Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.ads From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: ads Thu, Mar 19 1992 Date: Thu, 19 Mar 92 05:57:39 EST Message-ID: 03-19 0000 DECISIONLINE: Advertising USA TODAY Update March 19, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network MIDWEST LIVING A HOT MAG: Midwest Living has been playing so well in places like Peoria, Cedar Rapids and Topeka that it has become one of the USA's hottest magazines. Hot, but not hip. It is a magazine devoted to country inns, apple pies, folk festivals and fall foliage excursions. Capell's Circulation Report, an industry newsletter, called Midwest Living the "hottest-circulation magazine" of last year. (For more, see special Midwest package below.) ABC SHOWS TO BID ADIEU: Three ABC shows, "Who's the Boss?", "Growing Pains" and "MacGyver" will each air their final show on ABC April 25. Both "Pains" and "Boss" will be expanded to an hour that Saturday. "MacGyver" ends after seven years with his discovery of a son he never knew. And in true TV form, it leaves open the possibility for a spinoff series. CBS LOOKING FOR NEW HIT: "Northern Exposure" got its quiet start two summers ago, and ever since, CBS has hoped to launch another offbeat hit in the off-season. CBS has high hopes for "Middle Ages," a drama from John Byrum and Stan Rogow's "Shannon's Deal," about middle-aged Chicago salesmen, facing unsteady futures, chasing dreams. CBS REVEALS FALL PLANS: For fall, CBS has planned new comedies with Bob Newhart and Shelley Long. Sitcoms by "Murphy Brown's" Diane English and "Designing Women's" Linda Bloodworth-Thomason are also planned. "L.A. Law's" David Kelley has "Picket Fences," a Wisconsin-set drama to star Tom Skerritt as a sheriff and Kathy Baker as his wife, a doctor. HEALTH SERIES TO RUN: Starting Monday at 9 a.m. EST:6 a.m. PST, CNN airs a weeklong series on heart disease - the leading cause of death in industrialized nations. The series, to repeat three times a day, will compare heart disease rates around the world, including Russia, Finland, Japan and Mediterranean regions. THREE FIRMS TO JOIN FORCES: Warner Music Group Inc., the National Broadcasting Co. and The Coca-Cola Co. say they are joining efforts for the first time ever in a three-way promotion. The music and sports marketing campaign will culminate with NBC's 1992 telecast of the Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona. Details of the promotion were not revealed. FORT LAUDERDALE NEWS TO END: The Fort Lauderdale News will discontinue publication after Friday's edition. To replace it, the Sun-Sentinel will publish a Sports Final edition beginning March 30. The Fort Lauderdale News has daily sales of about 3,500. Its circulation peaked in 1979 at 105,400. Tribune Company owns both papers. IACOCCA TO BE FEATURED IN ADS: Chrysler Corporation next month will begin a massive corporate magazine campaign featuring chairman Lee Iacocca and the company's hope for the immediate future: Its soon-to-be-unveiled LH series. Various media executives close to the deal peg Chrysler's budget for corporate advertising for print and TV in 1992 at about $25 million, MEDIAWEEK reports. AD AGENCY BEING SUED: Ad agency Lintas of New York is being sued by former vice president Lisa Buksbaum, Advertising Age reports. She is seeking $500,000 in punitive damages. She claims she was fired last October and was passed over for salary increases because of her pregnancy. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON MIDWEST: CIRCULATION IS GROWING: Midwest Living has drawn enough readers and advertisers to propel the 5-year-old magazine, published by Meredith, onto several industry top-10 lists. Midwest Living's circulation jumped 13.8% the first half of last year from a year earlier and 16.2% the second half of last year to 726,076, says the Audit Bureau of Circulations. AD PAGES ARE UP: Midwest Living's ad pages increased 5.3% last year from 1990, "a good performance in a terrible year for the industry," says Capell's Circulation Report's Editor Dan Capell. The magazine was No. 5 on Adweek's 1992 list of hottest small magazines, based on ad-revenue growth. MAG DOES WELL IN MIDSIZE CITIES: Midwest Living's stronghold is midsize cities. Its best market is Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Dubuque, Iowa, where 7.1% of households take the magazine. It is less successful in larger cities. Only 1.5% of households in Cincinnati get it. Editor Dan Kaercher wants the magazine to penetrate the larger cities. Another goal is to publish more often. It now appears every other month. (End of package.) Advertising Editor: Ed Kelleher. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM