If you can't join Marketing Keys and hundreds of others at the 20th Annual American Lung Association Golf Outing in Springfield on May 20th, here is another great way to contribute to the cause. Help support the 20th annual Springfield Golf Classic and Blue Cross Blue Shield Corporate Cup by participating in the American Lung Association's live auction.  The online auction is currently open and will continue through May 20, 2013.  Proceeds go to American Lung Association in Illinois to continue to fund cutting edge research, best practice educational programs, tobacco cessation counseling and much more.  Click here to be directed to the online auction site and help support the cause.

Many cable TV networks have already completed their flashy presentations to agencies, media planners and buyers to kick off negotiations with advertisers over fall prime-time programming, and the biggest cable and broadcast pitches are now looming. Marketing Keys will have representation at many of these. This year brings some new changes.  Plenty of other media companies vying for marketers' TV budgets are trying upfronts of their own -- everyone from The Wall Street Journal to Zynga.

Here is the "Upfront" schedule for the coming week:

eBay will soon start letting brands build out audience segments using its wealth of shopping data so they can target ads to consumers on non-eBay sites, following a similar move by Amazon.  While information has been scarce, here is what we know so far. eBay has compiled shopper segments like people looking for or buying auto, clothing, music or books that advertisers can target by working directly with eBay's sales teams.

eBay executives were unavailable for comment, but a company spokesperson emailed the following statement: "We've recently introduced new capabilities to deliver more relevant, highly targeted digital advertising content to buyers both on and off the eBay platform on behalf of third parties, consistent with our privacy policy."

Like Amazon's ad platform, eBay's potential is in the product browsing and purchase data it's able to collect from users. 

One potential sticking point with eBay is whether the stereotypical bargain-hunting eBay shopper is as valuable to an advertiser as someone who plays full price at Amazon.  In some cases, however, eBay's data may be unique enough to be more valuable than Amazon's.  "If I want an autographed baseball card from a 1952 [Bost Red Sox] player, I can't get that from Amazon," Martin said. 

One year ago it made national news. New Orleans became the largest market in the country to stop its production of a daily newspaper. They were cutting down production of The Times-Picayune to 3 days/week and pushing their online digital site for readers to get news from the other 4 days of the week. Nearly one year after The Times-Picayune of New Orleans announced that it would print only three days a week, the paper said it planned to roll out a three-day-a-week tabloid edition.

Starting this summer, a tabloid called TPStreet will be published on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, according to a statement released online by Jim Amoss, editor and vice president for content at The Times-Picayune.

TPStreet will be available on newsstands for 75 cents and not be delivered to subscribers' homes.  At the same time, The Times-Picayune will continue to publish and offer home delivery of its traditional newspaper on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

"We promised to invest in our community, and we're fulfilling that promise," said Ricky R. Mathews, president and publisher of the Times-Picayune in a statement posted on the Web site Nola.com.

Many New Orleans residents posted comments tinged with sarcasm on Nola.com.  One reader of Nola.com named BeignetBob posted on the site, "C'mon guys, just admit it: The grand digital experiment is a big bust.  We tried to tell you, but would you listen?  Nooooooo.  Next time, listen to the readers."