writenews.com
|
Tuesday, May 26th, 1998 Yahoo! Internet Life Increases Circulation Ziff-Davis announced that Yahoo! Internet Life will increase its rate base from 400,000 to 600,000 in February 1999. According to Publisher Jim Spanfeller, Yahoo! Internet Life has experienced strong growth since its inception, with a rate base that has increased 500% since its launch. The magazine's rate base will have grown from 100,000 a quarter in the fall of 1995 to 600,000 a month in February 1999. "Web users are a growing, affluent, and intelligent audience who look to Yahoo! Internet Life for information on the usefulness and entertainment value of the Internet," says Spanfeller. "With the numbers moving the way they are, we anticipate a lot more growth in the future." As a lifestyle and service magazine and Internet guide, Yahoo! Internet Life monitors, comments on, and chronicles Internet culture, and helps readers find the best the Web has to offer. Published by Ziff Davis, Yahoo! Internet Life is based in New York, with branch offices in major markets around the country. TNT's Rough Cut Online Announces Screenplay Challenge Beginning July 17, 1998, TNT's Rough Cut Online and New Line Cinema will present the Rough Cut Screenplay Challenge, a chance for Web surfers to collaborate online with Hollywood screenwriter, David S. Goyer. This will be the first in a series of genre-specific Screenplay Challenges. Goyer will post the first five to ten pages of an original science-fiction thriller exclusive to the Rough Cut website. These first pages will introduce the characters and their world, and set a direction for the story. Movie fans and aspiring screenwriters will be encouraged to continue the story by submitting their own ten pages as the possible next chapter. "The World Wide Web offers a unique opportunity to share in the creative process," Goyer said. "I am excited to see what people come up with. Who knows? We just might be launching some promising careers!" Each week, a panel of judges will select the best submission and post those ten new pages on the site. In addition to the opportunity to "collaborate" with Goyer and publish online, the winners will be awarded a prize. At the end of the contest, Goyer will read the published script and write the final five pages. "I'll look at the twists and turns the other writers have contributed, and try to wrap up the story in a dramatic way that will satisfy and surprise everyone," Goyer said. The final screenplay will total between 100 and 120 pages -- the standard length for a feature film -- and will be available online for fans to read. TNT Rough Cut will post complete rules and regulations for the Screenplay Challenge, as well as a submission form. Hummer Winblad Makes Strategic Investment In The Knot With an investment announced from Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, The Knot, a bridal media company, is planning an expansion into electronic commerce. The Knot is a provider of wedding services and information. Launched in September 1996, its flagship sites on America Online (AOL Keyword: Knot) and the website at http://www.theknot.com attract a monthly audience of more than 250,000 unique users, resulting in more than 5 million page views every month. According to David Liu, CEO and co-founder of The Knot, the investment will enable the company to launch an online wedding registry. The Knot's growth strategy also includes an active expansion into traditional media. The Knot's Complete Guide to Weddings for the Real World, the first of three books from The Knot, will be published by Broadway Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell, in Fall 1999. The Knot's 13 part television series, Weddings for the Real World, a co-production with WHYY, Philadelphia's public television station, is tentatively scheduled to begin airing in Spring 1999. And The Knot is currently developing a print magazine with a national publisher. Student Net Publishing's Student.Com Partners With Excite Student Net Publishing's Student.Com, a website with original daily content on college life, announced a content distribution agreement with Excite. Through the partnership, Student.Com's college content, tools and services will be integrated into and prominently featured within Excite's Career & Education channel. Students using Excite will have access to Student.Com's editorial content including college and university news, sports and campus information. In addition to the content alliance, the relationship will also include joint on-campus marketing initiatives. "Students, more than any other demographic, instinctively turn to the Web as a search tool in all facets of their lives," said Stewart Ugelow, CEO of Student Net Publishing. "Working with Excite, we will be able to reach an increasing number of students, specifically those who are already looking for the content and tools we offer at Student.Com." Student Net Publishing LLC, was founded by students at Yale and Columbia universities in 1995 to provide college students with high-quality online content. The company derives revenues from multiple sources including advertising, electronic commerce, and content syndication. Hearst-Argyle Television To Acquire Broadcasting Group Of Pulitzer Publishing Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc. has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire the nine-station broadcast television group and the five radio stations of Pulitzer Publishing Company . The combination creates a group of 24 television stations and seven radio stations, and will increase Hearst-Argyle Television's coverage of U.S. television households from about 11 percent to approximately 16.5 percent. In connection with the transaction, Pulitzer will contribute its newspaper operations into a new subsidiary which will be spun off to the current stockholders of Pulitzer. Pulitzer, with its remaining broadcast operations, will then be merged into Hearst-Argyle in exchange for $1.15 billion of Hearst-Argyle Series A Common Stock. New Online Game Based on Tolkien Works Yosemite Entertainment, formerly known as Sierra Publishing, has finalized negotiations with Tolkien Enterprises to cement an extensive multi-year, multi-product deal to develop interactive games based on J.R.R. Tolkien's legendary works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Middle-earth, to be based on the fantasy world brought into existence by Tolkien, will utilize much of Sierra On-Line's existing multiplayer technology ranging from early work on The Imagination Network (INN) to its most recent on-line game The Realm. A BETA version of Middle-earth is scheduled for mid-1999. "We are pleased to join forces with Yosemite Entertainment on this project," said Al Bendich and Laurie Battle of Tolkien Enterprises. "The new frontier of cyberspace offers an unprecedented opportunity for people around the world to participate in the magic of Middle-earth." Yosemite Entertainment General Manager Craig Alexander noted that, "Without a doubt, Middle-earth is the most technically ambitious project that our two-decade-old development group has undertaken. Professor Tolkien spent most of his adult life creating this fictional world, and our goal is to recreate all of the detail and complexity of this fantasy masterpiece." Set in Middle Earth several generations after the end of the Third Age as presented by Tolkien in his books, Yosemite Entertainment's game players will enter the world -- made up of some 20,000 distinct regions -- and be able to choose to portray a hobbit, an elf, a dwarf, or a human. Locations, peoples and foes long familiar to devotees of the bestselling epic tale are being developed with utmost care, so as to preserve books' integrity. New Internet Health Care Directory The Center for Healthcare Information (CHI) has just published its Case Management Resource Guide on the Internet at http://www.cmrg.com. The new website is based on the Center for Healthcare Information's popular Resource Guide, an annual print directory published since 1990. The Internet Resource Guide offers users the ability to search among more than 100,000 organization listings, covering companies, facilities and services in over 40 categories. Each listing includes the organization name, address and phone number. Many listings also offer detailed data such as credentials, special programs, staffing, affiliations, admission restrictions, contact names, fax numbers and website addresses with hyperlinks to their home pages. Now in its 9th edition, the print Case Management Resource Guide is a four-volume, 5,000-page directory used daily by more than 50,000 case managers, discharge planners, social workers, worker's compensation managers, network developers, recruiters and health care sales professionals. The print edition sells for $60 per volume, or $225 for all four regional volumes. 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 © 1997-2011 by Writers Write, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
