According to the full-year forecast by TNS Media Intelligence, total U.S. advertising spending is expected to increase 5.4 percent in 2006 to $152.3 billion. This solid increase follows the estimated growth of 3.0 percent in 2005, as the U.S. economy continues on a stable course.

A January 2006 JupiterResearch consumer survey found that 5% of Internet users paid for online dating subscriptions in the last year, down slightly from 6% in 2005. Industry-wide user conversion rates fell for the first time since JupiterResearch began tracking that metric. According to an "Online Dating" report by JupiterResearch Analyst Nate Elliott, industry growth in the last twelve months has been driven by higher monthly fees rather than an increasing number of subscribers.

A drilldown look at online music destinations, viewer demographics, advertisers, ad types and sizes.

More than half of teens in a new survey by Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU) believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction?surprising news from a generational cohort often described as carefree and optimistic, says TRU. According to the survey of teens aged 12 to 18, 53% say the country is on the wrong track, while only 18% say the nation is headed in the right direction.

A recent release by The Media Audit shows that the number of men and women age 50 and over has increased from 44.6 million to 51.1 million in the past five years. Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, says "The figures are even more impressive when you consider that almost half of the total of 51.1 million men and women 50 and older are retired."

Findings from BIGresearch's latest Simultaneous Media Survey show that Yahoo! is the overall #1 search engine choice for most influential on purchase decisions and Google is number 4. Media influence and/or engagement are hot topics in today's ROI driven ad world concludes the report.

An analysis of consumer behavior by comScore Networks related to Valentine's Day found that that total online spending in the Flowers & Gifts, Health & Beauty and Jewelry & Watches categories rose 22 percent year-to-date, through February 9, 2006 versus the corresponding period in 2005, while Personals and Dating went up 29%.

comScore Networks, asking if advertisers are paying millions for brand damage, released the results of a Super Bowl XL survey showing that some spots during the big game actually harmed consumer's perception of the brand. Burger King's retro ad damaged the perception of the brand among 20 percent of viewers, while 28 percent of women found the GoDaddy.com ad to be damaging.

In a presentation to brokers and corporate bankers in London recently, the President of WAN, Gavin O'Reilly, demonstrated that print media continues to be successful in both readership and revenue terms and that "reading is still a vital ingredient in the human experience." Moreover, he stressed that investors and analysts needed to test the empirical market evidence and not "regurgitate well worn myths", and recognize that the manner in which "they themselves consume media is not a reliable proxy for the general public."

According to the Vertis Customer Focus 2006: Retail study reveals that advertising insert readership levels are consistently at 85 percent or above. Additionally, the study finds Web savvy individuals still rely on advertising inserts, as 88 percent of Sunday newspaper readers surveyed via the Web said they read Sunday newspaper inserts, while 79 percent of those surveyed by phone read them.