-- NYT And Monster partner on free job posting promo: With help wanted ads continuing to decline, newspapers might as well give the space away. Well, that's what NYT and partner Monster.com are doing—as long as recruiters get their job listings in by midnight on Thursday. For those who buy an online job ad through the NYT/Monster job site, the ad will appear in the next Sunday NYT print edition for free. Mashable is practically apoplectic about the promo, calling it "one more nail in the coffin" and questions NYT's reasoning: "nothing of this kind has worked before for any organization, so why try again?"

-- Jerry Yang—the last optimist in the room: The Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) CEO tried to sell an audience at an industry conference in London that the current recession represents "a great time for opportunity" for online ad companies. Yang's silver lining is premised on the notion that as display ad revs drop, performance-based ad spend will rise as marketers race towards the promise of greater ROI and direct response formats.

More after the jump.

-- NebuAd suit could have wider impact: A class action lawsuit filed this week against troubled ad targeter NebuAd and and six ISPs—Bresnan Communications, Cable One, CenturyTel, Embarq, Knology and WOW—could influence legislation on the use of behavioral targeting. The companies are accused of violating privacy rights, including federal wiretap prohibitions. If the plaintiffs succeed, it could spur strict requirements on offering consumers an opt-in feature before being targeted.

-- Skipped ads still catch notice: For all the hand-wringing over DVR-enabled ad skipping, a Journal of Marketing white paper says that even fast-forwarded spots still catch viewers' attention. Even when shortened to a second-and-a-half—and silent—most ad-skippers can still recall the brand's name and logo. The secret is put the crucial visuals at the center, as ad-skippers' eyes are less likely to wander to other parts of the screen.

-- Meredith scales back multimedia program: Meredith (NYSE: MDP) Publishing Group's 360 degree multimedia program has been faltering due to the economic downturn and is being scaled back. The unit, which links experiential marketing, broadband TV and print, instead will concentrate on three or four marketing elements as opposed to the seven or eight it used when ad sales were higher. It will also focus on less costly formats, like direct mail.

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