Lauren Bell

WhittmanHart has been tapped to assist Saatchi & Saatchi with its revamp of New York State's ILoveNY.com tourism Web site. Saatchi and Saatchi has been working with the New York State Department of Economic Development on its "I love NY" campaign since 2007. The site revamp will add a trip planner, social media, search capabilities and other interactive features.

The travel industry has taken its share of lumps in the recession — including, according to new research from Colloquy, a precipitous drop in active participation in travel rewards program — but new programs from Delta and United might help the airlines win loyalty among frequent fliers.

Following a disappointing first half and an enterprise-wide portfolio review, Reed Elsevier is putting portions of its Reed Business Information (RBI) unit back on the block. This time around, the company's US titles only are up for sale, barring a handful that will become part of RBI Global. Variety, which has a weekly circulation of 34,000, Reed Construction Data, RSMeans, MarketCast, LA411 and BuyerZone, will all be retained.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) highlighted the growing importance of digital content this week when it released its first audit report specifically for e-newsletters. ABC's interactive unit, ABCi, had offered multimedia reports that include e-newsletter information, but this report, for Advertising Age, is the first to focus solely on a publisher's combined e-newsletter products. Previous e-newsletter audits appeared on Consolidated Media Reports or Multimedia Publisher's Statements.

USA Today will launch a new e-edition and its first regular weekend product on Monday, August 3. The Gannett-owned paper was already offering an e-edition that had limited reach — making up about 1200 of USA Today's average daily circulation of 2,113,725. This new offering will be sent as a companion product to all print subscribers and included in USA Today's overall ABC measurement for circulation.

IBM continued its aggressive push into the analytics space Tuesday with the announcement that it would acquire predictive analytics firm SPSS and launch its Smart Analytics System in the second half of 2009. The planned acquisition, for $1.2 billion in cash, would equip IBM with SPSS' analytics software — including tools for data collection, statistics, modeling and deployment — building IBM's software portfolio as well as its business analytics offerings.

Reflecting continuing ad sales troubles in the newspaper industry, publisher AH Belo Corp. reported a second quarter net loss of $7.1 million Monday morning. Advertising revenue — for print and online — was down 30.2% compared to Q2 2008, and Internet revenues were down 20.8%, to $9.8 million. All told, company total revenue fell 21.9% from the same period a year ago.

Network Solutions, a provider of Web-related services for small and medium businesses, has started reaching out to customers about a data breach that was discovered in early June. Credit card information on 573,928 individual consumers may have been compromised in the breach, which Network Solutions publicly reported at the end of the day on July 24.

In a crowded online retail market, Web analytics have become essential. But visitor counts alone aren't cutting it anymore for e-commerce firms looking to provide ultra-personalized shopping experiences.

Event marketing, online tie-ins and database marketing combine to generate leads