Clever multi-channel ad deals bring Rachel Ray to the supermarket aisle...

... for better of worse, depending on your opinion of the hyper-perky TV personality.  But the deal between CBS Outernet and the "Everyday with Rachel Ray" (described by Mediaweek) is pretty innovative:

Tapping the growing segment of out-of-home media, the perky TV personality’s cooking magazine, Everyday with Rachael Ray, is giving airtime on flat-screen TVs in supermarkets to print advertisers like Tylenol and Eggo who make a minimum page commitment.

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While the clients get what Rachael Ray vp, publisher Anne Balaban called the magazine’s “ruboff” effect, the deals are helping drive pages to the magazine; each sponsor had to commit to three to four pages in-book. That’s no small potatoes at a time when page growth has flattened like a bad soufflé for the once-hot Reader’s Digest Assn. title. After launching three years ago with a rate base of 350,000, the food/lifestyle title soared to a circ topping 1.7 million and notched a 58.3 percent rise in ad pages in 2007. But for ’08, ad page growth has slowed to 3.2 percent, with 741 total pages, per the Mediaweek Monitor. “We’re feeling the pinch like everybody else,” Balaban said.

Magazines have been hit hard by the past year's down economy, with more closing than ever before (which of course didn't stop more from starting up than ever before, but hey, that's entrepreneurship for you, right?). But Everyday is a major publication with substantial backing, so watching them step up and try to reach their subscribers and new potentials right at the point-of-decision

Tags: digital signage, advertising, cbs outernet