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Berens: So, let me wrap up by referring our readers to a wonderful piece that you did back in April.  It was an Op-Ed: "I Sell Advertising" You were replying to a Rance Crain Ad Age editorial about advertisers having retreated into the closet about being advertisers. And, you were boldly coming out of that particular closet. It was a remarkable piece, because honesty is always bracing. And, I just wanted to know if, between now and the time that you wrote this, if your thoughts have changed at all; if you got any feedback about the piece in particular, and why it is that you think advertising is so suspect in our culture.

Coffin: Well, no, I have not changed my mind. And, in fact, I have been encouraged recently by a number of conversations. I attend a fair amount of trade shows, and I think that is another trend to look for in 2006 is people in the advertising business (beginning with the Senior Vice Presidents of marketing who have been under extraordinary pressure for so long) pushing back on that sort of mindset that advertising dollars are wasted and/or inefficient. 

I believe in the power of great advertising. And, I believe that our support of it got swept away -- or we were rocked back on our heels -- over the last several years by the advocates and the strong call for greater and greater media accountability. 

Media accountability is absolutely required. But let's not be confused about where the train fell off the tracks. It was in the 80s and the 90s, as traditional media stopped being able to yield the year-over-year growth numbers -- the audience numbers -- whether it was circulation, or viewership, or listenership, and yet persisted in raising their prices. And, after so many years of doing that with no increases in rate bases, but five percent increases in advertising rates, it is no wonder that the buying community started to react violently. 

Then came the internet, and that to me was the genesis of the whole issue of media accountability, and rightly so. Plenty of people have written about how one way to fix TV is to start cutting the prices to reflect the audience. I don't understand why that is so hard to understand. 

The internet came online -- no pun intended -- in 1995. Instantly -- instantly, when we threw the switch -- it began to provide the kind of media accountability that had been lacking for fifteen years. And, that was the ability to eliminate media waste. That was the ability to provide better measurement, in other words, to be able to count impressions as they go out the door, to be able to validate, and to be able to present a one hundred percent composition solution to an advertiser who might be trying to reach mothers -- young mothers in single family households. 

So, I think there is an awful lot of media accountability that exists in the marketplace today. If you start to embrace the broader sweep of the internet, then I think we can get comfortable again with the ability of media and advertising to be effective -- to work effectively and efficiently in the marketplace.

Berens: Well, that is a wonderful place to stop.

Coffin:  Okay.

Berens: Thank you for your time.

Coffin: My pleasure. Thank you, Brad. 

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Brad Berens is executive editor for iMedia Communications.