There's one that's way left over from the 50's. I've seen a few deals where the label wants a share of 'publishing', but usually they don't get it.
The last deal I saw signed, got signed pretty much because the artist had a publishing deal and was selling songs left, right, and center. He also had released his own CD's with the songs, and got the deal based on his 'catalog', but mostly because his songs have been placed in a bunch of TV shows...which happened because of his 'publishing deal'.