ALSO. . .

* The continued strength of the U.S. economy led one of the advertising industry’s top forecasters to raise his projection for U.S. ad spending growth this year to 9.4% from a forecast of 8.3%. Spending is expected to rise to $235.6 billion this year, said Robert Coen, director of forecasting for Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Universal McCann unit. In December, Coen forecast spending to rise to $233 billion from $215.3 billion last year. Coen attributed his rosier projection to higher-than-expected ad rates on TV networks, political advertising, spending related to the Summer Olympics in Sydney and to the 2000 census.