The NY Times announced on Thursday that they will begin charging hefty subscription prices to readers who want to get their daily dose of the Times digitally…Starting March 28th visitors to nytimes.com will only be able to read 20 articles a month for free. Once they hit that limit they will be prompted to purchase one of three digital news packages @$15 every four weeks for access to the Web site and a mobile phone app (or $195 for a full year), $20 for Web access and an iPad app ($260 a year) or $35 for an all-access plan ($455 a year). All subscribers who take home delivery of the paper will have free and unlimited access across all Times digital platforms except, for now, e-readers.

I for one love me some NY Times…and easily read more than 20 articles a month digitally, but at those prices, not so much…I use to subscribe, but stopped years ago once I could get it for free on the Internet, in fact I made it my homepage. But @ $200 a year, which is still $100 below a paper subscription, I don’t think so. I have too many other items like cell phone and data plans that didn’t exist before.  So I’ll be one of the millions that work around this pay wall and link to the articles that I want to read from Google and other sites.

It will be interesting to watch this play out and see if “The Times” is right and they get the 15% of loyal readers they want to convert…That would be huge for the newspaper industry.  But the cat is out of the bag and I don’t think it’s going back in…

New York Life has been an integral part of the landscape of New York City for over 165 years. This year, no where is their presence more appropriate than in the Times Square scene of one of New York City’s greatest holiday traditions,the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

Working on behalf of our client  New York Life and with our vendor partners at MSG we were able to negotiate a premier placement of the New York Life “blue box” billboard in the Times Square scene during the Rockette’s extravagana.

This New York Life billboard will not only appear during the NYC Holiday schedule but also in the 19 touring cities that will host the traveling Radio City Spectacular this season.

This is the first year that advertisers have been integrated into the actual scenery of the Radio City Show production. Our client New York Life’s signature blue box shares the stage with Macy’s and Maybelline.

Clever, 23 year-old Brian, intern at BBH, has decided to take on a social media viral challenge by lunching the project called “Dating Brian” – a site on which he will involve the visitor in his dating endeavors. He has vowed to go on 30 dates with 30 women in 30 days and he’s asking the website user to decide who he dates, where they go on their dates and whether or not he should pay for the date, etc.

The site includes links to his mediums, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter, all of which are actively being used to update his friends and follwers.

This is fairly amusing and I may follow his next few dates. I am grateful, however, that TargetCast does not require all interns to do this…

‘Reverse Graffiti’ – the way to show consumers and clients alike that advertisers can utilize alternative, sustainable ways to convey messages.

Using stencils and high-pressure water sprayers, the images and letters of an ad stand out on the dirty sidewalk and asphalt of any city. The cleaned pavement then sends a message to all those who walk over it. The image can last up to a year, considering various weather conditions, foot traffic and surface types.

One of the aspects that makes this medium sustainable include using only 5 gallons of water, in comparison with 30 times that amount needed in order to produce a poster of the same size. Not only does this angle cut out the unnecessary waste, but it’s uniqueness is more likely to catch the eye of a by-passer than a traditional billboard, in turn, stimulating conversation and the use of mobile phones for sending photos of the innovative ad to friends or social media profiles.

Although most of the reverse graffiti companies (such as Curb and Reverse Graffiti) are based in the UK, it has been successfully executed in the US with Domino’s Pizza, The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Audi and Green Works cleaning supplies.

Oh yeah, it’s also completely legal – definitely a plus.

If you live or have ever lived in New York, then you understand the pain and stress people go through to find an apartment.  Well new start up Naked Apartment is looking to make this process a little easier for renters, landlords and apartment brokers. As a renter this site really excels at weaving through the fake ads and lost opportunities by matching qualified renters with brokers and landlords based on the renters’ search criteria.

As a renter, all you will need to do is set up an anonymous account that feature key statistics such as annual income, desired monthly rent, desired apartment size, location and move-in date. Once completed, brokers and landlords can review these profiles and choose to contact renters that they believe meet the rental properties requirements.  As an added bonus Naked Apartments also includes a free credit check when you sign up.  This rocks because New York brokers are known for charging $50+ a credit check, even though we all know they are pulling our credit through freecreditreport.com.

As for revenue, Naked Apartment has a small fee of $2 which brokers and landlords have to pay every time they want to contact a renter.