|
|
writenews.com
|
Wednesday, March 7, 2001 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes The SFWA is sponsoring a series of nationwide book signings to coincide with the Nebula Awards weekend, April 27-29, 2001. All writers of speculative fiction are welcome to participate. For instance, authors of science-fiction, fantasty, time travel romances, paranormal mysteries, etc. If you would like to be part of a signing or reading at your local bookstore, please contact Jacquelyn Freilich at jfreilich@citysearch.com. Jacquelyn would like authors to try and respond by March 21 as it will take a couple of weeks to put authors together with booksellers and hopefully arrange for some publicity. Thomson Financial, a provider of financial information services and solutions, has launched TheBankingChannel. TheBankingChannel aggregates Thomson Financial's news, data, statistics and research, and supplements it with third party content from companies such as Dow Jones and Screaming Media. The site featuressearchable archives of Thomson Financial's publications and also houses the Electronic Marketplace, a multi-faceted vendor guide for the banking industry. TheBankingChannel features specific vertical market channels (Technology, Community Banking and Regulatory & Compliance) with plans to add additional channels, as well as real-time chat and conferencing, in the near future. Cahners Business Information, a member of the Reed Elsevier plc group, announced the promotion of Steve Reiss to senior vice president, Electronics Group. Reiss, who was previously vice president and group publisher, will now oversee Cahners' entire electronics industry portfolio, which includes such print properties as Electronic Business, Electronic News, Semiconductor International, and Electronic Packaging & Production, as well as two research groups: Cahners In-Stat Group and Cahners MicroDesign Research. National Geographic and Encore Software Inc. announced that they have signed a letter of intent for an exclusive, multi-year agreement in which Encore Software will market and distribute National Geographic's CD-ROM and DVD-ROM software. This partnership will result in several titles to be launched in 2001, and new CD-ROM and console titles thereafter, all under the Nationalgeographic.com brand. Under this agreement, National Geographic will deliver branded content while Encore Software will manage all aspects of marketing and retail distribution in North America. Fortune.com has launched a redesign. Fortune.com is the first Time Inc. online component since the AOL Time Warner merger to be hosted and operated from America Online's network facility in Northern Virginia. John Huey, Editor of Fortune, and Jack Haire, President of The Fortune Group, made the announcement. Editorial content for the site will be created at Fortune's New York headquarters. Matt Peyton, General Manager of Fortune.com, worked closely with Fortune executive editor Peter Petre, and Christopher Poleway, Chief Operating Officer, The Fortune Group, in overseeing the website's year-long redesign. Fortune.com content will be featured as branded content on other AOL Time Warner sites, and cross-promoted and linked to various AOL and Netscape initiatives, including CNN.com, CNN Money, and others. RightsMarket Inc. announced the release of Version 2.0 of its RightsPublish technology. RightsPublish is a digital publishing and digital rights management product for content owners. bigchalk.com, inc., a K-12 online education network, announced that it has closed $43.3 million in Series B financing. New investors for this round are Softbank Ventures, Inc.; Bell & Howell Information and Learning, a founder of bigchalk; Investment Group of Santa Barbara; and William E. Oberndorf, the Chairman of bigchalk and Core Learning Group. The original Series A investors -- TBG Information Investors, Core Learning Group, Patricof & Co. and Frank Bonsal (founder of New Enterprise Associates) -- participated in this round. Disney Publishing Worldwide has entered into a multi-year exclusive licensing agreement with The Baby Einstein Co., the producer of developmental media products for young children, to produce the first series of books based on Baby Einstein's interactive videos for babies. The first seven titles to release under this agreement, which hit stores in fall 2001, will introduce babies to fine art, classical music and more. Audible, Inc. announced that the Kalamazoo (MI) Public Library is the first library in the United States to offer its patrons the loan of digital audiobooks and AudibleReady portable digital audio players. Audible is a provider of Internet-delivered spoken audio for computer-based listening or mobile playback on AudibleReady PC-based portable digital audio players. Starting on March 1, the library began loaning patrons an AudibleReady player and carrying case, headphones, and a car cassette adapter, as well as the digital content of the listener's choice. The participating library purchases and downloads several lending copies of a digital title from Audible. The library transfers the audio onto its own AudibleReady players, which play Audible's secure audio files. Libraries then lend these devices to patrons for specified lengths of time. Hoover's, Inc. (Nasdaq: HOOV - news), a provider of online business information and tools, and Bell & Howell's Information and Learning unit announced a cross-licensing agreement. Bell & Howell's Web-based ProQuest service will be available to Hoover's Online Business Subscribers, while the Hoover's Online database, as well as customized applications developed by Hoover's Media Technologies (HMT), will be available to ProQuest subscribers. Interactive Week has named Daniel Aldrich as West Coast associate publisher and John S. Gordon as Southeast associate publisher. In these newly created positions, they will be responsible for advertising sales in their geographic regions. 21st Century Investor Publishing, Inc. announced that it is launching a new website featuring a blend of editorial content from three of its core publications. The site also offers a new investor education center and sections dedicated to sentiment analysis, hedging, breaking news and commentary, and hundreds of pages of archives. Cahners Business Information announced that it has sold its automotive properties to Boston, MA-based Advanstar Communications. As previously announced, Cahners is selling these properties as part of its ongoing effort to focus growth in strategic market sectors. The publications included in this sale are Motor Age, Automotive Body Repair News, and Automotive Marketing, as well as their attendant properties. BizSpace, Inc. has launched TelecomBiz.com, a new website to serve the information needs of managers in the telecommunications industry. Brenda Speth, a manager at Lee Enterprises newspapers in South Dakota and Wisconsin, has been appointed publisher of the Corvallis Gazette-Times. She succeeds Gary Sawyer, who will become editor of the Herald & Review in Decatur, Ill. Speth, 39, most recently has been advertising director at the Rapid City Journal in South Dakota. Hyperion announced plans to launch a new imprint with Dr. Richard Carlson to be named Don't Sweat Press. The series will debut in November with four titles, The Don't Sweat Affirmations, The Don't Sweat Guide for Parents, The Don't Sweat Guide for Grandparents, and The Don't Sweat Guide for Couples. The next four titles in the series will be published in the Spring of 2002. The guides will be written by a carefully selected team of writers; Richard Carlson will act as series consultant and continue to author Don't Sweat The Small Stuff books on his own. Having already written six national bestsellers, with sales exceeding 20 million copies worldwide, Dr. Carlson's next book, Don't Sweat The Small Stuff For Men, will be published in September of 2002. Cahners Business Information, a member of the Reed Elsevier plc group, announced that William McGorry has been promoted to senior vice president, Television and Telecommunications Group, in the Media Division. McGorry, previously Cahners' group vice president, Television and Telecommunications Group, reports to Tad Smith, president, Media Division, and has responsibilities for Cahners' printed products and Internet portals within the television, wireless, and broadband areas. Julie Platt has been named editor-in-chief of Books by Users Press, an imprint of SAS Publishing. Platt will oversee the continued expansion of the Books by Users (BBU) program, which provides avenues for SAS software users to share their written SAS software expertise with other SAS users through book publishing, article submission, peer editorial review and facilitation of book publishing partnerships. Bibliofind announced that it has learned of a security violation on its site that compromised the security of customer credit card information used on its servers between October 2000 and February 2001. Bibliofind has been in contact with federal law enforcement authorities on this matter, and began notifying all affected customers directly by email. In addition to working with federal law enforcement agencies, Bibliofind has contacted the appropriate credit card companies so that they can take whatever steps necessary to protect their cardholders. Bibliofind has removed all customer credit card information, physical addresses and phone numbers from its servers. The site will continue to function as a ``matching'' service between buyers and sellers. 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. |
