Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.ads From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: ads Thu, Aug 6 1992 Date: Thu, 6 Aug 92 04:32:41 EDT Message-ID: 08-06 0000 DECISIONLINE: Advertising USA TODAY Update Aug. 6, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network OLYMPICS DOMINATE RATINGS: The Summer Olympics gave NBC an easy weekly ratings win, with the top seven shows being Olympic coverage. The first week of Olympics resulted in the widest weekly margin of victory in NBC's history - NBC's 20.2 rating beat second-place CBS' 8.2 by 12 points. A ratings point represents 921,000 TV households. (For more, see special Ratings package below.) AD PAGES INCREASING: July marked the fourth month in a row that consumer magazines reported gains in ad pages. According to the Publishers Information Bureau, ad pages in July were up 8.2% from July 1991. Those numbers provide a "healthy start for the second half," says Jim Guthrie, executive vice president of the Magazine Publishers of America. LERNER NEWSPAPER GROUP CLOSES: Pulitzer Publishing Co. says it has tentatively decided to close Lerner Newspaper Group in October. Pulitzer, which owns the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, says it may close the 14 weekly newspapers in the Chicago area because the recession has eroded advertising. About 150 jobs would be lost. REEBOK FLIRTS WITH DISASTER: Reebok came within a toe's length of disaster Wednesday when Olympic decathlete Dave Johnson, half of its Dan and Dave advertising duo, was nearly disqualified from the shot put for allegedly overstepping a boundary. After protests from other teams, an Olympic panel supported officials' decision to keep Johnson in competition. SCRAMBLE NOT NEEDED: Had Dave Johnson fallen out of the decathlon competition, it would have meant another scramble for Reebok and ad agency, Chiat:Day:Mojo. They have already pulled the $20 million campaign out of the fire once: When Dan O'Brien failed to make the Olympic team in June, Reebok bounced back with a touching "Athletes are glorious" ad showing O'Brien being consoled by Johnson. Z:COM COMPLETES CAMPAIGN: Z:Com Inc. announced Wednesday it recently completed a multi-phase direct mail campaign for TSSI. Z:Com developed the phased campaign for TSSI, a software tools supplier for the design, manufacturing and test industries based in Beaverton, Ore., in conjunction with their strategic marketing partners Hewlett-Packard, Mentor Graphics and Synopsys. WPP GETS REPRIEVE: Advertising giant WPP Group got a reprieve from the threat of receivership when shareholders approved a deal to give WPP's banks ownership of nearly half the British company. Banks get 48% of WPP stock in return for erasing $270 million of its $1.1 billion to $1.5 billion debt. ARTISTS ACCOMPANY GAMES: Nineteen recording artists are participating in NBC's original music video lineup, "Games in Song," airing each night during Olympic programming. The videos capture the essence of the day's events - as well as young viewers, NBC hopes. Most songs for the $3 million project are written expressly for the package. Stars include Tina Turner, Randy Travis and INXS. `RAVEN' IS BIG SURPRISE: TV's surprise successes of summer have the networks shuffling fall schedules. In an unusual move, "Raven," planned for summer, will stay on for fall in CBS' Saturday night 9 p.m. slot. Ad buyer Paul Schulman says "Raven" may be the big winner. "I don't think much was expected from it," Schulman said. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON RATINGS: ABC FINISHES THIRD: "Bodies of Evidence" was the highest-rated summer series, tied with "20:20" at No. 23; "Raven" was the second highest, at No. 25. Friday's repeat presentation of CBS' "Memories of M*A*S*H" tied with "Evening Shade" at No. 38. ABC was in third with seven of the top-20 rated shows of the week, including "Roseanne," No. 8; "Home Improvement," No. 9; and "Coach," No. 12. ABC HAS SEVEN OF TOP 20: ABC's "Full House" and a special Monday airing of "Home Improvement" tied at No. 14; the rebroadcast of the "Happy Days Reunion" ranked No. 19, and a rerun of the Stephen King movie "It" No. 16. Fox's "Beverly Hills, 90210" tied with CBS' "48 Hours" at No. 20; "Married ... With Children" at No. 29, tied with CBS' "Street Stories." `WORLD NEWS TONIGHT' WINS WEEK: In the evening news race, ABC's "World News Tonight" won the week's ratings race, as usual. However, the Olympics sweep in the first full week of competition helped "NBC Nightly News" to a tie with "The CBS Evening News." (End of package.) Advertising Editor: Kate Coughlin. (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