Total magazine rate-card-reported advertising revenue for the first half of 2008 closed at $11,554,569,406, posting a -3.1% decline against the previous year, according to Publishers Information Bureau. Ad pages during Q1 2008 totaled 108,924.13, at -7.4% compared to January through June, 2007. Total PIB revenue for Q2 2008 closed at $6,297,123,700, marking a decline of -4.7% versus Q2 2007. Ad pages totaled 58,744.77, at -8.2% against Q2 2007.

66% of users used at least one of the listed ways to find out information on places to live, and one-third used two or more, according to Pew Internet Project. Broken out by buyers versus renters: 60% of buyers consulted the internet during their search, compared to 43% of renters who did this; 60% of buyers consulted friends, family, or co-workers, compared to 16% of renters who did this; 49% of buyers used a real estate agent, while 48% of renters did; 39% of buyers used the newspaper in their search, while 57% of renters did; 19% of buyers cited a source not mentioned, while 18% of renters did; 12% of buyers consulted the radio or TV in their search, compared to 17% of renters.

According to Morgan Stanley, combined TNS and GfK would have 14% of the global market research business, trailing Nielsen’s 18% but ahead of IMS in third place at 8%, and WPP, at 7%. After that, no other company has a share of more than 3%, leaving significant room for consolidation.

Some 27% of internet users say they have downloaded music from the internet, according to March 2006 survey. Now 53% of respondents said they had purchased music in 2007, and 26% of respondents were directed to the module with detailed questions about music purchasing. Respondents who were directed to the music module are not representative of the general population, according to Pew Internet Project. They are more likely to be internet users 83% and to have broadband at home (59% do), which compares to 73% and 50% respectively in the general population. They are also slightly younger, with a median age among adults of 43 compared with 45 in the general adult internet population.

Among the 39% of respondents in the cell phone module who use the internet for research on their cell phone buying decision: 27% said that online information had a major impact on their decision; 46% said it has a minor impact; 27% said it had no impact at all. When asked to focus on the importance of online versus offline sources of information in the cell phone purchase, 49% of this same set of online users said that online information was most important, with 46% saying something found offline was most important, according to the Pew Internet Project.

US Chamber of Commerce named Delaware, Nebraska, Maine, Indiana, and Utah among the top US states to incorporate businesses in. At the bottom of rankings were Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Illinois, with West Virginia being the worst US state to do business in.

Digital platforms of newspapers are growing at a double-digit rate worldwide, as the world increasingly goes on line. Digital and mobile advertising revenues are expected to increase 12-fold from 2002 to 2011, to about $150 bln worldwide. The number of wireless device subscriptions is expected to increase threefold to 3.4 bln from 2002 to 2011, the number of homes with broadband is likely to rise 10-fold in the same period, and the mobile telephone customer base has increased from 945 mln in 2001 to 2.6 bln in 2006.

Among internet users who found a place to live: 5% discussed their new place or neighborhood in an online forum or community; 4% posted comments or ratings online about real estate agents and others they dealt with in finding a place to live; 4% posted comments about their new place or neighborhood on a website or blog; 3% joined a neighborhood listserv. This comes to just 13% of internet users who moved in the prior year doing at least one of these activities, according to the Pew Internet Project.

US consumers redeemed less than 1% of the estimated 285 bln coupons issued 2007 for groceries and various packaged goods. Advertisers paid newspapers to distribute nearly 90% of the coupons issued 2007 for packaged goods, according to NCH Marketing Services. Just 0.4% of the packaged goods coupons were printed out on the Internet 2007, NCH estimated.

Publishers sold 3.13 bln books 2007, compared with 3.1 bln in 2006, an increase of just 0.9%, according to Book Industry Trends 2008. Higher retail prices helped net revenue increase 4.4%, to $37.3 bln, from $35.7 bln.

Those who use the internet in their housing search see payoffs mainly in lower search costs and in getting a feel for the places they may live, according to the Pew Internet Project. Fully 58% say that information found online gave them a good introduction to their new community, and 57% said it reduced the number of houses or apartments they looked at. Overall, 76% of respondents say that online information helped them in one of these two key ways in structuring their real estate search. Additionally, 27% say that online information actually changed the neighborhood in which they were planning to live.

4% discussed the cell phone in an online forum or community. In terms of sharing general opinions about a new cell phone, 60% people say they have talked about a new device with friends, family, or co-workers, according to the Pew Internet Project. The internet, however, does not play a large role in after-purchase chatter or inquiry: 11% of internet users in the cell phone module looked online for information on how to use the phone; 7% looked online for others’ experiences with the same phone; 4% posted a rating or review of the cell phone on a website or blog. 13% of internet users who got a new cell phone in 2007 did at least one of the three after-purchase online chatter activities. When including post-purchase online activity relating to troubleshooting (i.e., going online for help or consulting an online forum), some 19% of internet users who bought a phone in the prior year turned to the internet after their purchase regarding something relating to it.

Online information also helps in the pocketbook for some people. Among those who used the internet to do research on a place to live, 29% said they believe online information helped them get a better price on their house or apartment, according to the Pew Internet Project. Some 35% of buyers thought online resources helped them get a better price, while 28% of renters said this. In general, when asked to assess the impact online information had on their housing decision: 23% of those who used the internet in their research said it had a major impact; 36% said it had a minor impact; 42% said it had no impact at all. Only 15% said that their online searches produced poor or misleading information. For all those who found a new place to live in the prior year, 79% feel they got the right amount of information in the process. 14% say they had too little information and 5% too much.

Black teens are more likely than whites to write in a journal and to write music or lyrics in their personal time. 47% of black teens have written in a personal journal in the past year, and 37% have written music or lyrics. This compares with 31% and 23%, respectively, for white teens, according to Pew Internet Project. Boys and girls have similar habits with respect to the writing they do for personal enjoyment with two major exceptions: girls are significantly more likely than boys to write letters or notes to other people (77% of girls have done so in the past year, compared with 52% for boys) and to write in a journal (49% of girls keep a journal, compared with 20% of boys). Older girls are particularly avid letter writers and journalkeepers. Fully 81% of older girls write notes or letters and nearly six in ten (57%) keep a journal.

19% of white teens typically do their school writing on a computer, compared with one in ten blacks (11%) and English-speaking Hispanics (9%), according to Pew Internet Project. Older teens also tend to rely more heavily on computers when writing for school. 21% of 15-17 year olds usually use computers for their school writing, compared with 12% of younger teens. 24% of teens whose parents have a college degree say they usually use a computer for school writing, compared with 10% teens with parents who have some college education, 15% of teens whose parents are high school graduates, and 10% of teens whose parents have less than a high school education.

Despite widespread technology ownership and usage among teens, 65% of teens say they usually do their school writing by hand, compared with 16% who usually use a computer. The remaining teens say that their choice of writing instrument depends on the assignment (4% of teens say this), or that they rely equally on longhand and computer writing (14%), according to Pew Internet Project. Among teens who primarily write by hand, 86% write using a computer at least occasionally. Taken together, this means that just 9% of all teens write only by hand and never use a computer.

82% teens say that the writing assignments they do for school typically range from a paragraph to around one page in length, according to Pew Internet Project. 12% say that most of their writing involves longer pieces of 2-5 pages. 3% of teens say that most of their school writing involves major writing assignments of 5 pages or more in length. This trend is even more sharply delineated outside of English courses. In classes other than English, 78% of students say they usually write shorter pieces of a page or less, and 7% say they do no writing at all in these courses.