What I learned from Ad Age

I got my hands on an old Advertising Age (I can't get enough of this magazine; if only I could afford it), the April 25 edition, and several things caught my eye.

First: KFC is saying "to hell with the healthy stuff" and embracing its lard-laden heritage. It's going back to Kentucky Fried Chicken (after switching to fried-hiding KFC 14 years ago).

Second: A chart shows a Radio Advertising Bureau survey of media buyers' confidence in different ad carriers.

1. Magazines
2. Newspapers
3. Network TV
4. Spot TV
5. Outdoor
6. Syndicated TV
7. Cable TV
8. Spot radio
9. Internet
10. Network radio
11. Place-based

Third: The story "Small-market papers go up as big guys go down" says: "There are currently two newspaper economies. There's one for smaller and midsize markets, which is generally very good, the other for big metros, which is not." Why? The article gives a few reasons: Big cities have more competition. There's more overhead at the big dailies. They get a bigger portion of national advertising, which was "the slowest-growing major category for newspapers last year." And circ declines are likely to hit them harder.

A graphic illustrates the point by breaking down the ad revenue in the New York Times Co. from the first quarter of 2005. The New York Times was flat. The Boston Globe was down 4.2 percent. And the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group -- with such papers as the Santa Rosa (Ca.) Press Democrat and the Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News -- was up 7.0 percent.