2009 Consumer Products Manufacturers Rank Consumer Centricity Among Top Keys to Success, According to DemandTec DemandTec, and Precima, Inc. have released the findings of a survey measuring how retailers and consumer products manufacturers use consumer-centric data and analysis to drive their businesses.

February 19, 2009 Pocket Tissue Marketing, Made Popular in Japan, Becomes Popular Among US Marketers, AdPack Reports Since the economic downturn, the popularity of direct mail has come roaring back, after a five-year decline, as consumers and marketers alike look for ways to save and as advertisers cut spending by 3% and higher. According to AdPack USA, a division of Japan's giant ITOCHU Corporation, consumers are looking for coupons and samples, and marketers are looking for the "biggest bang for their marketing buck."

February 18, 2009 India's Social Networking Market Sees Global Brands Gain Prominence in 2008, According to comScore comScore has released a report on the top social networking sites in India, finding that visitation to the site category increased 51% from the previous year to more than 19 million visitors in December 2008. The study also found that global social networking brands continued to gain prominence in India during the year.

February 18, 2009 Drop in E-Commerce Satisfaction Ends Three Year Climb in American Customer Satisfaction Index, ForeSee Finds Customer satisfaction with the e-commerce sector falls for the first time in three years, dropping 2% to a score of 80 on a 100-point scale, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

February 18, 2009 Customers Predict Significant Rise in Mobile TV and Video Usage by 2010, According to QuickPlay Media QuickPlay Media has revealed the results of a survey focused on mobile TV and video consumption in the UK. On a positive note the research revealed consumers are confident in the uptake of mobile TV and video, with 74% of respondents expecting an increase in usage by 2010.

February 13, 2009 UK Men Forge Ahead Online, According to eMarketer Males accounted for 49.6% of the total UK population in 2008, but online, men take the lead. eMarketer estimates that there will be more than 20 million men online in the UK in 2009—51

February 13, 2009 Event Industry CEOs Provide a Mixed Outlook for 2009, According to JEGI Event industry CEOs provided a mixed outlook for 2009, according to the 2009 Exhibition and Conference Industry Outlook conducted by the Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. The survey provides an in-depth look at event industry CEO's key strategic goals and growth drivers, challenges and opportunities, and their view of the M&A market for events.

February 12, 2009 Consumers Continue Cost Cutting and Saving in 2009, First Command Reports Amid continuing concerns about the economy, American families are moving into the new year with a newfound commitment to cutting household expenses and saving money, according to the First Command Financial Behaviors Index.

February 12, 2009 Walmart Tops in Health & Beauty; Walgreens Tops For Prescriptions, BIGresearch Finds A third of consumers shop Walmart most often for their health & beauty aid purchases, followed by Target and CVS, according to the January Retail Ratings Report from BIGresearch. Although Walgreens was edged out of the top 3 in January for HBA, they top the list in the Prescription Drug category.

February 12, 2009 US Retail E-Commerce Declines 3% in Q4 2008 Versus Year Ago; Sales for Full Year Grew 6%, comScore Reports According to comScore, Inc., online retail spending in Q4 2008 declined 3% versus year ago, the first recorded quarter of negative growth since comScore began tracking e-commerce spending in 2001. Nonetheless, for the full year 2008, retail e-commerce grew 6% to $130.1 billion.

February 12, 2009 North Shore Animal League Selects MBS to Provide Database Services MBS, a leading provider of advanced marketing services, has announced that it has been selected by North Shore Animal League to provide marketing database services for the not-for-profit’s marketing and fundraising programs. Founded in 1944, the North Shore Animal League is the world’s largest no-kill pet rescue and adoption organization. Since its founding, the League has placed close to one million pets into carefully selected homes.

February 11, 2009 Postal Service Mailing Services Prices to Change on May 11 The Governors of the USPS have approved new prices for mailing services, including a 2-cent increase in the price of a First-Class Mail stamp to 44 cents. Prices for mailing services are reviewed annually and adjusted each May. The new prices will go into effect Monday, May 11.

February 11, 2009 Black Women Say Advertisers Don't Know How to Talk to Them, According to Lattimer Communications Study According to a new Lattimer Communications study, 86% of African-American women say that advertisers need to do a better job of talking to them,. Advertisers need to re-evaluate their marketing campaigns targeting this important segment.

February 10, 2009 Charming Shoppes Announces Executive Appointments; Bill Bass Appointed Interim President of Company's Direct Division Charming Shoppes has announced the appointment of Anthony M. Romano as executive VP, Business Transformation. Bill Bass has been appointed interim president of the company's Charming Direct division. Rachel A. Ungaro has been promoted to senior VP, General Merchandising, and James A. Ferree has been appointed as senior VP, General Merchandising, both of the company's Fashion Bug brand.

February 9, 2009 Identity Fraud Increased 22%, According to Javelin The 2009 Identity Fraud Survey Report, released by Javelin Strategy & Research, confirms that the number of identity fraud victims has increased 225 to 9.9 million adults in the US, while the total annual fraud amount only increased slightly by 7% to $48 billion over the past year.

February 9, 2009 Mobile Revenue from European Mobile Business Customers to Grow, ABI Research Projects According to ABI Research, Europe as a region has the highest adoption of mobile services at 121% penetration, and this is expected to rise to 135% by 2012. At these high penetrations, overall service revenue growth through the handset is expected to decline.

February 9, 2009 Small Businesses Don't Expect Strong Valentine's Day Sales, Constant Contact Survey Shows According to responses from a recent survey by Constant Contact, Inc., the majority of respondents do not anticipate strong Valentine’s Day sales.

February 5, 2009 Card Issuers Send Lowest Volume of Credit Card Mail in Past Eight Years, Says Mintel Comperemedia New data from Mintel Comperemedia shows only 5.4 billion credit card direct mail offers were sent to Americans in 2008. This is the lowest annual total the firm has reported since 2000.

February 5, 2009 36% of Social Network Users Want to Access Social Media on Their TVs, According to ABI Research A new survey by ABI Research shows that today’s consumers are looking to extend their social networks to the TV, as 36% of those who currently use social media on a regular basis say they’d like to access their networks on the TV screen.

February 4, 2009 ALC Acquires Equity Stake in Empathy Lab ALC, a leading independent data marketing services provider, has announced that it has acquired an equity interest in Empathy Lab, a rapidly-growing, cutting-edge digital strategy and execution firm, located just outside of Philadelphia.

February 4, 2009 Economy Holds Little Sway on Valentine's Day Purchase Plans, Discover Survey Reveals Discover Card has released the results of its fourth annual Valentine's Day Shopping Survey, which highlights consumer shopping trends and intentions for the upcoming holiday. The poll also revealed insights as to why some consumers may spend differently this year.

February 4, 2009 On-Line Retailers Winning Internet Search Battle According to Internet-Engine Study A new study by Internet-Engine, a leading Internet marketing firm, has found that on-line retailers are winning the Internet search battle against traditional retailers.

February 4, 2009 Brooks Brothers Selects MBS as Marketing Database Services Partner MBS, a leading provider of advanced database and interactive marketing solutions, has announced that it has been selected by Brooks Brothers to provide marketing database services for the retailer’s multi-channel marketing programs.

February 3, 2009 Older Consumers Prefer Identifiable Photos, According to Creating Results Survey Creating Results has unveiled the results of a survey addressing what type of photography is most effective when advertising to the mature consumer. Researchers surveyed 414 Americans over 40 years old, and revealed, among other findings, that single image ads are significantly more effective than multi-image Collage style pieces.

February 3, 2009 Influent Is Finalist in Tech Columbus Innovation Awards, Outstanding Technology Team Influent, a leading provider of outsourced customer sales and service solutions with call center facilities in the US, Philippines, and Panama, is pleased to announce that they are a finalist in the 2008 Tech Columbus Innovation Awards for the Outstanding Technology Team category.

February 3, 2009 Consumers Won't Give Up Fast-Food, Discounted Apparel, or Cable TV, BIGresearch Reports While the economy is forcing many consumers to make sacrifices, a handful of must-have’s remain on the list. A recent survey conducted by BIGresearch found that Americans have redefined what’s “untouchable” and what is “expendable” in their lives to adjust to the current economic climate.

February 2, 2009 comScore 2008 Digital Year in Review Report Highlights Key US Digital Marketing Trends comScore has released a new report, The comScore 2008 Digital Year in Review, which recaps key trends in US digital marketing for the year. One of the trends that heavily affected US Internet usage in 2008 was the economic meltdown, with several of the top gaining site categories reflecting the current environment.

February 2, 2009 Bebo Launches 'Bebo Open Mobile' Bebo, a global social media network, has announced the launch of Bebo Open Mobile, a new global partnership program which offers a suite of tools to provide customers with access to the Bebo social networking experience.

February 2, 2009 Mobile Game Downloaders Increased 17%, comScore Finds comScore reports that the number of mobile game downloaders grew 17% from November 2007 to November 2008, when 8.5 million people, or 3.8% of mobile subscribers, downloaded a game to their mobile device.

February 2, 2009 Sales of Smartphones to Reach 300 Million by 2013, According to Juniper Research High-end mobile handsets (so-called "smartphones") are expected to account for a growing proportion of mobile phones sold each year. A new report from Juniper Research forecasts that, between 2008 and 2013, annual sales of smartphones will rise by 95% to over 300 million.

January 30, 2009 DMANF Honors Mal Warwick with Max L. Hart Nonprofit Achievement Award The Nonprofit Federation of the Direct Marketing Association (DMANF) has announced that Mal Warwick, founder & chairman, Mal Warwick Associates, has been selected as the 2009 recipient of its Max L. Hart Nonprofit Achievement Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement by an individual within the nonprofit community.

January 30, 2009 Valentine s Day Spending Is Down From Last Year, Finds BigResearch The National Retail Federation's 2009 Valentine's Day Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, conducted by BIGresearch, found that consumers plan to spend an average $102.50 on Valentine’s gifts and merchandise, down from last year’s $122.98 per person. Total Valentine’s Day spending is expected to reach $14.7 billion.

January 28, 2009 Online Gaming Surges, According to comScore comScore has released an analysis of Americans’ usage of online gaming sites, showing that the category has grown 27% during the past year to 86 million visitors in December 2008, while the total time spent playing online games has jumped 42%.

January 28, 2009 Gartner Reveals Eight Mobile Technologies to Watch in 2009 and 2010 Gartner, Inc. has identified eight mobile technologies that it predicts will evolve significantly through 2010, impacting short-term mobile strategies and policies, including Bluetooth 3.0, Mobile User Interfaces (UIs), and Location Sensing.

January 28, 2009 Nielsen Company Releases Guide to Super Bowl XLIII The Nielsen Company has released its annual Guide to the Super Bowl, which showcases a full range of consumer and media information about the most anticipated marketing event in the US. This year's matchup between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers is scheduled for Feb. 1 in Tampa, FL.

January 27, 2009 Consumer Confidence Continues Downward Slide in January, According CEA-CNET Indexes Consumer confidence in the overall economy continues to slide downward in January, according to figures released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and CNET. The CEA-CNET Indexes also show consumers are less likely to spend money on consumer electronics and technology products.

January 27, 2009 Increased Spam and Phishing Attacks Tops Email Marketer Challenges for 2009, JupiterResearch Finds Increased spam and phishing attacks along with further email and image blocking by ISPs top the lists of marketer’s concerns for 2009, this according to a recent Goodmail-sponsored survey conducted by JupiterResearch.

January 27, 2009 UK Retailers See Increase in December Online Traffic, comScore Reports The onset of the Christmas shopping season brought increased traffic to the UK's online retail sites, with the jewelry/luxury goods/accessories category experiencing the strongest growth, followed by the mall, music, and flowers/gifts/greetings categories. This according to According to comScore, Inc.'s December rankings of the Internet properties and site categories in the UK.

January 26, 2009 Harris Poll Finds Substantial Increase in Public Preference for Generic over Brand Name Drugs The Harris Poll finds a substantial change in the pharmaceutical drugs people buy, and how and where they buy them. Between October 2006 and December 2008, the proportion of adults who would choose generic drugs in preference to brand name prescription drugs has increased from 68% to 81%. And the number who would more often choose branded drugs has almost halved, down from 32% to only 19%.

January 26, 2009 Reprise Media Announces 5th Annual Super Bowl Search Marketing Scorecard Reprise Media will release its 5th annual Super Bowl Search Marketing Scorecard on Feb.2, 2009. The Scorecard ranks Super Bowl advertisers based on the level of integration between their TV commercials and presence in search and social media, measuring how prepared each brand is to handle online interest and buzz.

January 26, 2009 Global Internet Audience Surpasses 1 billion Visitors, According to comScore; Asia-Pacific Region Accounts for 41% of Internet Users comScore, Inc. has reported that total global Internet audience has surpassed 1 billion visitors in December 2008, based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for the highest share of global Internet users at 41%.

January 23, 2009 Young Consumers Changing Competitive Landscape of Specialty Retailers, Finds ForecastIQ Although retail sales continue to slump, two specialty stores are almost certain to see same store sales growth over the next two months. According to ForecastIQ, forecasts bode well for both Aeropostale and Buckle. However, Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle are almost certain to see a decline.

January 23, 2009 AOL Launches New Version of Web Mail AOL's Products and Technologies Group have announced the launch of an enhanced version of AOL Web Mail that offers users one-click access to Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and a variety of third-party sites and destinations directly from the AOL Web Mail page.

January 22, 2009 New Administration Sparks Signs of Strengthening Consumer Confidence, According to eBillme According to the eBillme Online Spending Index, 50% of consumers reported they will have more confidence in the economy while more than 25% feel more comfortable increasing their everyday spending now that the new administration has taken over.

January 21, 2009 Consumers Spend 11% More Time Online Than Watching TV, Yankee Group Finds Yankee Group has unveiled US survey results that suggest the current economic crisis will make Internet video a champion in 2009. Consumers are spending 11% more time online than watching TV, and Internet video is emerging as the key platform for the delivery of on-demand video services.

January 21, 2009 US Electronics Retailers' Performance Jumps, According to Tech Channel Index The Tech Channel Index reports that after enduring a tough holiday shopping season, US electronics retailers had their first week of marked improvement finishing week of January 3, 2009, just 2% last year's sales of consumer IT and entertainment electronics products.

January 20, 2009 Distrust of Financial Services Companies Shown in Cohn & Wolfe Survey A study of 650 US consumers, conducted by Lightspeed Research, in conjunction with Cohn & Wolfe, reveals a lack of trust in financial advisors, insurers, and other financial services companies.

January 20, 2009 comScore Releases December 2008 US Search Engine Rankings comScore, Inc. has released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the US search marketplace. In December 2008, Americans conducted 12.7 billion core searches, a 3% increase versus November.

January 20, 2009 Numbers Show Newspapers Heading for Demise, According to eMarketer eMarketer estimates that newspaper advertising revenues dropped 16.4% to $37.9 billion in 2008. By 2012, those revenues will tumble to $28.4 billion, eMarketer says. That is a little more than one-half the industry’s revenue peak of $49.4 billion in 2005.

January 20, 2009 Singapore's Online Ad Revenues to Reach US$413 Million In 2013, Frost & Sullivan Finds New analysis from Frost & Sullivan Singapore Online Advertising Market, finds that the online market was worth US$142.1 million in 2007 and forecasts this to reach US$413.5 million by end-2013, growing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 19.5 percent (2008-2013).

January 20, 2009 Toronto Humane Society Makes DRTV Donations Plea with Campaign by Northern Lights The Toronto Humane Society is urging people to help them save animals in need with a short-form direct response television (DRTV) campaign created by Northern Lights Direct Response.

January 15, 2009 Magazine Advertising Shows Effects of Soft Economy, PIB Reports Magazine ad revenue for 2008 posted a 7.8% decline against the previous year, according to Publishers Information Bureau (PIB). "Like other ad-supported media, magazines have been affected by the economic slump, which deepened as 2008 progressed," said Ellen Oppenheim, EVP and CMO, Magazine Publishers of America, which administers PIB.

January 15, 2009 Major Shift from Physical to Virtual Events in 2009, ON24 Survey Shows A recent survey by ON24 polled the anticipated use in 2009 of trade shows, conventions, and seminars against virtual events such as webinars and virtual shows. The survey results showed a significant shift from physical to virtual events.

January 15, 2009 DMW Worldwide Ranked with Top Winners in Prestigious DMA Analytics Challenge Warren Hunter, chairman and CEO of DMW Worldwide LLC, has announced that the agency has been named to the winner’s list of the third annual Analytics Challenge competition, sponsored by DMA's Analytics Council and the CAC Group, Inc.

January 14, 2009 BigResearch Releases Retail Ratings Report; Amazon Makes Strides in Electronics Category BIGresearch’s December 2008 Retail Ratings Report reveals that Best Buy continues to be the store shopped most often for almost one in three consumers for electronics with an overall share of 29.8%, while Amazon more than any other retailer in the electronics category.

January 13, 2009 Personalized Ads Attract High-Value Customers, According to ChoiceStream ChoiceStream, a leading recommendations service provider for retail and entertainment brands, has announced the findings of its 2008 Personalization Survey. According to the survey, retailers’ most attractive prospects, those who spend the most money and shop most frequently, are more likely to click on personalized ads than non-personalized ads.

January 13, 2009 Global IT Purchases Will Decline In 2009, Forrester Predicts Global purchases of IT goods and services by businesses and governments will decline by 3% in 2009 to $1.66 trillion, according to a new forecast from Forrester Research. The 2009 drop measured in US dollars is a distinct shift from 2008, when global IT purchases increased by 8%.

January 12, 2009 Search Still Online-Marketing Heavyweight, According to eMarketer According to eMarketer, search’s growth is projected at only 14.9% in 2009, and is not expected to see gains until 2012. Search ad spending growth in the mid-teens in 2009 is still impressive, especially compared with other ad formats and media.

January 12, 2009 AOL Centralizes Publishing Unit with Creation of MediaGlow AOL has announced a series of significant developments that it says will dramatically expand, reposition and monetize its digital publishing business in 2009. Anchoring this announcement is the creation of a new AOL business unit, MediaGlow, which will centralize AOL’s entire publishing efforts, with the goal of greatly expanding the unit’s global reach.

January 9, 2009 Transformation of Media Industry Exemplified by Types of Deals Completed in 2008, Finds JEGI According to The Jordan, Edmiston Group (JEGI), the projected shift in growth for the media industry over the next few years is stunning, with $.88 of every dollar of industry revenue growth flowing to four growth sectors: database & information; B-to-B online media; consumer online media; and interactive marketing services, and only $.12 flowing to traditional media.

January 9, 2009 DMW Worldwide Honored with PIMA Marketing Methods Awards Warren Hunter, chairman and CEO of DMW Worldwide LLC, has announced that the agency and two of its clients recently were honored in the 2008 Marketing Methods competition, held annually by the Professional Insurance Marketing Association (PIMA).

January 8, 2009 Outlook Optimistic for 2009, ICR Survey Finds Although 85% of US adults described the state of the US economy in 2008 as being worse than in 2007, Americans are optimistic for the new year, with 41% of adults surveyed believing that 2009 will turn out to be better than 2008. This according to a recent survey conducted by ICR / International Communications Research,

January 8, 2009 Older Americans Embrace Technology, According to TNS Compete and CEA TNS Compete and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) have announced a new joint study, revealing that the age segments of 50-somethings, 60-somethings and 70+ use many technologies at or near comparable rates as younger age segments. Consumers

January 7, 2009 Online Spending Outperforms Brick-and-Mortar in Key Retail Categories, Finds comScore comScore has released online spending data by category for the online holiday shopping season, which showed that trends in online spending outperformed offline in several key product categories. Findings showed that the top growing online product category for the season was Sport & Fitness, which grew 18% versus year ago.

January 7, 2009 Consumer Spending Intentions Reach Lows, According to Discover Spending Monitor The Discover US Spending Monitor fell for the fourth consecutive month in December, declining more than three points to a new low. Both components of the monthly spending index – consumer confidence in the US economy and consumer spending intent – reached new lows during the month, as concerns about the economy may be weighing on post-holiday spending plans.

January 7, 2009 Nearly Half of Mobile Phone Users Eschew Multimedia Features, Finds NPD Group According to a new report by The NPD Group, a leader in market research for the wireless industry, 45% of US mobile phone users prefer to use their mobile phones to make calls, and not for other available multimedia features.

January 5, 2009 Gaps Revealed in Web Security, Osterman Research - Purewire Survey Finds Purewire, Inc., a Web security SaaS vendor, has announced end-user survey results illustrating severe vulnerabilities to corporate networks due to malware-infected Web applications, remote workers, and shrinking IT budgets.

January 5, 2009 Retail Sales Increase 21.2% for Week Ending Dec. 27, ShopperTrak Reports ShopperTrak’s retail traffic index has reported that total US foot traffic for Christmas week (12/21 – 12/27) fell 4.9% as compared to the same period in 2007, while the company’s retail sales estimate reported a strong 21.2% retail sales increase for the week.

December 30, 2008 Credit Card Alter Terms to Stay Profitable, Mintel Comperemedia Reports Mintel Comperemedia, a service that provides direct marketing competitive intelligence, reports that many credit card issuers are communicating big changes in account terms, conditions and fees to their clients through direct mail.

December 29, 2008 Consumer Confidence Down Slightly in December, According CEA-CNET Indexes Consumer confidence in the overall economy decreased slightly in December, according to figures released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and CNET. The CEA-CNET Indexes also showed consumers are slightly less likely to spend on consumer electronics (CE) and technology products.

December 29, 2008 DMW Worldwide Ranked with Top Winners in Prestigious DMA Analytics Challenge Warren Hunter, Chairman and CEO of DMW Worldwide LLC, announced that under the leadership of Jeff Williams, director, Decision Support, the agency has been named to the winner’s list of the third annual Analytics Challenge competition, sponsored by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Analytics Council and the CAC Group, Inc.

December 23, 2008 Holiday Spending Down or Stagnant in US and Five Largest European Countries, Harris Interactive Finds As the holiday shopping season draws to a close, retailers in the US and some European countries are not that happy. Just over half of Italians (56%) and 48% of Americans as well as pluralities in France (45%), Spain (43%) and Great Britain (42%) all say they will be spending less than last year for the holiday season.

December 22, 2008 Four out of Five Consumers Plan to Cut Spending, According to NPD Group The NPD Group, Inc. released the results of its latest Consumer Spending Indicator study. According to the December survey, 81% of consumers say they plan to spend less money than usual.

December 22, 2008 Heavy Online Spending Continues Later into the Season, Finds comScore comScore has reported its tracking of holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 49 days of the Nov.–Dec. 2008 holiday season. For the holiday season through December 19, $24.03 billion has been spent online, down 1% versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week of the season has seen several strong online spending days.

December 19, 2008 Free Shipping an Important Stimulus of E-Commerce This Holiday Season, Finds comScore comScore has reported its tracking of holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 44 days of the November – December 2008 holiday season. For the holiday season through December 14, $20.17 billion has been spent online, essentially the same level compared to the corresponding days last year.

December 19, 2008 Major Retailers Experience 161% Increase in Attempted Hacker Attacks, According to SecureWorks SecureWorks, a leading security as a service provider, reports they have seen a 161 percent increase in the number of attempted hacker attacks they are blocking for their retail clients. Attempted attacks increased from an average of 56,000 per client per month in the first six months of the year to 133,000 per client per month for the last five months. The attack statistics represent the attack activity for 36 major retail corporations located across the country.

December 19, 2008 Advenix VisualSubject Customized Email Previews Boost User Engagement by 125% Advenix, creator of the VisualSubject customized email preview, reports a 42% lift in email results among recipients who engaged with VisualSubject, a user-initiated graphic that complements the email subject line with a visual preview. Findings are based on a series of email campaigns Advenix ran September through November 2008.

December 18, 2008 More Consumers Plan to Resell Holiday Gifts Online This Year, eBay Research Reveals With financial concerns weighing on Americans' minds this holiday season, consumers are becoming more resourceful than ever. To cope, they are learning how to manage unwanted gifts. Over half of US adults who have resold gifts online plan to do so this year, a 10% increase from last year

December 18, 2008 Websites Play Tangible Role in Sales and Brand Loyalty, ForeSee Reports ForeSee Results has unveiled research showing that online customer satisfaction plays a critical role for consumer packaged good (CPG) companies that are using their website to engender loyalty and encourage purchase behavior online or offline.

December 18, 2008 NPD Group Introduces Monthly Report on Consumer Attitudes and Spending The NPD Group, a leading market research company, has launched a new monthly report, The Economy Tracker, to monitor how the economy is affecting consumer attitudes and shopping behavior.

December 17, 2008 41 Million People Have Not Started Holiday Shopping, Finds BIGresearch According to NRF’s 2008 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, the average person had completed 47.1% of their holiday shopping by the second week of December, about 10% less than the 52.6% average completed by this time last year.

December 17, 2008 Experts and Analysts Assess Future of Internet in New Pew Survey A survey of internet leaders, activists, and analysts shows they expect major tech advances as the phone becomes a primary device for online access, voice-recognition improves, artificial and virtual reality become more embedded in everyday life, and the architecture of the internet itself improves.

December 17, 2008 Economy Will Permanently Alter Communications Marketplace, Yankee Group Predicts Yankee Group Yankee Group has unveiled its top 10 predictions for 2009, projecting that the economy will drive profound changes to forever alter the communications marketplace.

December 17, 2008 comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 US Web Properties for November 2008 comScore has released its monthly analysis of US consumer activity at the top online properties for November 2008 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. The official start to the holiday shopping season unleashed droves of Americans on retail sites, propelling several categories, including Toys, Consumer Electronics and Department Stores, to double-digit traffic gains in November.

December 16, 2008 Consumers Likely to Start Online But Purchase in the Store, Finds Harris Interactive According to a new study by Harris Interactive, shoppers consult an average of four resources on their path to purchase. Most consumers begin their research online, but ultimately make their purchase in a brick-and-mortar store.

December 16, 2008 Week After Cyber Monday Brings Slight Lull in E-Commerce Sales Growth, comScore Finds According to research by comScore, for the holiday season through December 12, $19.44 billion has been spent online, essentially the same level compared to the corresponding days last year. For the twelve days beginning with Dec. 1 (Cyber Monday), the kick-off to the heaviest part of the online shopping season, sales were up 3% versus a year ago. However, the most recent work week (Dec. 8-12) saw e-commerce sales decline by a marginal 1%, although Dec. 9 emerged as the highest online spending day on record.

December 16, 2008 Late Black Friday, Shorter Holiday Season Impact November Retail Sales, According to NRF According to the National Retail Federation, retail industry sales for November (which exclude automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants) increased 0.6% seasonally adjusted from October and decreased 2.0% unadjusted year-over-year. Industry related month-to-month sales saw the first increase in four months.

December 16, 2008 A Few Bright Signs Uncovered in a Challenging Environment, SpendingPulse Find SpendingPulse has provided summary results for the holiday shopping season through the first week of December. Michael McNamara, VP of SpendingPulse, pointed to some good news: relative strength in eCommerce sales and the general merchandise sector, and a rise in gasoline pumping, responding to the dramatic fall in the price per gallon.

December 16, 2008 BZ Media Has Sold Software Test & Performance to Redwood Collaborative Media BZ Media LLC, a high-tech B-to-B media company, has sold its Software Test & Performance business unit to Redwood Collaborative Media, an integrated B-to-B media company. The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc., a leading provider of independent investment banking services, represented BZ Media in this transaction and acted as its exclusive financial advisor.

December 15, 2008 Businesses Plan to Increase Marketing Budgets in the New Year, StrongMail Survey Finds Despite economic concerns, businesses will continue to invest in key marketing programs in the coming year, according to new survey released by StrongMail Systems, Inc. Results show that more than half of the nearly 1,000 global business leaders polled plan to increase their marketing budgets in 2009 to focus on programs that yield a higher return on investment (ROI), such as email marketing and search.

December 15, 2008 Retailers and Hotels Top Forrester's Annual Customer Experience Ranking Only 11% of companies garnered a rating of “excellent” in this year’s Customer Experience Index of large US firms, released by Forrester Research, Inc. Forrester asked more than 4,500 consumers about their interactions with 114 companies across 12 different industries and developed its Customer Experience Index based on the usefulness, ease of use, and enjoyability of those experiences. Thirty-eight percent of firms were rated as “poor” or “very poor.”

December 15, 2008 New Research by OTX Supports Value of Brands Engaging Directly with Consumers Online A new research study conducted by OTX, a global consumer research and consulting firm, confirms the value of brands engaging directly with consumers online. The initial findings of the new study revealed that 54% of consumers agree that information from a brand representative would be more valuable than what is typically found on a company website.

December 12, 2008 Postal Regulatory Commission Verifies Competitive Products Price Changes for 2009 The Postal Regulatory Commission has issued its review of price adjustments sought by the USPS for competitive postal products. Chairman Dan G. Blair announced the Commissions’ unanimous decision that the increases sought for competitive products were not unlawful.

December 12, 2008 Online Video Viewers to Approach One Billion by 2013, According to ABI Research While today’s consumer is most likely to watch online video on the PC screen, over time, more and more consumers will watch over-the-top video delivered to the living room, according a new study from ABI Research.

December 12, 2008 BurrellesLuce Issues Rankings of Top Media Facebook, MySpace, and Hi5 were the three most utilized social networks, according to rankings made available by BurrellesLuce. The report lists the top 100 daily newspapers by circulation, the 25 biggest consumer magazines, the 25 most popular blogs, and the 25 busiest social networks.

December 12, 2008 Clicks-Per-Visitor Show Dramatic Increase on Cyber Monday, ClickStream Finds ClickStream Technologies' standing panel of US adult internet users showed that internet retail sites received a dramatic increase in average clicks per visitor on Cyber Monday. Activity increases ranged from 500% to 14,500 times the average daily clicks per site.

December 11, 2008 US Advertising Expenditures Declined 1.7% in First Nine Months of 2008, TNS Reports Total measured ad expenditures in the first nine months of 2008 declined by 1.7% as compared to the same period in 2007, according to data released by TNS Media Intelligence. Ad spending during the third quarter of 2008 was off 2.0% versus last year, despite a positive stimulus from the Summer Olympics and political elections.

December 11, 2008 90% of American Adults Concerned about the Safety of Personal Information Online, According to CA, Inc. A recent survey by CA, Inc. reveals a gap between online security awareness and safety precautions by teens, adults and seniors, with varying behaviors across regions. Survey results showed that 57% of American adults fear their identity might be stolen online within the next two years, and 90% worry about the security of their personal information.

December 11, 2008 Web Users Pay less Attention to Ads on Cluttered Sites, Burst Survey Finds Burst Media has released the results from a survey on the topic of ad clutter. Overwhelmingly, the findings reveal that websites cluttered with advertisements do a disservice to the publisher, the advertiser, and the visitor.

December 11, 2008 Consumers Likely to Become Less Passive with Mobile Social Networks, ABI Research Predicts Consumers using mobile social networks today are mainly checking messages, status updates, and comments of friends, rather than posting photos or comments themselves, according to a recent study by ABI Research. However, this pattern is changing as more consumers have access to better-equipped phones and social network applications that allow for easy uploading and communication.

December 9, 2008 Holiday E-Commerce Season Sales Finally Match Last Year, According to comScore comScore has reported its tracking of holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 35 days of the November – December 2008 holiday season. For the holiday season through December 5, $14.92 billion has been spent online, essentially the same level compared to the corresponding days last year.

December 9, 2008 Majority of American Families Spending Less for Holidays, First Command Reports More than half of American families expect to cut back on holiday spending this year, citing less money and uncertainty about the economy as motivating factors, according to the First Command Financial Behaviors Index.

December 8, 2008 Holiday Shoppers Plan to Spend Nearly 10% Less This Year, According to Discover Discover Card has released its annual Holiday Shopping Survey, which assesses consumer spending trends and gift intentions for the 2008 holiday season. On average, shoppers expect to spend nearly 10% less this year than in 2007, according to the survey.

December 8, 2008 One Third of Retailers Cut Holiday Marketing Budgets This Year, According to BDO Seidman According to a new study conducted after the financial market meltdown by BDO Seidman, LLP, one-third of CMOs at leading US retailers state that their holiday marketing and advertising budgets have been reduced this season.

December 5, 2008 Consumers Not Likely to Layaway Gifts This Season, Finds BIGresearch Over half (56.7%) of Americans say they will be spending less due to the economic environment, according to the American Pulse Survey of 4,348 respondents. In addition, 51.2% say they will be looking for sales more than last year while 31.8% are hoping to find deals online.

December 5, 2008 FedEx Helping Customers Gear Up for Holiday Season FedEx Corp. is offering solutions to help its customers save time and money as they prepare to ship millions of precious holiday packages this holiday season.

December 5, 2008 Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) Offers Guidelines for Mailers Using Move Update Communicating Entry Requirements/In-Home Delivery Dates Solutions/Seasonality Impact

December 4, 2008 AOL Reveals Top Web, Mobile and Video Searches of 2008 The presidential elections dominated user searches this year, according to AOL’s annual lists of top Web, mobile and video searches across more than 40 categories for 2008. But celebrities continued to be hot topics for searchers as well.

December 4, 2008 Retailers Counting on Cyber Monday, Finds BIGresearch According to the eHoliday Survey, conducted for Shop.org this fall by Shopzilla, 83.7% of retailers will have a special promotion for Cyber Monday, up from 72.2 % last year. The most popular promotions are expected to be specific deals (38.8 percent), email campaigns (32.7 percent), and one-day sales (24.5 percent).

December 3, 2008 Consumers Cutting Back on Consumer Technology This Holiday Season, According to NPD Group Consumers plan to cut back this holiday season on consumer technology purchases, according to a new report by leading market research company The NPD Group. NPD’s Consumer Technology Holiday Snapshot Report examined consumer purchase intent for popular holiday gift categories including flat-panel TVs, desktop and notebook PCs, MP3 players, digital cameras, GPS devices, and digital picture frames.

December 3, 2008 NRF Survey Finds Black Friday Gets Holiday Season Off to Energetic Start According to the National Retail Federation's 2008 Black Friday Weekend survey, conducted by BIGresearch, more than 172 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 147 million shoppers last year. Shoppers spent an average of $372.57 this weekend, up 7.2 % over last year’s $347.55. Total spending reached an estimated $41.0 billion.

December 1, 2008 Online Video, TV, and Magazines Influence Video Game Purchases, Find Ad-Ology Survey A surprising 70% of recent video game/game systems buyers reported some or significant influence from television and 54% reported influence from online video, according to the Fall 2008 Ad-ology Media Influence on Consumer Choice survey.

December 1, 2008 Consumers Plan to Spend Less This Holiday Season, MyPoints Survey Shows MyPoints, Inc., a leading online loyalty program, has announced that 82% of consumers plan to spend less this holiday season than they did last year according to a new survey. The survey found that 87% of those surveyed have set a budget for this year's holiday shopping to help achieve the goal.

December 1, 2008 USPS Revises Move Update Mailer Advisement Policy; Provides FAQs The USPS has revised the Move Update standards, which provide ways for mailers to reduce the number of mailpieces that require forwarding, return, or are undeliverable-as-addressed by the periodic matching of a mailer’s address records with customer-filed change-of-address orders. The USPS has also issued Move Update Verification Frequently Asked Questions.

December 1, 2008 Northern Lights Selected as DRTV Media Agency for Unirush UniRush, LLC has announced it has selected Northern Lights Direct Response as its DRTV media buying agency for its RushCard pre-paid debit card campaign.

November 26, 2008 PRC Approves Service Measurement Systems The Postal Regulatory Commission has issued Order No. 140 granting formal approval for the USPS to utilize both external and internal service measurement systems – including the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb) – to report on service performance for market dominant postal products.

November 26, 2008 Discovery, Differentiation, and Discounts Drive Holiday Shoppers to Search, According to Performics Performics, a leading performance marketing agency, has released data illustrating purchasing behaviors specific to search engine utilization, across seven consumer segments and ten product categories. In collaboration with ROI Research, Performics surveyed 7,043 consumers on the role of search engines in their purchasing decisions.

November 26, 2008 Forecast is Mixed for Consumer Technology and Media Holiday Sales, Finds Oilver Wyman As the holiday shopping season approaches, six out of ten US consumers intend to cut their spending in at least one area of communications and media entertainment, according to a new survey by international management consulting firm Oliver Wyman.

November 26, 2008 DMW Worldwide Adds Mark Fink DMW Worldwide LLC has announced that the agency has added T. Mark Fink as Database Manager/Administrator in the Decision Support team.

November 25, 2008 Many Consumers Expect to Spend Same or More This Holiday Season, ABI Research Finds But a recent survey conducted by ABI Research has shown that not all consumers intend to cut back on spending, and some are even thinking of spending more than last year.

November 25, 2008 Consumer Confidence up Slightly in November, According to Latest CEA-CNET Indexes Consumer confidence in the overall economy increased slightly in November following a record low October level, according to figures released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and CNET. The CEA-CNET Indexes also showed consumers are slightly more likely to spend on consumer electronics (CE) and technology products.

November 25, 2008 Conner Strong Customer Data Integration Case Study Published Business Development Solutions, Inc. ("BDS") has announced the publication of a customer data integration case study outlining its implementation of SingleVision software for Conner Strong.

November 24, 2008 One in Every Five ID Fraud Victims Leaves Their Bank, Reports Javelin Javelin research shows that the average identity fraud case costs the industry $5,574 per victim and takes 26 hours to resolve. One in every five ID fraud victims leaves their bank, and one in every six changes card issuer.

November 21, 2008 Retailers Brace for Increased Shoplifting This Holiday Season, According to NRF According to a recent NRF conducted by the University of Florida, with a funding grant from ADT Security Services, retailers lost almost $12 billion to the 27 million shoplifters who stole merchandise from them in 2007.

November 21, 2008 Mobile Websites Don't Make the Grade According to Yankee Group Yankee Group has released a new report that shows mobile Web sites struggle to deliver an effective experience to the millions of consumers they serve. Based on a new Yankee Group methodology, the report scores 32 mobile websites on a scale of 1 to 100 and finds not one Web site with a passing grade of 70.

November 21, 2008 Internet Advertising Revenues in Q3 '08 at Nearly $5.9 Billion, Reports IAB The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) have announced that Internet advertising revenues reached almost $5.9 billion for the third quarter of 2008, representing an 11 percent increase over the same period in 2007.

November 21, 2008 DMW Worldwide Promotes Jeff Williams DMW Worldwide LLC, has announced that Jeff Williams has been promoted to Director, Decision Support.

November 19, 2008 Consumer Outlook Bleak for Holiday Season, Worse for 2009, Credit.com Survey Finds According to a new national survey from Credit.com, consumers are very concerned about the upcoming holiday shopping season and don’t think 2009 will be any better. While the survey found people were generally worried about their personal finances during this time of economic turmoil, more than half of respondents think their situation will improve in 2009.

November 18, 2008 Customer Service, Not Price, Remains Top Cause of Customer Churn, Accenture Study Finds Service again ranked above price as a global driver of customer churn, according to Accenture's fourth annual study on customer service satisfaction, titled "High Performance in the Age of Customer Centricity."

November 17, 2008 Four Out of Five Adults Now Use the Internet, According to Harris Poll In 1995, when The Harris Poll began measuring online activity, less than 18 million adults used the Internet in their homes, offices, schools, libraries or other locations. Now, thirteen years later, fully 184 million adults are online.

November 17, 2008 Black Friday to Grow 2.4% This Year, According to BDO Seidman According to a new study conducted after the financial market meltdown by BDO Seidman, LLP, CMOs at leading US retailers expect "Black Friday" (November 28 this year) sales will grow 1.2% this holiday season, while "Cyber Monday," the first Monday after Thanksgiving, will grow by 2.4% this year.

November 17, 2008 Majority of Mobile Users Would View Ads for Discount on Bill, Finds iGR Survey Transverse, a pioneer of open source business solutions, has released the results of a survey that provides insight into mobile customers' phone use and their willingness to view advertisements in exchange for discounts to their monthly service bill.

November 17, 2008 Boomer Women Generate Better Word-of-Mouth Than Younger Women, Prevention Finds Findings from a new report by Prevention, partnering with Keller Fay Group, show thatBaby Boomer women (43-62) have higher quality WOM than younger women (18-39).

November 14, 2008 Earth911.com, USPS Provide Green Holiday Tips As people across the country prepare to celebrate the 11th annual America Recycles Day on Nov. 15, Earth911.com and the USPS are presenting the "Green Your Holidays" channel with simple, practical tips to stay environmentally responsible during the holidays.

November 14, 2008 Yahoo is Top Destination for Major Events According to comScore Media Metrix Yahoo has released new comScore Media Metrix figures showing that Yahoo! News attracted 7.6 million unique users on Election Day, Nov. 4, the largest single-day audience in online news history.

November 13, 2008 Economy-Driven Mail Volume Decline Contributes to USPS $2.8 Billion Year-End Loss; FY 2008 Marked by Record On-Time Mail Delivery The USPS concluded the 2008 fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2007-Sept. 30, 2008) with a net loss of $2.8 billion as the national economic slowdown lowered mail volume and as the Postal Service bore additional costs mandated by the Postal Act of 2006. The Postal Service continued to improve national on-time First-Class Mail delivery performance, reaching record highs in FY 2008.

November 12, 2008 Nearly 80% of US Adult Online Consumers Made Internet Purchases in Last Six Months, According to Nielsen Online Nielsen Online, a service of the Nielsen Company, today announced that 78% of adult online consumers made a purchase over the Web in the previous six months, according to @Plan, Winter 2008/2009 Release.

November 12, 2008 Global Theft Costs Retailers, Consumers $104 Billion Annually, According to Checkpoint The level of global retail theft reached $104.5 billion in the past year, leading to increased costs for both retailers and consumers alike. The second annual Global Retail Theft Barometer found that while global retail shrink as a percentage of total sales has declined slightly in the past 12 months, the overall cost of retail crime has increased substantially.

November 12, 2008 RSVP Publications is First to Receive Third Party License from Forestry Stewardship Council for Environmental Responsibility RSVP Publications, a direct mail marketing company specializing in reaching affluent homeowners, has become the first in the direct marketing field to receive a third-party license from the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) in recognition of the company's commitment to environmental responsibility.

November 12, 2008 Consumers Cut Back on Dining Out and Apparel, According to The NPD Group The NPD Group, Inc., a leading market research company, has released the results of its latest Consumer Spending Indicator study. Results indicate that, in October, consumers said they were most likely to cut back on dining out, followed by apparel and entertainment.

November 12, 2008 Mobile Coupons to Exceed 200 Million Users by 2013, Predicts Juniper Research Coupons delivered and redeemed via mobile phones are forecast to be used by some 200 million mobile subscribers globally by 2013, according to a new study by Juniper Research.

November 12, 2008 Financial 'Tsunami' Sends Traffic to European Financial News Sites, Finds comScore comScore, Inc. has released the results of a study examining online visitation to UK, French, and German financial news and research sites in September during the height of the global financial crisis, based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service.

November 10, 2008 Cash-Based Alternative Payment Methods Growing in Popularity with Online Consumers, Javelin Reports Javelin Strategy & Research has announced release of its 2008 Online Retail Payments Forecast, which delves into the increasing appeal and growth of alternative payment methods and the impact it represents to banks and traditional card networks like Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.

November 10, 2008 Online Bargain Hunting Becoming Increasingly Social, Guidance Survey Reveals This year, social shopping techniques will play a role in how people find deals online, as nearly 30% of online shoppers say the best way to find discounts online is through link forwarding, peer comments or social sites. That's the main finding of a new nationwide survey from Guidance.

November 10, 2008 AOL's Platform-A to Deliver Two-Day, Billion Impression Ad Campaign for T-Mobile AOL's Platform-A has announced that it will launch, in partnership with T-Mobile USA, an unprecedented billion-impression Web advertising campaign across Platform-A during a two-day period on November 10 – 11.

November 7, 2008 Online Viewers at TV Network Websites Increase 155% in September, According to Nielsen Online Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, has announced that all four TV networks enjoyed month-over-month growth in online video viewers in September, coinciding with the season premieres of many popular and new TV shows.

November 7, 2008 Rapid Adoption of Advanced Mobile Devices Driving Increased Mobile Local Search Activity, Finds Kelsey Group According a study conducted by The Kelsey Group with research partner ConStat, 18.9% of mobile consumers now use a smartphone. Among those surveyed, 49.2% plan to purchase an advanced mobile device within the next two years.

November 6, 2008 More People Intend to Give to Charity This Holiday Season, According to PayPal Despite a tough economic environment, the holiday season is still a time for giving back. According to PayPal’s 2008 Holiday Survey conducted by Ipsos, nearly three quarters (73%) of online shoppers intend to give to charity this season, compared to 60% in 2007.

November 6, 2008 Record Low Economic Sentiment Weighs on Consumer Spending Intentions, Discover Reports The Discover US Spending Monitor fell a record six points in October to 80.4 (based off of 100), as consumers’ economic confidence reached record lows and views of their personal finances deteriorated.

November 6, 2008 Location-based Mobile Social Networking Subscriptions to Reach 82 Million by 2013, ABI Research Predicts Mobile location-based social networking is expected to become a key driver for the uptake of location-based services as it provides a unifying framework for a large set of applications such as friend finders, local search and geo-tagging. This according to ABI Research.

November 6, 2008 Social Media Practices Still in Infancy Stages Says Marketing Executives Networking Group The Marketing Executives Networking Group has announced the findings of their social media membership survey, which reveals most marketers are still in the early or experimental phases of adopting and measuring social media. The survey found 67% of respondents consider themselves beginners at using social media for marketing purposes.

November 6, 2008 Northern Lights Direct Response Sees 'Blitz of Inquiries' Due to Strength of US Dollar Against Canadian Dollar Northern Lights Direct Response, one of Canada’s top direct response agencies, has announced that it has seen a dramatic increase in demand for its services, thanks to the rapid rise in the value of the US dollar against the Canadian dollar, which is currently trading at $1.15.

November 5, 2008 Online Retailers 'Resilient, Not Immune' to Challenging Holiday Season, Finds Shipzilla According to results of the 2008 eHoliday Study, conducted by Shopzilla for Shop.org, more than half of online retailers expect their holiday sales to increase at least 15% over last year. However, the rate of growth is slowing: three-fourths of retailers surveyed last year expected their sales to grow more than 15%.

November 5, 2008 TV Viewing and Internet Use Are Complementary, Nielsen Reports According to the Nielsen Company's new TV/Internet Convergence Panel, TV viewing and online video streaming are complementary activities, with the heaviest users of the Internet also among the heaviest viewers of TV.

November 4, 2008 Business Customers' Mobile IM Adoption Is More About Familiarity than Mobility, Says ABI Research In a new White Paper, ABI Research examines the mobile messaging adoption and usage patterns of mobile business customers from four US operators. One of the key findings is that mobile IM adoption is negatively correlated to mobility.

November 4, 2008 Consumer Electronics Retailers Get High Marks from Customers, CEA Study Finds Consumers are very satisfied when shopping online and at traditional retail outlets for consumer electronics (CE), according to new data from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). The study, Trends in CE Retailing, found that consumers and retailers have benefited from changes in the CE shopping and buying process.

November 4, 2008 DHL Helps Mailers Comply with New USPS Move Update Standards The USPS will implement revised Move Update standards effective November 23, and DHL Global Mail is taking numerous steps to educate customers and ensure they comply.

November 4, 2008 Staffing Industry Analysts Sold to Crain Communications Staffing Industry Analysts, Inc., a leading research, data, and analysis firm covering the temporary workforce, has been sold to Crain Communications Inc., a 90+ year-old business-to-business media company. The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc., a leading provider of independent investment banking services for media, information, marketing services and related technologies, represented Staffing Industry Analysts in this transaction and acted as its exclusive financial advisor.

November 3, 2008 Small Businesses Embrace Social Networking Sites in the US, AMI Study Finds More than 600,000 small businesses in the US will deploy integrated social networking services in the next 12 months—up from about 300,000 currently, according to the latest study by Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

November 3, 2008 More Than 100 Million Americans Viewed Mobile Ads in Q3 '08, According to Limbo Study Limbo, a leading mobile social networks, and GfK Technology, a leading market research agency, have released their latest joint Mobile Advertising Report (MAR). The third quarter report reveals that mobile advertising awareness grew 33% in nine months against a backdrop of 6% growth in cell phone usage. This suggests an increased allocation of ad dollars to mobile formats through the first nine months of the year.

November 3, 2008 Global RFID Market to Reach $5.3 Billion This Year, Says ABI Research The worldwide RFID market will exceed $5.3 billion in 2008, according to a new forecast from ABI Research. Annual revenue growth will increase over the next five years, accelerating over the mid-term as high-growth, high-volume applications such as supply chain management, ID documents, ticketing, and contactless payment drive shipments.

November 3, 2008 Social Networking Prevalent US and UK Employees, According to 8e6 Technologies 8e6 Technologies, a leading Internet security company, has announced the results of a recent survey of employees in the US and UK. Results indicate the most popular sites viewed at work in both countries include Web 2.0 destinations that are heavy on video and third party applications, especially social networking and news sites.

October 31, 2008 Retail Traffic Down for Eighth Consecutive Week, Hitwise Report US visits to online retail websites have declined for the eighth consecutive week, according to Hitwise, an Experian company. US visits to a custom category of 500 retail websites declined 3% for the week ending Oct. 25, 2008, compared with the same week the previous year.

October 31, 2008 Internet Bolsters UK Economy, Reports eMarketer The UK is expected to cope and bounce back quickly from the 2008 financial downturn because of its Internet presence and status as a major online powerhouse. And the Internet population continues to grow. eMarketer estimates that 1.3 million UK residents have come online since 2007.

October 31, 2008 Credit Crunch Fatigue Sets In, According to Mintel After months of hand-wringing and finger-pointing, the economic crisis is beginning to wear on many Americans. Despite a long road ahead to recovery and stability, market research firm Mintel anticipates many will move on with their lives sooner rather than later.

October 30, 2008 Consumers to Open Their Wallets and Enjoy the Holidays, New IRI Survey Finds Shoppers are tired of bad news and will open their wallets this holiday season, new research announced by IRI reveals. Consumers also cited an increased importance of holiday rituals as they take comfort with friends and family and noted that they plan to make better use of merchandising and promotions to maintain appearances.

October 30, 2008 Websites Now Influence Over Half of US Toy Purchasers, Ad-ology Survey Finds More than half of recent toy purchasers rank manufacturer and store websites as having some influence on their buying decision, according to the Fall 2008 Ad-ology Media Influence on Consumer Choice survey. Product reviews and other information and advertising found online also play a role in influencing buying decisions.

October 30, 2008 Consumers Show Increased Concern about Identity Theft, According to IdentyTruth IdentityTruth has anounced results of a survey that addressed consumer concerns about identity theft. The survey shows that a majority of consumers are more concerned today than a few months ago about protecting their identity.

October 29, 2008 Yahoo Launches Initiative to Protect Free Expression and Privacy for Internet Users Yahoo has announced the launch of the Global Network Initiative: Protecting and Advancing Freedom of Expression and Privacy in the Information and Communication Technology Industry (GNI). Yahoo says the initiative will help guide information and communications technology companies in protecting and advancing freedom of expression and privacy when they encounter laws and policies that interfere with these rights.

October 29, 2008 Social Media Redefining Retail Financial Services Web Experience, Corporate Insight Reports Corporate Insight has released a new report detailing the evolution of social media, such as blogs, forums and online communities, among major financial services companies, providing a clear understanding of market trends and leading tactics. The research reveals that social media is beginning to reshape the way financial services firms communicate with their customers, as well as how investors interact with each other.

October 28, 2008 US Small Businesses Boost Marketing Efforts in Response to Economic Uncertainty, According to Constant Contact Research Rather than accept the dire predictions of lower sales, most small businesses will bolster their holiday sales efforts with aggressive marketing plans, according to Constant Contact's 4th Annual Small Business Holiday Outlook.

October 28, 2008 US Online Holiday Giving to Exceed $3 Billion, Predicts Convio Convio, Inc. estimates that US online giving to nonprofit organization will be more than $3 billion during the holiday season of 2008. A survey conducted by JupiterResearch reveals that in the US more than half plan to donate to charities of their choice during the upcoming holiday season via the Internet.

October 28, 2008 High-End Mobile Applications Under-used by US Consumers, Finds Accenture Survey Despite the rapidly increasing use of handheld mobile devices throughout the US, higher-end applications remain vastly under-used by the country’s consumers, according to results of a newly-released Accenture survey.

October 27, 2008 US Retailers Forecast 2.7% Decrease in Comparable Store Sales This Holiday Season, According to BDO Seidman According to a new study conducted after the financial market meltdown in September by BDO Seidman, LLP, CMOs at leading US retailers expect comparable store sales for the 2008 holiday season to decrease from last year by a drastic 2.7%.

October 27, 2008 Consumer Online Credit Card Applications Down 6% in Q2 08 Versus Year Ago, comScore Finds comScore, Inc. has released results of a study, revealing that, for the first time in the five most recent quarters, the total number of credit card applications submitted online at the top ten credit-card issuer sites declined, dropping 6% in Q2 2008 versus the same period in 2007.

October 27, 2008 Industry Click Fraud Rate Hovers at 16% for Q3, Click Foresics Reports Click Forensics, Inc. has released industry pay-per-click (PPC) fraud figures for Q3 2008. Findings who that the overall industry average click fraud rate was 16.0% for Q3 2008, down slightly from the 16.2% rate reported for both Q2 2008 and Q3 2007.

October 27, 2008 Credit Crunch Has Deep Impact on Holiday Shopping, According to eBillme Spending Index The impact of the credit crunch is expected to effect holiday shopping as projected consumer spending online remains steady at $100 - $250 on average. This is according to the eBillme Online Spending Index, conducted by Javelin Strategy and Research.

October 24, 2008 Identity Theft Remains a Concern for Bank Customers, Harris Interactive Survey Finds The results of a new consumer survey conducted by Harris Interactive for Secure Identity Systems found that more than half of bank customers worried about the current state of their bank are concerned that their money and identity are not safe. The survey polled 2,212 US adults ages 18 and up on the topics of banking and identity theft.

October 24, 2008 Online Reviews Second Only to Word of Mouth as Purchase Influencer in US, Rubicon Survey Finds Online reviews and comments written by users are second only to word of mouth as a purchase influence for most Americans, according to a survey of Web users released by tech strategy firm Rubicon Consulting.

October 24, 2008 Adoption of SaaS and Cloud Computing Is Increasing, Keynote Survey Finds Keynote Systems has announced the results of a new survey of 600 conference attendees, which found that 48% of the respondents have already deployed, or plan to deploy applications or services via Cloud Computing or SaaS in the next six months.

October 24, 2008 Marketsmith, Inc. and Lett Direct, Inc. Announce Alliance Lett Direct, Inc. and Marketsmith, Inc. have formally announced they have signed an agreement to offer services and expertise jointly to the clients they serve. The alliance shows a long term commitment to each other, a mutual platform, and the mission to serve the catalog community with excellent service, low cost, high value solutions and a wide breadth and depth of expertise.

October 23, 2008 Amazon.com Announces Third Quarter Sales up 31% to $4.26 Billion Amazon.com, Inc. has announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2008. Operating cash flow was $1.27 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $1.0 billion for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2007.

October 23, 2008 Economy to Significantly Slow US Online Holiday Sales, Forrester Predicts US online retail sales this holiday season will reach $44 billion, a 12% increase over last year and the slowest growth rate to date, according to Forrester Research. Forrester says that this year's weakened growth is indicative of the difficult economic environment catching up with formerly resilient Web buyers.

October 23, 2008 CHIP Selects Northern Lights as Direct Response AOR CHIP Home Income Plan, a leading provider of reverse mortgages, has named Northern Lights Direct Response as its Direct Response Agency of Record (AOR). As the Direct Response AOR, Northern Lights will lead the charge on the media management, creative, and production for CHIP's DRTV and DR online campaigns.

October 23, 2008 IWCO Direct to Close Elm City, North Carolina Plant IWCO Direct, a leading provider of integrated direct mail production services and marketing solutions, has announced it will immediately close its facility in Elm City, North Carolina and will transfer equipment and production operations to three other IWCO Direct facilities in Minnesota.

October 20, 2008 Postmaster General Names William Gilligan Acting Chief Postal Inspector Postmaster General John E. Potter has announced the appointment of William Gilligan as acting chief postal inspector to replace Chief Postal Inspector Al Lazaroff, who retires Nov. 3.

October 20, 2008 Acxiom Study Reveals Which Consumer Groups Are Most Likely to Spend During Challenging Economic Times Acxiom Corporation has announced the release of the first issue of its Retail Consumer Dynamics Study (RCD), an industry-specific analysis of consumer shopping behavior and attitudes in today’s difficult economic times.

October 20, 2008 Convergence Helps Companies Be 45% More Productive: Aberdeen The latest ERP benchmark report "Do More with Less: Merging Enterprise Applications with Desktop Tools" (September 2008) found that top performing companies are integrating enterprise and desktop applications, and as a result, are seeing significant improvements in corporate productivity and profitability.

October 17, 2008 Gartner Identifies Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2009; Virtualization, Cloud Computing Top List Gartner, Inc. analysts have highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations. Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years.

October 17, 2008 73% of Best-in-Class Companies to Increase Budget for Enterprise Use of Social Media Technologies: Aberdeen A recent study, "Sales 2.0: Social Media for Knowledge Management and Sales Collaboration," conducted by the Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, reveals that 59%of Best-in-Class companies consider the use of social media collaboration tools within the sales department to be a priority to the organization, compared to 35% of all others.

October 17, 2008 Tech Giants Increase Paid Search Spending Despite Weak Economy, Finds Covario Covario, Inc. has announced the release of the Q3 2008 edition of its Global Search Spend Analysis series. Despite the faltering economy, Covario has observed a spike in year-on-year (Y-o-Y) paid search spending growth to 51% from 43% growth rate in the previous quarterly analysis.

October 17, 2008 Nanci Langley Named PRC Vice-Chairman Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Dan G. Blair announced that Commissioner Nanci Langley has been named Vice-Chairman of the Commission, succeeding Vice-Chairman Mark Acton.

October 17, 2008 Small Business Remains Confident Despite Wall Street Turmoil: Opinion Research Corp. Despite the turmoil on Wall Street, small business owners and managers remained positive about the condition of their individual businesses, according to a survey taken Sept. 25 through Oct. 6 by Opinion Research Corporation, an infoGROUP company.

October 17, 2008 US Economic Slowdown Continues to Affect Display Advertising, Finds PubMatic PubMatic, which provides online publishers with real-time ad optimization, has unveiled the PubMatic AdPrice Index for Q3 2008, a quarterly industry-wide measure of online ad network pricing for publishers. The index shows that online ad prices declined overall this past year by 27%.

October 17, 2008 ShopperTrak Reports Total US Foot Traffic Falls 9.3% in September ShopperTrak RCT Corporation's Retail Traffic Index has reported that total US foot traffic for the month of September fell a sharp 9.3% while the company's National Retail Sales Estimate reported retail sales fell 1.0% for the same period – the first year-over-year sales decline since March 2003.

October 16, 2008 Google Continues to Dominate Search Advertising, But Yahoo Gained Ground, Finds Study Efficient Frontierhas released the "US Search Engine Performance Report: Q3 2008." The report, the largest independent research in the search marketing industry, was based on an analysis of 60 billion impressions and 428 million clicks across an index of Efficient Frontier advertisers.

October 16, 2008 Mintel Comperemedia Sees Green Marketing, Business Tactics Used to Weather Financial Crisis Mintel Comperemedia, a service that tracks direct marketing and print advertising, observes more financial services companies going green in recent months. Because green marketing and eco-business tactics can save companies money and help them attract new customers, Mintel expert Susan Menke thinks this is a wise strategy.

October 16, 2008 USPS Committed to Continued Affordable Universal Service; Tells PRC No Need for Change to Monopoly The US Postal Service submitted a report to the Postal Regulatory Commission on its position related to the Universal Service Obligation (USO) and postal monopoly. In its report, the USPS confirms its continued commitment of trusted, affordable universal service to the US public.

October 16, 2008 Shoppers Plan to Spend 1.9% More This Holiday, Use Internet to Compare Prices: NRF Survey According to NRF's 2008 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, US consumers plan to spend an average of $832.36 on holiday-related shopping, up 1.9% over last year’s $816.69.

October 10, 2008 Companies Fail to Realize Customer Revenue Potential, Reports CMO Council The shift to Individualized Relationship Marketing (IRM) is one of the key preliminary findings from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council's new thought leadership initiative, "Precision Promotion: Timely, Targeted and Trackable," sponsored by the InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh.

October 10, 2008 iPerceptions Study Uncovers Consumers' Real Online Ad Preferences iPerceptions Inc., a leading provider of Web-focused voice of customer analytics, today announced the results of a new study that delivers accurate insights into which types of online ads are popular with consumers.

October 10, 2008 Consumer Spending on Mobile Broadcast TV to Reach $2.7 Billion by 2013: Juniper Research The increasing availability of mobile handsets capable of receiving free-to-air analogue and digital terrestrial TV signals will adversely impact the prospects for dedicated mobile broadcast TV networks, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

October 10, 2008 Financial Institutions Not Communicating with Customers Enough, Opinion Research Finds According to a survey from Opinion Research Corporation (an infoGROUP Company), banks, savings and loans, and credit unions appear to be doing a poor job of keeping their customers informed in this turbulent economic climate.

October 10, 2008 Viewers Changing the Way They Watch Sports Events, Finds Optimedia Don't just take those TV ratings as an indication of a sports worth--especially in this growing digital age. Publicis Groupe’s media agency Optimedia says there is a lot of other media to consider.

October 9, 2008 Discover US Spending Monitor Down 2.2 Points to 86.5, as Consumer Confidence Falls The Discover US Spending Monitor dipped 2.2 points to 86.5 in September, as consumers grew increasingly concerned about the US economy and worked hard to hold-the-line on future spending plans. More than 55% of the nation’s adults rated the economy as poor.

October 9, 2008 Coupons Make Comeback as Consumers Spend Less, Finds Harris/RetailMeNot Survey The results of a consumer survey conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by RetailMeNot.com found that 45% of adults plan to spend less money on gifts this holiday season compared to last year, given the current state of the economy, and one in five plan to spend significantly less.

October 9, 2008 Americans View TV, Daily Newspapers as Most Credible, Finds Opinion Research A new survey finds that Americans consider television and daily newspapers the most credible sources of news and information. Television was viewed as the most trusted media source, scoring a 6.6 on a one-to-10 credibility scale.

October 9, 2008 Consumers Concerned Retailers Not Doing Enough to Protect Financial Data, Solidcore Survey Finds Solidcore Systems, Inc. has announced the results of a consumer confidence survey linked to data security at retail locations. Solidcore surveyed more than 500 consumers nationwide about credit card use, and to gauge their privacy fears and buying habits when shopping at various retail stores.

October 9, 2008 UPS Joins EPA's 'Climate Leaders' Program As part of its continued commitment to sustainable business practices, UPS announced its participation in the US Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leaders program. UPS is the first shipping company to join the program.

October 9, 2008 Industry Visionary Dave Lewis Joins Message Systems as CMO Message Systems, a global leader in digital messaging solutions, announced that Dave Lewis has joined the company as chief marketing officer.

October 8, 2008 Americans Are in a Pessimistic Mood, Finds CNN/Opinion Research According to the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 80% of Americans think that things in the country are going either “pretty badly” or “very badly.” The poll, conducted October 3-5, 2008 by Opinion Research Corporation (an infoGroup Company), showed that economic conditions are taking their toll on the mood of the nation.

October 8, 2008 Internet Advertising Up 15% in First Half of 2008, Reports IAB Internet advertising revenues (US) for the first six months of 2008 were $11.5 billion, setting yet another new half-year record that represents a 15.2% increase over the first half of 2007, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau(IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC),

October 8, 2008 Google Unveils AdSense for Games in Effort to Fuel Online Gaming's Growth To continue to fuel the growth of online games for users and as part of its ongoing efforts to develop new ways for publishers to earn revenue, Google has announced the availability of AdSense for Games, a program that integrates video advertisements into Web-based games, complemented by text and image ads.

October 8, 2008 Olympics Drive a Banner August for Sports Websites at Work, Reports Nielsen Online Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, has reported a 26% year-over-year increase in unique visitors at work to online sports destinations, growing from 33.4 million unique visitors in August 2007 to 42.3 million unique visitors in August 2008, driven in large part by the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the kick-off of football season.

October 8, 2008 'Hire Slow and Fire Fast,' Advises JoAnne Dunn at Hudson Valley DMA Masters of the DM Universe Event At the Hudson Valley DMA’s seventh annual Meet the Masters event, held Oct. 1 at the Fairview Country Club in Greenwich, CT, special guest speaker JoAnne Monfradi Dunn shared twenty-five years of ups and downs from her beginnings in direct mail to her current role as the entrepreneurial leader of Alliant Data Systems.

October 7, 2008 Neel Kashkari Appointed Interim Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability; Treasury Announces Solicitations for Agents Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. has designated Neel Kashkari as the Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability pursuant to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. In this capacity, Kashkari will oversee the Office of Financial Stability, including the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

October 7, 2008 World Adspend to Grow 4% in 2008 and 2009 Despite Economy, Forecasts ZenithOptimedia ZenithOptimedia has reduced its forecast for advertising spend growth to 4.35 in 2008, down from the 6.6% growth forecast it published in June. It has also reduced its growth forecast for 2009 from 6.0% to 4.0%.

October 7, 2008 MySpace and Facebook Taking Lead in Mobile Social Networks, Says ABI Research According to a recent online survey conducted by ABI Research, nearly half of those who use social networks have also visited a social network through a mobile phone. Of these, nearly 70% have visited MySpace and another 67% had visited Facebook.

October 7, 2008 Ask.com Launches Next Generation of its Site Ask.com, an operating business of IAC, has announced it has unveiled a new version of its site that the company says includes significant relevance, user interface, and speed enhancements.

October 7, 2008 Marketing M&A Activity Resilient but Slowing for Third Quarter 2008, Petsky Prunier Finds According to Petsky Pruner, merger and acquisition activity in the marketing, advertising, and digital media industries proved surprisingly resilient during the first two months of the third quarter of 2008, but began to soften in September.

October 7, 2008 SkyMall Launches Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews Bazaarvoice, a worldwide leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, has announced that leading multi-channel retailer SkyMall has launched Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews on its website, skymall.com.

October 7, 2008 Fingerhut Direct Marketing Poised for Strong Holiday Season Fingerhut Direct Marketing, Inc. (FDM) yesterday announced it is well-positioned for the upcoming holiday season and anticipates slightly better sales than it enjoyed last year.

October 6, 2008 Americans Expect Companies to Have Social Media Presence, Reports Cone Study Nearly 60% of Americans interact with companies on a social media website, and one in four interact more than once per week. These are among the findings of the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study.

October 6, 2008 Postal Regulatory Commissioner Ruth Goldway Confirmed for Third Term Postal Regulatory Commissioner Ruth Y. Goldway has been confirmed by the US Senate for her third term as a Commissioner of the Postal Regulatory Commission. Goldway was nominated by President Bush on July 10, 2008. Her term will extend through November 22, 2014.

October 6, 2008 Companies Need to Connect to Social Applications to Engage Customers, According to Gartner To do business with the growing "Generation Virtual" population, companies will need to provide or connect to social applications to attract and engage customers, gathering information about their future wants and needs to lead them toward products and services, according to Gartner, Inc.

October 6, 2008 Direct Marketing Fourth Quarter Hiring Plans Plunge, Bernhart Survey Finds Direct marketers are coping with the slumping economy by making deep cuts in their hiring plans for the remainder of 2008, according to the latest Bernhart Associates employment survey. According to the survey, 31% of companies responding said they plan to add to headcount during the current Q4, down sharply from 47% last quarter.

October 6, 2008 eBay Buys Payments and Classifieds Businesses, Reduces Global Workforce by 10% eBay has announced it is acquiring the US-based online payments business Bill Me Later, and Denmark's online classifieds site dba.dk and vehicles site bilbasen.dk. eBay will also reduce its global workforce by approximately 10%, affecting about 1,000 employees in addition to several hundred temporary workers and the reduction of open positions.

October 3, 2008 M&A Activity Continues for Mid-Sized and Smaller Transactions, Reports JEGI So far, 2008 is a tale of two markets, according to The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI). Banking and debt market upheaval and an incipient pullback in advertising spending have led to an overall slowdown in M&A.

October 3, 2008 US Postal Service Releases New Five-Year Plan; Focuses on Meeting Customer Needs The US Postal Service (USPS) has released Vision 2013, its new five-year strategic plan that balances near-term priorities with long-term needs to adapt to changing customer needs.

October 3, 2008 US Postal Service 'Unplugs' -- Postmaster General Kicks Off Conservation Campaign Unplug. Turn off lights. Close doors. Adjust thermostats. Report HVAC problems. Turn off unused equipment. Become personally responsible for conservation. Simple steps that, taken collectively among the 685,000 employees at the USPS and throughout its 34,000 facilities, will have a dramatic impact on the environment.

October 3, 2008 Retailers Apprehend Record Number of Shoplifters, Finds Jack L. Hayes International Shoplifters and dishonest employees stole over $6.7 billion in 2007 from just 24 major retailers, according to the 20th Annual Retail Theft Survey conducted by Jack L. Hayes International, a leading loss prevention and inventory shrinkage control consulting firm.

October 2, 2008 Contrasting Views on Cloud Computing Creating Confusion, Finds Gartner The term “cloud computing” is being loosely applied and defined differently, and it's creating a lot of confusion in the market, according to Gartner, Inc. Analysts say it is imperative to understand these different perspectives and set the proper expectations to obtain the anticipated benefits.

October 2, 2008 More Shoppers Plan to Spend More for Halloween, Reports NRF The spookiest holiday of the year may bring a bit of needed relief to consumers and retailers. According to the National Retail Federation's Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, more consumers plan to celebrate the holiday this year (64.5%vs. 58.7%).

October 2, 2008 FTC's Cyber Security Site Gets an Upgrade; Makeover Marks National Cyber Security Awareness Month FTC's website that helps consumers stay on guard against Internet fraud is revamping to provide extra tools for cyber safety. The FTC's announcement of the newly designed and improved site comes on the first day of National Cyber Security Awareness Month.

October 2, 2008 President Bush Nominates Robert McGowan to USPS Board of Governors President Bush on Sept. 30 sent to the Senate the nomination of Robert W. McGowan, of Nevada, to be a Governor of the US Postal Service for a term expiring Dec. 8, 2015. McGowan served as the elected Assessor of Washoe County, NV from 1984 through 2006.

October 2, 2008 National Advertisers Interested in Local Online Advertising, Finds Sterling Study Among national advertisers there is significant interest in local online advertising, according to a new study conducted by Sterling Market Intelligence and commissioned by Marchex, Inc., a local search and advertising company.

October 2, 2008 Contact Center Compliance Launches New Employee Training Solution Contact Center Compliance has announced a full range of online training solutions that will help clients cultivate an ethical corporate culture that will effectively help manage the governance, ethics and compliance processes throughout the entire organization.

October 1, 2008 Consumers Trust Online Payment Providers More Than Traditional Banks, Finds Cisco Important consumer segments such as baby boomers trust online payment providers more than they trust traditional banks, according to a survey recently conducted by the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG). Consumers are demanding the same convenience they receive online when shopping in a brick-and-mortar environment.

October 1, 2008 Online Reviews Significantly Influence Mobile Phone Purchases, Finds Ad-ology Research According to the September 2008 Ad-ology Media Influence on Consumer Choice survey, 60.5% of US consumers who recently purchased a mobile or wireless phone said online product reviews and user comments had some or significant influence on their purchase decision.

October 1, 2008 Presidential Campaigns Should Harness the Power of Search, According to eMarketer Voters are online to find out about issues, not just candidates. According to eMarketer, 42% of US adults said they look to the Internet for political information—but they are not necessarily looking for ads. Despite the hype surrounding social media, only 7% of voters are visiting social networks to find out about candidates and issues. But eMarketer estimates that 83.5% of US Internet users will use search in 2008.

October 1, 2008 dELiA*s, Inc. Enters into Agreement to Sell CCS Brand dELiA*s, Inc., a direct marketing and retail company, has announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell the assets related to its CCS brand to Foot Locker, Inc. The purchase price for the transaction is $102 million in cash, subject to adjustment as provided in the agreement.

October 1, 2008 Lisa Olson Joins infoGROUP's Leadership Team as SVP Corporate Communications infoGROUP, a leading provider of proprietary business and consumer databases, sales leads, direct marketing, email marketing and global information solutions, has announced the appointment of Lisa Olson as the senior vice president of corporate relations. In this role, she will be responsible for investor relations, public relations, internal communications, government, and community relations.

October 1, 2008 Message Systems' Delivery Manager Selected by mobileStorm to Boost Email Marketing Email solutions provider Message Systems has announced that its Delivery Manager has been selected by mobileStorm to boost the performance of its email marketing service and scale with the company’s growth, while ensuring client campaign deliverability.

September 30, 2008 USPS Announces New International Shipping Requirements, Effective Sept. 30 Effective Sept. 30, the US Census Bureau is requiring mandatory filing of export information through the Automated Export System (AES) or through AESDirect for all international shipments, where a Shipper’s Export Declaration (SED) was previously required.

September 30, 2008 Small Business Economic Confidence Falls, According to Discover Small Business Watch Economic confidence among small business owners declined sharply in September amid rising concerns about economic conditions for their businesses and a bleak vision of where the economy is headed. The Discover Small Business Watch fell to 74.6 in September, down 12.3 points from August.

September 30, 2008 Google TV Ads Platform Adds Bloomberg TV to US Inventory Continuing efforts to make TV advertising more relevant, accountable and measurable, Google has announced that the Bloomberg Television network will make national cable advertising time in the US available through the Google TV Ads platform.

September 30, 2008 Facebook Visits Up 50% Year over Year, According to Hitwise MySpace.com received 67.54% of the market share of US visits in August 2008 among a custom category of 56 of the leading social networking websites according to Hitwise. The market share of US visits to the social networking custom category decreased 2% in August 2008 to 6.40%of all US visits compared to July 2008.

September 30, 2008 Green Consumers Don't Always Practice What They Preach, Finds Information Resources A New study by Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), a leading global provider of market insights, revealed revealed significant disparity in how well environmentally conscious consumers actually follow their convictions by purchasing environmentally friendly products.

September 30, 2008 Salesgenie.com Teams with Google Maps to Map Sales Leads Salesgenie.com (an infoGROUP company)has announced that subscribers can now improve planning and efficiency for B-to-C and B-to-B sales calls through new sales lead mapping capabilities.

September 30, 2008 MBS Promotes David Braunstein and Michele Jones MBS, a leading provider of advanced direct marketing services, has announced that it has promoted David Braunstein to senior VP, strategic services, and Michelle Jones to VP, account services.

September 29, 2008 Prospects Want Answers Fast, Finds Silverpop B-to-B Study A new Silverpop study of online lead management practices found that people are willing to answer a lot of questions as long as they can do it quickly, and once registered, are anxious to hear from companies.

September 29, 2008 E-Commerce May Cure Retailers' Holiday Blahs, Says Turner Investment Partners According to the latest Sector Focus commentary by analysts at Turner Investment Partners, consumers may be especially discretionary in their discretionary spending during the holiday shopping season. Even so, they are likely to increasingly patronize retailers with strong e-commerce businesses.

September 29, 2008 Visa to Develop Mobile Payment-Related Services for Android Platform Visa has announced plans to make mobile payment-related services broadly available to US consumers by the end of the year. Central to this effort is Visa's delivery of mobile applications for the Android platform, which will be available for download on Android-powered handsets and initially available to Chase Visa cardholders.

September 29, 2008 RadioShack Sees 8.4% Brand Awareness Increase with Mobile Ad Campaign Greystripe, creators of a leading in-game mobile ad network, has announced the results of a recent mobile advertising campaign with RadioShack. Results indicated a significant statistical increase in unaided brand awareness from exposed respondents.

September 29, 2008 Consumer Reports Poll Finds Americans Extremely Concerned About Internet Privacy A poll released by the Consumer Reports National Research Center shows that most Americans are very concerned about what is being done with their personal information online. According to the poll, 82% of consumers are concerned about their credit card numbers being stolen online, while 72% are concerned that their online behaviors were being tracked and profiled by companies.

September 25, 2008 USPS Says Challenging Economic Conditions Continue to Reduce Mail Volume, Revenue As the current economic climate continues to contribute to a decrease in mail volume, and with no reversal in the trend in sight, the US Postal Service reported it expects to end the current fiscal year with a volume decline of nine billion pieces. In its third quarter, total mail volume dropped 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year.

September 25, 2008 Quill Founder Jack Miller Presents Lessons of Entrepreneurship in New Book, Simply Success' In his recently published book Simply Success, Jack Miller, former chairman and founder of Quill Corporation, presents key lessons of entrepreneurship, including getting started, vision, financing, forecasting, customer service, and building a successful corporate culture. Based on his own experience, Miller shares his most hard-earned lessons, in order to help others avoid learning the same lessons the painful way.

September 25, 2008 CRS Prepares Report for Members of Congress, Titled 'Do Not Mail Initiatives and Their Potential Effects.' The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has released an updated version of a 29-page report titled “Do Not Mail Initiatives and Their Potential Effects: Possible Issues for Congress.”

September 25, 2008 USPS Issues Service Update for Hurricane Ike The USPS has issued an update regarding Hurricane Ike as of Thursday, September 25 at 9:00 a.m. (EDT). The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) will continue to update this information — via its homepage “Marketing News” and “3D-DMA Daily Digest” — as the USPS makes it available to the public.

September 25, 2008 Yahoo Launches Transformative Digital Ad Platform Called APT Emmy Award nominee and Golden Globe Award winner Jon Hamm of AMC's drama series Mad Men, joined Yahoo's CEO Jerry Yang, President Sue Decker, and EVP of Yahoo US Hilary Schneider for the fifth annual Advertising Week conference in New York City to announce the launch of APT from Yahoo.

September 24, 2008 Yahoo Forms Digital Advisory Council to Drive Discussions with Advertisers on Open Marketplaces, Digital Media Convergence Yahoo has announced the formation of a Digital Advisory Council that will consist of industry executives from its agency and advertiser partners. The council will work collaboratively to explore the continued evolution of digital media and online advertising.

September 24, 2008 TNS Media Intelligence Reports US Ad Expenditures Down 1.6% in First Half 2008 Total measured ad expenditures in the first six months of 2008 declined by 1.6% as compared to the same period in 2007, according to data released by TNS Media Intelligence. Ad spending during the second quarter of 2008 was off 3.7% versus last year, the steepest quarterly drop since 2001.

September 24, 2008 Gartner Dispels Common Myths, Misconceptions and Paranoias About Information Security In the keynote presentation at the Gartner IT Security Summit, Gartner security, privacy and risk analysts Andrew Walls and Eric Ouellet said security professionals need to qualify threats that are reasonably anticipated, and dispel those which are pure myths, misconceptions, or based on paranoia of the unknown.

September 24, 2008 USPS Issues Service Update for Hurricane Ike: Wednesday PM The USPS has issued an update regarding Hurricane Ike as of Tuesday, September 23 at 6:00 p.m. (EDT). The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) will continue to update this information — via its homepage “Marketing News” and “3D-DMA Daily Digest” — as the USPS makes it available to the public.

September 24, 2008 Economy Triggers Decline in Charitable Donations, Finds Capital One A recent online National Survey of US Adults on Current Charitable Giving Practices conducted by Capital One reveals that, while 73% of surveyed adults report that they have a credit card for personal use, as few as 185 have ever made a charitable contribution via an online Web site using their credit card.

September 23, 2008 NRF Foresees Challenging Holiday Season, Forecasts Meager Sales Gains of 2.2% The National Retail Federation (NRF) has released its forecast for the upcoming 2008 holiday season, projecting that sales will rise 2.2% this year to $470.4 billion. This gain would fall well below the ten-year average of 4.4% holiday sales growth and would represent the slowest growth since 2002, when holiday sales rose 1.3%.

September 23, 2008 Texting Now More Popular than Calling, Finds Nielsen The Nielsen Company has released figures showing that the typical US mobile subscriber now sends and receives more SMS text messages than they do mobile telephone calls.

September 23, 2008 USPS Issues Service Update for Hurricane Ike The USPS has issued an update regarding Hurricane Ike as of Tuesday, September 23 at 9:00 a.m. (EDT). DMA will continue to update this information — via its homepage “Marketing News” and “3D-DMA Daily Digest” — as the USPS makes it available to the public.

September 23, 2008 USPS Publishes Final Rule for Parcel Select Marking Requirements The US Postal Service (USPS) has published in the Federal Register, a final rule that revises its mailing standards (Domestic Mail Manual) to reflect changes to the marking requirements of its Shipping Services product, Parcel Select.

September 23, 2008 Buying Online for Pickup In-Store Is Becoming Part of Retail Culture, Finds e-tailing Group A recent study by the e-tailing group concludes that buying online for pickup in-store is definitely becoming more a part of stores' culture. According to Lauren Freedman, e-tailing group’s president, "Customer adoption coupled with growth among key multi-channel merchants embraces cross-channel customer convenience."

September 22, 2008 comScore Releases August 2008 US Search Engine Rankings comScore, Inc. released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the US search marketplace. In August 2008, Americans conducted 11.7 billion core searches, virtually unchanged from July, as Google Sites extended its lead in core search market share by 1.1 percentage points.

September 22, 2008 National Study Reveals How Teens Are Shaping & Reshaping Their Wireless World A generation widely defined by mobility, today's teenagers are now making demands of their mobile devices and, in doing so, redefining what mobility will be in the future, according to a national survey, "Teenagers: A Generation Unplugged," released by CTIA – The Wireless Association® in conjunction with Harris Interactive.

September 22, 2008 Year-Over-Year Retail Sales Rise 5.0% for Week Ending Sept. 13, Finds ShopperTrak ShopperTrak RCT Corporation's National Retail Sales Estimate™ (NRSE) has reported that year-over-year retail sales for the week ending Sept. 13 rose 5.0%, while week-over-week sales fell a sharp 8.4% as compared to the previous week ending Sept. 6.

September 22, 2008 USPS Issues Service Update for Hurricane Ike The following is the USPS's service update regarding Hurricane Ike as of Monday, Sept. 22 at 12:00 p.m. (EDT).

September 19, 2008 USPS Issues Service Update for Hurricane Ike The USPS has issued a service update regarding Hurricane Ike as of Friday, September 19 at 9:00 a.m. (EDT). DMA will continue to update this information — via its homepage “Marketing News” and “3D-DMA Daily Digest” — as the USPS makes it available to the public.

September 19, 2008 US Ad Spending Down Slightly, Nielsen Reports Advertising spending for the first half of 2008 declined slightly compared to the same period last year, according to preliminary figures released by Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the competitive advertising information service of The Nielsen Company.

September 19, 2008 PRC Approves Negotiated Service Agreements; Enhancing Postal Service Pricing, Product Flexibilities Continuing its implementation of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA), the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) this week approved seven competitive negotiated service agreements requested by the United States Postal Service (USPS). Approval was contained in Commission Order No. 107.

September 19, 2008 comScore Releases Asia-Pacific Search Rankings for July 2008 comScore, Inc. has released its ranking of the top search properties in the Asia-Pacific region, revealing that Google Sites continued to lead the region with 33.5% of the more than 27 billion searches conducted in July. Baidu.com ranked second with 27.4% search share, followed by Yahoo! Sites in third with 19.7% share.

September 19, 2008 Nielsen Launches New Service to Measure Out-of-Home Video Network Advertising Industry The Nielsen Company has expanded its suite of out-of-home media measurement services to cover the $1.3 billion advertiser-based video network business. The new service, Nielsen On Location Media, will provide syndicated reporting for ad-backed video networks in health clubs, gas stations, hotels, retail outlets, amusement parks, arenas, on airplanes, and other commercial locations that are estimated to have combined revenues of $1.3 billion.

September 18, 2008 Advertising to Fuel Mobile Social Networking Growth, Juniper Report Reveals Ad-funded social networks will provide the bulk of revenues in the mobile user-generated content (UGC) space by 2013, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

September 18, 2008 Retailers Believe Online Shopping More Resilient Than Other Channels, According to Shop.org/Forrester Research Study According to The State of Retailing Online 2008, the 11th annual Shop.org study conducted by Forrester Research, Inc., 72% of online retailers believe that the online channel is better suited to withstand an economic slowdown than offline channels.

September 18, 2008 Rapp Collins Worldwide Becomes Rapp; New Brand Is Manifestation that 'All Marketing Is Direct Marketing' In a move that emphasizes its leadership position as a best-in-class global direct marketing network, Rapp Collins Worldwide has announced that it is changing its name to Rapp. The new branding is the manifestation of Rapp's point of view about the future of direct marketing: as a result of the digitization of content and communications channels, all marketing is Direct Marketing.

September 18, 2008 Postmaster General Cautions of Perfect Economic Storm; Outlines Plan to Tackle Tough Times Postmaster General John E. Potter challenged the mailing industry yesterday, cautioning mailers about the severity of the current economic climate and urging them to create new growth opportunities.

September 18, 2008 RFID Adoption Spreading Across a Broad Range of Verticals, According to ABI Research An online end-user survey recently completed by ABI Research has found that RFID is being used or evaluated for a growing number of applications across a wide range of vertical industry sectors.

September 18, 2008 USPS Issues Service Update for Hurricane Ike The USPS has issued a service update regarding Hurricane Ike as of Thursday, September 18 at 11:00 a.m. (EDT). DMA will continue to update this information — via its homepage “Marketing News” and “3D-DMA Daily Digest” — as the USPS makes it available to the public.

September 18, 2008 dComm Productions Teams with International Commerce Agency for Total Gym Infomercial dComm Productions, LLC and International Commerce Agency, LLC have been selected by American Telecast Products, LLC to produce and distribute a new 15-minute infomercial program featuring a smaller, sleeker Total Gym model.

September 17, 2008 US Shoppers Plan to Cut Back On Holiday Gifts, Finds Reuters/Zogby Poll Reuters today reported that nearly six times as many US shoppers say they will cut back on gift-buying this holiday season than those who plan to spend more, according to a new Reuters/Zogby poll.

September 17, 2008 New Study Shatters Stereotypes About Teens and Video Games, Pew Research Finds A survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that virtually all American teens play computer, console, or cell phone games and that the gaming experience is rich and varied, with a significant amount of social interaction and potential for civic engagement.

September 17, 2008 USPS Issues Service Update for Hurricane Ike The USPS has issued an update regarding Hurricane Ike as of Tuesday, September 16 at 6:30 p.m. (EDT). DMA will continue to update this information — via its homepage “Marketing News” and “3D-DMA Daily Digest” — as the USPS makes it available to the public.

September 17, 2008 US Postal Service Website Gets a Makeover The USPS has announced that its award-winning website USPS.com has been simplified and is now easier to navigate. The revamped site launched Monday with a new look and feel aimed at even further improving customer satisfaction and ease of use.

September 17, 2008 eBay Top Paid Search Term in August, Hitwise Finds The top US paid search term in August 2008 was "ebay," receiving .12% of paid clicks among all websites reported Hitwise, an Experian company. The top organic search term was ‘myspace’ receiving 3.1% of organic clicks in August.

September 17, 2008 Product Placements Decline By 15% in First Half, Nielsen Reports The Nielsen Company has reported that product placements for the first half of 2008 fell by almost 15% on primetime programming for the 11 measured networks on broadcast and cable TV. Broadcast TV placements grew by almost 12%, while placements on cable television declined by 20%.

September 17, 2008 Acxiom Acquires Alvion Unit to Improve Online Access to Products and Services Acxiom Corporation, a global interactive marketing services company, has announced the acquisition of the direct marketing technology unit of Alvion, LLC.

September 16, 2008 USPS Issues Service Update for Hurricane Ike The USPS has issued an update regarding Hurricane Ike as of Monday, September 15 at 5:00 p.m. (EDT). DMA will continue to update this information — via its homepage “Marketing News” and “3D-DMA Daily Digest” — as the USPS makes it available to the public.

September 16, 2008 Search Beats Display Ad Spending in the UK, eMarketer Finds As Yahoo tries to assert itself globally against Google, it rebranded its advertising network this week, which it says reaches 80% of Web users in the UK and Ireland. Search will be more and more important, according to eMarketer.

September 16, 2008 JoS. A. Bank Announces Leadership Succession Plan; R. Neal Black New CEO JoS. A. Bank Clothiers, Inc. has announced the implementation of its leadership succession plan under which three top officials will remain with the company and assume new roles. Robert N. Wildrick will become chairman of the board; R. Neal Black will become chief executive officer and a director of the company and Andrew A. Giordano will become chairman emeritus.

September 16, 2008 More Than Three-Billion Videos Watched Online in UK in June 2008, comScore Finds comScore, Inc. has released data indicating that more than 27.4 million UK Internet users (78% of the total UK Internet audience) viewed 3.2 billion videos online in June 2008.

September 16, 2008 Startup BlueKai Offers 'True Intent' Data to Boost Ad Targeting Omar Tawakol, and team of seasoned executives with decades of experience in online advertising, behavioral targeting and data mining, have announced the launch of BlueKai, a data exchange focused on intent data and consumer control.

September 15, 2008 USPS Issues Service Update for Hurricane Ike The USPS has issued a service update regarding Hurricane Ike as of Sunday, September 14 at 9:00 p.m. (EDT). DMA will continue to update this information — via its homepage “Marketing News” and “3D-DMA Daily Digest” — as the USPS makes it available to the public.

September 15, 2008 Postmaster General Jack Potter Names Cochrane and Betman to VP Positions Postmaster General Jack Potter has announced the appointment of Jim Cochrane as VP of Ground Shipping and Mitzi Betman as VP of Corporate Communications. "Both have been acting in their respective positions for several months, and each has done an outstanding job during that time," Potter said.

September 15, 2008 Retailers Report Weak August as Sales Increase Just 1.1% Over Last Year, NRF Finds Retailers’ summer started off with a bang but ended with a whimper. According to the National Retail Federation, retail industry sales for August decreased 0.35 seasonally adjusted month-to-month and increased 1.1% unadjusted over last year.

September 15, 2008 Mobile Search Grew 68% in US and 38% in Western Europe in Past Year, Finds comScore comScore, Inc. has announced that mobile search is gaining in both popularity and frequency of use in the US and Western Europe. comScore M:Metrics reports that in June 2008, 20.8 million US mobile subscribers and 4.5 million European mobile phone subscribers accessed search during the month, an increase of 68% and 38% from June 2007, respectively.

September 12, 2008 FTC Testifies on the 'Call Center Consumer s Right to Know Act' The FedFTC has provided testimony before the US House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection regarding the "Call Center Consumer's Right to Know Act" (H.R. 1776). Lois Greisman, Associate Director of the Division of Marketing Practices, Bureau of Consumer Protection, testified on behalf of the FTC.

September 12, 2008 PRC Proposes Regulations Prescribing Accounting Practices and Procedures for USPS The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) has published proposed regulations prescribing the accounting practices and procedures to be followed by the USPS, along with substantive rules for determining the assumed Federal income tax on competitive products income.

September 12, 2008 USPS Issues Latest Service Update for Hurricane Ike The USPS has released its latest update regarding Hurricane Ike as of Friday, Sept. 12 at 11:00 a.m. (EDT). DMA will continue to update this information — via its homepage "Marketing News" and "3D-DMA Daily Digest" — as the USPS makes it available to the public.

September 12, 2008 Google Receives 71% of US Searches in August 2008, Hitwise Finds Google accounted for 71.01% of all US searches in the four weeks ending August 28, 2008, Hitwise has announced. Yahoo Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 18.26%, 5.32%, and 3.45% respectively. The remaining 46 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.95% of US searches.

September 12, 2008 ForeSee Results to Support Online Comparison Shopping Site Customer Satisfaction ForeSee Results has announced they will be measuring customer satisfaction internationally for Shopping.com, an eBay company. ForeSee Results will apply the methodology of the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) to help Shopping.com understand and improve customer satisfaction online.

September 11, 2008 YouTube Draws Five Billion US Online Video Views in July 2008 comScore has released July 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, reporting that Americans viewed more than 11.4 billion videos for a total duration of 558 million hours during the month, with Google sites maintaining a dominant position.

September 11, 2008 Email Aggregation Launches on AOL.com AOL has announced the launch of a new feature on AOL.com that allows consumers to access multiple email services from one convenient online location. The move comes as the company has revealed plans to revamp AOL.com to offer more consumer choice and customization.

September 11, 2008 AOL Launches New Online Safety Site, Upgrades Parental Controls AOL has launched a new online safety education website, SafetyClicks.com, and introduced an improved version of its free, downloadable parental controls software (parentalcontrols.aol.com). The upgraded software no longer requires an AOL screen name and now works with any e-mail address.

September 11, 2008 Pitney Bowes Launches New Mailstream Productivity Series Pitney Bowes Inc. a leading mailstream technology firm, has announced the introduction of the new Mailstream Productivity Series, a new generation of ultra high-speed production mail systems.

September 11, 2008 Online Brokerage Sites See Increased Visitors, Finds comScore comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released a study of the online trading and brokerage industry showing strong visitor growth to online brokerage sites coinciding with heavy online advertising efforts by several of the key brokerages.

September 11, 2008 Edith Roman Launches New Nielsen Business Media Mailing Lists Website Edith Roman and Nielsen Business Media have jointly announced that they have launched the Nielsen Business Media Mailing Lists website. Marketers can now explore the multitude of list opportunities offered by Nielsen Business Media online.

September 11, 2008 USPS Issues Service Updates for Hurricanes Ike and Gustav The following is the USPS's service update regarding Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Gustav as of Thursday, Sept. 11 at 3:00 p.m. (EDT). DMA will continue to update this information — via its homepage "Marketing News" and "3D-DMA Daily Digest" — as the USPS makes it available to the public.

September 10, 2008 Online Health Info Category Grows 400% Faster than Total Internet, Finds comScore comScore, Inc. has released results of a study showing that the health information site category has grown 21% during the past year, which is more than four times the growth rate of the total US Internet population.

September 10, 2008 Mobile Payments to Grow Nearly Ten Fold by 2013, Juniper Research Forecasts Purchases via mobile devices of digital and physical goods, contactless NFC (Near Field Communications) transactions and money transfers will together generate transactions worth over $600 billion globally by 2013, according to Juniper Research’s Mobile Payments Study.

September 10, 2008 No Turnaround in the Job Market Anytime Soon, Conference Board Index Suggests The Conference Board Employment Trends Index (ETI) continued its year-long decline in August, suggesting even more softening to come in the labor market. The index fell in August to 110.8, down 0.5% from July's revised figure of 111.4, and down more than 8% from a year ago.

September 10, 2008 Pitney Bowes Appoints CEO Murray Martin Chairman of the Board The Board of Directors of Pitney Bowes Inc. yesterday announced that effective January 1, 2009, Pitney Bowes CEO Murray D. Martin will become chairman of the board of directors.

September 10, 2008 infoUSA Announces Partnership with TCS infoGROUP, a leading provider of proprietary business and consumer databases, local business listings for directories, points of interest (POI) for navigation systems, sales leads, direct marketing, email marketing, and global information, has announced TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (TCS), a leading provider of mission-critical wireless communications, has entered into an agreement with infoUSA's license division to obtain 14 million US and 129,000 Puerto Rico business records.

September 10, 2008 Stratmark Hires James Dunne III to Spearhead its For-Profit Expansion Stratmark has named James E. Dunne III as its senior VP of market and product development. Dunne, former president of Rapp Collins Worldwide, will pilot the addition of commercial marketing services for Stratmark, which, since 1978, has catered almost exclusively to non-profit organizations.

September 9, 2008 USPS Issues Service Updates for Hurricanes Ike and Gustav: Monday Morning The USPS has issued updates regarding Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, which struck the Gulf Coast states one week ago, as of Monday, September 8 at 12:00 p.m. (EDT). DMA will continue to update this information — via its homepage “Marketing News” and “3D-DMA Daily Digest” — as the USPS makes it available to the public.

September 9, 2008 Google and NBC Universal Partner to Bring New Ad Clients to TV As part of its continuing effort to offer innovative advertising solutions to its clients, NBC Universal will join forces with Google to form a strategic multi-year advertising, research, and technology partnership. The two companies will work together to develop more effective ad metrics, attract non-traditional ad partners to NBCU, and incorporate self-service buying opportunities through the Google TV Ads platform.

September 9, 2008 IT Security Spending Rising, Finds Forrester Survey Spending on IT security will continue to grow next year, according to new data unveiled by Forrester Research. The survey found that 21% of respondents expect to increase their IT security budgets in 2009, while nearly 75% of those surveyed expect no cutbacks in their security spending.

September 9, 2008 Residential Finance Appoints Jessica Manna VP, CMO Residential Finance Corporation (RFC), a nationwide mortgage lender, has announced the recent addition of Jessica Manna to its executive management team. Manna joins RFC as VP and CMO to direct marketing, communications and business-growth strategy for the mortgage lender.

September 9, 2008 Wired Baby Boomers Are Going Digital, NPD Report Finds According to The NPD Group, online activities once mainly popular with teens and young adults, are now enjoying active participation by baby boomers, too. Recent consumer surveys of US consumers show that 61% of baby boomer Internet users had visited sites that offer streaming or downloadable video, while 41% had visited social networks.

September 9, 2008 Users Don't Search Google Effectively, Finds Boost eLearning Survey Boost eLearning has announced results of a new survey indicating 39% of all Google searches fail, leading to more than 40 hours of lost productivity per user per year. The online survey found that respondents perform about 12 searches per day and, statistically, 4.7 of those searches do not obtain the desired results.

September 9, 2008 Small Business Owner Optimism Continues to Drop, Wells Fargo/Gallup Survey Finds Reflecting signs of a weaker economy and rising costs, small business owners’ optimism continues to decline. According to the recent Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, surveyed in July, small business owner optimism has fallen to 45, the lowest score reported since the survey began five years ago. The Index has been declining since mid-2007.

September 9, 2008 Majority of Consumers Cite Interest in Mobile Banking Services, According to Fiserv Study Consumer interest in mobile banking and payments services offered by their financial institution has increased significantly in the past two years, according to new findings from a consumer research study released by Fiserv, Inc.

September 8, 2008 USPS Issues Service Updates for Hurricanes Ike and Gustav: Monday Morning The US Postal Service is now issuing service updates for Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Gustav, which struck the Gulf Coast states one week ago. DMA will continue to post these updates.

September 8, 2008 FTC to Host Second Roundtable, 'FTC at 100: Into Our Second Century,' on Sept. 25 in Chicago The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced its second US roundtable to be held as part of the ongoing agency initiative “FTC at 100: Into Our Second Century.” The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at the Searle Center at Northwestern University School of Law on September 25, 2008.

September 8, 2008 Europeans and Americans Agree Purchasing Power is Sharply Lower, Finds Harris According to new Harris survey, all across Europe and the US, people are concerned about their country’s purchasing power, and many feel that certain countries fare worse than others. When focusing on the purchasing power of the individual, the feelings of Europeans and Americans are strikingly similar -- and negative.

September 8, 2008 Research Corporation Launches CARAVAN International Opinion Research Corporation has announced the launch of CARAVAN International, weekly Online omnibus studies which, according to the company, will provide clients with cost-efficient international consumer research for obtaining measurements including brand awareness, product image, advertising awareness, concept testing and emerging market trends as well as answers to topical questions of interest to marketers.

September 8, 2008 AT&T Launches Yahoo oneSearch as the Default Mobile Search Engine on AT&T MEdia Net AT&T and Yahoo have announced that oneSearch now powers mobile Internet searches made through AT&T's on-deck MEdia Net portal. AT&T is the first US carrier to integrate Yahoo's innovative mobile search service directly into their portal. This announcement builds on the expanded strategic alliance the companies announced earlier this year.

September 5, 2008 comScore: All Consumer Income Segments Cutting Back; Majority Use Internet to Find Better Prices comScore released the results of a study examining recent changes in consumer attitudes and perceptions about the state of the US economy. The study showed that consumers in all income segments are cutting back on spending.

September 5, 2008 FedEx Express to Deliver Broadest Next-Business-Day Service from Europe to the Eastern US FedEx Express has upgraded its next-business-day delivery service FedEx International Priority® from Europe to major US East Coast cities.

September 5, 2008 Nielsen and IMMI Begin Providing First Daily All-Electronic Ratings for Viewing Outside the Home The Nielsen Company and Integrated Media Measurement Inc. have begun delivering the first daily all-electronic national TV ratings of television viewing that occurs outside of the home. This includes audience estimates of TV viewing in out-of-home locations such as offices, fitness clubs, hotels and bars.

September 5, 2008 Diamond Resorts International Selects Contact Center Compliance Diamond Resorts International® (DRI) has selected Contact Center Compliance to be the sole provider of "Do Not Call" regulatory solutions for its membership sales and service center.

September 5, 2008 USPS Service Updates for Hurricane Gustav: Friday Morning The following is the US Postal Service’s (USPS) service update regarding Hurricane Gustav as of Friday, September 5 at 8:00 a.m. (EDT).

September 4, 2008 NebuAd Halts Plans for Web Tracking as Congress Reviews Privacy Implications The Washington Post today reported that technology firm NebuAd has put on hold plans to widely deploy an online advertising technology that tracks consumers' every Web click while Congress reviews privacy concerns associated with the technique.

September 4, 2008 As Shoppers Shift Shopping Patterns, Discount and Value Retailers Benefit: Report In American ShopperScape™ 2008, TNS Retail Forward reports that shoppers are trading down to save money and seeking one-stop shopping venues and stores closer to home to save time and gasoline.

September 4, 2008 USPS Service Updates for Hurricane Gustav: Thursday Morning The following is the US Postal Service's service update regarding Hurricane Gustav as of Thursday, Sept. 4 at 10:30 a.m. (EDT).

September 4, 2008 CPP North America Adds DataPatrol to Identity Theft Product CPP North America has signed a major distribution deal to enhance its Identity Protection offering by adding DataPatrol from Garlik, a global leader in IP solutions.

September 4, 2008 infoUSA Provides Business Location Data for Limbo's Mobile Social Network Location Tools infoGROUP has announced that its infoUSA database license division has licensed its US business database to Limbo, one of the largest, fastest growing mobile social networks in the US. Limbo’s mobile location tools help its two million members connect with friends by sharing where they are, who they’re with, and what they're doing.

September 3, 2008 High Costs Defer Agencies' Adoption of Emerging Marketing Technologies, Finds DMA-Sponsored Winterberry Group White Paper Though slow to adopt new automation and campaign execution tools, marketing agencies appear poised to increase their technology investment significantly over coming years, according to new white paper by Winterberry Group, sponsored by DMA’s Marketing Technology and Direct Marketing Agency councils.

September 3, 2008 eBay Launches WorldofGood.com, An Online Marketplace for Ethically Sourced, Eco-Friendly Products eBay today unveiled a new ecommerce marketplace called WorldofGood.com by eBay, which offers products that have a positive impact on people and the planet, empowering consumers to align their social values with their shopping.

September 3, 2008 Google Launches Chrome, A New Take on the Browser Google has launched Google ChromeTM, a new open source browser intended to create a better web experience for users around the world. Available in beta in more than 40 languages, Google Chrome is a new approach to the browser that's based on the simplicity and power that users have come to expect from Google products.

September 3, 2008 Harte-Hanks Direct Marketing Names Jeannine Falcone Managing Director Jeannine Falcone has been named managing director of Harte-Hanks Direct Marketing Agency Services. Falcone has been with Harte-Hanks for 15 years, and most recently held the position of Senior Vice President of Client Services within the agency services group.

September 3, 2008 USPS Service Updates for Hurricane Gustav: Wednesday Afternoon The following is the US Postal Service's service update regarding Hurricane Gustav as of Wednesday, Sept. 3 at 3 p.m. (EDT). This information covers four hurricane-impacted states: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

September 2, 2008 USPS Service Updates for Hurricane Gustav: Tuesday Afternoon The following is the US Postal Service’s (USPS) service update regarding Hurricane Gustav as of Tuesday, September 2 at 3 p.m. (EDT). This information covers four hurricane-impacted states: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

September 2, 2008 Microsoft to Acquire Greenfield Online Including Its European Subsidiary Ciao, a Leading Price Comparison Site Microsoft Corporation has reached an agreement to acquire Greenfield Online Inc, owner of Ciao GmbH, one of Europe's leading price comparison, shopping and consumer reviews sites, in a move that will further extend Microsoft’s search and e-commerce services in Europe.

September 2, 2008 Google Unveils 'Google Video' for Business Google announced Google Video™ for business, a new application in Google Apps™ for sharing video in an organization in two easy steps — simply upload a video to Google Apps, and then invite others to view it.

September 2, 2008 FedEx Launches Domestic Service in Mexico FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp., has announced the introduction of FedEx Express Nacional, a domestic next-business-day service that provides highly reliable, convenient and quality express shipping solutions across Mexico.

September 2, 2008 UPS Issues New Sustainability Report UPS has released its sixth annual Corporate Sustainability Report with progress reports on the company's economic, social, and environmental performance. The report is based on data from 2007, UPS's 100th anniversary.

September 2, 2008 DMW Worldwide Offers Insight into Media Trends with 'Television Is Everywhere Or Is It?' DMW's latest Special Report — "Television Is Everywhere…Or Is It?" — offers an insightful peek into the future of television, including the impact of TV's continuing migration to the Internet and elsewhere.

September 2, 2008 Contact Center Compliance Appoints Michael Kovatch as New CEO Contact Center Compliance, a leader in compliance technology services, has appointed Mike Kovatch as the new Chief Executive Officer.

August 29, 2008 Nielsen Reports Growth in Asian and Hispanic US Households for 2008-2009 TV Season The Nielsen Company has announced that the total number of television households within the US for the 2008-2009 season will be 114.5 million, an increase of 1.5% from last year. The National Universe Estimates show a continued increase of Hispanic and Asian TV Households in comparison to Total TV Households.

August 29, 2008 Olympics Websites Win Gold Medals for Speed and Reliability, Keynote Finds Keynote Competitive Research has announced the results of its analysis surrounding the speed and reliability of Mobile and Internet sites central to the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games. While the websites monitored scored nearly "perfect tens," the five mobile news and sports sites faltered.

August 29, 2008 Federal Express Issues Virus Alert: Fraudulent Emails May Contain a Virus Federal Express has issued a virus alert regarding fraudulent emails that may contain a virus, stating, "The respected FedEx brand has recently been misused by individuals who are sending a rash of fraudulent emails containing a virus that claim a FedEx package could not be delivered."

August 28, 2008 More Than 75% of Online Americans Bank, Pay Bills Online, Fiserv Survey Finds More Americans than ever, an estimated 63.1 million households or three-fourth of those online, are paying their bills online rather than writing paper checks, according to a survey sponsored by CheckFree, now part of Fiserv, Inc., a leading provider of information technology services to the financial industry

August 28, 2008 Yahoo! Awarded Highest Technical Honor for Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Yahoo! has announced that Dr. Raghu Ramakrishnan, Yahoo! VP, research fellow and chief scientist for the Audience Technology and Cloud Computing & Data Infrastructure (CCDI) groups, has been awarded the 2008 Innovation Award by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special interest Group on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (SIGKDD). ACM's SIGKDD Innovation Award is the highest technical award in the fields of data mining and knowledge discovery.

August 28, 2008 Gander Mountain Returns to Catalog Business After 12 Years Gander Mountain, one of the nation's largest retail network of stores for hunting, fishing, camping, boating, marine, and outdoor lifestyle apparel and footwear, products and services, has announced that it has begun a limited national distribution of its 244 page catalog to customers. The catalog marks Gander Mountain's return to direct marketing after 12 years.

August 27, 2008 USPS Proposes New Automation Requirements for Detached Address Labels In today's Federal Register, the US Postal Service proposes revisions to its mailing standards for detached address labels (DALs). Comments are due on or before Sept. 26, 2008.

August 27, 2008 Microsoft Ranks as Top US Online Display Advertiser in June, Reports comScore comScore, Inc. released its June ranking of the top online display ad publishers and advertisers, based on data from the comScore Ad Metrix service. Fox Interactive Media, which owns MySpace.com, ranked as the top display ad publisher with 15.9% of all display ads viewed, while Microsoft was the top display advertiser with 1.7% of total views.

August 27, 2008 Consumer Confidence Improves in August, Reports The Conference Board The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index™, which had improved moderately in July, made further gains in August. The Index now stands at 56.9 (1985=100), up from 51.9 in July. The Present Situation Index decreased to 63.2 from 65.8 last month. The Expectations Index, however, increased to 52.8 from 42.7 in July.

August 26, 2008 comScore Study Examines Breakdown of Visitors to Official Beijing 2008 Olympic Website comScore has released a study of global visitation to Beijing2008.cn, the official website of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. The study revealed a tight race between China and the US, with China taking the gold.

August 26, 2008 Telecom Carriers Are Well-Placed to Win Ad Revenue, Gartner Says Telecom carriers around the world are turning their attention to advertising as a potential source of revenue, according to Gartner Inc. Gartner forecasts that the worldwide mobile ad market alone will be worth over $12 billion by 2011, but advised carriers that they will need to rise to some key challenges if they are to realize their advertising ambitions.

August 26, 2008 Hackers Stoop to New Lows in Attempt To Infect Computers, Reports SophosLabs Experts at SophosLabs, Sophos's global network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have warned of a widespread spam campaign that pretends that the recipient's baby has been kidnapped. The campaign tries to trick innocent computer users into opening a file claiming to be photographs of the infant, but are really malicious software.

August 25, 2008 PRC Issues Proposed Rulemaking for Periodic Reporting The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) has published proposed regulations prescribing the form and content of information the USPS will routinely report to the Commission to achieve transparency and accountability of the Service. The information will be used by the Commission to prepare its annual report to Congress.

August 25, 2008 Nearly Half of Search Marketers Do Not Integrate Efforts with Offline Channels: iProspect Study Search Engine Marketing Firm, iProspect has published the iProspect Search Engine Marketing Integration Study. The study reveals that 45% of search engine marketers do not integrate their search marketing efforts with offline channels.

August 25, 2008 NBCOlympics.com Brings in $5.75 Million in Video Ad Spending, eMarketer Estimates The 2008 Beijing Olympics had millions of Americans glued to the screen, whether on television or online, with record viewership and Web site traffic. However, the great popularity of the games did not quite translate to huge amounts of video advertising.

August 25, 2008 Harris Interactive Study Finds Consumers' Attitudes Differ Widely by Generation A recent survey by Harris Interactive conducted for Charles Schwab and Age Wave asked almost 4,000 Americans aged 21 to 83 what they thought of different generations. The results show how very differently people view the different generations, with many people holding strong positive and negative opinions about them.

August 25, 2008 Ron Jacobs Helps Architect New Certificate in Multichannel Marketing Program at DePaul University Direct marketing evangelist Ron Jacobs is helping to pioneer a certificate program and graduate degree course for marketers at DePaul University to debut in Fall 2008. The Jacobs and Stone Multichannel Marketing Communications Graduate Certificate program, dubbed MC2, was named in honor of Ron Jacobs and Bob Stone, co-authors of the seminal direct marketing text, Successful Direct Marketing Methods.

August 22, 2008 comScore Releases July 2008 US Search Engine Rankings comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the US search marketplace. In July, Americans conducted 11.8 billion core searches (up 2% versus June) as Google Sites slightly extended its lead in core search market share by 0.4 percentage points.

August 22, 2008 The Conference Board US Leading Index Decreased 0.7% in July The Conference Board announced today that the US leading index decreased 0.7%, the coincident index increased 0.1% and the lagging index increased 0.4% in July.

August 22, 2008 PRC Issues Proposed Rulemaking for Complaints The Postal Regulatory Commission yesterday published a notice of proposed rulemaking to update the Commission rules for complaints. This is part of a series of rulemakings initiated by the PRC to fulfill its responsibilities under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.

August 22, 2008 Amazon Web Services Launches the Amazon Elastic Block Store for Amazon EC2 Amazon Web Services LLC has launched the Amazon Elastic Block Store, a new persistent storage feature for the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. Amazon EC2 is an infrastructure service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud.

August 22, 2008 Economic Conditions Forcing Marketers to Reduce Advertising Budgets: ANA Survey Marketers from a broad cross-section of categories and industries are feeling the pinch of belt-tightening with their budgets, according to a recent survey from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA).

August 21, 2008 FTC to Host Sept. 23 Workshop to Explore RFIDs, Consumer Protection, Privacy Implications The FTC will host a “Transatlantic RFID Workshop on Consumer Privacy and Data Security” on September 23, 2008, to explore emerging applications of radio frequency identification technology and their implications for consumer protection policy. The workshop will bring together industry representatives, government officials, and consumer advocates from Europe and the US.

August 21, 2008 Intel and Yahoo! to Bring Internet to Television; TV Widgets to Complement TV Viewing Intel Corporation and Yahoo! Inc. have previewed plans for the Widget Channel, a TV application framework optimized for TV and related consumer electronics (CE) devices that use the Intel Architecture. The Widget Channel will allow consumers to enjoy rich Internet applications designed for the TV while watching their favorite TV programs.

August 21, 2008 US Postal Service Offering Early Retirements; Looks to Close, Consolidate Facilities The Associated Press' Randolph E. Schmid reports that the United States Postal Service (USPS), faced with losses that could near $1.5 billion this fiscal year, is offering early retirement, without incentives or bonuses, to thousands of clerks, mail handlers and supervisors. The USPS's current fiscal year ends on September 30, 2008.

August 21, 2008 USPS Publishes Final Rule for Implementation of Intelligent Mail Barcodes Standards In today’s Federal Register, the US Postal Service (USPS) publishes its final rule pertaining to Intelligent Mail Barcodes. The new rules will take effect on May 11, 2009.

August 21, 2008 infoGROUP Announces Leadership Changes; Vin Gupta Resigns as CEO; Bill Fairfield Named CEO infoGROUP, a leading provider of proprietary business and consumer databases, sales leads, direct marketing, email marketing and global information solutions, this morning announced that Vinod Gupta has resigned as the company’s chief executive officer. Gupta will remain on the board of directors.

August 20, 2008 Gartner Says Worldwide IT Spending On Pace to Surpass $3.4 Trillion in 2008 Despite current economic concerns, worldwide IT spending will exceed $3.4 trillion in 2008, an increase of 8% from 2007 spending, according to Gartner, Inc. Analysts said much of this growth is based on the decline in the US dollar.

August 20, 2008 Local Online Media Hold Significant Advertising Advantage Local media sites hold a distinct advantage when it comes to delivering results for advertisers, according to a new report by the Online Publishers Association (OPA). The study finds that consumers trust advertising on local newspaper, magazine, and television Websites, and are very likely to take action after viewing ads on these sites.

August 20, 2008 YouTube, Meet the US Postal Service; USPS Launches Webisodes A new chapter for the US Postal Service (USPS) has opened, as the 236-year-old institution has stepped boldly into the next generation with the release of “Mark of the Eagle,” four direct-to-Internet webisodes that put a new twist on an honorable tradition.

August 20, 2008 India Search Market Led by 1 Billion Searches on Google Sites in June, Finds comScore comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released a study of the online search market in India, indicating that Google Sites commanded the strong majority of searches conducted in this developing market.

August 20, 2008 Google.org Invests More Than $10 Million In Breakthrough Geothermal Energy Technology In the continuing effort to develop electricity from renewable energy cheaper than from coal, Google, through its philanthropic arm Google.org, announced $10.25 million in investments in a breakthrough energy technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS).

August 20, 2008 Walmart, Kohl s and JCPenney Shoppers Lean Towards McCain; Macy s & Target Shoppers Towards Obama, Finds BigResearch When asked to "vote" as if the election were held today, Walmart, Kohl’s and JCPenney Shoppers are more likely to vote for McCain; while Macy’s and Target Shoppers say they would cast a ballot for Obama, according to BIGresearch's August Consumer Intentions and Actions (CIA) Survey.

August 19, 2008 Credit Card Direct Mail Drops Again, Reports Mintel Comperemedia The number of credit card offers mailed to Americans has declined for the third consecutive quarter, according to new research from Mintel Comperemedia. Estimated acquisition mail volume for credit cards fell nearly 8% from Q1 2008 to Q2 2008 (from 1.67 billion to 1.54 billion).

August 19, 2008 Aberdeen Reports Finds Unified Communications Is Lifeblood of the Contact Center In a comprehensive research study of Unified Communications in the Contact Center, Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, explains how Best-in-Class companies have implemented policies and procedures designed to manage expert agent interaction, business process workflow designed to optimize the business process, presence and other unified communications technologies to support the business process.

August 19, 2008 UPS Offers More Air Pickup Options for Urgent Business Needs UPS has announced significant enhancements to its UPS On-Call Pickup service in the US for air packages, providing customers even more options for today's urgent business demands.

August 19, 2008 Google's Satisfaction Soars, According to University of Michigan Research Customer satisfaction with e-business websites reaches a new high, according to the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) second quarter report. The annual e-business report measures customer satisfaction with search engines, portals, and online news and information sites.

August 19, 2008 Top Four Internet Portals to Weather Economic Storm, According to eMarketer Google’s strong financial results for Q2 2008, including 27% growth in net US advertising revenues, continues to set the bar for the online advertising industry. This reported revenue increase validates eMarketer’s recent projections that Google, Yahoo, and MSN would continue to show positive results through the US economic turmoil.

August 18, 2008 Green Retail Initiatives Drive Down Costs and Catalyze Customer Loyalty, Finds Aberdeen Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company, has published a report outlineing information revealed from retail executives about their green and sustainability agendas, priorities, and strategies across all areas of the retail enterprise from the supply chain and headquarters, to stores and facilities.

August 18, 2008 comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 US Web Properties for July 2008 comScore, Inc. has released its monthly analysis of US consumer activity at the top online properties for July 2008 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. Continuing the summer trends in Web usage observed last month, leisure-oriented categories demonstrated gains in July, including travel, retail, tickets and entertainment news.

August 18, 2008 Major Organizations Demonstrate Impact of Human Resources, Finds Conference Board A small but growing number of companies are demonstrating the impact that human resources (HR) policies can have in meeting overall business goals, according to a report by The Conference Board, the global business research and membership organization.

August 18, 2008 US Retail Sales Up 4.0% in July, ShopperTrak Reports ShopperTrak RCT Corporation’s National Retail Sales Estimate has reported that July retail sales rose a steady 4.0% while the company’s Retail Traffic Index (SRTI) reported total US foot traffic slipped 2.2% for the same time period.

August 15, 2008 Frank J. Biondi, Jr. and John H. Chapple Appointed to Yahoo!'s Board of Directors Yahoo has announced that Frank J. Biondi, Jr. and John H. Chapple were appointed to Yahoo!'s board of directors. "We are pleased to add people of Frank's and John's caliber to our board," commented Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock.

August 15, 2008 Emarketer Revises Online Ad Spend Numbers eMarketer has revised its Internet ad spend projections, estimating that advertisers will spend $24.9 billion online this year in the US. That estimate is slightly lower than the one eMarketer put out in March 2008, which said that US online advertising spending would reach $25.9 billion in 2008.

August 15, 2008 Google Continues Ascent, Close to 71% of US Searches in July, Reports Hitwise According to Hitwise, Google accounted for 70.77% of all US searches in the four weeks ending July 26, 2008. Google was followed by Yahoo! Search, MSN Search, and Ask.com each received 18.65%, 5.36%, and 3.53% respectively.

August 15, 2008 Rebate Checks Help Take the Summer Heat Off Retailers in July, Reports NRF According to the National Retail Federation, July retail industry sales (which exclude automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants) increased 0.3% seasonally adjusted month-to-month and rose 4.7% unadjusted over last year.

August 15, 2008 comScore Enhances Reporting of Ad Networks Audiences comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has announced that it will provide enhanced measurement of the audiences for online advertising networks effective with August data, which will be released in mid-September. The new reporting structure will provide two sets of measures—the "potential reach" for each network and an "actual reach" reading.

August 14, 2008 Census Bureau Forecasts an Older, More Diverse Nation by 2050 The US will be more racially and ethnically diverse, as well as much older, by midcentury, according to projections released today by the US Census Bureau. Minorities, now roughly one-third of the US population, are expected to become the majority in 2042, with the nation projected to be 54% minority in 2050. By 2023, minorities will comprise more than half of all children.

August 14, 2008 Social Networking Explodes Worldwide, comScore Reports comScore has released a study of worldwide usage of social networking sites, indicating that while the growth in new users in North America is beginning to level off, it is burgeoning in other regions around the world.

August 14, 2008 CEOs Take Back-to-Basics Approach to Cope with Economy, Opinion Research Report Reveals The NYSE Euronext 2009 CEO Report, conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, "Managing During Economic Turbulence," underscores that the current US and global economic conditions will separate the best companies from great ones.

August 14, 2008 Yahoo Launches Fire Eagle Platform

August 12, 2008 UPU Chooses Chairs and Vice Chairs of Committees of Council of Administration and Postal Operations Committee The Universal Postal Union's (UPU) Council of Administration (CA) yesterday elected its Committee Chairs and Vice-Chairs. This is a vital part of each Congress in which countries are chosen for leadership positions of substantial responsibility.

August 12, 2008 As 24th Universal Postal Congress Closes, UPU Turns to Postal Sector's New Frontiers International postal services are moving resolutely towards the future, declared Edouard Dayan, Director General of the Universal Postal Union, at the close of the 24th Universal Postal Congress, which has ended its three weeks of discussions.

August 12, 2008 Head of US Delegation to UPU's 24th Universal Postal Congress Presents Closing Remarks The Universal Postal Union’s 24th Universal Postal Congress, which opened on July 23, has closed in Geneva, Switzerland. Gerald Anderson, who heads the United States' delegation to the Congress, presented his closing remarks before the plenary session.

August 12, 2008 Some Web Firms Tell Congress They Track Behavior Without Explicit Consent The Washington Post’s Ellen Nakashima has reported that several Internet and broadband companies have acknowledged using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers, according to letters released Monday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

August 12, 2008 Harry & David Holdings Acquires Cushman Fruit Company Harry & David Holdings, Inc., has announced that it has acquired Cushman Fruit Company, based in West Palm Beach, Florida. Specific terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

August 11, 2008 USPS Will Recommend Lower Intelligent Mail Barcode in 2009 Rate Case Stephen M. Kearney, the USPS' senior VP for customer relations, has sent a memo to members of the Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) regarding Intelligent Mail barcode (IMB), which the USPS will launch next May.

August 11, 2008 Yahoo! Announces New Privacy Choice for Consumers Yahoo has announced that it will offer users greater choice in how they manage their privacy online by enabling them to opt-out of customized advertising on Yahoo.com. This new option expands Yahoo!'s existing opt-out program for customized advertising served by Yahoo! on third party networks.

August 11, 2008 Social Networking, Other Forms of Communication Affecting Email Marketing's Effectiveness, Finds JupiterResearch JupiterResearch has found that rising popularity of social networking sites and other forms of communication, including text messaging and cell phone use, are beginning to impact the effectiveness of email marketing, particularly the numbers of consumers that say promotional messages inspired purchases.

August 11, 2008 Companies Use Social Media to Drive Marketing Improvement, Reports Aberdeen Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company, has examined the use, experiences, and intentions of diverse enterprises to create a roadmap for companies that aim to leverage social media to drive marketing improvement. The report reveals performance disparities between "Best-in-Class" organizations on the one hand, and "Industry Average" and "Laggard" companies on the other.

August 8, 2008 UPU's Postal Congress Elects Greece to Head Postal Operations Council At the Universal Postal Union's (UPU) 24th Universal Postal Congress, UPU's developing country members appeared to be sending a clear message to the developed world that it expected more attention. This appears to be quite clear in the election of Greece to the chair of the Postal Operations Council.

August 8, 2008 Time Inc. to Acquire QSP Schools and Youth Fundraising Unit from Reader's Digest Association Time Inc. and The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., yesterday announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Time Inc. to acquire QSP, Inc., RDA’s school and youth groups fundraising company.

August 8, 2008 Publicis Groupe to Acquire Performics Search Marketing Business from Google Publicis Groupe and Google announced that Publicis Groupe has agreed to acquire the Performics search marketing business (Performics) from Google. Performics is a leading search marketing services providers.

August 7, 2008 Universal Postal Congress Votes to Continue IMPC Code Issuance Suspension At the Universal Postal Union’s (UPU) 24th Universal Postal Congress, Committee 3 accepted a proposal originating in the Council of Administration that validates and continues the suspension of the issuance of International Mail Processing Center codes (IMP) to private companies.

August 7, 2008 USPS Will Be Ready for Intelligent Mail Barcodes in May 2009; No Pricing Decisions at This Time Speaking to the Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) in Washington, DC yesterday, Tom Day, the US Postal Service’s (USPS) SVP for intelligent mail and address quality, said the USPS will be ready for mail bearing Intelligent Mail barcodes next May as planned.

August 7, 2008 US Postal Service Reports Q3 Loss as Economic Slowdown Continues to Affect Mailing Industry The US Postal Service (USPS) ended its third fiscal year quarter (April 1 – June 30) with a greater-than-expected net loss of $1.1 billion. The national economic slowdown reduced mail volume at an accelerated pace and continued inflation in fuel prices produced rapidly escalating transportation costs.

August 7, 2008 Edouard Dayan and Guozhong Huang Re-Elected to UPU Top Jobs; 25th Postal Congress Set for Qatar The 24th Universal Postal Congress yesterday re-elected, by acclamation, France’s Edouard Dayan and China’s Guozhong Huang to the positions of Director General and Deputy Director General of the Universal Postal Union’s International Bureau for the period 2009-2012.

August 7, 2008 Nielsen Forecasts US Sales of More Than $1.5 Billion in Back to School Supplies Nielsen forecasts 2.6% growth or more than $1.57 billion in school and office supply sales in US grocery, drug and mass merchandiser stores during the core Back to School season of mid-July through early September. Back to School sales represent more than a quarter (28%) of the school and office supply category’s annual sales of $5.5 billion1.

August 7, 2008 Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales on Pace to Grow 11% in 2008 Worldwide sales of mobile phones will reach 1.28 billion units in 2008, an 11% increase from last year, according to Gartner, Inc. In 2007, worldwide mobile phone sales reached 1.15 billion units. Worldwide mobile phone sales in the first quarter of 2008 reached 294.3 million, and Gartner expects sales in the second quarter of 2008 to be between 300 million and 305 million units.

August 7, 2008 DoubleClick Introduces 'Silverlight' to Power Video Advertising for NBC Universal Digital Media DoubleClick, a premier provider of digital marketing technology and services, has announced the new capability to serve video ads into Microsoft Silverlight 2 video environments. The move is part of DoubleClick’s ongoing effort to help clients maximize the yield on their advertising inventory as they deliver content into emergent online, video and mobile channels.

August 6, 2008 UPU's Consultative Committee Renewed, Improved; Private Sector Participation Broadened The Universal Postal Union’s (UPU) 24th Universal Postal Congress, meeting as Committee 3 (called General Matters), approved — without discussion or dissent and by acclimation — an important revision to Article 106.1, which sets out the requirements for membership in this, the "third circle" of the UPU's membership. It is through this Consultative Committee (CC) that private sector companies may participate in the work of the UPU.

August 6, 2008 Universal Postal Congress Rejects a Change to UPU's Mission Statement Meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, the Universal Postal Union's (UPU) 24th Universal Postal Congress, sitting in a plenary session, on August 1 rejected a proposal that originated with the staff of the International Bureau and had the verbal support of the UPU Director General Edouard Dayan.

August 6, 2008 US Justice Dept. Charges 11 for Stealing, Selling Numbers from Major US Retailers Eleven perpetrators allegedly involved in the hacking of nine major US retailers and the theft and sale of more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers have been charged with numerous crimes, including conspiracy, computer intrusion, fraud and ID theft.

August 6, 2008 Yahoo! Acknowledges Tabulation Error by Broadridge Yahoo shareholders withheld a third of their votes to reelect CEO Jerry Yang to the board, twice as many as reported earlier, a sign that pressure is mounting for him to turn the company around quickly. Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc., which tallied votes on behalf of its clients, misstated some results in the earlier tally.

August 5, 2008 Communications Spending to Continue Despite Economy and Declining Traditional Ad Sector, Forecasts Veronis Suhler Stevenson Total communications spending is projected to increase 5.4 percent to $923.91 billion in 2008, as strong gains in the institutional and alternative media sectors offset the downward pressure of declining traditional advertising spending, according to research released today by Veronis Suhler Stevenson.

August 5, 2008 Sen. Levin Urges Fed to Strengthen Proposed Regulation to Crack Down on Unfair Credit Card Practices Describing the credit card industry as "rife with unfair, deceptive, and predatory practices," Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) has urged the Federal Reserve to strengthen its proposed regulation aimed at unfair or deceptive credit card practices.

August 5, 2008 USPS Publishes Fact Sheets for New Rules for Addressing Flats The USPS on Mar. 29, 2009, will implement new address placement and formatting requirements for Standard Mail, Periodicals, Bound Printed Matter, Media Mail, and Library Mail flat-size pieces sent at automation, presorted, or carrier route prices. Also, the USPS will adopt related revisions for automation and presorted First-Class Mail flats.

August 5, 2008 Nielsen Mobile and Mediamark Research & Intelligence Partner on Mobile Audience Targeting Tool Nielsen Mobile, a service of The Nielsen Company, and Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI) have announced that the two research firms will jointly launch Mobile-MRI, an integrated database of consumers' mobile and offline media usage that will allow mobile media companies and advertisers to better target audiences with their mobile campaigns.

August 5, 2008 Philadelphia DMA Announces 2008-2009 Board of Directors The Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association (PDMA) has announced its Board of Directors for 2008-2009. The new board took effect in July 2008.

August 4, 2008 House Commerce Committee Questions Data Network Operators' Practices; One Week for Answers A key Congressional Committee is initiating an inquiry into the privacy concerns raised by the data collection practices of Internet network operators who tailor Internet advertising based on a consumer’s Web surfing activity.

August 4, 2008 FCC Orders Comcast to End Discriminatory Network Management Practices The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday found that Comcast Corp.'s management of its broadband Internet networks contravenes federal policies that protect the vibrant and open nature of the Internet.

August 4, 2008 Americans Willing to Pay More for Eco-Friendly Products, Finds GfK Roper and Yale Many Americans, including those who are enduring financial hardship, are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products, according to a survey conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

August 4, 2008 Yahoo! Announces Results of 2008 Annual Stockholder Meeting Yahoo! Inc. announced Friday that, at the company's annual meeting of stockholders held earlier that day, stockholders re-elected all of Yahoo!'s nominees to the Board of Directors.

August 4, 2008 Amazon.com to Acquire AbeBooks, Adding 110 Million Books Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) on Friday announced that, subject to closing conditions, it has reached an agreement to acquire AbeBooks, an online marketplace for books, with over 110 million primarily used, rare, and out-of-print books listed for sale by thousands of independent booksellers from around the world.

August 1, 2008 Small Businesses Say Postage Increase Will Impact Advertising, Finds infoUSAPoll.com infoUSAPoll.com surveyed thousands of small-business executives across the country on June 30th, asking whether the increase in postage will change business practices, in particular advertising spends. To the question, “Will the postage increase affect your advertising?” the results were relatively close. However, 7% more of businesses surveyed said the additional costs would impact business when compared with those who said the additional costs would not have an impact.

August 1, 2008 Prepaid Cards Offer Safe Option for Teens, Mintel Finds For the teen who wants it all, a prepaid debit card may be the answer, says Mintel. Making payments easier, prepaid cards also offer security and control for parents A new report from Mintel suggests teenagers, and their parents, could be a lucrative target for prepaid debit cards.

August 1, 2008 Majority of Security Incidents Unreported in 2007, According to RSA Conference Survey RSA Conference has released the results of its recent survey of security professionals regarding the critical industry and infrastructure issues they currently face. Forty-nine percent of respondents cited data leakage of customer or employee data as their primary area of concern, while oncerns about e-mail-borne malware/phishing were cited by 41% of survey respondents.

July 31, 2008 Affluent Consumers Continue to Cut Back on Luxury Spending, Unity Marketing Finds While affluent consumers continue to conserve their cash, steer clear of stores, and hold back on indulging in luxury extravagances, there are signs that the worst is over for luxury marketers. The consumer market for luxury is likely leveling off before it starts to recover, according to a recent poll conducted by Unity Marketing.

July 31, 2008 Global Mobile Device Market on Course for 1.3 Billion Units Despite Economic Woes, Says ABI Research In the second quarter of 2008, Tier One handset vendors enjoyed year-over-year unit shipment growth of between 15 and 22%. ABI Research estimates that 301 million units were shipped during the quarter and therefore reaffirms its forecast that the mobile device market will deliver 13% growth to take 2008 annual shipments to 1.3 billion units.

July 31, 2008 Forrester Research Acquires JupiterResearch from MCG Capital; JEGI Represents Forrester in Transaction Forrester Research, has acquired JupiterResearch and its parent company, JUPR Holdings from MCG Capital Corporation for $23 million. The Jordan, Edmiston Group represented Forrester Research in this transaction and acted as its exclusive financial advisor.

July 31, 2008 DM2-DecisionMaker Sheds New Light on Direct Marketing Response Data DM2-DecisionMaker, a B-to-B direct marketing services provider, has announced the availability of DecisionMaker Analytics, a new service that evaluates campaign response, builds in new prospects based on the target market profile, and then tracks new campaign results – all without any technical involvement or additional work for the client.

July 31, 2008 Creative Automation to Plant 4,000 Trees Through Reforestation Program Creative Automation, a leader in direct mail printing and database management services, has announced that they will be planting 4,000 trees as a result of their Reforestation with Creative Automation Program.

July 30, 2008 JupiterResearch Sees Beijing Olympics as True Test of Cross-Channel Media Marketing JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, believes that NBC’s ambitious plans for online coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics present NBC and other media companies with a unique opportunity to create strategic cross-channel programming and marketing.

July 30, 2008 Majority of Email Sent From Illegitimate or Unknown Mail Servers Return Path Report Finds Eighty percent of email is being sent from illegitimate or unknown mail servers, Return Path discovered with its new Return Path Reputation Benchmark Report. Return Path found that 46% of email is being sent from hosts that should not be sending email at all.

July 30, 2008 Consumers 'See Green,' but Hold Corporations Responsible for Change, AMP Agency Reports AMP Agency has released findings from "Green AMPlified," a national survey of more than 3,000 consumers. The survey found that close to all American consumers (90%) believe that acting in an environmentally responsible way is important, but feel corporations hold most of the responsibility to implement change over their own personal efforts.

July 30, 2008 MSN Direct Enables Websites to Deliver Information to GPS Devices Microsoft has released an open application programming interface (API) for the MSN Direct Send to GPS feature for navigation devices. This allows any website to offer visitors the ability to send addresses, business listings, or other locations directly from the site to their GPS unit.

July 30, 2008 Mediaspace Solutions Names Brian St. Cyr Business Development Director of Minneapolis Office Mediaspace Solutions (MSS), a full-service market leader in multi-market newspaper advertising and online media placement services, has appointed Brian St. Cyr as business development director at the company’s Minneapolis office.

July 29, 2008 PRC Chairman Blair Addresses Universal Postal Union General Debate Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) Chairman Dan G. Blair on July 25 addressed over 1,000 postal officials from around the world during the Universal Postal Union (UPU) General Debate held in Geneva, Switzerland. In his speech, Blair emphasized the Commission’s recent work and efforts in implementing provisions of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.

July 29, 2008 Cyber Threats Accelerate, Browser Vulnerabilities Proliferate in First Half of 2008, Finds IBM Report IBM has released results from its recent report that indicates cyber-criminals are adopting new automation techniques and strategies that allow them to exploit vulnerabilities much faster than ever before.

July 29, 2008 Consumer Confidence Holds Steady for July, The Conference Board Finds The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had declined in June, held steady in July. The Index now stands at 51.9 (1985=100), up slightly from 51.0 in June. The Present Situation Index was virtually unchanged at 65.3 versus 65.4 last month. The Expectations Index increased moderately to 43.0 from 41.4 in June.

July 28, 2008 Ex-Googlers Launch 'Cuil Search Engine' According to the New York Times, Anna Patterson and her husband Tom Costello, are launching "Cuil," a search engine that they promise will be more comprehensive than Google’s, which is today the king of the search hill.

July 28, 2008 UN Calls for Postal Services Around Globe to Shrink Climate Footprint At the Universal Postal Union’s 24th Universal Post Congress on Friday in Geneva, Switzerland, Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), announced, "in this 60th anniversary year of UPU, I am delighted that [Universal Postal Union (UPU) Director General] Edouard Dayan and I have signed an agreement to first assess the climate footprint of the world’s postal services. And then offer the UPU’s 191 member states a range of solutions to shrink that footprint."

July 28, 2008 Industry Click Fraud Rate Holds at 16.2% in Q2 2008, According to Click Forensics Click Forensics has released industry pay-per-click (PPC) fraud figures for the second quarter 2008 from the Click Fraud Index. The overall industry average click fraud rate was 16.2% for Q2 2008, down slightly from the 16.3% rate reported for Q1 2008 and up from the 15.8% click fraud rate reported for Q2 2007.

July 25, 2008 As Students Adapt to Economy, Back-to-College Spending Drops, Finds NRF While results from this year's back-to-school survey were surprisingly strong, spending on college merchandise will wane this year, according to the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) Back-to-College Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch.

July 25, 2008 Branded Websites Most Effective for Pharmaceutical Marketers, comScore Study Finds comScore, Inc., in conjunction with pharmaceutical marketing consultancy Evolution Road, has released results from the second annual study: e-Marketing Effectiveness Benchmarks for the Pharmaceutical Industry. The study evaluated the impact of banner ads, search marketing, and visits to a brand website on a brand’s awareness, favorability and sales results among both patients and prospects.

July 25, 2008 17 Countries to Surpass 60% Broadband Home Penetration by 2012, Forecasts Garner Worldwide consumer broadband connections will grow from 323 million connections in 2007 to 499 million in 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide consumer broadband connections penetrated 18% of households in 2007, and by 2012, households with a broadband connection will reach 25%.

July 25, 2008 Attitudes on Economy Remain Bleak, According to Harris Interactive As the drumbeat of bad economic news continues, Americans’ feelings on the economy remain pessimistic, according to a new Harris Poll of 1,329 US adults surveyed online between July 3 and 11, 2008.

July 25, 2008 Gartner Says Future of TV Will Require Channel Integration With the Internet transforming the way individuals watch and share video content, TV producers must embrace the Internet to avoid losing control of their content, audiences and advertising revenue, according to Gartner, Inc. As a result, Gartner says TV producers must integrate new channels such as social networks to enhance audience engagement, interaction and maximize reach.

July 25, 2008 Retailers Tell Congress Stimulus Effect Diluted by Gas and Grocery Prices, NRF Reports The National Retail Federation told a congressional hearing that rebate checks intended to stimulate the economy have helped significantly, but that much of the money has been diverted by high gasoline and grocery prices, and consumer spending would still benefit from additional stimulus measures.

July 25, 2008 Merkle Report Examines Impact of Presidential Campaigns on Nonprofit Fundraising Merkle, a leading database marketing agency, released a new research report examining the effect political donations have on the direct mail fundraising efforts of nonprofit organizations. The study examined the similarities and differences between donors who give to presidential campaigns and nonprofit organizations.

July 25, 2008 Short-Form Videos Dominate Online Viewing, According to Frank N. Magid Associates Frank N. Magid Associates, a leader in research-based consultation, and Metacafe, one of the world’s largest video entertainment sites, have released survey results revealing consumer behavior and preferences in online video viewing. The survey found that the top-five most popular categories of videos watched online are all short-form: comedy, music videos, videos shot and uploaded by consumers, news stories, and movie previews.

July 25, 2008 JEGI Advises dmg world media on Sale of North American Consumer Home Shows dmg world media, a division of Daily Mail & General Trust plc (DMGT), has sold its portfolio of 38 North American consumer home shows to Marketplace Events LLC. The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI), a leading provider of independent investment banking services for media, information, marketing services, and related technologies, represented dmg world media in this transaction and acted as its exclusive financial advisor.

July 24, 2008 Challenging Back-to-School Shopping Season Ahead, Deloitte Forecasts Higher gas and food prices will cause a significant number of consumers to spend less this back-to-school shopping season and will also cause consumers to change where and how they shop, according to a new survey from Deloitte.

July 24, 2008 AOL's Platform-A Integrates Goowy Into Widget Ad Offering AOL's Platform-A announced that it will offer Goowy's widget creation and management services as part of its widget distribution offering for advertisers. Goowy enables the creation, syndication, and measurement of widget-based campaigns as a free, value-added service across Platform-A’s properties and networks.

July 24, 2008 Facebook Expands Its Platform Across the Web and Around the World Facebook has introduced the latest advancements to Facebook Platform during its annual f8 developer conference, calling on its more than 400,000 developers to connect their websites with Facebook through Facebook Connect, extend their applications to dozens of languages worldwide, and make use of new developer resources to help them succeed.

July 24, 2008 UPS Earnings Decline Due to Economic Weakness UPS has reported a 6.7% revenue increase in the second quarter but an 18.3% decline in diluted earnings per share to $0.85 compared to $1.04 the prior year. Increasing fuel costs and a stagnant US economy caused the earnings decline in both the US Domestic and International Package segments.

July 24, 2008 Despite Economy, Most Small Businesses Continue to Do Well, Finds Opinion Research Despite continuing weakness in the overall economy, most small business professionals rate their own business conditions as good, according to a research study conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, an infoGROUP company.

July 24, 2008 Celebrity Still Important to Why Consumers Buy, Finds NPD Group The NPD Group, Inc., a leading market research company, released the results of its latest study, Celebrity Influence – 2008. The study shows that celebrities still capture the attention of American consumers.

July 24, 2008 BIGresearch and Televisa Publishing + Digital Expand Hispanic Insights Initiatives Televisa Publishing & Digital has announced the expansion to their alliance with BIGresearch to provide marketers with a deeper understanding of Hispanic consumers.

July 23, 2008 Enterprise Value of Online Communities Yet to be Realized, Deloitte Study Finds A Deloitte survey of companies sponsoring online communities indicates that enterprises have begun to effectively use social media tools and online communities to engage with customers and employees for brand discussions, idea generation and product discovery. However, the survey also indicates that while these online initiatives are having a positive impact, enterprises have not yet harnessed the true potential of these communities.

July 23, 2008 First Quarter Global Advertising Up 4% From 2007, Nielsen Reports In spite of mounting economic pressures, it appears the advertising world is still growing, according to latest figures from The Nielsen Company's Global AdView Pulse report, which found that global advertising spend grew just over four percent in the first quarter of 2008.

July 23, 2008 Parents Holding on to Rebate Checks for Back-to-School Purchases, According to NRF One-fifth of parents nationwide have set aside a portion of their stimulus check for back-to-school purchases, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2008 Back to School Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch on 8,361 respondents. The survey found that the average family with school-aged children will spend $594.24 on back-to-school purchases, compared to $563.49 last year.

July 23, 2008 TiVo Teams Up with Amazon to Enable On-Screen Product Purchasing TiVo Inc., the creator of and a leader in advertising solutions and TV services for digital video recorders (DVRs), has announced it has teamed up with Amazon to provide consumers with the ability to purchase physical products from Amazon.com on their TV sets, using their TiVo remote control.

July 23, 2008 Broadband Household Surge Expected in Canada, Finds eMarketer Broadband is more prevalent in Canada than in many other countries, including the US. Broadband penetration is also growing faster than the online population. About two-thirds of households have broadband in 2008, but three-quarters will benefit from high-speed connections by 2012, according to a new eMarketer report, "Canada Internet: Users and Usage."

July 23, 2008 Serious Sports Fans Avid Consumers of Online Video, JupiterResearch Finds JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, has found that serious sports fans comprise 19% of overall online users and represent one of the most lucrative audiences online. With a tendency to spend more time online, watch more video online, and shop more online, sports sites must integrate the right mix of video and social experiences into their destinations.

July 23, 2008 Luxury Marketers Should Focus Advertising On Substance, According to Unity Marketing According to Unity Marketing, a new wave of anxiety about legal remedies posed by fake luxury goods has hit both domestic and international luxury companies. In order to fight the scourge of fakers, luxury brand companies large and small need to focus their efforts on consumer education that puts substance before image, the company says.

July 23, 2008 Gay and Lesbian Consumers More Likely to Follow Latest Trends, Reports Harris Interactive According to a new national survey conducted 48% of gay and lesbian adults report they like to keep up with the latest styles and trends, compared to only 38% of heterosexual adults. This also seems to accelerate behaviors tracked by a similar survey in January 2007 when 385 of gay and lesbian adults reported they like to keep up with the latest styles and trends (compared to 32% of heterosexual adults).

July 23, 2008 Jordan, Edmiston Group Advises University Health Publishing Group in Sale to MediZine, a Portfolio Company of Veronis Suhler Stevenson MediZine LLC, a leading consumer health education company, has acquired the assets of University Health Publishing Group (UHPG). The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc., a leading provider of independent investment banking services for media, information, marketing services and related technologies represented UHPG in this transaction and acted as its exclusive financial advisor.

July 22, 2008 Forrester Releases Largest Technology Survey of North American Consumers Forrester Research has released the results of its 2008 North American Technographics Benchmark survey, its largest annual data set about consumers' technology adoption and attitudes, based on a mail survey of nearly 61,000 consumers representing 53,000 households in the US and Canada.

July 22, 2008 Gartner Says Technology to Play Key Role in Helping CFOs Deliver Business Growth; Analysts Highlight Five Common Mistakes Technology will play a key role in helping CFOs deliver on an increasingly complex agenda and understand what drives corporate performance and value, according to Gartner Inc. However, increasing economic uncertainty means that the urgency to deliver this understanding is even greater, coupled with the need to reduce costs and optimize operating efficiency wherever possible.

July 22, 2008 Wealthy Americans Flock to Web for Luxury Shopping, Luxury Institute Finds According to the Luxury Institute, nearly two-thirds of the wealthy go directly to websites of known providers for information on luxury goods and services; slightly more than the 57% who say that they solicit input from friends and family.

July 22, 2008 DMW Worldwide Helps Health Insurers Reach Gen X and Gen Y Market with 'Using Direct Response to Market to the Invincibles' According to DMW Worldwide, those 18- to 34-year-olds that make up Generation X and Generation Y — can be fertile, but difficult to nail down. Specifically, they are the young adults who think they don’t need health insurance, and if they did, assume they probably couldn’t afford it.

July 22, 2008 infoUSA Provides API Solution to Topix for Local Business Directory infoGROUP has announced its infoUSA division's US business database of 14 million records have been licensed by Topix, the largest news community on the Web, for its nationwide, local business directory.

July 21, 2008 Postmaster General Names Two Veteran USPS Executives as VPs Postmaster General John E. Potter has named Pritha Mehra VP of Business Mail Entry and Payment Technologies and Maura Robinson VP of Pricing. These newly created positions are the latest in the Postal Service’s reorganization efforts to leverage competitive opportunities resulting from recent changes in federal law.

July 21, 2008 Settlement Puts Icahn, Two Others on Yahoo Board Yahoo! has announced that it has reached an agreement with Carl Icahn to settle their pending proxy contest related to the company's 2008 annual meeting of stockholders.

July 21, 2008 Marketing Executives Networking Group Survey Finds Shortage of Qualified Executive Talent The Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) has announced the findings of two membership surveys conducted in partnership with ExecuNet and Salary.com, Inc. that reveal new salary and executive job market trends. More than 70% of those surveyed agree there is a shortage of executive talent, while a subsequent study reveals MENG members experience salary parity despite gender.

July 21, 2008 Economists Forecast Anemic Economic Growth in Second Half of 2008, According to National Association for Business Economics Forty-five percent of economists believe the economy won’t log any growth or will clock in at a feeble 1% pace in the final six months of this year, according to a survey by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE).

July 21, 2008 Nonprofits Leveraging Research to Engage Major Donors Online, Find Convio, Sea Change Strategies, and Edge Research After releasing the results of its national research study into the online behaviors and attitudes of the “Wired Wealthy” in March, researchers from Convio, Sea Change Strategies, and Edge Research have been busy coaching and consulting nonprofit leaders on key steps to better engage this important constituency.

July 21, 2008 Rising Gas Prices Force Nearly US Consumers to Put the Brakes on Discretionary Spending, Finds Nielsen Increasingly feeling the pain at the pump, more US consumers are taking steps to compensate for rising gas prices, according to new research from The Nielsen Company. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of consumers are reducing their spending, up 18 points since June 2007 and up 14 points in the last six months alone.

July 21, 2008 Google Remains Top Search Engine in June, comScore Reports comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, on Friday released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the US search marketplace. In June 2008, Americans conducted 11.5 billion core searches, representing a 7% gain versus May.

July 21, 2008 Corporate Responsibility and Challenging Work Lure MBA Grads, Finds Stanford Business School Research A survey of 759 graduating MBAs at 11 top business schools reveals that the future business leaders rank corporate social responsibility high on their list of values, and they are willing to sacrifice a significant part of their salaries to find an employer whose thinking is in synch with their own.

July 21, 2008 Direct Marketers Continue to Scale Back Hiring, Reports Bernhart Associates According to the latest Bernhart Associates employment survey, 47% of the companies responding said they plan to add to staff during the current third quarter, a decline of 75 from last quarter and the first reading below 50% since 2002.

July 18, 2008 Little Data Leaks Can Sink the Corporate Ship, Reports Aberdeen Group A new research report on "Data Loss Prevention: Little Leaks Sink the Ship," published by Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, reveals that over the last 12 months Best-in-Class organizations experienced 27% fewer data loss incidents than the Industry Average from trusted internal users, and 92% fewer data loss incidents attributed to malicious outsiders.

July 18, 2008 Rising Costs Prompt Consumers to Slash Savings, According to First Command Index Amid deteriorating economic conditions in the second quarter, Americans failed to follow through on intentions to save their economic stimulus checks and instead cut their short-term savings by 39%, according to the First Command Financial Behaviors Index.

July 18, 2008 Google to Acquire Russian Context Ads Service Begun Google announced today that it has signed an agreement with Rambler Media to acquire ZAO Begun, a leading Russian context advertising service, for $140 million, subject to customary adjustments.

July 18, 2008 Rep. Markey Says Consumers Have Right to Know What Broadband Providers Know About Web Use Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, chaired a hearing July 17 regarding Deep Packet Inspection Technology and Consumer Privacy and Related Issues. Markey said, "...I believe broadband providers deploying deep packet inspection technologies must adopt clear privacy policies."

July 18, 2008 Multi-Platform Advertising Proven to Increase Effectiveness of Campaigns Beyond Boost in Frequency and Reach, Reports IMMI According to data released by Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI), advertising on multiple platforms results in a significant increase in a campaign's conversion rate — the percentage of consumers exposed to ads who actually purchase the product or service being advertised.

July 17, 2008 PRWeek Survey Reveals 75% Marketers Expect Spending on New Media, Online Initiatives to Increase in 2009 A recent survey conducted on behalf of PRWeek and Manning Selvage & Lee (MS&L) by Millward Brown indicates that, despite weakened economic conditions, over 75% of senior marketers say they expect spending for new media and online initiatives to increase in the next year.

July 17, 2008 Only One in 28 Emails Legitimate, Sophos Reports IT security and control firm Sophos has published its report on the latest trends in spam, and revealed the top twelve spam-relaying countries for the second quarter of 2008. The investigation reveals a disturbing rise in the level of email spam traveling across the internet between April-June 2008, and how some spammers are now using Facebook and cellphones to spread their messages.

July 16, 2008 Yahoo!-Google Partnership to Raise Cost for Marketers, Reports SearchIgnite New data reveals that Yahoo!'s decision to outsource some of its search advertising to Google will most likely raise average keyword prices on Yahoo! for most marketers. The findings come from the latest quarterly study released yesterday from SearchIgnite, a leading provider of search and auction-based media optimization technology.

July 16, 2008 Americans Viewed 12 Billion Videos Online in May 2008, Finds comScore comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, has released May 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, reporting that US Internet users viewed more than 12 billion online videos during the month, representing an increase of 45% versus a year ago.

July 16, 2008 Study Finds Increased Collaboration Between Marketing and Finance In their efforts to increase brand awareness and drive sales, marketers are still struggling to create accountability programs that effectively measure the impact of marketing efforts, according to a new study from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Marketing Management Analytics (MMA).

July 16, 2008 FTC Charges Dish Network Marketers with Do Not Call and Abandoned Call Violations Under the terms of court orders announced by the Federal Trade Commission yesterday, two companies that telemarket Dish Network programming have agreed to pay a total of $95,000 for calling consumers whose telephone numbers are on the National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry and for illegally abandoning calls.

July 15, 2008 FTC Issues Staff Report on Roundtable Discussion About Phishing Education The FTC has released a staff report on a Roundtable Discussion on Phishing Education that it hosted April 1, 2008. Approximately 60 experts from business, government, the technology sector, the consumer advocacy community, and academia met at the FTC to discuss strategies for outreach to consumers about avoiding phishing.

July 15, 2008 Subprime Online Credit Card Applications Up 30% Over Year Ago, comScore Finds comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released a study on the online banking and credit industry, which showed that the number of online credit card applications submitted by subprime applicants (defined as individuals having the equivalent of a FICO creditworthiness score of 660 or less) increased by 30 percent in Q1 2008 versus the same period last year.

July 15, 2008 Customer Feedback Management Delivers Broad Range of Business Benefits, Aberdeen Reports Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE:HHS), surveyed more than 300 companies for the new benchmark report entitled “Customer Feedback Management” which revealed that Best-in-Class organizations have well-established processes in place for maximizing the value of customer feedback.

July 15, 2008 Gartner Says Business Potential of Social Networking Web Sites Remains Largely Untapped Most users of social networking websites are motivated mainly by personal needs and a desire for entertainment, rather than business and practical objectives, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. Gartner said that although the potential of such sites for business remains largely untapped, they will become increasingly important to the competiveness of large enterprises in the future.

July 15, 2008 JupiterResearch Forecasts Broadband Telephony Market to Nearly Double Between 2007 and 2013 JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, projects that the broadband telephony market will nearly double in size from 14.7 million subscribers in 2007 to 28.4 million lines in 2013.

July 15, 2008 More Than Half of Adult Americans Have Home Broadband Connections, Reports Pew Some 55% of all adult Americans now have a high-speed Internet connection at home, according to a May 2008 survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The percentage of Americans with broadband at home has grown from 47% in early 2007 and 42% in early 2005. Among individuals who use the internet at home, 79% have a high-speed connection while 15% use dialup.

July 15, 2008 GLBT Consumers See Financial Services Differently Than Others, Finds Harris According to a recent national survey conducted by Harris Interactive, over half (54%) of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender adults report they are very or somewhat comfortable in the environment created by their current financial services provider, while two-thirds of heterosexuals (67%) agree they are very or somewhat comfortable.

July 14, 2008 FCC Publishes Final Rules for Do Not Call Registrations; Telemarketers Now to Honor Registrations Indefinitely In today’s Federal Register, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) publishes notice that it is amending its rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to require telemarketers to honor registrations with the National Do Not Call Registry indefinitely.

July 14, 2008 Yahoo! Agaom Rejects Microsoft/Icahn Search and Restructuring Proposal Yahoo! confirmed on Saturday that it had rejected a joint proposal from Microsoft Corporation and Carl Icahn for a complex restructuring of Yahoo! that would include the acquisition of Yahoo!'s search business by Microsoft.

July 14, 2008 Microsoft Launches New Online Resource for Nonprofit Groups Microsoft last week announced the global availability of NGO Connection, a new online resource for thousands of nonprofit groups around the world. Driven by feedback from nonprofit partners and years of experience working with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the online resource is designed to assist NGOs to more efficiently use technology to achieve their goals as well as to encourage networking and coordination of NGO resources across the world.

July 14, 2008 CEO Confidence Holds Steady, The Conference Board Reports The Conference Board Measure of CEO Confidence, which had declined in the first quarter of 2008, inched up to 39 in the second quarter, up slightly from 38 in the first quarter (a reading of more than 50 points reflects more positive than negative responses). The last time the Measure fell below 38 was in the final quarter of 2000 when it was at 31.

July 14, 2008 Lifetime Customer Value Identified as a Key Motivator for Customer Loyalty in Retail, Aberdeen Reports Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company, surveyed 231 retail enterprises between May and June 2008 to determine the current state of loyalty technology and process integration in retail. Aberdeen data reveals that the top business pressure impacting loyalty-related decisions of 58% of Best-in-Class companies in retail is the need to develop lifetime customer value, which is defined as the present value of future cash flows through long-term customer relationships.

July 14, 2008 Bertelsmann to Sell Direct Marketing Unit to Najafi Companies Najafi Companies, a Phoenix, Arizona-based private investment company, has agreed to acquire the direct-to-consumer business, Direct Group North America, from Bertelsmann AG the two companies announced on July 11.

July 11, 2008 FTC Submits Do Not Call Report to Congress; 145 Million Numbers on Registry The Federal Trade Commission approved the issuance of a report to Congress regarding the National Do Not Call Registry for Fiscal Year 2007. At the end of 2007, 145 million phone numbers were listed on the national no-call registry.

July 11, 2008 Nielsen Mobile Launches Report Examining the Global Mobile Internet Market According to a report from The Nielsen Company, 40 million US mobile subscribers (15.6%) actively use the mobile Internet, making the US a leader in mobile Internet adoption. In 16 countries tracked, the US leads in penetration, followed by the UK (12.9%t) and Italy (11.9%).

July 11, 2008 Acxiom Acquires Database Marketing Solutions Division from ChoicePoint Acxiom Corporation, a global interactive marketing services company, has announced the acquisition of the Database Marketing Solutions division of ChoicePoint Precision Marketing LLC, a subsidiary of ChoicePoint Inc.

July 10, 2008 FTC Tells Senate Behavioral Marketing May Provide Consumer Benefits, Despite Privacy Concerns In testimony on behavioral advertising, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Wednesday told the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that "the issues surrounding this practice are complex . . . the business models are diverse and constantly evolving, and . . . behavioral advertising may provide benefits to consumers even as it raises concerns about consumer privacy."

July 10, 2008 Online Security Still a Prime Concern for Americans, Finds Mintel New research from Mintel shows that Americans are increasingly worried about the safety of their identities and financial information online. In a recent consumer survey, Mintel found that 65% are more concerned about online security now than they were five years ago.

July 10, 2008 PRC to Hold Hearing Today on the Universal Service Obligation, Postal Monopoly The Postal Regulatory Commission on July 10, beginning at 10 a.m., holds its final public hearing to solicit views relating to the universal service obligation of the US Postal Service and the postal monopoly.

July 10, 2008 Yahoo!'s New Open Web Services Platform, Yahoo! Search BOSS, Extends Open Strategy Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) today introduced a new open Web services platform, Yahoo! Search BOSS(TM) (Build Your Own Search Service), which gives third parties an unprecedented level of access to Yahoo! Search Technology, including the ability to re-rank and control the presentation of Web search results.

July 9, 2008 Senate to Hold Hearing Today on Online Advertising's Privacy Implications The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has announced the witnesses for its full committee hearing on Privacy Implications of Online Advertising. Witnesses included executives from NebuAd, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook.

July 9, 2008 Wunderman Boosts US Digital Capability with Designkitchen WPP acquired Designkitchen, the leading digital and interactive agency in the Chicago/metro area, and will align it with Wunderman, which has aggressively expanded its digital offering.

July 9, 2008 FTC's 'Red Flag' Regs Require Financial Institutions and Creditors to Have ID Theft Prevention Programs The FTC now requires financial institutions and creditors to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs under the new "Red Flags Rules."

July 8, 2008 Worldwide Customer Relationship Management Market Grew 23% in 2007, Reports Gartner Worldwide customer relationship management (CRM) software revenue totaled $8.1 billion in 2007, a 23.1% increase from 2006 revenue of $6.6 billion, according to Gartner, Inc.

July 8, 2008 Nonprofit Giving Slowed in Q1; Both Donors, Revenue Decline, Finds Target Analytics Organizations in the Target Analytics Index of National Fundraising Performance generally underperformed in the first quarter of 2008 (January through March). Overall donors and revenue both declined in Q1 2008, and the declines were evident across most of the sectors in the index.

July 8, 2008 New Pitney Bowes Research Helps Pinpoint Mail's True Environmental Impact In a newly-published White Paper, mailstream technology leader Pitney Bowes offers a first attempt to quantify and address the environmental impact of mail in a new White Paper entitled 'The Environmental Impact of Mail: A Baseline.'

July 7, 2008 Google Adds Privacy Policy Link to Homepage On July 3, Google Senior Policy Counsel Pablo Chavez announced, via a Google blog, that the company was adding a link on its homepage to the company's privacy policy.

July 7, 2008 Online Searchers Are Spreading the Word, Reports BIGresearch Consumers who regularly do their homework online before making product purchases in a store are a wealth of information and like to share their findings, according to an analysis of BIGresearch’s most recent Simultaneous Media Survey of 15,727 participants.

July 7, 2008 US Local Online Video Ad Market to Reach $1.5 Billion by 2012, Reports Kelsey Group According to The Kelsey Group's US Local Video Forecast (2007-2012), local online video ad revenues will experience significant growth during the forecast period, increasing from $10.9 million in 2007 to $1.5 billion by the end of 2012, representing a compound annual growth rate of 167.8%.

July 3, 2008 FTC to Study Experiences of Identity Theft Victims The Federal Trade Commission plans to study the experiences of identity theft victims by conducting a survey of consumers who contacted the FTC after they were victimized. The proposed survey will examine the remedies available to victims under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act.

July 3, 2008 eMarketer Report Suggests Tactics for Winning Consumer Buy-In of Behavioral Marketing Online consumer privacy, particularly regarding behavioral targeting, has become a big issue in state legislatures and at the FTC. A way marketers can cope with consumer privacy concerns is to try to temper them, says a new eMarketer report, "Behavioral Targeting Attitudes: The Privacy Issue."

July 3, 2008 TV Websites Grow More Popular, but Viewers Still Prefer Their TV Sets, According to Nielsen and CTAM Despite the growing popularity of viewing television content online, most adults who subscribe to cable or satellite television services prefer to watch television on traditional TV sets, according to new research conducted by The Nielsen Company for the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM).

July 2, 2008 Ponemon Institute Study Finds Organizations Lack Control of Unstructured Data Assets Varonis Systems Inc., the leading innovator and provider of comprehensive data governance software, and the Ponemon Institute, a privacy and information management research firm, today announced the availability of a new research report, "Survey on the Governance of Unstructured Data," which highlights the need for organizations to control access to unstructured corporate data.

July 2, 2008 Wunderman Acquires Majority Stake in Digital Media Agency, Kassius SA WPP yesterday announced that its wholly owned operating company Wunderman, the global relationship marketing network, has agreed to acquire a majority stake in the issued share capital of Kassius SA in France, an independent interactive agency specializing in mobile communications.

July 2, 2008 Adobe Flash Technology Enhances Search Results for Dynamic Content and Rich Internet Applications Adobe Systems Incorporated announced it is teaming up with search industry leaders to dramatically improve search results of dynamic Web content and rich Internet applications (RIAs).

July 2, 2008 Wal-Mart Remains #1 on 'Stores' Magazine's Top 100 Retailers List Though the retail climate has changed dramatically in the last year, the top retail power players have not, according to the National Retail Federation’s STORES magazine's Top 100 Retailers List. The top three stores on the 2008 list are Wal-Mart, The Home Depot, and CVS Caremark.

July 2, 2008 M&A Activity Continue at Strong Pace in First Half of 2008 for Media, Information, Marketing Services & Related Technologies, Finds JEGI According to The Jordan, Edmiston Group, M&A activity for the first half of 2008 was increasingly cloudy, but with continued bright spots in several areas, especially in the Online Media & Technology and Marketing & Interactive Services sectors, as well as in sub-$1 billion transactions.

July 1, 2008 PMG Potter Announces Reorganization, Creating New Shipping and Mailing Services, Customer Relations Groups Postmaster General John E. Potter yesterday announced several key US Postal Service organizational changes designed to "strengthen our position in an extremely competitive marketplace." Potter said with growth as a top priority, the USPS is bringing together product management, product development, and commercial sales in a new Shipping and Mailing Services division.

July 1, 2008 US Data Breaches Up 69% in 2008, Reports Identity Theft Resource Center The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) has reported that its data breach count has reached an all-time high. Between Jan. 1 and June 27, 2008, the total number of data breaches recorded by the ITRC is 342, more than 69% greater than the same time period in 2007.

July 1, 2008 Survey Finds High Gas Prices Have Caused 94% of Consumers to Make Lifestyle Changes High gas prices have historically caused 94% of consumers to make lifestyle changes to keep costs down, according to a survey sponsored by MapQuest.

July 1, 2008 IDC Finds More of World's Population Connecting to Net in New Ways, Embracing Web 2.0 Nearly a quarter of the world's population — roughly 1.4 billion people — will use the Internet on a regular basis in 2008. This number is expected to surpass 1.9 billion unique users, or 30% of the world's population, in 2012, according to IDC's Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast.

July 1, 2008 ICANN Approves Biggest Expansion of Internet Addressing System The Board of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) last Thursday approved a recommendation that could see a whole range of new names introduced to the Internet's addressing system.

June 30, 2008 Little Data Leaks Can Sink the Corporate Ship, Reports Aberdeen Group A new research report on “Data Loss Prevention: Little Leaks Sink the Ship” published by Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, reveals that over the last 12 months best-in-class organizations experienced 27% fewer data loss incidents than the industry average from trusted internal users, and 92% fewer data loss incidents attributed to malicious outsiders.

June 30, 2008 One Quarter of the World's Population Will Be Online by 2012, Finds JupiterResearch JupiterResearch has found that the number of worldwide online users will increase 44% between 2007 and 2012, reaching 1.8 billion users. By 2012, one quarter of the worldwide population will access the Internet on a regular basis, as indicated in a new report Worldwide Online Population Forecast, 2007 to 2012, published by JupiterResearch

June 30, 2008 Audiences that Cross Platforms Provide Greatest Ad Value, Finds MTV and Harris New research from MTV Networks and Harris Interactive reveals a critical companion metric to measuring audience size, pioneering a new way for advertising brands to target the most engaged and valuable audiences. This research study finds that not all programming viewers are created equal and that the value of TV advertising grows as viewers connect with marketing messages across screens.

June 30, 2008 ALC Launches ALC MD, a New Division Dedicated to Servicing the Healthcare Market ALC announces that it has launched a new division dedicated to providing solutions to direct marketers targeting the healthcare industry. Spearheaded by healthcare market professionals, the new ALC MD division sources and compiles premier databases of medical professionals and healthcare specialists.

June 30, 2008 Addressing Services Co. Changes Name to MarketPoint Direct Addressing Services Co. (ASCO) has changed its name to MarketPoint Direct. After 24 years in business, ASCO has changed its name to better describe and align with its extensive product and service offerings.

June 27, 2008 House Committee Approves Rep. Kingston's Proposal to Require 5-Day Delivery at USPS The US House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved an amendment offered by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) that would require the US Postal Service to study the cost-effectiveness and fuel consumption of a five-day delivery system and consumer demand of Saturday postal delivery.

June 27, 2008 Canada Post Responds to Cost Pressures with 2009 Pricing Strategy In response to rising cost pressures, Canada Post yesterday announced that it is proposing an amendment to the Letter Mail Regulations to establish the rates of postage for domestic Lettermail for the next three years.

June 26, 2008 27 Million People Watched 3.5 Billion Videos Online in UK in March 2008, Finds comScore comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released data from the comScore Video Metrix service, indicating that 27.4 million UK Internet users viewed 3.5 billion videos online in March 2008. comScore Video Metrix, which was the first to market in the US more than two years ago, has become the leading service for online video measurement and is the only service of its kind in the UK.

June 26, 2008 Platform-A Joins New Publicis Groupe Open-Source Partnership Platform-A announced it is joining the newly launched open source strategic partnership led by the Publicis Groupe that will deliver the largest Audience on Demand network in the industry. The newly launched VivaKi Nerve Center, a division of Publicis Groupe, will work to integrate with Platform-A, connecting audiences across AOL's leading media properties and the thousands of websites participating in the Advertising.com network.

June 26, 2008 Gartner Says Cloud Computing Will Be As Influential As E-business Cloud computing heralds an evolution of business that is no less influential than e-business, according to Gartner Inc. Gartner maintains that the very confusion and contradiction that surrounds the term "cloud computing" signifies its potential to change the status quo in the IT market.

June 26, 2008 Bell Canada Executive Patrick Pichette to Join Google Executive Team Google has announced that Patrick Pichette will be named SVP and CFO. Most recently, Pichette served as president of operations at Bell Canada, a leading global communications company.

June 26, 2008 Yahoo! Sends Letter to Stockholders on Latest Developments Yahoo! Inc., a leading global Internet company, has sent a letter to all stockholders from Chairman Roy Bostock and CEO Jerry Yang, updating them on "the latest developments here at Yahoo!, including our recently announced commercial agreement with Google and the outcome of our discussions with Microsoft regarding a potential transaction."

June 25, 2008 US Consumer Technology Retail Sales Rebound in May, According to NPD The consumer technology industry is showing signs of rebounding from a weakening economy, according to market research company, The NPD Group. US consumer technology* retail sales rose more than 7% in May over last year, to more than $5.4 billion, the first year-over-year increase so far in 2008, according to NPD’s retail tracking service.

June 25, 2008 AdGooroo Releases New Research on the Impact of Keyword Length and Ad Position Clickthrough Rate and Cost-Per-Click on Google AdWords AdGooroo, a leading provider of online marketing competitive intelligence and keyword tools, has unveiled a new research report for search engine marketers on the impact of keyword length and ad position on clickthrough rates and cost-per-click within Google Adwords programs.

June 25, 2008 Non-Bank Online Personal Finance Sites Open the Door for Identity Theft, Finds TowerGroup A new crop of non-bank online personal finance sites combining traditional account aggregation services with Web 2.0 concepts is garnering considerable attention from the media and gaining users. The sites provide a novel approach to aggregating and managing multiple aspects of an individual's financial life online. However, new TowerGroup research finds that they are often missing adequate fraud prevention capabilities.

June 25, 2008 Online Social Network Users Continue to Grow, According to eMarketer Facebook continues to trail MySpace in the US, but the online social networking site has overtaken its main rival in worldwide unique users, according to eMarketer. With almost 20 foreign-language versions of the site, starting with French, German and Spanish, Facebook has seen continuous growth throughout Europe. Now, with the new Chinese-language version, it is beginning its trajectory in Asia.

June 24, 2008 Online Reviews Significantly Impact Consumer Purchasing Decisions, Finds Opinion Research Consumer reviews play a major role in the decision to purchase products or services, according to the latest survey from Opinion Research Corporation, an infoGROUP company.

June 24, 2008 StrongMail Survey Unearths Shocking Data Privacy Abuse by UK Businesses UK businesses are giving out highly personal and confidential details about their customers to third parties in a bid to boost sales reveals a new survey by StrongMail of 900 UK data protection and marketing professionals.

June 24, 2008 Yahoo! Unveils Targeted Recruitment Advertising Solutions Yahoo! HotJobs, a leading online recruitment destination, has introduced two innovative advertising solutions that Yahoo says will help recruitment advertisers meet their hiring and branding objectives by delivering more relevant job listings to candidates.

June 24, 2008 USPS Launches Expedited Legal-Sized Envelopes; New Overnight, Two- and Three-Day Options Attorneys, financial professionals, real estate agents and other mailers who depend on shipping legal-sized documents for their businesses have new USPS overnight and two-day delivery options. USPS has launched new legal-sized Express Mail and Priority Mail envelopes, available to customers free of charge.

June 24, 2008 Print Medium is Alive and Well; Sales Rise 12% at North American Printing Firms, Finds Graphic Arts Monthly Growth and consolidation were on the agenda of the largest printing operations in North America over the past year. So were sustainability, globalization and, on the horizon, inklings of increased consumer activism and worker unionizing, according to Graphic Arts Monthly (GAM) magazine's 26th annual ranking of the top 101 printers in North America

June 24, 2008 IWCO Direct to Expand Turnkey Services, Enhance Postage Optimization in North Carolina and Minnesota IWCO Direct, one of the nation's leading providers of integrated direct mail production services and marketing solutions, has announced it will undertake strategic initiatives to meet the growing demand for low cost, high value marketing solutions in the wake of year-over-year postage increases.

June 23, 2008 USPS Updates Mailers on Service Disruptions in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin The US Postal Service continues to provide mailers service advisories regarding mail delivery service in those areas impacted by recent flooding in the Midwest. More specifically, as of Friday noon (June 20), multiple locations in four states — Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin — had been affected by the flood waters.

June 23, 2008 Giving USA Reports US Charitable Giving Estimated to Be $306.39 Billion in 2007; Up 3.9% Despite Economic Worries Charitable giving in the US is estimated to be $306.39 billion in 2007, exceeding $300 billion for the first time in history, according to Giving USA 2008, the yearbook on philanthropy released today by Giving USA Foundation. The estimates for 2007 indicate that giving rose in 2007 by 3.9% (1% adjusted for inflation), says the report, which is researched and written by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

June 23, 2008 Brazil, Russia, India and China Set for Mobile Boom, eMarketer Finds Brazil, Russia, India, and China, collectively known as BRIC, represent the next great growth curve for both the mobile and interactive marketing industries. Home to over 40% of the world’s population, the BRIC countries form the core of an emergent global middle class that will number over 1 billion people by 2015.

June 23, 2008 Consumers' Rankings of Financial Institutions Lowest in Five Years, Forrester Finds Fewer consumers think their financial services providers have their best interests at heart, according to Forrester Research, Inc.’s fifth annual customer advocacy scorecard. This year, consumers' ratings of financial institutions are down across the board, falling to their lowest levels since Forrester began surveying customer advocacy five years ago.

June 23, 2008 Javelin Research Pinpoints How Institutions Should Respond to Data Breaches Javelin Strategy & Research has announced results from a new study covering data breach victims, which highlights the acute awareness among consumers about data security and the significant implications security breaches represent to businesses once consumer trust is compromised.

June 23, 2008 Consumers Say Corporate America's Reputation Is Poor, Finds Harris Interactive Not only has the stock market lost ground since last fall, but so has the reputation of Corporate America in the eyes of consumers. Seven out of 11 industries saw their reputation decline last year from 2006 and 16 of the companies with the worst marks fell even further, according to the Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient (RQ) survey.

June 20, 2008 comScore Ranks Top 50 US Web Properties for May 2008; Mother's Day Key Driver of Web Activity comScore, Inc. has released its monthly analysis of US consumer activity at the top online properties for May 2008 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service.

June 20, 2008 FTC Chairman Kovacic Speaks on 'FTC at 100: Into Our Second Century' Speaking on Wednesday, FTC Chairman William E. Kovacic presented his plan for assessing how well the agency is fulfilling the destiny that Congress foresaw for it in 1914, what type of institution the agency should aspire to be when it begins its second century in 2014, and other basic questions about the agency's future direction.

June 20, 2008 Small Businesses Continue to Spend on Advertising Despite Economy, Finds infoUSAPoll.com infoUSAPoll.com surveyed thousands of small-business executives across the country on June 9 about their advertising spending this year. Asked if they would spend more or less on advertising this year, 66% said they will either spend more or the same on advertising this year.

June 19, 2008 US Postal Service Governor Ellen Williams Appointed to New Term President George W. Bush has appointed Postal Service Board of Governors member Ellen C. Williams of Kentucky to an additional term that expires December 8, 2014. Governor Williams is vice chair of the Board’s Compensation and Management Resources Committee and is a member of the Government Relations and Regulatory Committee.

June 19, 2008 Yahoo! Announces Global Availability of Two New Email Domains Yahoo! Inc. has announced the global availability of two new e-mail domains that will give users the chance to register for the e-mail address or Yahoo! ID they have always wanted. People can finally say goodbye to CutiePie4Ever80 or mattclark1977@yahoo.com and get a new Yahoo! e-mail address at ymail.com and rocketmail.com.

June 18, 2008 Online Affiliate Marketing Spending to Reach $3.3 Billion in 2012, JupiterResearch Finds JupiterResearch has found that affiliate marketing continues to play a key role in online marketers' ability to reach and acquire customers. In 2008, online marketers will spend $2.1 billion on affiliate marketing fees, with US online affiliate marketing spending reaching $3.3 billion in 2012.

June 18, 2008 Lead Scoring and Prioritization Pave the Road to Higher Conversion, Reports Aberdeen A recent survey conducted by Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company, revealed that Best-in-Class are 80% more likely than all others to leverage demand generation or lead management technology.

June 18, 2008 Microsoft Acquires Navic Networks, Provider of Targeted, Interactive TV Advertising Microsoft has announced the acquisition of Navic Networks, a leading provider of television advertising solutions. Navic's technologies include sophisticated campaign management tools that use relevant data to optimize the delivery and placement of targeted interactive television media and through Admira provide a unified ad network for targeting audiences across TV advertising inventory.

June 18, 2008 11 Billion Videos Viewed Online in the US in April 2008, Reports comScore comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, yesterday released April 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, revealing that US Internet users viewed 11 billion online videos during the month, with YouTube.com accounting for more than 4 billion of that total.

June 18, 2008 Pitney Bowes Announces that Service Initiatives Benefit Customers and the Environment Pitney Bowes Inc., one of the world’s leading mailstream technology companies, has announced that major service initiatives to resolve customer issues more quickly have both increased customer benefits and helped the environment.

June 18, 2008 Ballantine Corporation Releases 2008 Direct Mail Control Report The Ballantine Corporation, a full service direct mail production company, announces the release of their 2008 direct mail control report that analyzes what's working and what's not for direct mail formats. In January of this year, Ballantine surveyed their clients and marketing contacts and compiled a list of direct mail formats that would be tested during the year.

June 18, 2008 Salesgenie.com Appoints Pravin Kumar VP of Products and Technology and Rod Butters VP of Marketing Salesgenie.com (an infoGROUP company), a leading provider of online solutions for sales effectiveness management, has announced the appointment of Pravin Kumar as vice president of products and technology and Rod Butters as vice president of marketing.

June 17, 2008 Cannes Ad Festival Presents Direct Marketing Honors; Shackleton Named 'Direct Agency of the Year' Top honors were presented at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in the areas of direct marketing and promos. The Direct Lions Grand Prix was awarded to JWT India, Mumbai, for the Times of India Newspaper entry "Lead India." Direct Agency of the Year was won by Shackleton, Madrid. The Promo Grand Prix was awarded to BBDO New York.

June 17, 2008 Nanci Langley Sworn in as Postal Regulatory Commissioner Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Dan G. Blair has sworn in Nanci Langley as a Commissioner of the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC), following her official appointment by President George W. Bush last week.

June 17, 2008 Cisco Projects Video, Social Networking to Catapult Global IP Traffic in Next Four Years The Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast for 2007-2012 has been released, providing key findings on a variety of consumer and business Internet Protocol (IP) networking trends driven largely by the increasing use of video and Web 2.0 social networking and collaboration applications.

June 17, 2008 Mortgage Rates Falling in Direct Mail Offers, Finds Mintel Comperemedia The Fed's rate cuts have finally impacted pricing seen on mortgage direct mail offers sent to consumers. In the first quarter of 2008, Mintel Comperemedia reports that the average rate on fixed rate mortgage offers sent through direct mail declined nearly a full percentage point (0.92%) from Q4 2007.

June 17, 2008 Pitney Bowes Management Services Named One of Top 50 Global Outsourcers In Brown-Wilson Group User Survey Pitney Bowes Management Services, Inc. (PBMS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Pitney Bowes Inc. has announced that it has been named to The Black Book of Outsourcing’s 2008 "50 Best Managed Global Outsourcing Vendors" list.

June 17, 2008 HCI Direct Wins Prestigious 'Benny Award' HCI Direct, Inc., a premier direct marketing company serving women with beauty, style, and wellness solutions, was honored recently with an esteemed Benjamin Franklin Award for Direct Marketing Excellence.

June 17, 2008 Convio Charter Program Ushers In New Era of Constituent Relationship Management Solutions Convio, Inc. has announced the Aikido Charter Program for the company’s new, open, Web-based constituent relationship management (CRM) system for tracking all constituent interactions across all channels, online and offline.

June 16, 2008 US Advertising Spending Is Flat in First Quarter 2008, Nielsen Reports Advertising spending for the first quarter of 2008 remained essentially flat compared to the same period last year, according to preliminary figures released today by Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the competitive advertising information service of The Nielsen Company.

June 16, 2008 Hawthorne Direct Receives Recognition from the 2008 Accolade Competition Hawthorne Direct recently received recognition from the 2008 Accolade Competition for Valcent’s Nova Skin Care System with the Award of Excellence in the Commercial/Infomercial category and also for the High Plains Bison Short Form with an Honorable Mention in the Commercial/Infomercial category.

June 16, 2008 IWCO Direct Receives Awards for Corporate Business Achievement and Safety IWCO Direct, a leading provider of integrated direct mail production services and marketing solutions, recently was presented with a Corporate Business Achievement Award by the US Postal Service and recognized as an Industry Safety Leader by the Envelope Manufacturers Association (EMA).

June 13, 2008 Google Announces Non-Exclusive Advertising Services Agreement with Yahoo! in US and Canada Google on June 12 announced that it has reached an agreement that gives Yahoo! the ability to use Google's search and contextual advertising technology through its AdSense for Search and AdSense for Content advertising programs.

June 13, 2008 Yahoo! Announces Microsoft Talks Have Concluded Yahoo! yesterday announced that discussions with Microsoft regarding a potential transaction — whether for an acquisition of all of Yahoo! or a partial acquisition — have concluded.

June 13, 2008 In Mobile Advertising, 18-24 Year Olds Lead the Parade, Reports BIGresearch Usage of picture/video phones is up 17% for all adults according to an analysis of BIGresearch's most recent Simultaneous Media Survey. This increase in usage, coupled with 90% of adults reporting they regularly/occasionally use a cell phone, makes a case for why mobile advertising is a viable option for advertisers.

June 13, 2008 New Research Shows the Impact of the Internet on Consumer Behavior in Europe Fleishman-Hillard International Communications, in conjunction with Harris Interactive, announced the results of the Digital Influence Index (DII), a study designed to track and measure the influence and impact of the Internet on consumer behavior and decisions in the UK, Germany, and France.

June 13, 2008 Gartner Says Fewer Outsourcing 'Megadeals' Were Signed in 2007 as Companies Look to Multisourcing As companies continue to move to using multiple providers for their outsourcing services, the number of reported "megadeals" awarded to a single service provider has declined, according to Gartner, Inc. Megadeals are characterized as being worth more than $1 billion. In 2007, 10 outsourcing megadeals were awarded, a decline from 12 in 2006.

June 13, 2008 Philadelphia DMA Presents 'Direct Marketer of the Year' to Meryl Levitz and 2008 'Benny' Awards The Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association honored its 2008 Direct Marketer of the Year and made presentations to winners of the "Benjamin Franklin Award for Direct Marketing Excellence" — also known as the "Benny" — in Philadelphia, PA. The event drew regional direct marketing professionals for peer recognition and networking.

June 12, 2008 Pitney Bowes' New International Mail Services Help US Mailers Reach Customers Efficiently, Cost-Effectively Pitney Bowes announced today the introduction of two, new international mail services in response to increased demand for package solutions and customized one-to-one marketing.

June 12, 2008 TNS Media Intelligence Reports US Ad Expenditures Up 0.6% in Q1 Total measured advertising expenditures in the opening quarter of 2008 increased by 0.6%as compared to the same period in 2007, according to TNS media intelligence.

June 12, 2008 New England DMA Announces Winners at 27th Annual Award Show It was mikes, cameras, and action at the 27th annual New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA) Award Show. Thirty-eight of the region's leading creative agencies were recognized for excellence and innovation.

June 11, 2008 Most Americans Expect Economy to Improve Next Year, Finds CNN/Opinion Research Poll A majority of Americans say they expect the US economy to be good a year from now Opinion Research Corporation (an infoGROUP Company) announced today. Although only 22%of respondents said that economic conditions today are good, 52% said they expected them to be good a year from now.

June 11, 2008 Message Systems Adds New Leadership in Product Marketing Email solutions provider Message Systems has announced at the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group's (MAAWG) general meeting in Heidelberg, Germany that Catherine Foster has joined its marketing team as Director of Product Marketing.

June 10, 2008 JEGI Advises Financial Media Holdings Group on Sale of Compliance Week to Haymarket Media Haymarket Media has agreed to acquire Compliance Week from Financial Media Holdings Group. Both companies are privately-owned. The transaction is expected to close July 1, 2008. The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. represented Financial Media Holdings Group in this transaction and acted as its exclusive financial advisor.

June 9, 2008 Online Retail Sales to Increase During the 2008 Holiday Shopping Season, Finds JupiterResearch JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, has found that online 2007 holiday sales reached $39 billion in the US, increasing 20% from the same period in 2006, while off-line sales remained dismal.

June 9, 2008 IDC Finds Online Advertising Revenues Continue to Surge in First Quarter The current economic crisis has not affected US Internet advertising spending: Total revenue increased by 23.9% to $7.1 billion in the first quarter (1Q08) compared to $5.7 billion in 1Q07. IDC expects Internet advertising to continue to expand rapidly during 2008 even though advertising spending across all media will most likely be cut back

June 9, 2008 Brown Printing Company Broadens Environmental Commitment with PEFC Certification As part of its broad commitment to environmental sustainability, Brown Printing is proud to announce the achievement of PEFC Chain-of-Custody Certification across all three of its printing facilities. PEFC certification provides an assurance mechanism to purchasers of wood and paper products that they are promoting the sustainable management of forests.

June 9, 2008 Rodale Promotes Gregg Michaelson to EVP, Customer Marketing Rodale has announced the promotion of Gregg Michaelson to executive vice president, customer marketing from his position as EVP, Rodale Direct, effective immediately. He will report to Steven Pleshette Murphy, president and CEO of Rodale.

June 6, 2008 In-Store Marketing Success Begins with Understanding Shoppers, According to BIGresearch All shopper marketing campaigns are not created equal because every retailer has a unique customer base, according to BIGresearch. For a campaign to be successful, marketers should tailor it to their shoppers’ preferences and include media that influences them to purchase.

June 6, 2008 Retailers Still Fighting Organized Retail Crime, According to NRF Survey As organized retail crime continues to plague the industry, retailers are getting more serious about uncovering, dismantling and prosecuting the responsible individuals and crime rings. The National Retail Federation’s 2008 Organized Retail Crime report found that 68% of retailers have identified or recovered stolen merchandise and/or gift cards from a fence location, up from 61% last year.

June 6, 2008 AOL Expands Platform-A to Europe AOL has announced the expansion of Platform-A in Europe, which aligns AOL’s existing advertising operations and offers advertisers and publishers a full suite of industry-leading marketing solutions powered by one of the Web’s most advanced advertising technologies. Brendan Condon has been named head of Platform-A’s International operations, based in London, reporting to Platform-A President Lynda Clarizio.

June 5, 2008 Branded Gift Cards are the Preferred Gift Among Family and Friends, NBPCA Survey Shows A recent survey of 8,234 consumers uncovered high levels of enjoyment and personal connection to the branded gift cards experience. The survey, commissioned by the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association (NBPCA), a non-profit, inter-industry trade association, suggests branded gift cards have crossed the threshold from an impersonal gift to one that is preferred by recipients and shared among close friends and family members in high numbers.

June 5, 2008 Google and NASA Announce Lease at Ames Research Center NASA and Google have announced plans to develop a new high-technology campus at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. Google will lease 42.2 acres of unimproved land in NASA Research Park at Ames to construct up to 1.2 million square feet of offices and research and development (R&D) facilities in a campus-style setting.

June 5, 2008 Yahoo! President Sue Decker Outlines Vision for Online Advertising Transformation Sue Decker, president of Yahoo! Inc., addressed the advertising industry during a keynote at a recent advertising conference in NY City. Decker's remarks focused on the transformation taking place in the industry as well as the opportunities and solutions for advertisers, ad agencies and publishers.

June 4, 2008 Successful Email Delivers Messages Consumers Want, When They Want It, Finds Silverpop Study Email works for retailers because consumers use it. But not all retailers do it well, and some don't even do it at all, according to Silverpop. To evaluate the top online retailers, a premier email service provider, joined with Internet Retailer magazine to conduct research for the "Top 500 Guide."

June 4, 2008 Social Networking Sites Gain Stature in UK Search Market, According to comScore comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released its first report on the UK search market from the enhanced comScore qSearch 2.0 online search measurement tool. The service has been updated to include several local market properties where search activity occurs, such as Rightmove Sites and Bebo.com.

June 4, 2008 Google Site Search Taps 'Power of the Cloud' to Improve Search for Business Websites Google has announced Google Site Search, a service that provides quality search to any website with the flexibility of cloud computing. The new service, hosted by Google, allows site owners to quickly implement search functionality that is familiar and useful to their visitors.

June 3, 2008 Postal Service Helps Consumers Make Eco-Friendly Decisions The USPS has announced it is offering greener choices, and an easy, online resource for consumers to make environmentally friendly decisions about their mail. The site, usps.com/green, contains hundreds of facts, suggestions and programs to help improve environmental awareness and make it easier for consumers to go green, including a way to calculate carbon footprint savings by conducting Postal Service business online.

June 3, 2008 Internet Advertising Keeps Growing Fast Despite Economic Difficulties, IDC Finds Internet advertising in the US will continue to grow fast even as the current economic woes will lead to a contraction in ad spending overall, essentially accelerating the transfer of marketing budgets from the traditional media into the new, according to IDC findings.

June 3, 2008 FTC Halts Bogus Prepaid Phone Card Claims At the request of the FTC, a US District Court has ordered a temporary halt to the deceptive advertising claims used to promote prepaid phone cards. The agency alleges the marketers misrepresent the number of calling minutes consumers will get on their cards and fail to adequately disclose fees that will reduce the value of the cards.

June 2, 2008 Multi-Channel Customers Spend More, Less Loyal, According to Opinion Research Corporation While multi-channel consumers spend nearly twice as much as their single channel counterparts on average, they are also more likely to purchase from multiple providers, according to a new study from Opinion Research Corporation, an infoUSA company.

June 2, 2008 Growth of User-Generated Content on Travel Websites Takes Control Away from Marketers, JupiterResearch Finds JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, has found that the majority of online travelers believe researching travel online is easier now than ever before, with user-generated content now more influential on the choice of accommodation than brand among online accommodation researchers.

May 30, 2008 Dad Takes a Back Seat to Gas and Food Costs, Finds NRF Survey Higher prices at the pump and the grocery checkout line might be cutting into Father's Day budgets. According to the National Retail Federation’s 2008 Father's Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, consumers plan to spend an average of $94.54, compared to last year's $98.34.

May 30, 2008 comScore Acquires Mobile Measurement Firm M:Metrics comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has announced the acquisition of M:Metrics, Inc., a recognized leader in mobile measurement.

May 30, 2008 US Postal Service Exclusive Carrier of Packages to the Last-Mile for DHL The US Postal Service (USPS) said on Thursday that the international delivery company DHL will leverage an existing agreement to give the USPS exclusive delivery services to the last-mile in certain locations.

May 29, 2008 US Consumers Believe Country is in Recession, Nielsen Reports Eighty-five percent of US consumers believe the country is currently in a recession and US consumer confidence in the economy plunged 17 points from the second half of 2007 to the first half of 2008, according to a new online survey by The Nielsen Company.

May 29, 2008 Majority of Mobile Phone Users Want Free Email Services, Finds Critical Path Critical Path, a leading provider of messaging software and services, has published research revealing that 79% of mobile phone users in the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and the US would accept advertisements attached to email messages if the mobile email service was free. 62% of those surveyed said they are interested in using mobile email services, even though they do not currently take advantage of these services.

May 29, 2008 UPS to Provide Lift for DHL Air Express Packages in North America UPS has announced it will work with DHL Express US toward an agreement to provide transportation in its air network for all of DHL's express, deferred and international package volume within the US. UPS also would provide air lift for DHL packages between the US, Canada and Mexico.

May 28, 2008 PayPal Survey Reveals Consumers' Top Reasons for Abandoning Online Purchases A survey conducted by PayPal and comScore revealed that unexpectedly high shipping fees are the number one reason consumers abandon online purchases. Checkout abandonment is a significant challenge for online merchants, with an estimated two out of every three consumers failing to pay for items they put in their shopping carts.

May 28, 2008 Hitwise Reports blinkx Traffic is Surging, Video Index Reaches 26 Million Hours of Content blinkx, a leading video search engine, has announced that its market share for video search is now 10 times higher than a year ago, as users increasingly turn to blinkx to find video content ranging from premium high definition movies and sports, to breaking news and top quality niche content.

May 28, 2008 Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Increased 14% in First Quarter of 2008 Worldwide sales of mobile phones reached 294.3 million units in the first quarter of 2008, a 13.6% increase over the first quarter of 2007, according to Gartner, Inc. Sales of mobile phones in Western Europe decreased 16.4% from the first quarter of 2007, the first decline in this region since Gartner began tracking the mobile devices market in 2001.

May 28, 2008 Mobile Advertising Seen as Key to Reaching Consumers, According to Harris Interactive A new Harris Interactive study on people’s attitudes toward the economy and technology reveals that despite skyrocketing fuel prices and rising costs for daily household staples, over one-third of consumers say the dire economy will not affect their spending habits.

May 27, 2008 Few US Online Retailers Are Truly Global, JupiterResearch Finds JupiterResearch has found that, despite mounting interest in global expansion from US online retailers, very few currently have global presences. A new report published by JupiterResearch, "Global Online Retail: Navigating Successful International Expansion," indicates that the majority of top US retailers do not have a substantial international online presence.

May 27, 2008 Yahoo! Files Lawsuit Against 'Lottery' Spammers As part of its continued commitment to protect Internet users from e-mail scams, Yahoo! Inc., a leading global Internet company, has announced the filing of a lawsuit against "Yahoo! Lottery Spammers" for unlawfully sending e-mail messages to Internet users for the purpose of deceiving them into believing that they have won a lottery or prize offered by Yahoo!.

May 27, 2008 Americans Browse on Smartphones More Than 4.5 Hours Per Month, M:Metrics Finds Social networking and Internet commerce are compelling smartphone users to spend an average of four hours and thirty-eight minutes per month browsing the mobile Web in the US, and two and a half hours per month in Britain, reports M:Metrics, a mobile media authority.

May 27, 2008 Financial Services Companies Reduce Direct Mail, According to Mintel Comperemedia With the economy shaken and Americans uncertain about their finances, leading financial services companies are cutting back on direct mail. Mintel Comperemedia reports that in the first quarter of 2008, the estimated number of direct mailings sent from banking, credit card, investment, and mortgage and loan companies fell 10%.

May 23, 2008 Beauty Manufacturers Tap Into Natural and Ethical Claims, Finds Mintel Latest research from Mintel Global New Products Database Cosmetic Research shows that over 2800 ethical cosmetic and skincare products were launched in the US last year. In just the first five months of 2008, more than 1800 new ethical beauty products have appeared on retail store shelves.

May 23, 2008 Vertis and American Color Graphics Announce Merger, Comprehensive Restructuring Plans Vertis Communications and American Color Graphics have announced merger and comprehensive restructuring plans that will strengthen their finances, expand their North American footprint, and improve the products and services offered to their customers.

May 23, 2008 FedEx Ranked No. One in Customer Satisfaction Among Express Delivery Companies FedEx has announced it has been rated Number One in customer satisfaction in its industry and also first among about 130 companies rated overall by the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

May 23, 2008 Pitney Bowes AAS/pmh and Mortgage-Track.com Alliance Provide Home Finance Brokers Tools Pitney Bowes AAS/pmh, a marketing services company and division of Pitney Bowes, has announced a new alliance with Mortgage-Track.com, a company that offers Web-based business-to-business home financing services. Pitney Bowes AAS/pmh will provide thousands of independent brokers who use the Mortgage-Track.com site with online marketing resources to help reach home buyers and sellers nationwide.

May 22, 2008 Habeas Study Confirms Strong Demand for Email in Direct Marketing, Mobile and Web 2.0 Applications Habeas, Inc., a world leader in online reputation management services, has released its 2008 study of consumer attitudes towards email and online interaction with businesses.

May 22, 2008 Microsoft Outlines New Search Business Model; Live Search Cashback Rewards Consumers, Advertisers Microsoft Corp. announced it will offer ad-funded cash rebates to customers who find and purchase their favorite products through a new program called Microsoft Live Search cashback.

May 22, 2008 US Postal Service Reinforces Commitment to Greener Future The US Postal Service chose the state with the most progressive environmental record in the nation as the place to announce the creation of a corporate vice president of sustainability. The USPS demonstrates its commitment to environmental stewardship in a number of ways.

May 21, 2008 FTC Announces 'Operation Tele-PHONEY,' Agency's Largest Telemarketing Sweep The Federal Trade Commission on May 20, in cooperation with more than 30 international, federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, announced the largest telemarketing fraud sweep ever coordinated by the agency.

May 20, 2008 NextAction Launches NextOp Mailfile Optimization; Lifts Mail Performance Up to 30%, Reduces Waste NextAction has launched NextOp, which it says is the most advanced mail file optimization product available to the direct marketing industry.

May 19, 2008 Postmaster General Names Sam Pulcrano VP of Sustainability Jack Potter has selected Sam Pulcrano as the US Postal Service's (USPS) first-ever vice president of Sustainability.

May 16, 2008 comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 US Web Properties for April comScore, Inc., released its monthly analysis of US consumer activity at the top online properties for April 2008 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. April saw Google Sites attain the number one spot in the Top 50 US Properties ranking for the first time in its history with a total audience of more than 141 million visitors.

May 16, 2008 Luxury Institute Index Shows How Wealthy US Consumers Rate Luxury E-tailers High net-worth consumers rated Net-a-Porter the most prestigious luxury e-tailer in the 2008 Luxury Brand Status Index (LBSI) survey from the independent New Luxury Institute.

May 15, 2008 Customer Satisfaction Improves for Retail Websites, According to ForeSee Netflix.com does the best job satisfying its customers, according to the ForeSee Results Top 100 Online Retail Satisfaction Index. Overall, customer satisfaction with the Top 100 online retailers is up 1.4%.

May 15, 2008 Insight into Media Consumption by Race Increases Advertising ROI, BigResearch Finds Targeting advertising towards African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and Whites requires distinct media plans according to BIGresearch’s most recent Simultaneous Media Survey. Not only do these consumer groups use traditional media differently, their adoption of new media is also unique.

May 15, 2008 Amazon Adds to Suite of Digital Product Widgets Amazon.com has launched the Amazon MP3 Clips Widget, which allows bloggers and website owners to showcase and play song samples from Amazon's catalog of over five million DRM-free MP3s available at Amazon MP3. Users can handpick the songs and albums they want or display or select the latest bestsellers or new releases from the music genre of their choice.

May 14, 2008 eMarketer Lowers Social Networking Ad Spend Estimate The dollars don’t equal the hype in social network ad spending, according to eMarketer. eMarketer has revised downward its projections for US social network ad spending, now estimating that advertisers will spend $1.4 billion to place ads on social networks this year, down from the previous projection of $1.6 billion.

May 14, 2008 Google Receives Nearly 68% of US Searches in April 2008, According to Hitwise Hitwise, a leading online competitive intelligence service, today announced that Google accounted for 67.90 percent of all US searches in the four weeks ending April 26, 2008.

May 14, 2008 Wikipedia US Web Traffic Grows 8,000% in Five Years, Driven by Search, Finds Nielsen Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, has announced that four out of the five top referring websites to Wikipedia, which has grown nearly 8,000 percent over the last five years, are search engines, led by Google. In April, 61% of visitors from home and 66% of visitors from work to en.wikipedia.org were referred from Google

May 14, 2008 Risk Factors at 100 Largest Public Retailers Identified in BDO Seidman LLP Study New research by BDO Seidman, LLP, a leading professional services firm, identifies strong competition (90%) and general economic conditions (83%) as the most common risk factors among the 100 largest public US retailers.

May 14, 2008 Canada Post Launches Nationwide Green Marketing Program Canada Post is going green with a nationwide initiative to help educate marketers and consumers on responsible usage of direct mail and its impact on the environment. Canada Post's website offers greener options and earth-friendly ideas on how to use direct mail to target their messages and offer consumers information that is relevant to them.

May 13, 2008 Pitney Bowes Executive Chairman Michael Critelli to Retire Pitney Bowes Executive Chairman Michael J. Critelli has informed the company’s board of directors of his decision to retire as executive chairman and as a director of the company at the end of 2008. Critelli has worked for Pitney Bowes since 1979.

May 13, 2008 CEOs of Midsize Nonprofits Dissatisfied with Board Performance, Urban Institute Finds Most heads of midsize nonprofits give their trustees low marks for fundraising and monitoring board performance, an Urban Institute study of nonprofits with annual expenses between $500,000 and $5 million has found. The study found 62% of CEOs say their boards do a fair or poor job raising revenue and 60% assign similar marks for boards’ self-examination.

May 13, 2008 Number of Online Videos Viewed in the US Jumps 13% in March to 11.5 Billion, According to comScore comScore has released March 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, indicating that US Internet users viewed 11.5 billion online videos during the month, representing a 13% percent gain versus February and a 64% gain versus March 2007.

May 13, 2008 Yahoo and Rogers Wireless Announce the Availability of Yahoo! oneSearch Rogers Wireless, Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. have announced the availability of Yahoo! oneSearch, Yahoo!'s award-winning mobile search service, to Rogers Wireless and Fido customers across Canada. Rogers becomes the first North American carrier to bring Yahoo!'s revolutionary mobile search service and starting point to the mobile Internet directly to its customers.

May 12, 2008 Gift Cards and Cash Most Popular Graduation Gifts, Finds NRF Survey According to the National Retail Federation's 2008 Graduation Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, conducted by BIGresearch, small-in-size items such as gift cards and cash will remain the most popular graduation gifts, while traditional favorites like apparel and electronics will be given by fewer. In addition to gifts, many consumers also plan to give a greeting card to graduates.

May 12, 2008 Google to Preview 'Friend Connect' to Enable Websites to Provide Social Features More Easily Google is announcing that it will preview of Google Friend Connect, a service that helps website owners grow traffic by enabling any site on the Web to provide social features for its visitors easily. Visitors to any site using Google Friend Connect will be able to see, invite, and interact with new friends, according to Google.

May 12, 2008 Customer Satisfaction Is Key When Determining Offshore Outsourcing Options, Reports Gartner Outsourcing help desk services to an offshore location may yield 30% to 40% to 40 cost savings, but customer satisfaction must be a key factor when making this decision, according to Gartner. Gartner analysts found that offshore help desk service voice support services have experienced problems, particularly those located in India.

May 12, 2008 Truveo Makes International Video Searches More Relevant Truveo, a leading video search engine, has announced that it has introduced new localized ranking algorithms for all of the countries it serves with the 17 international Truveo portals. With these new algorithms, the order of search results will vary from country to country in order to deliver the most relevant results to each country’s Truveo users.

May 12, 2008 FedEx Revises Earnings Guidance; Rising Fuel Prices Affect Near-Term Outlook FedEx Corp. on Friday announced that earnings for the fourth quarter ending May 31, 2008 are expected to be in the range of $1.45 to $1.50 per diluted share, compared to the previous forecast of $1.60 to $1.80.

May 9, 2008 MySpace Received 74% US Social Networking Visits for April 2008, According to Hitwise Hitwise, a leading online competitive intelligence service, has announced that MySpace.com received 73.82 percent of the market share of US visits in April 2008 among a custom category of 57 of the leading social networking websites. The market share of US visits to the social networking custom category increased 3% in April 2008 compared to March 2008, but has decreased 16% year-over-year.

May 9, 2008 Supremex Enhances Environmental Program Supremex, a leading Canadian provider of stock and custom envelopes, has announced the expansion of its environmental program aimed at enabling customers to bring their procurement policies in line with their corporate social responsibility mandates.

May 8, 2008 Small Businesses Remain Optimistic Despite Bleak Economic Conditions, Finds Opinion Research America's small business community remains positive in the face of its toughest challenge in decades, according to a new study from Opinion Research Corporation, an infoUSA company. While more than two-thirds of small business owners and managers claim the economy is in poor shape, America's entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well with nearly 9 in 10 optimistic about the future prospects of their business.

May 8, 2008 US Postal Service Reports Q2 Loss; Standard Mail Volume Drops 3%; Economic Slowdown Cited Despite cost-cutting measures, the USPS ended the second quarter with a net loss of $707 million, driven by a continued decline in mail volume resulting from the current national economic climate. Meanwhile, the on-time delivery of First-Class Mail continued at record levels in the second quarter.

May 7, 2008 UN and Universal Postal Union Aim to Slash CO2 Emissions in Postal Sector The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Universal Postal Union (UPU) have agreed to work together to slash the CO2 emissions caused by members of the postal sector. Under the agreement signed in Berne, Switzerland last week by Achim Steiner, executive director of UNEP, and Edouard Dayan, director general of the UPU, UNEP will help the UPU calculate the volumes of greenhouse gases generated by the postal sector, using a clearly-defined methodology.

May 7, 2008 USPS Publishes Address Requirements for Automation, Presorted, and Carrier Route Flats In today’s Federal Register, the USPS announces adoption of new address placement and formatting requirements for Periodicals, Standard Mail, Bound Printed Matter, Media Mail, and Library Mail flat-size pieces sent at automation, presorted, or carrier route prices. The USPS also adopts related revisions for automation and presorted First-Class Mail flats.

May 7, 2008 IBM Global CEO Study: CEOs See 'Information Omnivores' and 'Socially Minded' Customers as Challenges The IBM Global CEO Study, the largest study of chief executives ever conducted, reveals a dramatic increase in the number of global business leaders who see important change ahead, and also highlights how the ability to absorb and manage change is widening the gap between winners and losers in the global economy.

May 7, 2008 Frustrated Shoppers Just Want to Check Out, Opinion Research Finds The latest Ouch Point study from Opinion Research Corporation, an infoUSA company, reveals a whopping 37% of shoppers are most frustrated by stores having too few checkout aisles. Running a fairly distant second was advertised items that are out of stock.

May 7, 2008 RR Donnelley Announces New Variable Trim Binding Technology to Maximize Postal Savings R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company announces that it has developed a variable trim co-binding technology designed to provide customers with a critical strategic advantage as they seek to maximize postal savings. This capability allows for variably sized products to be co-mailed into a single, cost effective mail stream, according to the company.

May 6, 2008 US Postal Service Launching Competitive Expedited Mail Prices Beginning next week, customers will be able to take advantage of some of the best bargains in the shipping market when the USPS launches new prices for its expedited mail products: Express Mail and Priority Mail. Effective May 12, prices for Express Mail, the Postal Service's premier overnight service, will be lower at the weights and in the delivery zones used by most customers.

May 6, 2008 Media and Entertainment Industry in Broad Agreement on Direction of Digital Market, Finds Accenture Media and entertainment companies are in broad agreement on the way the digital market is evolving, where the opportunities lie and what will drive revenues over the next five years, according to findings of a new Accenture survey. The survey examined the growth strategies of companies across the landscape of advertising, film, music, publishing, radio, the Internet, videogames and TV.

May 6, 2008 Shoppers Trust Internet for Furniture and Appliance Purchases, Finds PriceGrabber PriceGrabber.com, a part of Experian, examines home furniture and appliance online shopping trends in the latest Consumer Behavior Report, based on a survey of 1,945 online consumers conducted in late March 2008 and compared with a similar survey of 1,417 online consumers conducted in August 2006. In the survey, 53% of respondents indicated that websites are their primary source for researching products and merchants for their next major home product purchase.

May 6, 2008 'Money Does Buy Happiness,' Finds Unity Marketing Only by understanding the affluent consumer's underlying psychology can marketers tailor their marketing and branding strategies. In the world of luxury marketing, the key metric that is focused on is income and assets, according to Unity Marketing.

May 6, 2008 CognitiveDATA Expands Manhattan Operation CognitiveDATA, one of America's fastest-growing marketing technology companies, has announced the expansion of its Manhattan office, as well as the addition of an acclaimed industry veteran to lead it.

May 5, 2008 Microsoft Withdraws Proposal to Acquire Yahoo! Microsoft on Saturday announced that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc. "We continue to believe that our proposed acquisition made sense for Microsoft, Yahoo! and the market as a whole,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

May 5, 2008 US Postal Service Wins White House Environmental Awards Five US Postal Service (USPS) environmental initiatives have been recognized by the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive, part of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Two initiatives received the prestigious 2008 Closing the Circle Awards, and three received honorable mentions. Since the inception of the program in 1996, the USPS has won 39 awards.

May 5, 2008 Opinion Research Corporation Launches Small Business CARAVAN Omnibus Study Opinion Research Corporation, an infoUSA company, has announced the launch of Small Business CARAVAN, a shared cost omnibus study. The study will provide insight into the millions of small businesses that make up half of the US economy.

May 2, 2008 Authentication and Online Trust Alliance to Host Email Deliverability & Trust Academy on June 6 The Authentication and Online Trust Alliance (AOTA) will hold the inaugural AOTA Email Deliverability and Online Trust Academy on June 6 in Seattle, in conjunction with the annual AOTA Summit. It was developed in collaboration with DMA and the Email Experience Council along with AOTA members.

May 2, 2008 Email Marketing Not Sophisticated Despite Popularity, Reports Alterian Alterian has released the results of its free online interactive assessment measuring the level of sophistication of over 700 marketers, agencies, and marketing services providers' email strategies and activities. It included an in-depth look at how marketers personalize, automate, segment, track and report on email campaigns.

May 2, 2008 Only 46% of Small Businesses Looking to Hire in Next Six Months, Finds infoUSAPoll.com infoUSAPoll.com surveyed thousands of small business executives across the country on April 17 about their hiring plans over the next six months. The poll — which asked "What are your hiring plans in the next 6 months?" — received 1,131 responses with over 85% of small business executives saying they plan to either increase the number of jobs or maintain current levels of employment.

April 30, 2008 Contactless Payment Cards Will Lead to Mobile Payments, Finds Javelin Javelin Strategy & Research just released new findings about how contactless technology will become mainstream for payment card transactions.

April 30, 2008 Mobile Display Ads for 'The Golden Compass' Film Demonstrate Branding Impact of Mobile Advertising Greystripe, one of the largest ad-supported mobile games and applications distributors, has announced the results of a mobile advertising campaign with New Line Cinema for the film, “The Golden Compass.”

April 30, 2008 TACODA Behavioral Targeting Solution to be Available Across Entire Platform-A Network AOL announced that, starting in June, Platform-A will be offering TACODA’s advanced suite of behavioral targeting solutions across its entire network to give advertisers the opportunity to reach their most valuable audience segments.

April 30, 2008 USADATA Introduces New Learning Center to Improve Client Direct Marketing ROI USADATA, Inc. announced the launch of their free online Learning Center aimed at helping clients improve the ROI of their direct marketing acquisition campaigns.

April 30, 2008 US Postal Service Honors Top Suppliers with Performance Awards Postmaster General John Potter has recognized 12 leaders in the supply industry for helping the US Postal Service operate at its best in delivering superior products and service to the American public.

April 30, 2008 AOL Travel/Zogby Survey Finds More than Half of Americans Have Less Money to Spend According to a survey from AOL Travel and Zogby International, 57% of Americans feel they have less money to spend this year on summer vacations than they did in 2007 and are looking at ways to save on their travel costs.

April 29, 2008 Retailers to Send Up to Three Billion Mobile Coupons by 2011, Reports Juniper Research New figures from analyst firm Juniper Research estimate that almost three billion mobile coupons will be issued to mobile users by 2011, with just under $7 billion of discounts redeemed.

April 29, 2008 MessageLabs Research Reveals 13 Separate Olympic-Themed Targeted Trojans The world’s athletes and hackers now share a common focus — the Beijing Olympics.

April 29, 2008 Consumers Will Still Spend for Mother's Day, Just Not as Much, Reports NRF Mother’s Day might not be as rosy for mom this year, with consumers planning on scaling back on the quantity of gifts they buy for the holiday. According to NRF’s 2008 Mother’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, consumers will spend an average of $138.63 this year, compared to $139.14 last year. Total consumer spending is expected to reach $15.8 billion.

April 29, 2008 Consumers Aware of Tracking and Targeting, TRUSTe Reports Consumer privacy organization TRUSTe has announced the results of a study conducted by global market insight and information group TNS regarding American Internet users’ knowledge, attitudes, and concerns about behavioral targeting and its implications on their online privacy.

April 29, 2008 Pitney Bowes Showcases Innovation in the Mailstream at MAILCOM Pitney Bowes Inc. will show mailers of all sizes how they can contribute to their revenue growth and increase profitability with new mailstream solutions at the 28th Annual MAILCOM, the global convention that celebrates the art and science of mail communications.

April 28, 2008 AOL Sites Break Traffic Records in March AOL’s programming sites hit an all-time high in March, after growing steadily for six consecutive months in both unique visitors and page views, according to data from comScore Media Metrix*.

April 28, 2008 Mobile Users Will Be Winners with High Speed Bluetooth, Says ABI Research “High Speed Bluetooth,” a new combination of Wi-Fi (802.11) and Bluetooth technologies, is certain to benefit users who transfer large multimedia files between wireless devices such as cellular handsets, according to a new Research Brief from ABI Research.

April 28, 2008 Top Four Internet Portals to Weather Economic Storm, Forecasts eMarketer Google’s strong financial results for Q1 2008, including a 33% growth in net US advertising revenues, set the bar for the online advertising industry. This reported revenue growth validates eMarketer’s recent projections that the big four Internet portals will continue to show positive results through economic turmoil, especially Google, with its anticipated 32 growth rate for all of 2008.

April 28, 2008 infoUSA to Become infoGROUP, Effective June 1, 2008 infoUSA, a leading provider of proprietary business and consumer databases, sales leads, direct marketing, email marketing, and market research, announced that the company is officially changing its name to infoGROUP, to better reflect its broadening global presence and long-term business strategy.

April 25, 2008 Worldwide Mobile Phone Market Grows 14.3% Amid Economic Jitters, According to IDC The worldwide mobile phone market experienced an expected sequential downturn in shipments following a busy holiday quarter.

April 24, 2008 NAA Analysis of New Google Research Finds Newspaper Advertising Drives Online Traffic New consumer research conducted by Clark, Martire & Bartolomeo and commissioned by Google indicates that consumers frequently combine use of newspapers and the Internet to evaluate and make purchases, the Newspaper Association of America said.

April 24, 2008 AOL's Platform-A Launches Spot Marketplace For Advertising AOL’s Platform-A announced the launch of its spot marketplace, one of the industry’s largest online spot advertising markets for display advertising.

April 24, 2008 OneSource Continues Corporate Growth with Expanded Presence in Canada OneSource Information Services, an infoUSA company, a leading provider of corporate prospecting and intelligence data, announced the opening of its new office in Toronto.

April 23, 2008 AOL Announces Collaboration with Leading Websites to Enhance BlueString Service AOL has announced that it is integrating with Photobucket, Google's Picasa Web Albums and Webshots to give BlueString users the ability to easily access photo and video assets stored on these sites and use them to share, create and collaborate with friends on multimedia shows within the BlueString application. In addition, an agreement with Eye-Fi will allow users to automatically upload photos from their cameras to their BlueString accounts using wireless networks.

April 23, 2008 One New Infected Webpage Found Every Five Seconds, Reveals Sophos Report IT security and control firm Sophos has published its latest Security Threat Report, which looks at worldwide cybercrime during the first quarter of 2008. The findings show a dramatic increase in Web-based threats compared to 2007. The first three months of 2008 showed Sophos finding and blocking a new infected webpage every five seconds, compared with one every 14 seconds last year.

April 23, 2008 Opinion Research Corporation Launches New Global & US Websites Opinion Research Corporation, an infoUSA company, has announced the launch of its new global and US websites. ORC's global website functions as a gateway for quickly and easily directing visitors to the appropriate office in the US, UK, or Asia Pacific depending on the business or industry expertise area of interest to the user.

April 23, 2008 Message Systems Hires James Elder as CFO Email solutions provider Message Systems has announced that it has hired James Elder as CFO. An expert in financial modeling and analysis, process improvement and redesign, cash management and technology integration, Elder brings 14 years of accounting and finance experience to Message Systems.

April 22, 2008 Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Payment Users to Total 33 Million in 2008 Mobile payment is a service at an early stage with an expected 32.9 million users worldwide in 2008, growing to 103.9 million users in 2011, according to Gartner, Inc.

April 22, 2008 Luxury Consumer Confidence Plummets, According to Unity Marketing The doldrums in the US luxury market are expected to continue for at least the next six months based upon the latest survey of luxury consumer confidence conducted by Unity Marketing.

April 22, 2008 UK Online Advertising Spending to Reach 3.4 billion in 2008, Finds eMarketer Despite a weakening economy, growth in online advertising spending in the UK is still strong and is expected to grow, according to eMarketer.

April 22, 2008 High Gas Prices Driving Many Consumers Toward Online Shopping, iCongo Survey Finds iCongo, Inc., a leading developer of e-business systems and software, released the results of a consumer survey conducted by Harris Interactive that reveals how the rising price of gasoline is reflected in American attitudes towards shopping.

April 22, 2008 US Consumers Anticipate Spending Less on Entertainment This Year, Finds the NPD Group According to The NPD Group, a leading market research company, keeping consumers excited about devices and hardware may be the secret to success in the current challenging economic environment.

April 22, 2008 Prosper Survey Reveals High Costs Deter US Consumers From 'Going Green' According to a Prosper survey, consumers have a strong desire to implement energy-saving home improvements, but stated that they are deterred by the costly nature of these projects.

April 21, 2008 PRC Initiates Public Outreach on Universal Postal Service Study PRC established Docket No. PI2008-3 and invited public comment on universal postal service and the postal monopoly in the United States.

April 21, 2008 Global Enterprise Web 2.0 Market To Reach $4.6 Billion By 2013, According to Forrester Despite a long-term future marked by commoditization, enterprise spending on Web 2.0 technologies will surge over the next five years, growing 43% each year to reach $4.6 billion globally by 2013, according to a new report by Forrester Research, Inc.

April 21, 2008 Wal-Mart Retains Top Spot on Fortune 500 List FORTUNE announced that Wal-Mart Stores continued its hold on the No. 1 spot on the FORTUNE 500, the annual list of America’s largest corporations according to revenue.

April 21, 2008 Gays and Lesbians Read More Blogs than Heterosexuals, Finds Harris Interactive According to a recent national survey conducted by Harris Interactive, gay and lesbian adults online are reading more blogs than their heterosexual counterparts.

April 21, 2008 Google Takes Top Spot for Second Year in Millward Brown Brand-Ranking The third annual BrandZ Top 100 Most Powerful Brands ranking issued today by global market research and consulting firm, Millward Brown, finds that brands are becoming ever more valuable and powerful in driving business growth. The top five brands, led by Google again this year with a brand value of $86.1 billion, included GE ($71.4 billion), Microsoft ($70.8 billion), Coca-Cola ($58.2 billion) and China Mobile ($57.2 billion). Eight of the Top 10 brands are based in the US

April 21, 2008 Yahoo Launches Global 'Free Is Good' Reuse Campaign For Earth Day In celebration of Earth Day, Yahoo! has announced the launch of a "Free Is Good" campaign aimed at motivating its online community of more than 500 users worldwide to reduce their impact on the environment through reuse.

April 21, 2008 Consumers More Likely to Open CertifiedEmail, Goodmail Study Finds Goodmail Systems has announced findings from a survey indicating many consumers are frustrated with the inability to identify real email messages, and as a result often delete email messages without reading them. CertifiedEmail messages showed greater promise of being considered, read, and even purchased from than regular email.

April 21, 2008 Independent and Conglomerate Ad Networks Both Remain Major Players Online, Finds JupiterResearch JupiterResearch has found despite negative feelings from advertisers, both independent and conglomerate ad networks will remain major players in the online ad market. The big four-Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL-captured 60% of US online ad spending in 2007.

April 21, 2008 Brown Printing Shows Environmental Leadership With SFI Chain-of-Custody Certification As a part of a broad commitment to the corporate social responsibility, Brown Printing Company has announced that it has achieved certification to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI Inc.) across all three of its printing facilities.

April 18, 2008 More Diverse Affluent Market Emerging As This Segment Grows, Reports Unity Marketing US households with incomes of $100,000 and over are the fastest growing segment of the US economy, according to data from the US Census Bureau.

April 18, 2008 The NPD Group Releases Study on US Consumers and the Economy The NPD Group, Inc., a leading market research company, released the results of its second research study in the series called: Fast Checks Study: Consumers Speak Out On the US Economy.

April 17, 2008 More than 800 Million Consumers to Use Mobile Banking Services by 2011, Forecasts Juniper Research A new report by Juniper Research into the mobile financial services sector has found that the number of consumers accessing banking services and products via their mobile phones will reach 816 million by 2011, a tenfold increase on the number using such services in 2007.

April 17, 2008 Shop.org Submits Comments to FTC Regarding Online Behavioral Ad Guidelines Shop.org, the digital division of the National Retail Federation, is recommending that the Federal Trade Commission move slowly in attempts to set voluntary guidelines for “behavioral advertising” on the Internet, saying technology that tracks how consumers shop provides a variety of benefits, isn’t harmful and isn’t as widely opposed as critics claim.

April 17, 2008 Merkle Publishes Email Marketing Trends Study in Conjunction with Harris Interactive Merkle, one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing database marketing agencies, released its annual email marketing “View from the Inbox” study.

April 17, 2008 Google Launches Website Optimizer At the ad:tech conference in San Francisco, Google Website Optimizer launched out of beta as an independent product.

April 17, 2008 Hawthorne Direct Rolls Out DRTV Campaign for High Plains Bison In a decade in which scolding authors reach best-seller status by denigrating America’s meal choices, selling select bison cuts seemed at first glance a big challenge. But once High Plains Bison explained the quality of its healthy and flavorful product line, Hawthorne Direct enthusiastically agreed to design a Short Form direct response television campaign, currently in full roll-out.

April 17, 2008 Dell Continues to Expand Retail Presence in China Broadening its presence in China’s consumer electronics market, Dell announced plans to sell laptop and desktop computers in Suning stores and to expand its relationship with Gome, the No.1 consumer electronics retailer in China.

April 16, 2008 Nearly 18% of Invited Email Lands in Junk/Bulk Folders, According to Lyris Nearly one out of every five permission-based email messages sent to US-based ISPs lands in the junk mail folder, according to the latest email deliverability study from Lyris, Inc. Slightly more than 76% of invited email successfully makes it to the inbox.

April 16, 2008 Podcasts, Online Video Ads Three Times More Effective Than Traditional Online Ads, Podtrac Study Finds Podtrac, a leading network of podcasts and online shows, has announced the results of four independent studies with TNS, a global market research company, which reveal podcasts as having a three-fold ad effectiveness increase over traditional online video and a seven-fold effectiveness increase over television.

April 16, 2008 More than 10 Billion Videos Viewed Online in the US in February, Finds comScore comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, has released February 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, indicating that US Internet users viewed more than 10 billion online videos during the month, representing a 3% gain versus January (despite February being two days shorter) and a 66% gain versus February 2007.

April 16, 2008 AOL Launches in Hong Kong AOL has announced the beta launch of http://www.aol.hk, a dedicated Web destination in Hong Kong. The new site combines AOL's suite of communications products, including free e-mail and instant messaging with regional content in Chinese. AOL is partnering with some of the most compelling creators of content in the region, including China News, udn.com (United Daily News) and Phoenix New Media.

April 15, 2008 Direct Marketing Employment Indicators Weaken Further, Finds Bernhart Associates Survey Continued layoffs and more hiring freezes appear to be on the horizon for direct marketers this spring, according to the latest Bernhart Associates employment survey. Bernhart said this is the second consecutive quarter that the overall jobs outlook has deteriorated.

April 15, 2008 Americans Misunderstand Environmental Marketing Messages, According to Cone Survey Americans misunderstand key phrases commonly used in environmental marketing and advertising, giving products a greater environmental halo than they deserve and creating a growing risk of backlash. At the same time, with days until an FTC public hearing on the subject, a majority of Americans support government regulation of such messages.

April 15, 2008 Misrepresented Items, Lack of Customer Support Sabotage Online Shopping Experience, Finds Opinion Research Nearly one quarter (24 percent) of respondents participating in the latest Ouch Point survey from Opinion Research Corporation (ORC), an infoUSA company, cited purchased items having no resemblance to their image on the Internet as their biggest online shopping frustration. Following close behind (23 percent) was the inability to speak to a customer service representative at an online store to address any purchasing questions or concerns.

April 15, 2008 Banks Top other Online Financial Services for Customer Satisfaction, Says ForeSee Customer satisfaction with online banking far surpasses other online financial services, according to a new study conducted by ForeSee Results and Forbes.com. According to the 2008 ForeSee Results/Forbes.com Online Financial Services Study, online banking scores 82 on ACSI's 100-point scale. Credit card websites and investment websites both score 75.

April 15, 2008 US Visits to YouTube Increased 32% Year-over-Year, According to Hitwise Hitwise, a leading online competitive intelligence service, has announced that for the month of March 2008, YouTube accounted for 73.18% of all US visits among a custom category of 68 online video websites. MySpaceTV received the second highest percentage of visits with 9.21% followed by Google Video with 4.06%.

April 15, 2008 Convio Study Reveals Measures of Success and Value of Online Engagement Between Nonprofits and Constituents Convio, Inc. has announced the results of its second annual Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index Study designed to help nonprofit marketing, advocacy, fundraising, and communications professionals evaluate what online marketing metrics to focus on, evaluate how their organization is doing and determine targets to set for the future.

April 15, 2008 Salesforce.com and Google Introduce Salesforce for Google Apps Salesforce.com, a market and technology leader in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Google have expanded their global strategic alliance to make it easy for companies of all sizes to run their business in the cloud with Salesforce for Google Apps.

April 15, 2008 Consumers Return to Online Shopping Sites That Embrace Web 2.0, Guidance Survey Reveals According to a new nationwide survey from Guidance, a specialized technology advisor that envisions, builds and supports Web technology solutions that help businesses thrive online, more than 60% of respondents report being drawn to online retailers that employ Web 2.0 tools and techniques.

April 14, 2008 Tough Economy, Cooler Weather Blamed for March Retail Decline, According to NRF While consumers continue to battle high gas, energy and food prices, retailers reported a dip in March retail sales. According to the National Retail Federation, retail industry sales for March (which exclude automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants) dipped 0.9% unadjusted over last year and were down 0.3% from the prior month.

April 14, 2008 CEO Confidence Declines Again, The Conference Board Reports The Conference Board's Measure of CEO Confidence, which had posted a sharp decline in the final quarter of 2007, fell again in the first quarter of 2008 and is now at 38 (a reading of more than 50 points reflects more positive than negative responses).

April 14, 2008 Mobile Browser Market Will Grow to 1.5 Billion Units in 2013, Says ABI Research While a large number of phones today still use browsers with very limited Web browsing capabilities, many smartphones are incorporating browsers that support the latest capabilities such as AJAX and RSS, as well as websites optimized for viewing on a mobile device. ABI Research sees this segment of the mobile browser market accounting for the vast majority of growth over the next five years, as the open-Internet browser (OIB) segment for mobile grows from 76 million in 2007 to nearly 700 million browsers delivered in 2013.

April 14, 2008 Consumers Recall Green Ad, According to Burst Media Survey Consumer recall of advertising with "green" messaging is very high, with more than a third (37.1%) of consumers saying they frequently recall green messaging and an additional third recalling it occasionally (33.1%), according to a new Burst Media survey.

April 14, 2008 Yellow Book Network, MLB.com Lead Top-Gaining Web Properties, comScore Finds comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released its monthly analysis of US consumer activity at the top online properties for March 2008 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. March saw traffic increase to online radio, gambling, and retail-health care sites.

April 14, 2008 Hudson Valley DMA Round Table Event Honors the Memory of Laura L. Smith Direct marketers met for a session at the 3rd annual HVDMA Round Table event at Fairview Country Club in Greenwich, CT on April 9th.

April 11, 2008 PRC Verifies USPS's Competitive Products Price Changes; New Rates Take Effect May 12 Postal Regulatory Commission on Apr. 10 issued its review of price adjustments sought by the US Postal Service (USPS) for competitive postal products. The planned adjustments are scheduled to take effect on May 12, 2008. The PRC's determination and summary may be found on its website (www.prc.gov).

April 11, 2008 Microsoft Proposes Comprehensive Self-Regulatory Approach for Online Privacy Microsoft has proposed a new structure for self-regulation of online advertising, submitting to the FTC a proposal for a five-tiered system to protect consumers' privacy. Microsoft's recommendations call for distinct privacy standards in five key circumstances.

April 10, 2008 Symantec Report Reveals Malicious Attacks Focused Toward Trusted Websites The latest Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), Volume XIII has been released by Symantec Corp. The report concludes that the Web is now the primary conduit of attack activity, as opposed to network attacks, and that online users can increasingly be infected simply by visiting everyday websites.

April 10, 2008 Javelin Reveals 25 Top Credit Card Issuers for Consumer Identity Safety Features Javelin Strategy & Research has announced results from their annual Card Issuers Identity Safety Scorecard Report, scoring 25 of the nation's top credit card issuers against a benchmark of criteria for customer safety features essential to fraud prevention, detection, and resolution.

April 10, 2008 Yahoo! and MLB.com Enter Video Distribution and Advertising Sales Partnership Yahoo! and MLB Advanced Media, LP, the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball, have announced a three-year video and advertising partnership that includes access to out-of-market MLB games on Yahoo! Sports.

April 9, 2008 Google Receives 67% of US Searches in March 2008, According to Hitwise Hitwise, a leading online competitive intelligence service, has announced that Google accounted for 67.25 percent of all US searches in the four weeks ending March 29, 2008.

April 8, 2008 US Postal Service Again Honored as 'Most Trusted' Agency A premier privacy trust study in America has named the US Postal Service (USPS) the “Most Trusted Government Agency” for the fourth year in a row.

April 8, 2008 60% Online Consumers Consider Environmental Consciousness an Important Company Trait, Finds DoubleClick Performics DoubleClick Performics, the performance marketing division of DoubleClick Inc., announced the results of a survey gauging online consumer behavior and attitudes regarding “green” marketing.

April 8, 2008 Roska Direct Buys Mueller & Wister, A Mobile and Interactive Marketing Agency Roska Direct Advertising announced its acquisition of leading e-business agency, Mueller & Wister, bringing a new level of interactive capability to Roska’s new and existing clients.

April 8, 2008 AOL to Include ESPN Content via Syndicated Video Player ESPN and AOL announced that ESPN.com will make its short-form online video content accessible directly through AOL Video, and AOL Sports, marking the first time ESPN has syndicated its video content through an Internet portal. ESPN will offer highlights from games and major sporting events as well as video clips from ESPN original programming via an embedded ESPN video player.

April 8, 2008 Online Sales to Climb Despite Struggling Economy, According to Shop.org/Forrester Study According to The State of Retailing Online 2008, the 11th annual Shop.org study conducted by Forrester Research, Inc. of 125 retailers, online retail will continue to be a bright spot in the industry with retail sales* rising 17% this year to $204 billion.

April 8, 2008 Google Previews 'Google App Engine' Google is announcing a preview release of Google App Engine, an application-hosting tool that developers can use to build scalable web apps on top of Google's infrastructure. Google’s goal is to make it easier for Web developers to build and scale applications, instead of focusing on system administration and maintenance.

April 7, 2008 Postal Regulatory Commission Unveils New Website The Postal Regulatory Commission launched its new website (www.prc.gov). The enhanced site will provide seamless access to Commission information and will be easier for users to navigate with updated security, usability, and accessibility standards.

April 7, 2008 Google Receives 67% of US Searches in March 2008, According to Hitwise Hitwise, a leading online competitive intelligence service, announced that Google accounted for 67.25% of all US searches in the four weeks ending March 29, 2008.

April 7, 2008 Current USA to Acquire Lillian Vernon Current USA, Inc., a subsidiary of Taylor Corporation, has announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Lillian Vernon Corporation based in Virginia Beach, VA.

April 7, 2008 Yahoo!'s Board of Directors Responds to Latest Microsoft Letter The board of directors of Yahoo! Inc. has sent a letter to Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corporation, stating, "Our Board carefully considered your unsolicited proposal, unanimously concluded that it was not in the best interests of Yahoo! and our stockholders, and rejected it publicly on February 11, 2008."

April 7, 2008 JupiterResearch Focuses on Consumer Adoption of New Mobile Platforms JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, has found although 65% of US consumers prefer to carry a single device, 39% are willing to carry two devices and 18% are willing to carry up to three.

April 7, 2008 Yahoo! Previews AMP!, a New Online Advertising Management Platform Yahoo! Inc. has announced intentions to bring to market AMP! from Yahoo!, a new advertising management platform designed to simplify the process of buying and selling ads online.

April 7, 2008 Nielsen to Acquire IAG Research The Nielsen Company announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire IAG Research, Inc. for a purchase price of $225 million.

April 7, 2008 Southern Fulfillment Services Acquires Pittman & Davis, A Leading Texas Citrus and Gourmet Food Gift Cataloger Southern Fulfillment Services, LLC announces that it has acquired 82-year-old Pittman & Davis, a Harlingen, TX based tree-ripened citrus, fruits, and gourmet food gifts catalog and Internet company.

April 4, 2008 Senator Susan Collins Praises DMA and Mail Moves America Coalition's 'Do Not Mail' Work US Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which has oversight over the US Postal Service (USPS), addressed the National Association of Postal Supervisors on April 1 during its annual conference in Washington DC. Among the topics Collins touched on in her address were postal reform, of which she was a chief architect, and the red-hot issue of calls for the creation of Do Not Mail registries.

April 4, 2008 Apple Announces iTunes Store is Top Music Retailer in the US Apple has announced that the iTunes Store surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number one music retailer in the US, based on the latest data from the NPD Group*. With over 50 million customers, iTunes has sold over four billion songs and features the world’s largest music catalog of over six million songs.

April 4, 2008 JEGI Creates Professional Services Group EVP Position The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI) is pleased to announce that it has appointed Thomas Creaser to the newly created position of EVP of the Professional Services Group, responsible for overseeing the internal operations of JEGI’s client engagements, project management, and its team of vice presidents, senior associates, associates and analysts. His responsibilities include partnering with JEGI’s Managing Directors and COO to further expand and solidify JEGI’s reputation for industry-leading client service.

April 3, 2008 USPS Board OKs New High-Speed Sorting Technology; Miller Named Chairman Pro Tempore In a move to enhance mail sorting technology to better serve customers, the Postal Service Board of Governors approved funding to purchase technology to postmark letters faster and sort them smarter.

April 3, 2008 Credit Card Direct Mail Volume Continues Decline Into 2008, Mintel Reports The rise of a new year did not spark a rise in credit card direct mail, according to new research from Mintel Comperemedia. In the first month of 2008, the research firm reports that the estimated number of mailings sent by credit card companies dropped another 3% (from December 2007).

April 3, 2008 BIGresearch Releases March Retail Ratings: Wal-Mart Top for Linens/Bedding/Draperies When shopping for Linens/Bedding/Draperies, consumers are more likely to head to Wal-Mart as 18.1% say they shop there most often for these softlines, according to BIGresearch’s March 2008 Retail Ratings Report.

April 3, 2008 Nielsen Announces Top US Markets for Mobile Voice and Data Service US mobile subscribers in West Palm Beach, FL enjoy one of the best voice network services in the country, while St. Louis, MO has among the fastest 3G data networks, according to The Nielsen Company.

April 3, 2008 JMI Invests in Undertone Networks, JEGI Announces The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI) is pleased to announce that Undertone Networks, a premium online advertising network, has received a strategic investment from JMI Equity, a private equity firm exclusively focused on investments in growing software and business services companies.

April 2, 2008 Deal Flow and Value Continue at Strong Pace in First Quarter, According to JEGI M&A across the media and information industries continued at a strong pace in the first quarter of 2008, despite a turbulent economic environment, according to the Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI), a leading independent investment bank for the media and information industries.

April 2, 2008 Online Consumers Call for Greater Transparency In Strategies For Environmental Sustainability, According To Nielsen Online Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, has released findings from its “Sustainability through the Eyes and Megaphones of the Blogosphere” report, which examined consumer attitudes about personal and corporate responsibility towards the environment. Protecting the environment has become increasingly important to consumers, with online buzz around sustainability growing 50 percent in 2007.

April 2, 2008 CTIA Survey Records More than 255 Million Wireless Users CTIA-The Wireless Association has announced that, as of December 2007, the industry survey recorded more than 255 million wireless users. This represents a year-over-year increase of more than 22 million subscribers.

April 2, 2008 Amazon.com Launches 'Amazon TextBuyIt' Amazon.com launched Amazon TextBuyIt, a new service that lets customers use text messages to find and buy products sold on Amazon.com.

April 2, 2008 AOL Autos Launches Largest Site for US Used Car Listings AOL Autos announced an open marketplace for used cars, providing car buyers with access to more than 2.5 million vehicles for sale in the United States and a new set of search and filter tools to more easily find a car that fits their needs.

April 2, 2008 comScore Releases Top French Web Rankings for February comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released its February rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in France based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service.

April 2, 2008 Microsoft Announces Enterprise-Class Mobile Solution Helping to propel large-scale mobile phone deployments by businesses, Microsoft Corp. announced at CTIA Wireless 2008 the immediate availability of System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 and plans for a Microsoft Mobile Services Plan (MMSP) to be available from mobile operators worldwide.

April 2, 2008 comScore Releases Top German Web Rankings for February 2008 comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released its February rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in Germany based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service.

April 2, 2008 Gartner Says Virtualization Will Be the Highest-Impact Trend in Infrastructure and Operations Market Through 2012 Virtualization will be the highest-impact trend changing infrastructure and operations through 2012, according to Gartner, Inc.

April 2, 2008 Roska Makes Strategic Acquisition of Mueller & Wister Roska Direct Advertising has announced its acquisition of leading e-business agency, Mueller & Wister, bringing a commanding new level of interactive capability to Roska¹s new and existing clients.

April 2, 2008 New Marketing Technology Products Drive Leadership Hires at CognitiveDATA CognitiveDATA, an award-winning marketing technology company, announced the addition of two new individuals to its product leadership team.

April 1, 2008 US Advertising Spending Rose 0.6% in 2007, Nielsen Reports The Nielsen Company has reported that advertising spending for the full year 2007 rose 0.6% compared to full year 2006, with Internet continuing to demonstrate the strongest performance (+18.9%) of any media category

April 1, 2008 Price Is Increasingly Important Factor for Selecting a Cell Phone Carrier, comScore Reports comScore, Inc. has released the results of a study evaluating the behaviors and attitudes of wireless phone subscribers. The findings, published in the March 2008 comScore Wireless Report, are based on a survey of more than 2,000 US wireless cell phone users, providing comprehensive insights into consumer satisfaction, factors influencing purchasing decisions, mobile Internet adoption, and wireless customer migration.

April 1, 2008 Consumer Confidence of Young Chinese Soars as US Consumer Confidence Continues to Sink, BIGresearch Finds The China Market continues to thrive with double-digit increases in both retail sales and GDP. Unprecedented growth, combined with some extra cash found in red envelopes from the Chinese New Year, has helped to fuel young Chinese consumers' confidence in the first quarter of 2008, according to BIGresearch's latest China Survey of over 4,500 young Chinese consumers between the ages of 18 and 34.

April 1, 2008 Zogby Survey Finds Americans Have Growing Comfort Level with Young People Online, Using New Media A new nationwide survey shows that Americans have a growing comfort level with young people using Internet technologies such as social networking sites, chat rooms, and email. The survey, conducted by Zogby International on behalf of the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee and 463 Communications, still shows large numbers of Americans concerned about the online activity of young people but those views are rapidly changing.

April 1, 2008 AOL Launches AOL MyMobile All-In-One Application for Wireless Devices AOL has announced the availability of a beta version of AOL MyMobile, a new application designed to give users easy access to popular AOL services through their mobile devices. The company also announced enhancements to AOL Mobile Search.

April 1, 2008 Dell Takes Action to Enhance Competitiveness, Optimize Operations Dell has detailed additional actions in its previously announced program to restore the competitive advantage of the company’s operating model, rationalize its operations and improve profitability and cash flow.

April 1, 2008 Hawthorne Direct Promotes Jeff Copsey to Director of Media Hawthorne Direct, a direct response advertising agency, is pleased to announce the recent promotion of Jeff Copsey from the position of lead media buyer to director of media. Copsey has served as media buyer, account manager and most recently as lead media buyer at Hawthorne Direct since 1999. Copsey

March 31, 2008 FTC Issues Staff Report on 'Protecting Consumers in the Next Tech-Ade' The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a staff report highlighting the challenges of consumer protection in the face of emerging and evolving technologies in the next 10 years.

March 31, 2008 Yahoo! Launches new 'Shine' Website for Women Yahoo! has announced the launch of Yahoo! Shine, a new website for women that aims to provide the information most relevant to their daily lives. The site offers nine categories ranging from Fashion & Beauty to Parenting, and will feature content from many of the most popular lifestyles publishers, including Conde Nast Publications and Hearst Corporation.

March 31, 2008 Online Newspaper Advertising Jumps 19% in 2007, According to NAA Advertising expenditures for newspaper websites increased by 18.8% to $3.2 billion in 2007, according to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America. Spending on newspaper websites has now grown to account for 7.5% of all newspaper ad spending last year (up from 5.7% in 2006).

March 31, 2008 Ad Boom in Developing Markets Compensates for Credit-Crunch Gloom in the West, According to ZenithOptimedia According to ZenithOptimedia, the advertising boom in developing ad markets compensates for the credit-crunch gloom in the West.

March 31, 2008 Shoppers Turn to Internet More Than to Specialty Gift Stores, Finds Unity Marketing Where people buy gifts is changing dramatically with more people saving time and money buying gifts over the Internet, rather than going to the store to shop.

March 31, 2008 Consumers Indicate High level of Awareness of Internet Tracking, TRUSTe Finds Consumer privacy organization TRUSTe announced the results of a study conducted by global market insight and information group TNS regarding American Internet users’ knowledge, attitudes and concerns about behavioral targeting and its implications on their online privacy. Overall results indicate a high level of awareness that Internet activities are being tracked for purposes of targeting advertising.

March 31, 2008 Undertone Networks Receives Strategic Investment from JMI Equity Funding Undertone Networks, a premium online advertising network, has received a strategic investment from JMI Equity, a private equity firm exclusively focused on investments in growing software and business services companies.

March 31, 2008 Harte-Hanks Direct Marketing President Gary Skidmore To Speak at Keynote Session at Enterprise Marketing Event Gary Skidmore, president of Harte-Hanks Direct Marketing, will speak about customer engagement in a keynote session at Forrester Research's Marketing Forum 2008, to be held April 8-9 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles, CA. Skidmore will address "Moving from Marketing to Engagement" in a presentation, which will provide examples of customer engagement efforts taken from consumer and business-to-business marketing case studies.

March 31, 2008 Brown Printing Company Offers Mixed Class Co-Mail As part of Brown Printing Company’s commitment to drive efficiency in to the mail stream, Brown Logistics Services (BLS) is offering mixed class co-mail services.

March 28, 2008 FTC Settles Actions Against TJX, Reed Elsevier and Seisint for Failing to Provide Adequate Data Security In two unrelated Federal Trade Commission (FTC) actions, discount retailer TJX and data brokers Reed Elsevier and Seisint have agreed to settle charges that each engaged in practices that, taken together, failed to provide reasonable and appropriate security for sensitive consumer information.

March 28, 2008 PRC Issues First Annual Compliance Determination The Postal Regulatory Commission issued its first Annual Compliance Determination (ADC) of the US Postal Service Performance, which details the financial and service performance of the Service for fiscal year 2007.

March 28, 2008 UK Advertisers to Spend Over 5 Billion Online by 2012, According to eMarketer Advertisers will spend £3.4 billion in 2008, a rise of 27% from the year before, according to new online ad spending figures released by eMarketer.

March 28, 2008 General Motors Ranks as the Heaviest Online Advertiser Among Auto Manufacturers in January, According to comScore comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released a study using data from the comScore Ad Metrix service that examines online advertising by auto manufacturers in January 2008.

March 28, 2008 comScore Releases Top Japan Website Rankings for February 2008 comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released its February 2008 rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in Japan, based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service.

March 28, 2008 Epsilon CMO Steve Cone Engages and Challenges Philadelphia DMA Steve Cone, Epsilon’s chief marketing officer, and widely known leading authority on consumer marketing, is an evangelist for slogans, believing that every company – regardless of its size – should have one. He spoke before a group of regional marketers at the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association (PDMA).

March 27, 2008 President Bush Appoints William Kovacic as FTC Chairman; Succeeds Deborah Platt Majoras President Bush has announced the appointment of William E. Kovacic as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Kovacic, who currently is one of the FTC's five commissioners, will succeed Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras, who is stepping down on March 30 to return to the private sector.

March 27, 2008 comScore Releases Top Canadian Web Rankings for February 2008 comScore has released its February 2008 rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in Canada based on data from its comScore Media Metrix service. February, a month that generally exhibits lower visitation totals as a result of having fewer days, saw increases in the tax category as Canadians continued to prepare for tax season.

March 27, 2008 India to Have 6.9 Million Mobile and Fixed WiMAX Connections by the End of 2011, Gartner Predicts Gartner, a leading global IT research and advisory firm, predicted in a recently published report that India will have 6.9 million mobile and fixed Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) connections by the end of 2011. Gartner cautioned that India will remain a niche market for this technology until 2009.

March 27, 2008 American Express to Acquire GE Money's Corporate Payment Services Portfolio American Express Company and GE Money today announced that they have entered into an agreement for American Express to purchase Corporate Payment Services, GE's commercial card and corporate purchasing business unit, for $1.1 billion in cash. The sale, which is subject to customary closing conditions and certain regulatory approvals, is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

March 27, 2008 infoUSA's OneSource Information Services to Bolster Presence in Singapore and Asia-Pacific Markets nfoUSA, a leading provider of proprietary business and consumer databases, sales leads, direct marketing, and email marketing, has announced that OneSource Information Services, an infoUSA company and a leading provider of business information solutions, will seek to significantly expand its footprint in the Asia-Pacific region.

March 27, 2008 IWCO Direct Offers Customers a 'Green' Option IWCO Direct, a leading provider of integrated direct mail production services and marketing solutions, can now offer customers the option to use paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) thanks to Chain-of-Custody (COC) certification at its facilities in Chanhassen, Minn.; Melville, N.Y.; and Elm City, N.C. COC certification ensures that paper originates from forests managed in a sustainable, environmentally responsible way.

March 26, 2008 USPS Moves to Improve Address Quality for Mailing Industry; New Data File to Identify 'Vacant' Addresses In 2004, more than 9.7 billion pieces of mail were sent to undeliverable addresses of which over 600 million pieces were sent to "vacant" addresses, which are houses, apartments, offices, or buildings not occupied for at least 90 days. To reduce that unwanted mail, the USPS has developed a new data table that is used with address matching software that helps mailers determine when they may be sending to vacant addresses.

March 26, 2008 The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index Declines Nearly 12 Points The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had declined sharply in February, fell further in March. The Index now stands at 64.5 (1985=100), down from 76.4 in February. The Expectations Index declined to 47.9 from 58.0. The Present Situation Index decreased to 89.2 from 104.0 in February.

March 26, 2008 Alternative Media Spending Growth Accelerates in 2007, According to PQ Media Spending on alternative media jumped 22.0 percent to $73.43 billion in 2007 and is expected to continue its rapid ascension in 2008 despite a slowing economy, as brand marketers scramble to stay in step with a rapidly changing media landscape, according to research released today by PQ Media, a leading provider of media econometrics.

March 26, 2008 Confusion Surrounds 'Report Spam' Button, Q Interactive and Marketingsherpa Survey Finds Q Interactive, a leading online marketing services provider, has announced the results of a survye conducted jointly with MarketingSherpa. The mission of the survey was to uncover consumers' perceptions of what they consider to be spam, why they report emails as spam and what they think happens when the "report spam" button is clicked.

March 26, 2008 Macy s Announces Partnership with National Park Foundation, Launches Multi-Channel Eco-Awareness Campaign In celebration of Earth Week and National Park Week, Macy's and the National Park Foundation has announced a new partnership to educate, raise awareness, and generate funds for parks across the country. The collaboration is the cornerstone of Macy's Turn Over A New Leaf campaign that kicks off on April 20, 2008 and runs through April 27, 2008.

March 26, 2008 Martha A. Curren Named General Manager for Day-Timers, Inc. ACCO Brands has announced that it has named Martha A. Curren vice president and general manager of its Day-Timer brand business for the US, Canadian, and International marketplace.

March 25, 2008 US Advertising Expenditures Grew 0.2% in 2007, TNS Media Intelligence Reports The ad market continued to sputter at the end of 2007 and finished the year with measured spending of $148.99 billion, up 0.2% compared to 2006, according to data released by TNS media intelligence. Total expenditures during the fourth quarter of 2007 fell by 0.1% versus a year ago.

March 25, 2008 Yahoo!, MySpace, and Google to Form Non-Profit OpenSocial Foundation Yahoo!, MySpace, and Google have announced they have agreed to form the OpenSocial Foundation to ensure the neutrality and longevity of OpenSocial as an open, community-governed specification for building social applications across the web.

March 25, 2008 Improving Portable Media Players Will Expand Reach of Mobile Marketing, According to JupiterResearch JupiterResearch has found that introducing portable media players (PMP's) with internet browsing capabilities is likely to stimulate growth among those accessing wireless Web, and will create additional opportunity for advertisers, who are expected to spend $2.2 billion on mobile messaging, display ads, and search via mobile technology by the year 2012.

March 25, 2008 comScore Releases Top UK Web Rankings for February 2008 comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released its February rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in the UK based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service. Online visitation figures traditionally dip slightly in February, since the shortness of the month means that there are fewer days on which visits can be recorded.

March 25, 2008 US TV Viewers Embrace High Definition (Sort of); Rarely Use Pay-Per-View, Finds ABI In December of 2007 ABI Research conducted an online survey of 1002 TV and video consumers in the US. The survey reveals some surprising facts about viewer's attitudes and activities: 66% subscribe to some form of pay-TV service, but only 54% of respondents declared themselves satisfied overall with their providers.

March 25, 2008 Skyrocketing Costs, Complex Campaign Execution Requirements Drive Demand For Postal Optimization Strategies, Says Winterberry Group A new white paper by the Winterberry Group, entitled A Strategy for Savings: Postal Optimization and the Future of Direct Mail, explores the very significant opportunities now emerging around the development of comprehensive postal optimization strategies, which integrate multiple cost-saving direct mail production techniques in a manner that drives unique incremental value for mailers.

March 25, 2008 IWCO Direct Appoints Patrick Deck as EVP of Operations IWCO Direct, a leading provider of integrated direct mail production services and marketing solutions, has chosen industry veteran Patrick Deck to fill the newly created role of executive vice president of operations.

March 25, 2008 Haggin Marketing Appoints Jeremy Brown CFO Haggin Marketing, Inc., has announced the appointment of Jeremy Brown as its new CFO. Brown will replace Brad Stone, who has been serving the company in the role since February 2001.

March 24, 2008 Major Donors Favor Internet to Engage with Nonprofits, Convio Research Reveals The results of a national research study into the online behavior and attitudes of the "wired wealthy" were announced by Convio, Sea Change Strategies, and Edge Research. The study surveyed more than 3,000 donors from 23 major nonprofit organizations to determine the online behaviors and preferences of one of the nonprofit sectors most important constituents.

March 24, 2008 Yahoo! and Computational Research Laboratories to Collaborate on Cloud Computing Research Yahoo! and Computational Research Laboratories (CRL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons Limited, have announced an agreement to jointly support cloud computing research. As part of the agreement, CRL will make available to researchers one of the world's top five supercomputers that, according to the company, has substantially more processors than any supercomputer currently available for cloud computing research.

March 24, 2008 Mobile Search Revenues to Reach $4.8 billion by 2013, Juniper Research Forecasts Annual revenue generated by mobile search services is expected to reach $4.8 billion by 2013, according to a new report from Juniper Research. The report says that while revenue generated by data charges associated with mobile search is significantly higher than that generated by mobile advertising at the present time, the gap will close over the next five years as the relatively young mobile advertising market establishes itself.

March 24, 2008 Gift Card Packaging Increases Gift Card Sales, New Seastone Study Finds Seastone, a market leader in specialty gift card packages and gift card promotional programs, has announced the results of the 2008 Gift Card Packaging Study conducted by The Marketing Workshop, and commissioned by Seastone. The survey found that almost all adults (96%) have purchased or received a gift card, and four in ten (39%) have purchased gift card packaging.

March 24, 2008 Forbes.com to Launch Business and Finance Blog Network Forbes.com has announced the creation of a business and finance blog network, comprised of a community of pre-screened, influential business and financial blogs. The Blog Network’s content will focus on senior business decision makers and high-net-worth investors.

March 24, 2008 Epsilon Launches Purple@Epsilon Epsilon, a 21st-century marketing services company, has launched Purple@Epsilon, a full-service agency that offers clients premium online and offline marketing services all under one roof. Combining Epsilon's interactive, agency, and direct groups, Purple@Epsilon complements Epsilon's strategic database, data, and abacus divisions with a comprehensive range of marketing services.

March 21, 2008 Innovation and Customization to Drive Mobile Messaging Growth to $212 Billion by 2013, Says ABI Research SMS is taking off in the Americas, mobile e-mail continues its strong growth in developed regions, subscriber growth is driving messaging adoption in Asia-Pacific, and social networking is lifting the messaging boat across nearly all regions. The combination of these factors is expected to grow revenues from mobile messaging to $212 billion by 2013, according to a new study from ABI Research.

March 21, 2008 Yellowpages.com and Superpages.com Lead in Share of the Internet Yellow Pages Market in 2007, Says comScore comScore has released the results of a study into national Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) search activity, which revealed shifts among the top sites in 2007, due in part to new strategic partnerships. The IYP search market leader in Q4 2007 was Yellowpages.com Network, which forged multiple partnerships this year with sites including Areaguides.net and 411.com, helping them take the top position in total IYP searches.

March 20, 2008 US Visits to Question and Answer Websites Increased 118% Year-over-Year, Finds Hitwise The market share of US visits to a custom category of Question and Answer websites has increased 118% for the week ending Mar. 15, 2008, compared to the same week in 2007, Hitwise has reported. Over the past two years, US visits to this category have increased 889% comparing Feb. 2008 versus Feb. 2006.

March 20, 2008 Data Loss Prevention is Critical to Information Protection and Control, According to IDC The increased value of digital information, coupled with more stringent government regulations, industry recommendations, and intellectual property protection is driving the adoption of information protection and control (IPC) solutions to protect sensitive information and comply with privacy regulations.

March 20, 2008 Internet TV Pays Off Bigger Than Traditional TV, According to Wi-Fi TV The Founder and Chairman of Wi-Fi TV Inc, Alex Kanakaris has stated that the future of TV is Internet based and that the viewers most sought after by advertisers are moving from the old fashioned TV screen to interactive TV screens on devices like laptop PCs (Kanakaris spoke on a panel with executives from such other companies as Microsoft TV, Crackle and Move Networks).

March 20, 2008 Only 10% of Consumers Willing to Adopt Mobile P-to-P Payment Services, Javelin Report Reveals A new report released by Javelin Strategy & Research takes an in-depth look at mobile person-to-person (P-to-P) payments and transfers, an emerging mobile banking service, and its inevitable shift into mainstream banking practices. According to the report, most consumers want high-speed transactions, but only one in ten consumers is willing to adopt mobile P-to-P payment services.

March 19, 2008 eMarketer Revises US Online Ad Spend Numbers eMarketer has revised its US Internet ad spend projections, estimating that advertisers will spend $25.8 billion online this year. That estimate is slightly lower than the one eMarketer put out in October 2007, which said that advertisers would spend $27.5 billion online in 2008. But it’s important to note that the lowered estimate still represents an increase of 23% over 2007 spending.

March 19, 2008 comScore Media Metrix Releases Top 50 Web Rankings for February comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released its monthly analysis of US consumer activity at top online properties for February 2008 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service. February saw increased visitation to tax, greetings, politics and news sites.

March 19, 2008 Americans Go Three Shades Greener in 16 Months, According to Mintel Survey Latest findings from Mintel, a leading market research company, reveal that over one-third of adults (36%) claim to "regularly" buy green products. Just 16 months ago, only 12% said they "regularly" purchased green products.

March 19, 2008 Economic Outlook Causes Americans to Rethink Expenditures, Finds Opinion Research The continuing economic downturn is weighing on the minds of average Americans, suggests a new survey from Opinion Research Corporation. The data indicate that the impact of a further increase in the cost of gasoline was the biggest concern; financial issues and having to postpone larger expenditures were other significant considerations

March 19, 2008 comScore Report Highlights Growth in Emerging Internet Markets comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released several key findings from its "Digital World: State of the Internet" report. The study highlights the changing dynamics of worldwide Internet usage, as it has grown from a US-centric medium to its currently global landscape.

March 19, 2008 Microsoft Reaches Virtualization Milestone With Release Candidate of Hyper-V Reaching what it characterizes as "the next major has made broadly available a feature-complete release candidate of Microsoft Hyper-V, the hypervisor-based virtualization software available with various versions of Windows Server 2008. A beta of Hyper-V was included with Windows Server 2008 when it launched last month, and this release candidate provides updated, near-final code.

March 19, 2008 Concord Wins 15 International Printing Awards Concord Litho won 15 awards in the 33rd annual International Gallery of Superb Printing competition, which was celebrated at a gala event in Las Vegas this January. Concord Litho won six golds, four silvers, three bronzes, and two honorable mentions for excellence in heat-set Web and sheetfed printing for national clients, including Brookstone, TV Guide, Rodale, Friendly's Ice Cream, TD Banknorth, and Disabled American Veterans.

March 19, 2008 Yahoo! Investor Presentation Details Financial Plan Yahoo! Inc.has filed an investor presentation that details the Company's three-year financial plan and strategic initiatives which are expected to roughly double operating cash flow over the next three years from $1.9 billion to $3.7 billion and generate $8.8 billion in revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs (revenue ex-TAC) in 2010.

March 18, 2008 PRC Verifies US Postal Service's Rate Cap Compliance The Postal Regulatory Commission issued its first review of the US Postal Service price adjustments using the ratemaking flexibility provided under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. Chairman Dan G. Blair announced the Commissioners' unanimous decision that the increases for market dominant products are, on average, within the applicable 2.9%price cap for each class of mail.

March 18, 2008 ValueClick to Pay $2.9 Million to Settle FTC Charges Online advertiser ValueClick, Inc., will pay a record $2.9 million to settle FTC charges that its advertising claims and e-mails were deceptive and violated federal law. The agency also charged that ValueClick and its subsidiaries, Hi-Speed Media and E-Babylon failed to secure consumers' sensitive financial information, despite their claims to do so.

March 18, 2008 Mobile Internet Usage In Europe to Surge Over the Next Five Years, According to Forrester Thirty eight percent of cell phone users in Western Europe will use mobile Internet services by 2013 according to a new five year forecast by Forrester Research, Inc. The growth in adoption means that 125 million Europeans will access the Web regularly from their mobile phone – triple the number that do so today.

March 18, 2008 Gartner Says Enterprise Email Hosting Is Poised for Explosive Growth The market for hosted email mailboxes is poised for rapid growth due to the economics of cloud computing and the entry of new vendors, according to Gartner Inc. Analysts said that the move to a hosted-delivery model will change the face of IT architectures over the next decade and that email will be at the forefront of this change.

March 18, 2008 Site Publishers Must Actively Engage Online Users to Combat Audience Fragmentation, According to JupiterResearch JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, has found that although the growth of the Web audience is slowing and online news readership is flat, it is still possible to capture and retain new online audiences. According to a new research study published by JupiterResearch, "Best Practices in Networked Media: Countering Audience Fragmentation," it is essential for content producers to focus on the things they do best, outsource everything else, and find new sources of revenue through services.

March 18, 2008 Convio Introduces Integrated Mobile Solutions for Nonprofits Convio, Inc. and Mobile Commons at the 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference, has announced the availability of Mobile Commons suite of products to Convio’s clients, creating mobile applications that drive response rates and increase participation by allowing constituents to get instant information through their cellphone.

March 18, 2008 Harte-Hanks Awarded US Government-Wide GSA Contract for Advertising & Integrated Marketing Services Harte-Hanks, Inc. has announced that its direct response advertising agency, Harte-Hanks Direct, has been certified by the federal General Services Administration (GSA) as a provider of advertising and integrated marketing services. This will enable the worldwide direct and targeted marketing company to compete more readily for US government agency contracts.

March 18, 2008 Hawthorne Direct DRTV Spot for Medifast Earns 'Best in Category' Creativity Award Hawthorne Direct announced this week that the 2007 Creativity Awards competition has recognized its Medifast direct response television spot with a coveted Platinum Award. The spot that Hawthorne produced for Medifast’s innovative new weight-loss program brought home the Platinum in the Video/Film: Infomercial category.

March 17, 2008 US Consumers Making Fewer Shopping Trips, According to Nielsen US consumers are making fewer shopping trips across most retail outlets as they look for ways to combine errands and save money in an effort to battle rising gas prices and other economic pressures, according to The Nielsen Company.

March 17, 2008 Search Engine Marketing Shows Strength, SEMPO Survey Finds Search engine marketing spending exceeded projections in 2007 and, based on survey responses by marketers and agencies, the search marketing industry will exhibit continued healthy growth, according to preliminary findings of the 2007 State of the Market survey recently released by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO).

March 17, 2008 AOL's Platform-A Combines Advertising.com and Quigo Search Marketing Solutions AOL has announced that Platform-A now offers a combined offering of Quigo’s FeedPoint search marketing solution with Advertising.com’s OutSearch product. By combining the two solutions, Advertising.com will now offer one of the industry’s most comprehensive suites of advanced search engine marketing (SEM) services.

March 17, 2008 Widgets Continue Wiggling Into Budgets, According to eMarketer Web widgets, or small modules of content or advertising that Web users can add to social network profiles or blogs, are becoming ubiquitous. Widgets, built for a specific platform such as Facebook, also known as applications, are being implemented by many of the 69 million adults and 15 million teens eMarketer estimates will be using social network sites in 2008. That represents 43.5% of adults, and 77 percent of the teen Internet population.

March 14, 2008 Earliest Easter Since 1913 to See $14.44 Billion in Spending, According to NRF Survey According to the National Retail Federation’s 2008 Easter Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, consumers are expected to spend a total of $14.44 billion on Easter food, apparel, gifts, flowers, decorations and candy. The average consumer will shell out $135.03 on the holiday, similar to last year’s expected $135.07.

March 14, 2008 YouTube.com Accounted for 1 Out of Every 3 US Online Videos Viewed in January, According to comScore comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, has released January 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, revealing that YouTube.com accounted for one-third of the 9.8 billion videos viewed online in the US during the month. The total number of videos viewed in January was down slightly from the more than 10.1 billion viewed during a record-breaking December 2007.

March 14, 2008 Microsoft Announces Acquisition of Rapt Microsoft has announced plans to acquire Rapt Inc., a leading provider of advertising yield management solutions for digital media publishers. Rapt’s technology, along with its information and advisory services offerings, will become key components of the Atlas Publisher Suite, part of Microsoft’s Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group.

March 14, 2008 Younger, Heavy Online News Consumers are Not Newspaper Readers, According to comScore Plan Metrix comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released the results of a study of the differences in online behavior among heavy, medium, light and non-newspaper readers. The results showed that non-newspaper readers are likely to be younger, and they are actually heavier than average online news consumers. Meanwhile, heavy newspaper readers are more likely than average to engage with traditional print news brands online.

March 14, 2008 IWCO Direct Names Thomas Kern as Director of Operations, North Carolina IWCO Direct, a leading provider of integrated direct mail production services and marketing solutions, announced that Thomas Kern has joined the company as director of operations, North Carolina, for IWCO Direct’s facility in Elm City, NC.

March 13, 2008 PRC Opens Docket for US Postal Service's Competitive Rate Filing The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) established Docket CP2008-3, to receive comments on postal rate changes for competitive products filed by the US Postal Service. As with the market dominant rate increases filed with the Commission on February 11, 2008, the competitive rate changes are scheduled to take effect on May 12, 2008.

March 13, 2008 AOL to Acquire Global Social Media Network Bebo AOL has announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Bebo, a leading global social media network. With a total membership of more than 40 million worldwide, Bebo is a global social media network which combines community, self-expression and entertainment to enable its users to consume, create, discover and share content.

March 13, 2008 Amazon Launches New Applications on Facebook Platform Amazon.com has launched two applications on Facebook Platform, Amazon Giver and Amazon Grapevine, allowing Facebook users to see and purchase what their friends want through their Amazon Wish Lists, as well as recent public activity on Amazon. Amazon Giver allows users to see what their friends on Facebook have on their Amazon Wish Lists.

March 13, 2008 In Direct Mail, Banks Promote Savings Rates Well Over 4%, According to Mintel Comperemedia Mintel Comperemedia reports that in 2007, 86% of direct mail savings account offers advertised rates between 4.01% and 5%, while 10% of mailings promoted rates above 5 percent.

March 13, 2008 Zenith Media In Agreement With Nielsen for Internet, Mobile Video, and Out-of-Home TV Viewing Data The Nielsen Company and Zenith Media Services have announced that Zenith will incorporate data from a broad suite of Nielsen measurement services into its advertising planning and ROI analyses, enabling it to offer insight into advertising performance across the "three screens" of TV, Internet and mobile devices.

March 13, 2008 Direct Marketing Panel Discussed DM Challenges at Recent PDMA Gathering A panel discussion entitled “Luminaries, Gods and Lunatics,” took place before more than 100 regional marketers at a recent gathering of the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association (PDMA). The panel of esteemed direct marketing experts each presented creative solutions that would prove to stand out in an advertising-cluttered world.

March 12, 2008 US Postal Service to Increase Rates for Competitive Products; Express Mail, Priority Mail Rates to Increase May 12 The US Postal Service (USPS) announced that it is raising rates for its competitive postal delivery services on May 12, 2008, the same day that it raises rates for market-dominant postal rates, including those for First-Class and Standard Mail.

March 12, 2008 Wealthy Consumer Membership in Social Networks Reaches 60%, Luxury Institute Finds Wealthy consumer participation in online social networks dramatically increased to 60% in 2008, from 27% in 2007,according to The Luxury Institute's latest WealthSurvey "The Wealthy and Web 2.0." connections. “Being connected is second nature to these over-achievers," said Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute.

March 12, 2008 Consumers Increasingly Embrace M-Commerce with Banking, Buying, Finds Harris Study A new Harris Interactive study finds that mobile phone users are increasingly comfortable making banking and purchase transactions while on-the-go, a virtual taboo until now. The survey finds 16% of mobile phone subscribers already use mobile banking services, with 60% of these people using the services at least once a week.

March 12, 2008 AOL Distributes Breakthrough Independent's Entire Programming Lineup Next New Networks, a new media company creating original TV programming on the Internet, has announced a major partnership with AOL Video to distribute Next New Networks’ popular programming. Under this partnership, twelve networks will each be prominently featured in the Channels and Categories of the AOL Video homepage.

March 12, 2008 Number of Auto Insurance Policies Purchased Online Topped 2 Million in 07, comScore Reports comScore has released a study of online activity for the auto insurance market in 2007. The results show that consumers submitted requests for 32 million online quotes and purchased a record 2 million policies online in 2007. The number of quotes requested online increased by 15%, and the number of auto insurance policies purchased online increased by 37% from 2006 to 2007.

March 12, 2008 Technical Issues Will Cause Consumers and Businesses to Seek Alternatives to Second Life by the End of 2009, Gartner Says Organizations need to think carefully before they deploy virtual environments such as Second Life, because of issues with access and use, according to Gartner Inc. Gartner said that the allure of environments such as Linden Lab's Second Life can be intoxicating for users and, in some cases, for organizations, but IT managers need to exercise caution and consider other options.

March 11, 2008 EcoPinion Survey Highlights Lack of Consumer Awareness and Acceptance of Green Brands According to a recently released study by EcoAlign, very few brands have any resonance in the market for green products and services. Consumers largely have a neutral, wait-and-see stance on company commitments and leadership on renewable energy, energy efficiency and the environment, the study found.

March 11, 2008 Online Ageism Creates Barriers to Meeting Consumer Needs, Finds Burst Media Content providers are overlooking the needs of many of today’s Internet users, according to a new Burst Media study, which found a majority of Internet users 45 years and older believe that online content, as well as website design and online advertising is skewed toward younger Web users.

March 11, 2008 Bloggers are Big Content Consumers at News & Entertainment Sites, Finds comScore comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released the results of a study using its comScore Segment Metrix tool, which showed that heavy users of US blog sites are significantly more likely than the average Internet user to consume news and entertainment content online.

March 11, 2008 Google Closes Acquisition of DoubleClick Google Inc. has announced that it has completed its acquisition of DoubleClick, a company that offers online ad serving and management technology to advertisers, web publishers and ad agencies.

March 11, 2008 More than Half of Auto Dealers to Utilize Internet Video in Next 12 Months, Kelsey Group Forecasts Web 2.0 advertising tactics and technologies are gaining traction among auto dealers, becoming an integral element of the marketing mix, with 59% of planning to use Internet video on their own websites during the next 12 months, up from the current 33%, according to a new study by The Kelsey Group.

March 11, 2008 Entertainment Categories Vie for Consumers' Time and Budget, According to NPD Group According to The NPD Group, a leading provider of consumer and retail information, video game industry retail revenue tripled in growth in 2007; at the same time consumer spending on music fell 10% and DVD revenues also flattened. The new NPD report explores consumers' allocation of time and money for entertainment.

March 11, 2008 Nielsen Launches 'PreView,' a B-to-B Research Service The Nielsen Company has announced the launch of Nielsen PreView, a B-to-B research service providing its members with business and marketing insights. Nielsen PreView will create original, multidisciplinary studies that address the most pressing research interests and concerns voiced by members on PreView's website.

March 11, 2008 Yahoo! Research Opens Israel Lab; Search Expert Dr. Ronny Lempel Joins Yahoo! to Lead Research Efforts in Haifa Yahoo! has announced that it has launched a new research lab in Haifa, Israel, its first in the region. The Yahoo! Research Israel Lab will be led by Dr. Ronny Lempel, a renowned information organization and retrieval expert who will report directly to Dr. Ricardo Baeza-Yates, vice president of Yahoo! Research.

March 10, 2008 PRC Strategic and Operation Plan Outlines Five-Year Vision Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) Chairman Dan G. Blair on Friday formally released the Commission’s first Strategic and Operational Plan that details the agency’s vision and goals over the next five years.

March 10, 2008 More Advertisers Deploying Mobile Coupons, JupiterResearch Finds JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, has found a growing segment of consumers totaling 30% is interested in receiving coupons on their cell phones, although at 1%, adoption remains low.

March 10, 2008 Marketers Boost Revenues and Cut Costs While Reducing Environmental Waste, Aberdeen Group Reports In the new benchmark report, “Green Marketing: Leveraging Customer Data to Reduce Direct Mail Waste,” the Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, found that companies are facing ever-growing concerns from consumers and others about the environmental impact of their direct mail solicitations.

March 10, 2008 TNS Media Intelligence Profiles the Advertising Side of March Madness As sports fans across the country get ready to fill out brackets predicting the outcome of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament, advertisers are also eagerly anticipating the 19-day event known simply as “March Madness.”

March 10, 2008 Nielsen to Launch Global Image Ad Campaign in Alliance with New York Times The Nielsen Company announced its inaugural global brand awareness campaign, which will debut through a unique marketing collaboration with The New York Times Company.

March 10, 2008 More Germans See Themselves as 'Green;' UK and US Lag behind Central European Countries A new Harris Interactive study indicates that German businesses appear to be setting the pace in terms of communicating their “green” credentials, with 43% of German workers considering their employer to be “green,” followed by Italy (30%), Spain (28%), the UK and US (21% each) and France (19%).

March 10, 2008 Entrepreneur Magazine and the UPS Store to Hunt Business Pioneers Entrepreneur magazine and The UPS Store launched the "Entrepreneur of the Year" contest. Nationwide, the business community is being called upon to find those who best exemplify the entrepreneurial spirit.

March 10, 2008 DMW Worldwide Promotes Linda Armstrong to Executive Vice President, Account Services Linda Armstrong has been promoted to executive vice president of Account Services for DMW Worldwide. Previously, Armstrong had been senior vice president, Health Insurance Account Group.

March 10, 2008 MetaResponse Group Expands Staff MetaResponse Group is pleased to welcome Sabrina Fernendes as part of its growing organization. As an account executive, Fernendes will assist in servicing the existing base of clients, while also getting involved with new client development activities.

March 6, 2008 FTC to Co-Host Workshop on Protecting Consumers' Personal Information, April 15 The Federal Trade Commission, the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and Northwestern University School of Law will co-host a public workshop on April 15, 2008 on how businesses can secure the personal information of consumers and employees.

March 6, 2008 Yahoo! Extends Deadline for Nominating Directors to Board Yahoo! Inc., a leading global Internet company, announced that it has amended the Company's bylaws to extend the deadline for nominating directors to Yahoo!'s board from March 14th to 10 days following the public announcement of the date for Yahoo!'s 2008 annual meeting of stockholders.

March 6, 2008 62% of Americans Participate in Mobile Digital Activities, Finds Pew Internet Project Some 62% of adult Americans have taken advantage of mobile access to digital data and tools.

March 6, 2008 Green Is The New Gold, According to Aberdeen Group Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company, announced upcoming findings from "The 2008 Aberdeen Report: State of the Market."

March 6, 2008 BIGresearch Latest Analysis Provides Profile of Those Influenced When Searching for Products Online Advertisers are allocating more dollars to sponsored links and understanding who is influenced by them has become a requirement for effective allocation.

March 6, 2008 ABI Research Consumer Survey Clarifies US TV Viewers' Habits ABI Research conducted an online survey of 1,002 consumers in December, 2007, aimed at discovering how US residents view their service providers, what technologies and programming they use, and their price sensitivity towards available service offerings.

March 6, 2008 CEO Confidence Plunges at Record Rate, According to Vistage Concerns about a slowing economy and fears of a recession have pushed the Q1 2008 Vistage CEO Confidence Index to a five-year low of 72.0.

March 6, 2008 Microsoft Launches Document Interoperability Initiative Microsoft Corp. announced the launch of its Document Interoperability Initiative, which is aimed at promoting user choice among document formats and expanded opportunity for developers, partners, and competitors.

March 6, 2008 Nielsen to Incorporate Ad-ID Coding into Its KeepingTrac Service The Nielsen Company and Ad-ID, a joint venture of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and the Association of National Advertisers, Inc (ANA), announced that they are working together to incorporate Advertising Digital Identification (Ad-ID) coding into Nielsen's commercial tracking system, KeepingTrac, which allows advertisers to verify that their commercials ran the previous day according to their media plans.

March 6, 2008 Harris Interactive Awarded Patent for Rapid Exposure System Harris Interactive has announced that it has been awarded a business method patent for its Rapid Exposure system. Rapid Exposure controls the length of time survey respondents can view an image online.

March 6, 2008 Yesmail Ranks as a Leading Email Service Yesmail (an infoUSA company), a leading provider of permission-based online email marketing solutions, has announced that it has been designated a Market Leader in the Large-Enterprise Service Provider Category for the 2008 Jupiter Buyers Guide of Email Marketing Service Providers.

March 6, 2008 Genworth Financial Announces Strategic Supplier Awards; Direct Mail Solutions Among Honorees Genworth Financial recently announced the winners of the 2007 Strategic Supplier Partnership Initiative Awards, including Richmond-based Direct Mail Solutions, a full-service direct mail and fulfillment company dedicated to providing the highest level of data and production services and thereby assisting Genworth in maximizing impact while minimizing costs and time.

March 5, 2008 Number of US Computers Accessing the Internet Via Mobile Broadband Soars, Finds comScore comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released the results of a study of US Internet usage via mobile broadband. The study examined the usage and characteristics of mobile broadband users through data collected from computers where Internet access via mobile broadband Internet service providers (ISPs) occurred.

March 5, 2008 Increase in Mobile Web Use in China and India Points to Importance of Targeting Ad Spend, According to Bano Bango has published statistics that show a shift in mobile Web traffic, from mature mobile markets of Europe and the US to the developing markets of China and India. Today, 54% of people surfing the mobile Web come from outside the US and Europe, highlighting the importance of well targeted mobile advertising that reaches the intended consumer profile.

March 5, 2008 Google Receives 66% of US Searches in February 2008, According to Hitwise Hitwise has announced that Google accounted for 66.44% of all US searches in the four weeks ending February 23, 2008. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 20.59%, 6.95%, and 4.16% respectively.

March 4, 2008 Yahoo! Announces Launch of onePlace Mobile Content Management Solution Yahoo! has announced the unveiling of Yahoo! onePlace —a mobile content management solution. Yahoo! onePlace is designed to be a tool to enable consumers to better manage the wide selection of content available across the Internet.

March 4, 2008 Consumers Value Payment Security Over Rewards, PayPal and JupiterResearch Find A new JupiterResearch and PayPal study revealed that consumers value payment security and payment choice more than rewards when making purchases online. PayPal partnered with JupiterResearch to develop a series of survey questions focused on how the US population uses payment methods when shopping online.

March 4, 2008 St. Patrick's Day Spending Dips The luck of the Irish has not been extended to St. Patrick’s Day this year as a calendar shift is likely to hamper spending. According to the National Retail Federation’s 2008 St. Patrick’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, conducted by BIGresearch, consumers will spend an estimated $3.64 billion on St. Patrick’s Day, less than last year’s $3.76 billion.

March 4, 2008 Mobile Users Do Not Take Security Precautions, According to F-Secure F-Secure Corporation today announced mobile security results from its Online Wellbeing survey. Over three quarters of mobile phone users are aware that malware can infect a mobile device via Bluetooth — but fail to have security software installed, according to this survey.

March 4, 2008 Yahoo! Announces Availability of Yahoo! Go 3.0 and New Mobile Widgets for European Users Yahoo! has announced at CeBIT 2008 the upcoming availability of Yahoo! Go 3.0 for a number of European countries, as well as several new European-based widgets that will be accessible across Yahoo!'s mobile browser and client-based offerings.

March 4, 2008 Toys For Tots Launches New Year Round Literacy Initiative The Marine Toys for Tots Foundation has announced its first year-round initiative, the Toys for Tots Literacy Program. This new initiative will offer the nation's most economically disadvantaged children direct access to books and educational resources that will enhance their ability to read and to communicate effectively.

March 4, 2008 FedEx Among Top 10 on FORTUNE's Lists of Most Admired Companies Sccording to a survey published in FORTUNE magazine, FedEx Corporation is among the most admired companies in the US and the world for the seventh consecutive year. FORTUNE magazine released its annual report card on corporate reputation, listing FedEx in the top 10 of both its US and global rankings.

March 4, 2008 Hearst Magazines and Sears Help Launch Multichannel Program Hearst Magazines and Sears have launched ReImagine You, a new integrated program that combines print content, digital media, video, and promotion. This program coincides with Sears' Spring ReImagine You marketing campaign, which includes in-store, print, TV, and digital components.

March 4, 2008 comScore Releases Top German Web Rankings for January 2008 comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released its January rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in Germany based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service. The month saw increases to travel, career, real estate, and politics sites as German Internet users reflected on the year past and prepared for 2008.

March 3, 2008 PMG Potter Previews Intelligent Mail Barcode Plans; Implementation Pushed Back to May 2009 Postmaster General John E. Potter recently sent a letter to postal customers regarding the US Postal Service’s (USPS) implementation plans for the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB).

March 3, 2008 FTC to Host April 30 Public Workshop on 'Green Guides and Packaging' The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has given notice that it is planning to host a public workshop on April 30, 2008, to examine developments in green packaging claims and consumer perception of such claims. The workshop is a component of the FTC's regulatory review of the Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims. The FTC plans to make this workshop available via Webcast.

March 3, 2008 Microsoft to Expand Microsoft Online Services for Businesses of All Sizes Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, is annoucing that the company will offer Microsoft Online Services to businesses of all sizes. Microsoft has also opened a limited beta trial of the new services, which are scheduled to be generally available to businesses of all sizes in the second half of the year

March 3, 2008 Digital Sales Not Enough to Save Music Industry, Says JupiterResearch JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, is focusing on a growing trend in the music industry that it believes will change the landscape as consumers have come to know it. Digital music was a $1.3 billion business in 2007, but it still only makes up 10% of total consumer music spending.

February 29, 2008 comScore Releases Top Japan Website Rankings for January 2008 comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its January 2008 rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in Japan, based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service

February 29, 2008 Google Sets Its Sites on Google Apps Google has introduced Google Sites, an application that, Google says, makes creating a team website as easy as editing a document. According to Google, with Google Sites, people can quickly gather a variety of information in one place – including videos, calendars, presentations, attachments, and text – and easily share it.

February 28, 2008 Viewers flock to the Internet for TV, eMarketer Finds The BBC’s video site, iPlayer, is fast becoming the place to tune in online. Since launching on Christmas Day, 17 million Internet users streamed or downloaded full-length programs — leaving rival ITV’s broadband TV offering far behind. The same trend is occurring in the US.

February 28, 2008 blinkx Survey of TV and Online Video Habits Reveals Surprising User Behavior, Finds Harris blinkx, a leading video search engine, has announced the results of a new survey on television and online video viewing habits conducted on its behalf by Harris Interactive.

February 28, 2008 Rewards Programs Pay for Customer Loyalty, But Fail to Engage, According to Allegiance, Inc. Nearly 90% of American shoppers participate in rewards programs to gain points, discounts or prizes for purchasing products, but do these programs actually create engaged customers? Allegiance, Inc. explores this issue in a new white paper entitled "Buying Loyalty: Do Rewards Programs Translate Into Customer Engagement?"

February 28, 2008 comScore Releases Top UK Web Rankings for January 2008 comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released its January rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in the UK based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service.

February 28, 2008 Silverpop's Board of Directors Promotes O'Gorman The Board of Directors of email service provider Silverpop has approved the promotion of Elaine O'Gorman to senior vice president of marketing and product strategy.

February 28, 2008 comScore Releases Top French Web Rankings For January comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released its January rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in France based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service.

February 27, 2008 Communication Breakdown, Long Hold Times Top List of Customer Service Complaints, Opinion Research Finds In the latest Ouch Point study from Opinion Research Corporation (an infoUSA company), one in five US respondents (20%) cited hard to understand representatives with thick accents as their biggest frustration in dealing with customer service departments. Running a close second was the length of time it takes to get through to a representative (17%).

February 27, 2008 Yahoo Introduces New 'Yahoo! Buzz' to Provide More Relevant, Open Content Yahoo! has introduced Yahoo! Buzz, an extension to Yahoo.com. Currently in beta, Yahoo! Buzz measures consumer votes and search patterns to identify interesting and timely stories and videos from large news sources as well as niche blogs around the Web.

February 26, 2008 Global Interactive Ad Revenue to Reach US$147 Billion by 2012, Forecasts Kelsey Group The global advertising market grew to just over $600 billion in 2007, according to The Kelsey Group, a leading provider of research, data, and strategic analysis on directional and interactive local media.

February 26, 2008 Nielsen's Council for Research Excellence to Fund Landmark Study: Video Consumption The Council for Research Excellence (CRE), an independent forum of media industry research experts created by The Nielsen Company, announced that it will commission a year-long study by Ball State University’s Center for Media Design (CMD) to observe how individuals consume traditional and emerging video platforms inside and outside the home.

February 26, 2008 Google Announces Global Consortium to Construct Cable System Linking US and Japan A consortium of six international companies announced they have executed agreements to build a high–bandwidth subsea fiber optic cable linking the United States and Japan.

February 26, 2008 Google Sites Rank as Top Visited Property for First Time in Canada, comScore Finds comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released its January 2008 rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in Canada based on data from its comScore Media Metrix service.

February 26, 2008 AOL Properties to Deploy a Custom Version of Quigo's AdSonar Platform AOL announced that Quigo, a leading provider of innovative performance marketing solutions for advertisers and premium publishers — and a division of AOL’s Platform-A organization — will deploy a private label version of the AdSonar platform across AOL’s leading digital brands including News, Money & Finance, Entertainment and several other properties.

February 26, 2008 Pitney Bowes acquires Bluetree as Canada announces the Do-Not-Call Registry In keeping with its position as a leader in mailing innovation, Pitney Bowes has acquired the direct marketing company Bluetree, just in time for the arrival of Canada's Do-Not-Call Registry (DNC).

February 25, 2008 DM Remains Number One for Delivering Results, Says Latest Fournaise Report Marketers still rank direct marketing as the number one medium for marketing effectiveness in 2007; despite it capturing less than 25% of all UK marketing and communication spend.

February 22, 2008 comScore Releases January 2008 US Search Engine Rankings comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released its monthly comScore Search analysis of the search marketplace. January 2008 saw Americans conduct more than 10 billion core searches, representing a significant jump in activity versus December.

February 22, 2008 Microsoft Makes Strategic Changes in Technology and Business Practices to Expand Interoperability Microsoft Corp. announced a set of broad-reaching changes to its technology and business practices to increase the openness of its products and drive greater interoperability, opportunity and choice for developers, partners, customers, and competitors.

February 22, 2008 Yahoo! Newspaper Consortium Expands Network to Include One-Third of US Newspapers Yahoo! Inc. announced that it has expanded its growing network of newspaper partnerships with the addition of four publishers.

February 22, 2008 The Nielsen Company's 2008 Guide to the Academy Awards With the writers strike settled and the 80th Academy Awards confirmed for February 24 in Hollywood, CA, The Nielsen Company released its annual Guide to the Academy Awards, which showcases a wide range of consumer and media information illustrating the enormous impact the Academy Awards has in the US.

February 21, 2008 Recession Unlikely, Housing Sector Correction Nearly Over, According to the Conference Board Despite continuing turmoil in the housing and financial markets, a US recession is not imminent, The Conference Board has reported. "While the correction in the financial sector is just beginning, the correction in the housing sector is nearly over," said Gail D. Fosler, President and Chief Economist of The Conference Board.

February 21, 2008 IDC Finds Online Consumers Spend Almost Twice as Much Time Using the Internet as Watching TV A new IDC study of consumer online behavior found that the Internet is the medium on which online users spend the most time (32.7 hours/week). This is equivalent to almost half of the total time spent each week using all media (70.6 hours), almost twice as much time as spent watching television (16.4 hours), and more than eight times as much time as spent reading newspapers and magazines (3.9 hours).

February 21, 2008 Quad/Graphics, Community Partner in Recycling of Paper The State Journal, based in West Virginia, reported in a recent article that a recycling program created through a simple partnership of a large company with a small, startup organization has helped raise both the environmental consciousness of a community and the funds necessary to continue the work. According to the State Journal article, Berkeley Community Pride began about four years ago through the work of a