Nielsen: Ad spending is off 0.6 percent year to date
Yesterday Nielsen added its figures to the growing pile of down advertising spending reports released this month, though its numbers weren’t quite as dour. Advertising spending year-to-date through third quarter is off 0.6 percent compared to last year, according to the company, thanks largely to a boost from television. TV accounted for four of the top five media categories, with cable up 8.4 percent over last year and syndication rising 2.4 percent. Seven total categories are up year to date, including Hispanic cable and spot radio. Network TV got a nice boost from the Olympics, after falling 6 percent in the first half of the year. The category is now up 0.9 percent year to date. Local Sunday supplements saw the biggest decline, off 9.9 percent, followed by local newspapers at 8.7 percent. Nielsen’s 0.6 percent decline is smaller than that issued last week by TNS Media Intelligence, which said ad spending is off 1.7 percent year to date.
Omnicom chops 3,000 but few media people are out
Omnicom, the giant holding company, is slashing some 3,000 jobs from the many agencies under its wing, or somewhat under 5 percent of its workforce of 70,000-plus. But it appears just handful of media people will be let go in this latest downsizing as the ad economy fizzles. The media cuts appear to be limited, with PHD letting several dozen go and closing its Atlanta office. Nearly 200 BBDO Worldwide staffers were laid off yesterday, just weeks after some 150 were cut from its Michigan operation, which services Chrysler, which along with the other Detroit automakers has cut back on advertising as car sales tumbled. More agency cuts are expected in 2009 as the ad industry hunkers down for what's looking to be a harsh year. So far at least, media departments have been spared much of the pain, in part because they remained lean in the half dozen years since the last slowdown. But whether that holds for 2009 is quite another matter.
Ruff recipe: Dog lovers cry foul over Ray onion dish
Rachael Ray is in the doghouse with pet owners over a recipe she offered in the recent issue of Modern Dog magazine. The ingredients for “Isaboo’s Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese,” which ran alongside an article promoting Ray’s new line of dogfood, included half an onion. The big problem: Onions can be toxic for dogs, sometimes causing hemolytic anemia. Modern Dog appears to have yanked the recipe from its web site, following loads of comments from readers protesting the questionable ingredient. It did ad an editor’s note reading in part, “Rachael Ray's recipe includes onions, which are NOT good for dogs, but the amount included in the recipe is small when considered over the whole of the recipe.” Someone might want to inform Ray’s dog of that – Isaboo’s mac and cheese is based on a recipe beloved by the talk show host’s puppy.
SAG posts award nominations as strike vote looms
The Screen Actors Guild is weeks away from voting on a strike, but it knows one thing for sure: the nominees for the 2009 SAG Awards. It was mostly the same group seen at the Emmys and Golden Globes. Alec Baldwin (“30 Rock”), Steve Carrell (“The Office”), David Duchovny (“Californication”), Jeremy Piven (“Entourage”) and Tony Shaloub (“Monk”) were all nominated for outstanding performance by a male actor in a comedy series, while Christina Applegate (“Samantha Who?”), America Ferrera (“Ugly Betty”), Tina Fey (“30 Rock”), Mary-Louise Parker (“Weeds”) and Tracey Ullman “(Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union”) picked up nominations on the female side. ABC’s “Boston Legal,” TNT’s “The Closer,” Showtime’s “Dexter,” Fox’s “House” and AMC’s “Mad Men” grabbed nominations for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series, with NBC’s “30 Rock,” ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” HBO’s “Entourage,” NBC’s “The Office” and Showtime’s “Weeds,” picking up the comedy nods. The awards will air on TNT and TBS on Jan. 25, and a complete list of nominees can be found at http://www.sagawards.org/PR_081218.
Mark Felt, Watergate's 'Deep Throat,' dies at age 95
Mark Felt, the most famous secret source in American journalism history, passed away yesterday from congestive heart failure, more than three decades after becoming the mysterious “Deep Throat” who helped bring down the Nixon administration. Felt, who was 95, confessed three years ago in a Vanity Fair article written by a family friend that he had been the famed leaker to the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Felt was hailed as a hero and a traitor after his revelation, and he wrote a book in 2006 about his life, including why he decided, as the No. 2 at the FBI, to talk to Woodward. He helped the reporters tie the White House to the famed 1972 Watergate break-in, which ultimately led to President Nixon’s resignation. Woodward and Bernstein had long promised not to reveal Deep Throat’s identity until after he died or until the person did so voluntarily, prompting decades of speculation.
