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Monday, December 21, 1998 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Bertelsmann Selects Concrete Media Construction to Build its Global Site Concrete Media Construction, the Internet consulting and development unit of Concrete Media Inc., served as a principal Internet development partner for BOL, the upcoming global online bookselling venture of Bertelsmann AG, it was announced today. For the past seven months, Concrete Media Construction was responsible for building the BOL store. "Concrete Media Construction has been pivotal in helping us build this massive project from the ground up," said Chip Austin, CEO of BOL. "We have worked very closely with Concrete to make sure every element of our site not only works, but communicates successfully with our target audience in every country. With Concrete's expertise, the BOL site will seamlessly integrate media and e-commerce into an environment that offers our global consumers fast, simple and efficient transactions online." Known for its online media properties Bolt, a teen portal on the Internet, and the "Girls on" Network, a network of sites for women in their twenties, Concrete Media Construction utilizes the company's internally created methods to build Internet environments for clients such as Time Warner, ABC Television, Hachette Fillipachhi, and other companies. CMP Media Plans to Revive the BYTE Brand in 1999 as BYTE.com CMP Media annoucned that it plans to revive the venerable BYTE brand exclusively as an online product, BYTE.com. When it launches in the first quarter of 1999, BYTE.com will become a core part of the company's online portfolio for business technology professionals, which includes the TechWeb technology news site and the Planet IT online community for IT professionals. BYTE magazine, which CMP suspended in June, will no longer publish in the U.S. but will continue to publish abroad. When it debuts next year, BYTE.com will feature all-new content, including tutorials and columns, as well as utilities, and the archives of the print publication, which the site currently houses. Although there has been little or no new content added to the site since the publication suspended operations, BYTE.com records more than 600,000 page views per month. Traffic is expected to reach well over one million page views per month shortly after the re-launch, according to Tony Uphoff, vice president/group publisher for CMP's Business Technology Group. "By investing in the BYTE brand as online-only product, we will be able to bring the same objective, analytical exploration of computer technology and application developer issues that the print publication provided to an entirely new generation of readers that may not be familiar with the brand," Uphoff said. "BYTE's loyal readers have told us that there is a void in the market for this type of editorial product. However, after talking to advertisers and carefully considering our options, we felt that the brand would best be served as an online product as the advertising community's support of BYTE as a print brand is not sufficient to warrant its continuation." Uphoff added that he tapped veteran online editor David Sims to head up the new BYTE.com. Sims, currently an executive editor with CMPnet, has covered Internet technology and news as the lead editor on several CMP online products, including TechWeb Internet, Net Insider, and WebTools, CMP's site for Web developers. He has also played a major role in building CMPnet's multimedia efforts. Prior to joining CMP, he was managing editor of Web Review, one of the first Web-based magazines, and before that an author and editor for various IEEE Computer Society publications. CMP suspended publication of BYTE in June when it acquired the magazine, along with three other titles and NSTL--an independent testing lab--from The McGraw-Hill Companies. Last week, CMP sent a notice to every subscriber, explaining how the balance of their BYTE subscriptions will be fulfilled. Although BYTE magazine will no longer publish in the U.S., CMP plans to continue licensing the BYTE trademark in the international markets where BYTE is currently published. MCY.COM Launches Website; Consumers Can Digitally Download Music MCY Music will launch its website, MCY.COM, to the public at the 1999 MIDEM conference in Cannes, France on January 24. The site will allow consumers to select, record and purchase music and music related products as well as access web broadcasting of live events, interviews, articles and reviews. MCY.COM will utilize a ground breaking enhanced and encrypted form of MP3 technology (known as M-TRAX), watermarking, and real-time sales tracking that protects the music industry and artists from copyright infringement. MCY Music's CEO, Bernhard Fritsch said, "Digital distribution will revolutionize the way music is sold and distributed. This technology allows Net surfers to buy and record to their PC's, recordable CDs, MCYMan or tapes -- all tailored to meet their individual taste. Digital distribution makes purchasing music easier, faster and cheaper." Mr. Fritsch further explained, "MCY's dynamic combination of technology and software will not only allow it to offer the world a complete system for music distribution via the World Wide Web and cable networks, but also put the Company at the forefront of the industry's gigantic market shift. As more consumers change from lower level modems to DSL and cable technology, the benefits provided by MCY and its website will surely be realized." MCY Music will make available over 1,000,000 digitally downloadable songs from record labels including artists such as: Tina Turner, John Coltrane, Bob Marley and others with whom MCY is currently negotiating. The digitally downloadable music is complemented by a unique piracy protection technology known as M-TRAX. Based in New York, MCY also has offices in Los Angeles, Berlin and London. Screen Actors Guild Releases Commissioned Report: Minorities and Women Still Underrepresented on Television The Screen Actors Guild, the 95,000 member union representing performers nationwide, today issued a commissioned report showing that prime time and daytime television significantly underrepresented large segments of the United States population, including women, Latino/Hispanics, Asian Pacific Americans, Native American Indians, the disabled and seniors. The report, titled Casting the American Scene, was authored by Dr. George Gerbner, Bell Atlantic Professor of Telecommunications, Temple University. It follows two earlier studies (1979 and 1994) conducted by Gerbner on behalf of the Guild that found similar results. The current report examined 6,882 characters who appeared in 440 prime time episodes of dramatic programs during 1994-1997. It also analyzed 2,137 characters in 205 episodes on daytime television over the same period. Among the report's other findings:
"The Screen Actors Guild is dedicated to improving job opportunities for groups that have traditionally been underrepresented on television and in films," explained Guild President Richard Masur. "Part of that effort is educating our industry about the differences between the fictional world created for television and film and the real world audience that watches those fictional creations." Masur said the amount of roles going to African Americans was encouraging but cautioned against reading too much into the Guild's numbers or the report's findings: "This report tells us a great deal about the overall number of cast members who are of a particular ethnicity or gender and their age. It tells us very little about the types of roles being offered to minority actors or the compensation they receive for their performance." Liberty Group Publishing Acquires Life Newspapers Liberty Group Publishing has announced the acquisition of the Chicago area's largest family owned multi-weekly newspaper chain, Oak Brook-based Life Printing & Publishing Co., Inc. The 72-year-old newspaper group publishes 17 newspapers with a combined total of 130,000 circulation in 40 west and southwest Chicago suburbs. Larry Randa, Life's current vice president of operations, will become publisher and CEO for Life Newspapers. "We are excited about the opportunity to add such a well run and well respected group of newspapers to our organization," said Kenneth L. Serota, president and CEO for Northbrook, Ill.-based Liberty. "The acquisition of LIFE Newspapers will bring our DuPage County and suburban Chicago circulation to almost 250,000." "An important consideration in our acquisition was the opportunity to keep Larry Randa at the helm of LIFE Newspapers," Serota added. "He brings to our organization a unique expertise on the suburban market." Randa has 29 years of experience in the journalism field, the last 24 with Life. The immediate past president of Suburban Newspapers of America and current president of SNA's Suburban Classified Network, he has won more than 50 local, regional and national awards for writing, photography and community service, including three coveted Peter Lisagor Awards from the Chicago Headline Club. 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 © 1997-2007 by Writers Write, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
