Amid roiling financial markets, who's who of blue-chip marketers are making moves to slash marketing spending. Among them are five major companies that together contribute more than $10 billion to the US ad economy: General Motors Corp., Procter & Gamble Co., Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola Co. and Nissan.

Just three months ago, it seemed as though the Internet advertising industry could get through this tough economy relatively unscathed. But in what may be a bad sign for a seemingly recession-resistant sector, several Internet companies have reported relatively disappointing earnings.

Johnson & Johnson has kicked off a soup-to-nuts review for its $25 billion pharmaceuticals group. Executives familiar with the situation, however, said the marketer is seeking a holding company to manage all marketing disciplines for its pharma group.

The decision by Time Warner's Turner cable network to partner with Yahoo for a multi-year ad sales and content deal for sports prompts one obvious question: Why would Turner choose Yahoo as its first sports partner when it already has another major portal, AOL, in the Time Warner portfolio? The answer is simple: scale.

Magazine ad pages are down in the throes of economy-wide decreases, largely in the pharmaceutical, automotive and technology categories. Total magazine rate-card-reported advertising revenue for the first half of 2008 posted a 3.1 per cent decline against the previous year, according to Publishers Information Bureau.

You didn’t think it was over, did you? As Yahoo's stock has fallen dangerously low -- almost to sub-$20 levels that preceded Microsoft's takeover bid back in February -- Microsoft is looking for partners to help it break up Yahoo so that it can nab its search business, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Citing a "very public transformation" in which it and the health-care industry is "looking to adapt the way we do our business," pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which spent some $1.2 billion in marketing last year, is undertaking a major agency review that will encompass creative, PR, digital and possibly even more disciplines.

He is well-known for his direct-speak and pizzazz. exchange4media’s Amit Agnihotri caught up with Rupert Murdoch, Chairman & Chief Executive, News Corp., on the sidelines of the 55th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival to pop a few questions.

Fresh off its initial public offering, Visa is eyeing a global consolidation of creative duties on its massive $600 million marketing account and has reached out to holding companies for the pitch, according to executives familiar with the matter.

Yahoo has issued a statement asserting that talks with Microsoft about a potential transaction are kaput. It said that numerous meetings and conversations about a full or partial acquisition have concluded.

You expect it to happen to fund-strapped start-ups such as Twitter. But Amazon? The country's largest e-commerce site went down this afternoon around 1:30 EDT and stayed down for at least an hour. Attempts to access Amazon.com were met with the following message: "Http/1.1 Service Unavailable."

Google has built the most powerful brand in the world with nary a bit of brand advertising. But as ads for Google Maps crop up on buses in San Francisco and trains in Chicago, it's clear the company is willing to shell out ad dollars to grow a product that's key to both local and mobile search.

Avinash Kaushik thinks one of the reasons why so many websites ‘suck’ today is because of the hippo -- as in the “highest paid person’s opinion”. And, yes, you’re likely a hippo -- a successful advertising executive, CMO or brand manager, pulling in a six-figure income, often found pontificating about what does and doesn't work online.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has said that the future of search would not only include simple, intuitive user interfaces and results based on rich semantic data, but it would also reward consumers for their engagement. Microsoft’s first iteration of that reward? Underwriting rebates for consumers searching for e-commerce deals on Live Search.

According to Michael Eisner, story-driven online content is the next big app. "YouTube is to the Internet what a Nickelodeon is to the movies. It's the preliminary installment of what is to come," he said. So what is to come? "Great, creative storytelling."