Retail sales posted a surprising increase in February as consumers did not let major snowstorms stop them from racking up purchases. The advance, the biggest since November, provided hope that the recovery from the Great Recession is gaining momentum.

Perhaps one silver lining in the storm clouds that are forming over our current liability language debate will be a focus on this issue of payment delays, resulting in quicker payment turn-around and improved DSO ratios. In the meantime, sequential liability can essentially double the number of credit checks that credit managers must perform to verify the creditworthiness of both the agency and the advertiser. The idea of collecting more data before he or she can get a client on the air isn't music to an account rep's ears.

"For purposes of transparency, clients not submitting automated commercial logs will be disclosed for users' information," Nielsen disclosed in advisory sent to clients on Wednesday. "This includes clients who don't trade on C3 and therefore do not plan to provide logs. This w

Are the stars out tonight? They were on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, at a pair of cable upfront presentations that seemed to indicate an improvement in the long-gloomy mood on Madison Avenue. The presentations were for Bravo and Nickelodeon, and each was as lavish, and celebrity-filled, as those that were common before the recession wreaked havoc on consumer confidence and, by extension, advertiser confidence.

Google Inc. is signing up marketers to use its latest display-advertising technology, pressuring rival Yahoo Inc. and advancing the search giant's effort to change the way ads are sold across the Internet, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal.

Seven months after an initial blitz of advertising surrounding the health-care reform bill, various parties, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are spending $10 million on an ad campaign in response to President Barack Obama's push to have the Senate version of the bill passed by the House of Representatives before Easter on April 4.

In this TV world — unless you have an Oscars or a Super Bowl broadcast — grabbing big masses of TV viewers with one big hit is difficult. Still, TV networks and programmers do what they can these days to make sure everyone will see their programming wares. Media companies are using a technique called "road-blocking," formerly in vogue for TV commercial messaging: running programs across all of their networks and channels.

CBS says it has sold out its ad inventory for March Madness On Demand, its upcoming live streaming of all 64 games of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

First-of-its-kind study by Council for Research Excellence points to potential wealth of data while revealing many unanswered questions.

Ann Casey has been promoted to director of broadcast metrics at Tribune Broadcasting. Casey had been research director at WGN since 2000.

The company's eight NBC affiliates generated $7.6 million in advertising revenue from the 2010 Winter Olympics, compared with its previously announced expectation of $7 million.

Judge denies Nielsen's request to dismiss a suit by Sunbeam Television that alleges the ratings company's adoption of People Meters in Miami is costing Sunbeam's WSVN Miami $1 million a month in ad revenue through audience under-reporting.

Some of the more than 60 drivers reporting incidents say sudden unintended acceleration has happened to them more than once since having modifications done at dealers.