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Monday, May 17, 1999 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Reader's Digest Launches New Magazine for Young Parents Reader's Digest has launched a new magazine that offers insight and emotional support as well as expert advice for young parents. Reader's Digest Your Family tackles topics of interest to anyone with kids, but the focus is on infants through children age 6 -- and on handling the many challenges these youngsters present. "These early years are when young parents most need advice and reassurance," said Anne Cutler, publishing director for Reader's Digest Special Interest Publications. The full-size, 112-page magazine debuts this week at newsstands, supermarkets and mass merchandisers nationwide, including the Barnes & Noble bookstore chain. About 500,000 copies will go on sale through July, at $3.95. "We've provided more than just a 'how-to' book," explained Stephanie Wood, editorial director for Your Family. "We want to give parents more depth, more candor and more empathy -- the feeling that you're talking with a trusted friend, someone who knows just what you're going through." The editorial market is packed with parenting advice, Wood admits, but much of it is dry, nuts-and-bolts pronouncements from pediatricians and psychologists. "Those are important voices, but they're not the only voices. And not all families fit into their mold." If readers also respond, Cutler added, Your Family could soon be appearing on a regular basis, perhaps quarterly. "Parents who have seen it so far love it. Just like its own parent, Reader's Digest magazine, it's entertaining and inspiring as well as informative." Miningco.Com Changes Name To About.Com MiningCo.com, Inc. has announced that it is changing its name to About.com, Inc. The name change reflects the company’s evolution from being primarily a portal into a network of destinations that combine original content, search and community at more than 650 topic-specific sites within 18 channels. The service and brand change takes effect today. The company’s new ticker symbol, (Nasdaq: BOUT), will take effect May 20. The name change and branding of the network unlocks the potential value of each of the 18 vertical channels at About.com and creates a larger platform upon which it can grow. The channels draw content from the Internet’s largest producer of original content, the more than 650 Guides. The Guides at About.com offer more than 400,000 handpicked links and each week the Guides create hundreds of new articles and newsletters and host hundreds of chats. About.com provides a branded network of 18 channels and more than 650 topic-specific sites led by expert human Guides. Each GuideSite provides a comprehensive experience on a particular area of interest and includes a filtered directory, original content, as well as community features that include chat, discussion forums, newsletters and event calendars. The Guides at About.com are experts in their subject areas and are responsible. They are independent contractors and are compensated based on their performance and traffic. Guides must successfully complete a 16-week training program and fewer than 25% of those who apply to become Guides make it through the process. There are currently Guides living in 45 states and 18 countries worldwide. Highwired.Net and Lycos Announce Content Alliance Highwired.Net, a network of online high school newspapers, and Lycos, Inc., a search engine and online community, has announced a co-branded site on Lycos.com that will provide Highwired.Net's National Edition paper. The Highwired.Net/Lycos alliance began with students reporting of the Columbine High School tragedy, and how it affected students across the country. The co-branded site is located at http://www.highwirednet.lycos.com. Highwired.Net provides Lycos.com with the raw journalistic talent of high school students from around the country who are reporting in an organized, educational environment. Students across the country, and across the world, provide articles on subjects of importance to teenagers -- from prom, to football games, to world events that shape students' lives. Highwired.Net has taken these stories and created one paper that provides a breadth of student reporting, from a small remote school in Alaska to a large urban school in Chicago. "Nowhere else will you find such a diversity of voices and an extreme honesty of student reporting," said Mark Johnson, vice president of marketing and a co-founder of Highwired.Net. "There is a wide range of thoughts and concerns associated with high school life. With the National Edition and the Lycos alliance, these thoughts and concerns are eloquently captured for the world to read." Students' stories for the National Edition are selected from the more than 1,400 Highwired.Net member schools in all 50 states and 20 foreign countries. The National Edition includes the best stories covering student opinions on a wide range of issues from all the schools in the network. Books24x7.com, Inc. Announces Web Licensing Partnerships with Five Tech Book Publishers Books24x7.com, Inc., has announced content licensing partnerships with five leading computer book publishers, including Artech House, Macmillan Computer Publishing (Que and Sams), O'Reilly & Associates, Osborne/McGraw-Hill and Sybex. The agreements allow for delivery of full-text versions of electronic books from each publisher via Books24x7.com, the Company's new web-based professional information service for IT, software developers and other technology professionals. Offered on a subscription basis, Books24x7.com provides corporate users with unlimited access to a large web repository containing the full electronic text of the industry's top technical reference books. The service provides users a range of features for using electronic books, including multi-level fuzzy logic searching, collection building, personalization, and collaboration. "Books24x7.com represents a breakthrough web offering for any corporate professional whose job involves effectively working with technology," said John Ambrose, Books24x7.com Vice President of Marketing. "The overwhelming support shown by our publishing partners is a further validation of our web technology, innovative approach to building electronic books, and our commitment to helping publishers achieve a greater return on their content investment." The Penguin Group Launches PenguinClassics.Com The Penguin Group has announced the launch of PenguinClassics.com, an Internet site focused exclusively on literary classics. PenguinClassics.com will be a resource for general readers and educators through online interviews, discussion areas, research and original essays. The Penguin Group is exploring alliances with potential e-commerce and distribution partners. "With the launch of PenguinClassics.com we are creating the modern-day equivalent of the old-fashioned salon in which the enduring values of the world's greatest literature are discussed, debated and passed on to a new generation of readers," said Michael Lynton, Chairman and Chief Executive of The Penguin Group. "We will bring to PenguinClassics.com the same commitment to quality that has long been a hallmark of Penguin Classics and employ a full range of community-building features to make the Internet experience as rewarding as possible for our readers." Around the Web Amazon Offers Best-selling Books at Half-off MediaCentral Books Unbound at Cannes Salon.com EMAP Acquires Auto Properties MediaCentral Pegasus, Largest Canadian Wholesaler, Is Launched Publishers Weekly Price War Among Online Booksellers Fox News Virgin Megastores Join Online Fray; Imprint to Sell from Site Publishers Weekly 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. |
