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Tuesday, March 31st 1998 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Reader's Digest Magazine Redesigns Editions Worldwide Reader's Digest magazine announced a major redesign for its 48 editions worldwide, taking the familiar table of contents off the cover and replacing it with bold photography and enhanced graphics. The change is effective with the May 1998 issues of the magazine, which is published in 48 editions and 19 languages and read monthly by more than 100 million readers. An expanded, two-page table of contents with photos and highlights about articles appears inside, categorizing by themes such as health/fitness, current affairs, people and drama/adventure. "This redesign is driven by our longtime goal of serving our readers, as well as making the world's favorite magazine easier to use and more contemporary looking," said Reader's Digest Editor-in-Chief Christopher Willcox. "We haven't changed our editorial approach. We just got better looking." To dramatize the redesign and demonstrate the global reach of Reader's Digest, all 48 editions will carry the same cover art -- a photo of a San Francisco female firefighter featured in the upcoming book Fighting Fire. The magazine's popular book section features an exclusive excerpt of the book, which will be published in May by St. Martin's Press. NewMedia Magazine Announces Appointment of New Editor Richard Landry, president and CEO of HyperMedia Communications, Inc. and publisher of NewMedia® magazine, has announced the appointment of Becky Waring to the position of editor. Waring has held positions at NewMedia since 1991, including managing editor and executive editor. She was instrumental in the development of the NewMedia Lab, a testing studio where the lab staff compares and rates cutting-edge hardware, software, and online products. Prior to her tenure at NewMedia, she was senior reviews editor at MacWeek from 1988 to 1991. She has also been executive director of the Boston Computer Society Macintosh Group. Waring received both her B.S. degree in civil engineering and M.S. degree in management from M.I.T. NewMedia magazine is published by HyperMedia Communications, Inc. The magazine specializes in comprehensive comparative product reviews supported by the NewMedia Lab, and includes industry news and feature articles. Hoover's Online Announces 20,000th Subscription Hoover's, Inc., a provider of company information on the Internet, announced that it has surpassed 20,000 individual subscribers to its flagship Web site, Hoover's Online, after reaching a benchmark 15,000 subscribers just six weeks ago and 10,000 in late October. "To those who think Web users aren't willing to pay for information, Hoover's Online is evidence to the contrary," Patrick Spain, Hoover's CEO, said. "This milestone translates not only to more subscription dollars, but also to greater advertising revenues. But it's not just about traffic, it's about building an audience of targeted, business-minded individuals who recognize and are willing to pay for quality information that will help them make decisions. Traffic without audience is worthless." Spain attributes the subscription growth to the site's strategic combination of free and paid company information. He also credits Hoover's continuous efforts to expand the number of companies included in its collection, citing another recent milestone -- the addition of 300 new Hoover's Company Profiles, bringing the total to 3,000. For free, viewers can access Hoover's Company Capsules on over 12,000 public and private companies worldwide -- searchable by company name, ticker symbol or keyword. Capsules include a company description, address and phone numbers, key officers, top competitors, a link to the company's website, basic financial information, links to stock quotes and charts, news stories, annual reports, and employment opportunities. Hoover's Online subscribers, who pay $12.95/month or $124.95/year for a personal subscription, can access 3,000 Hoover's Company Profiles, including company strategy, history, products and services, and competitors, as well as up to 10 years of in-depth financial information on more than 8,500 companies. Subscribers can search for companies by industry, location, annual sales and/or company type. Subscribers also receive access to real-time SEC documents. Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic to Release in the U.S. On April 2 Simon & Schuster Interactive and The Digital Village announced that April 2 will be the street date in the United States for the PC adventure game title -- Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic. Starship Titanic introduces a language processor capable of facilitating entertaining conversations between the player and the game's central characters. The language engine features SpookiTalk, a proprietary parser tool that draws on more than 14 hours of recorded dialogue and a library of more than 12,000 popular references. The game's graphics were executed under the direction of the Oscar® award-winning design team of Oscar Chichoni and Isabel Molina. "I really wanted to originate an adventure game for CD-ROM," said Douglas Adams. "Most works adapted from books or television are extremely linear. With Starship Titanic, I am very conscious of recalling into this medium some of the complex interaction between author and player that was characteristic of the early adventure games, but which got lost when the medium progressed technologically and more attention focused on the graphics. Our graphics are fabulous, but our character interactions are fabulous as well." Starship Titanic is a joint venture between Simon & Schuster Interactive and The Digital Village. The Starship Titanic website is also available to the public at: www.starshiptitanic.com. The site will link to webpages for all international publishers, where users can order the game. In addition, commemorative merchandise will also be available. New Website for Comic Superhero Ribman Ribman wears tights, sports a cape that could have been stolen from a picnic table, and has a prosthetic hand shaped like a fork. Primed and poised to attend to food-related emergencies, he is always ready to come to the aid of the local meat supply. RibMan's motto is "Truth, Justice and Quality Meat Products." The comic strip that chronicles his misadventures can now be found online at: http://www.ribman.net. RibMan co-creator Rich Davis is an authority on barbecue. He is former president of the KC Masterpiece Barbecue Sauce Company, and has been immersed in the marketing, creating, and selling of barbecue for over 15 years. He is currently the VP of the KC Masterpiece Restaurant Company, but has has left day-to-day operations in order to devote his full time and attention to the RibMan comic strip. "RibMan currently appears in The Kansas City Star and The Des Moines Register; syndication is a near-future goal. Davis' partner John Sprengelmeyer has been a freelance artist and consultant for the last 10 years, developing childrens' promotions characters and toys for fast food restaurant chains such as Hardee's, Whataburger, and Sonic. The strip is edited by Jake Morrissey, a senior editor at Universal Press Syndicate. Morrissey has edited the wildly popular Calvin and Hobbes, Far Side and Fox Trot. Click here to return to the homepage of The Write NewsTM Click here to subscribe to our free weekly email newsletter.  www.writenews.com Copyright © 1997-2010 by Writers Write, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
