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Monday, May 3, 1999 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Sports Illustrated And Total Sports Join Forces to Create a New Book Publishing Entity Sports Illustrated and Total Sports have announced the launch of a new joint book publishing venture to be called Total/Sports Illustrated, creating what they believe will be the most focused and effective sports publishing entity in the industry. Total/Sports Illustrated represents the joining of two established sports information brands. Sports Illustrated, the most widely read sports news magazine in the nation, boasts a weekly readership of nearly 25 million. Total Sports is a leading online and print sports information company and the first new media company to cybercast live sporting events on the Internet. Total Sports currently maintains over 40 websites and has cybercast more than 4,000 live events over the past three years. Both companies bring book publishing experience to the table. Sports Illustrated has published books for five decades, both for the general book trade and through in-house direct response channels. Trade distribution has been handled by a number of different partners, including, on occasion, Time Inc. corporate siblings Warner Books and Little, Brown. Sports Illustrated has also published books which were used exclusively as advertiser and subscriber premiums. Total Sports has published 21 titles since 1997, including highly regarded sports pictorial volumes, almanacs and encyclopedias such as Total Baseball, Total Hockey, and Total Football, the official encyclopedias of the MLB, NHL, and NFL, respectively. By comparison, Total/Sports Illustrated will publish 20-30 titles a year, representing a full and diverse range of sports-related books, including literary nonfiction, biography, reference, illustrated coffee table books, compilations, instructional volumes, and reissues of sports classics, among others. The first T/SI list includes such titles as Twentieth Century Sports, a collection of the greatest sports photographs from the archives of Sports Illustrated and the Associated Press; 12 Leadership Principles of Dean Smith, by legendary University of North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith with David Chadwick; and Smoke: The Romance of Cuban Baseball, by Peter Bjarkman and Mark Rucker. Distribution will be handled exclusively by Publishers Group West. "We have taken two highly regarded sports publishing brands and created what I hope will be the #1 sports book publishing entity in the country," said Stanley Weil, Director of New Product Development for Sports Illustrated. "For almost 45 years magazine readers have turned to Sports Illustrated as the most credible and authoritative voice for sports news and information. I expect the same will soon be true for book readers with respect to Total/Sports Illustrated." F&W Publications Retains Veronis, Suhler & Associates to Explore Strategic Options Richard Rosenthal, President of F&W Publications, has announced that he has retained Veronis, Suhler & Associates to explore strategic options, including a possible sale of the company to a publisher or financial investor. F&W is a diversified and integrated marketer of special interest publications and services. Veronis, Suhler & Associates is an investment bank specializing in the media and communications industry. Founded in 1913, F&W Publications has focused on helping its customers build upon and improve their creativity. The company's products serve the writing, art, graphic design, sewing, quilting, and woodworking niches, doing so in multiple media formats. Its operations include twelve special interest magazines, hundreds of books published under five imprints, seven book clubs, and independent study courses. The company has established an Internet presence for many of the company's brands, and is now increasing its investment in existing sites and developing additional new media initiatives. F&W Publications is owned by Richard Rosenthal and Jennie Rosenthal Berliant. The company operates from a retrofitted art deco building on the National Register of Historic Places. It has over 300 employees and is based in Cincinnati, Ohio. OnHealth and Better Homes and Gardens Online Sign Deal OnHealth Network Company, an Internet health resource, and Meredith Corporation's Better Homes and Gardens Online, have announced an agreement whereby OnHealth will provide health news and information for the Better Homes and Gardens website. As part of the arrangement, Better Homes and Gardens Online will tap OnHealth's supply of editorial content to enhance the site's existing health resources. OnHealth currently includes extensive health features such as the interactive Cold, Flu or Allergy Guide; a special health and fitness section; and a library of informative feature articles. OnHealth will be a major content provider for the site's daily health news channel and will offer Better Homes and Gardens' online audience easy access to OnHealth's large database of information about a wide range of medical conditions. Through the agreement, Better Homes and Gardens becomes the first national online magazine brand to distribute OnHealth content. Under the one-year deal, in addition to the content distribution, OnHealth will provide an archive of its daily news content. Better Homes and Gardens is expected to launch its updated health area in early May. "We live in a health conscious society in which people are constantly looking for easy-to-access high quality health information," said Jean LemMon, Editor-in-Chief of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. "With its commitment to excellence and consumer-friendly approach, OnHealth is an excellent partner to help us meet that need for our website users." Barron's Hires Veverka as "Plugged In" Columnist Barron's has hired Mark Veverka as West Coast Editor and writer of the magazine's popular "Plugged In" technology column. Beginning in June, "Plugged In" will be increased to weekly frequency from its current every-other-week schedule. "We're delighted to have Mark join us to keep our readers on top of technology and the Internet, which are so important to investing today," said Ed Finn, Editor and President of Barron's, the Dow Jones Business and Financial Weekly. "Besides writing `Plugged In,' Mark plans to do features and cover stories about industries, companies and trends, and he will also contribute to CNBC." Veverka said, "I'm very pleased to be returning to Dow Jones & Company. I look forward to bringing readers even more of Barron's unique brand of insight into the goings-on in Silicon Valley." For the past year, Veverka, 38, has been writing the thrice-weekly "Street Smarts" column for the San Francisco Chronicle. He has also appeared on the Chronicle's cable TV channel, Bay TV, and on KRON, the NBC affiliate station in San Francisco. Prior to joining the Chronicle, Veverka wrote the weekly "Heard in California" column for The Wall Street Journal's California section. Earlier in his career, Veverka served as an associate editor at Crain's Chicago Business and as a business reporter for the Orange Country Register in Southern California. Veverka holds a bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and a masters degree from Northwestern Cyber Space Day: Countdown to the Future Cyber Space Day, the second annual Webcast devoted to space, science, math and technology, will be broadcast live from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on Space Day, May 6, 1999 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time and can be accessed via the official Space Day website. Created for children around the world, the four-hour interactive Webcast will highlight some of the outstanding discoveries and pioneering space events of the 20th Century while inspiring young people to realize their dreams in the new Millennium. Hosted by respected journalists, Cyber Space Day will feature a stellar cast of astronauts, authors, astronomers, educators, entrepreneurs, scientists, filmmakers and policy makers. The initial guest list includes Senator John Glenn, Bill Nye, The Science Guy, Kathryn D. Sullivan, first woman to space walk, Homer Hickam, Jr., whose life story is told in the recently acclaimed film October Sky, Katharine Clark, chief scientist of the International Space Station and Dan Goldin, NASA Administrator. The Cyber Space Day Webcast will be fully interactive and available to people who can access the Internet through a 28.8 modem or faster connection. Visitors are encouraged to e-mail their questions to the hosts, who in turn will submit as many questions as possible to the special guests. The software needed to see and hear the Webcast can be downloaded in advance for free at http://www.spaceday.com. The material will also be archived and posted on the Internet for six months following the Webcast. 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. |
