Making Integrated Marketing a Reality (eMarketer, December 24th)
Despite all the talk in recent years of fluid cross-media and integrated marketing, nearly 80% of marketing executives responding to a Reveries.com survey think the promise of integrated marketing has been only "somewhat" delivered.

Carmakers Add Horsepower to Online Advertising (eMarketer, December 18th)
Automakers are spending just a pittance of their overall ad budgets online, yet as eMarketer Senior Analyst Noah Elkin explains, a little goes a long way in the developing interactive space.

Online Classified: Hurting and Helping Newspapers (eMarketer, December 17th)
The newspaper industry was initially blindsided by pure-play classified sites. Now, print stalwarts are beefing up online classifieds - increasing revenues and visitor satisfaction in the process.

Spam: One in Every 12 E-Mail Messages (eMarketer, December 17th)
E-mail security company MessageLabs reports in 2002 that it intercepted a virus in one out of every 212 e-mail messages it tracks for customers. Although MessageLabs compares this rate to the previous year, when a virus was blocked in one in every 380 e-mail messages, it notes that in 2002, one in every 12 e-mail messages was unsolicited commercial e-mail, or spam.

For Ad Spending, Sunnier Days Ahead (NY Times, December 16th)
After a bumpy year in advertising, better times are predicted, thought TV spending is expected to lead the recovery. Challenging this assertion to some extent is the latest Media Spending Outlook white paper, sponsored by eMarketer and the IAB, which suggests that online media spending should rise by 6.3% next year, surpassing the 4.7% rise expected for total ad expenditures. More on that may be found here.

Rich Media: Online Ad Success Story? (eMarketer, December 10th)
Take a closer look at the estimates for rich media spending. When you find out what's measured, you may question whether rich media should be measured at all.

Light at the End of the Tunnel? (internet.com, December 10th)
Further forecasts point to an online advertising-industry rebound in 2003 and 2004. More on the expectation of rises in ad spending during the 2003 calendar year may be found within this NY Times piece.

WSJ Bashes Free Business Sites in New Campaign (internet.com, December 10th)
Making the case for its subscription site, the Wall Street Journal Online questions the trustworthiness of providers of free business content in its first major ad campaign since the redesign of their web property. More on this may be found at the NY Times.

Internet Increasingly Integral to Entertainment Marketing (internet.com, December 9th)
Web-based marketing strategies for movie studios and record labels have only just begun to penetrate one of the fastest growing consumer hubs in the world, say marketing gurus at iHollywood Forum.

DoubleClick Rolls Out Campaign Management Tool (internet.com, December 9th)
Building on its recent acquisition, the online ad giant introduces Ensemble, a new version of Protagona's campaign management product.

Avenue A Unit Updates Online Media Planning Tool l (internet.com, December 9th)
Atlas DMT advances its reach, frequency, and GRP product in an effort to increase online ad spending.

Being Afraid of Amazon's Spiders (internet.com, December 9th)
Some operators of associate sites that link to Amazon.com are less than happy about the online retailing giant's search bots, which they claim are spidering their sites and AWS scripts excessively, consequently consuming bandwidth, time and money.

The Little Banner That Could (ClickZ, December 9th)
The Banner That Will Not Die is an object lesson in creative optimization.

AOL's Problems Obscure Improving Outlook for Online Advertising (NY Times, December 6th)
The well-publicized travails of AOL Time Warner reinforce the pessimism lingering over the health of the online marketplace, even as the climate improves. In particular, paid search, classified advertising and rich-media buys are seen as rapid growth areas that have driven several properties' earnings into positive territory during an otherwise unforgiving year.

Email's Getting More Personal. Should You? (ClickZ, December 6th)
Unique, dynamically generated emails may assist permission-based publishers in standing apart from the spam-set, but they aren't for everyone. Here, ClickZ' Pamela Parker weighs up the pros and cons associated with the technology to help determine whether personalized emails are right for your business.

Ad Exposure in Puerto Rico (eMarketer, December 6th)
Wondering what the best ad medium is to reach people in Puerto Rico? According to Research & Research, 84% watch TV on a daily basis but just 11% are online.

Forrester: E-mail Vendors Increasingly Sophisticated (internet.com, December 6th)
Demanding marketers are moving beyond 'batch-and-blast' and vendors, in an effort to rise above the cacophany of email management options, are beginning to give them the tools.

Overture Signs CNN Web Sites (internet.com, December 5th)
With Google nipping at its heels, paid search leader Overture announced Wednesday it had signed a three-year exclusive deal to provide paid search listings for three CNN sites: CNN.com, CNNSI.com, and CNNMoney.com.

ABCi Folded Into Offline Parent (internet.com, December 5th)
Although continuing to audit websites, the industry-standard Audit Bureau of Circulations has made the decision to merge its interactive division (ABCi) back into its offline unit, in a move that could cut its audit base.

Text Link Ads - With a Dash of Content (ClickZ, December 5th)
Recipe for relevance: Don't just return results, return content with paid search engine listings.

DoubleClick: Rich Media Ad Use Growing (internet.com, December 5th)
The online ad firm's third quarter trend report suggests that marketers are taking a liking to rich media ads.

Choosing an Email Newsletter Broadcast Service (ClickZ, December 5th)
Coming up with an email marketing plan is only half the battle. Find out how to execute and get those newsletters out there in as efficient and ethical a manner as possible.

Bonzi Hit With Deceptive-Ad Complaint (internet.com, December 4th)
The suit, which the plaintiff hopes will be a class action, alleges the software company tricks users through ads that appear as computer system warnings. Copies of the creatives in question may be found here. Active discussion of the claim by publishers and advertisers working in the interactive space may be found at Geek/Talk.

BT, LookSmart End Joint Venture (internet.com, December 4th)
The paid search company buys out BT's share in the joint venture operating in the United Kingdom and Japan.

Search Engine Marketing: Good News in a Down Economy (eMarketer, December 3rd)
Search no further than Google and LookSmart for an advertising vehicle posting consistent quarterly growth.

MSN OKs Unicast Ads (internet.com, December 3rd)
Mere months after favoring two competing vendors in its much-publicized embrace of rich media formats, MSN kisses and makes up with Unicast.

Cashing in on Internet Coupons (eMarketer, December 3rd)
BURST! reports that 19% of US internet users in general have redeemed a coupon online, and specifically 26.6% of those in households making $100,000 or more have used net coupons.

Avenue A Buys i-FRONTIER (internet.com, December 3rd)
The online ad company acquires a web shop in a cash transaction that will give it creative capabilities and ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

NYTimes.com Tries Interstitials (internet.com, December 3rd)
A month-long campaign for Sony Pictures is the Gray Lady's second interstitial campaign this year.

Online Ad to Rebound in 2003 (eMarketer, December 3rd)
In its latest report, Interactive Marketing: Stats, Strategies and Trends, eMarketer estimates that online advertising spending in the US alone will reach $6.7 billion next year. An expanded exploration of eMarketer's figures may be found here.

Make an Impact Offline, With Online (ClickZ, December 2nd)
Your online brand and your offline brand don't exist in alternative universes. So why treat the media mix and metric evaluation as though they do? ClickZ Sean Carton looks at the dis-connect between interactive and traditional media divisions, and presents evidence to suggest that what happens online can fundamentally affect a brand's perception in the real world.

US Consumers Tune in, Log On (eMarketer, December 2nd)
BIGresearch reports that 59.8% of men and 67.2% of women go online while they're watching TV. Is your firm properly targeting these media consumers?

What the Holidays Mean to the Heavies (ChannelSeven, December 2nd)
The holiday stats are good, but what are the creative trends? To get a sense of what's really happening in online advertising, ChannelSeven talked with seven industry veterans - working for both small and large interactive marketing firms - to ask what they're seeing this year.

Not Everyone Celebrates the Holidays With a Tree (NY Times, December 2nd)
Advertisers are increasingly recognizing that not everyone celebrates the holiday season with a Christmas tree, and are opting to change their holiday marketing messages accordingly in an effort to avoid isolating minority groups.

Under the Hood of BMW Films (TechTV, December 2nd)
TechTV goes behind the scenes, to take a special look at the revolutionary BMW Films online advertainment series.

Book Review: Resistance Is Futile (E-Commerce Guide, December 2nd)
Former Coca-Cola marketing guru and enfant terrible Sergio Zyman lets loose another salvo with his latest book The End Of Advertising As We Know It.

The Four Basic Email Campaign Tests (ClickZ, December 2nd)
Email's cheap. So, why bother to test campaigns? Because not testing is a sure way to make it expensive.

Overture Renews Freeserve Deal Temporarily (internet.com, December 2nd)
Paid-search provider Overture said Monday its deal with British Internet service provider Freeserve has automatically renewed, giving it until February to strike a long-term deal and fend off another Google encroachment.