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Wednesday, March 21, 2001 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes LethalSports, which launched on March 20 is focusing its content on sports and models. LethalSports.com wants to combine the appeal of magazines such as Sports Illustrated and Playboy into one site with original content and erotic photography. The inspiration came one morning in May of 1999 when the annual edition of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition arrived in the mail, according to Lethalsports.com President and founder Jason Gaylord. In addition to blending the sports world with models, the subscription-based site also features editorials on music, movies, health and fitness, food and drink, extreme sports, cars and more. The CMP Game Media Group, producers of the Game Developers Conference, announced that they have adopted a new brand, and will now be known as the Gama Network. The re-branding was prompted by the group's need to bring its suite of media offerings together under one umbrella, solidifying its position as the resource to the game development industry. CMP produces integrated media products, including magazines, websites and tradeshows, in a variety of technology sectors. Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment will launch the website www.spiderman.com on March 23 for its action-adventure Spider-Man. The website's March launch also coincides with the 38th anniversary of the web-slinging superhero's first appearance in his very own comic book and will be kicked off with a nationwide sweepstakes tied to the search for this debut Spider-Man comic. The movie website will feature a wide-screen format and a cinematic feel. The site will contain the first official look at Spider-Man, exclusive content, weekly updates on the latest news from the Spider-Man set. Rodale, a publisher of health information, announced that Tami Booth has been promoted to editor-in-chief of Rodale Women's Health Books. Elizabeth Crow, vice president and editorial director, Rodale Women's Health Group, made the announcement. Booth will continue to be responsible for the editorial direction, design, and content of Women's Health Books. In addition, she will be responsible for developing multi-media projects within Rodale's Women Health Group, such as books launched into the trade with simultaneous direct mail campaigns, website and magazine features, and promotion. In addition, Booth will produce a diverse list of books and related products that spans direct mail and trade, staff-written and authored books, and books with companion products. Caroline Miller, Editor in Chief of New York Magazine, a Primedia publication, announced that political analyst Tucker Carlson will write the bi-monthly ``National Interest'' column, a national politics column. Mr. Carlson will hold the title of contributing editor at the magazine. His first column is expected to appear in the issue hitting newsstands on March 26. Carlson is a political analyst for CNN, where he co-hosts The Spin Room with CNN Crossfire's Bill Press. His writing has appeared in a number of publications including The Weekly Standard, Talk, The Wall Street Journal, George, The New Republic, Forbes FYI and The Washington Post. Tucker Carlson studied history at Trinity College in Connecticut. NewsStand, Inc., a publishing technology provider, announced the appointment of Stuart Garner as chairman of the company's board of directors and executive director of strategic development. In the new position, Garner will be responsible for leading NewsStand's strategic planning and development in both domestic and international markets. Consumer Reports announced that its product information and ratings are now available on ZDNet's domestic website -- through an expanded agreement with CNET Networks, Inc.. ZDNet is a CNET Networks Inc. company. Users of ZDNet Equip, ZDNet's consumer electronic site offering information on gadgets ranging from home theater to digital imaging, now have free access to purchasing advice summaries from Consumer Reports, including product features and trends. Consumer Reports and CNET Networks established their initial agreement in October 2000. Through that agreement, Consumer Reports has become a popular feature within CNET Computers.com, and mySimon, and the success of that alliance has resulted in this expanded agreement. eUniverse, an interactive entertainment network, has partnered with American Media Inc., a publisher of celebrity journalism, to develop co-branded content that will be distributed to eUniverse's 18 million unique monthly visitors. American Media Inc. is the publisher of entertainment publications -- The National Enquirer, Star Magazine, The Globe, Country Weekly, Country Music Magazine and Auto World Weekly. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. announced that it has acquired substantially all of the assets of The Wedding List, a New York based wedding registry and retailer. MSO acquired both the Internet and retail showroom assets located in New York, Boston and London. MSO's current weddings franchise includes Martha Stewart Weddings magazine, books written by editors from the Martha Stewart Weddings staff, Martha Stewart Living television programs featuring weddings segments, the syndicated askMartha Weddings newspaper column and askMartha radio show, and wedding content available on the wedding channel of MSO's marthastewart.com. The Company also announced that Douglas Brenner, Executive Editor of Martha Stewart Living, has been promoted to the post of Editor-in-Chief, succeeding Stephen Drucker, who has resigned after five years to pursue new challenges. Andrew Rudd, Chairman of Advisor Software, Inc. (ASI) and Lewis Gersh, Chairman of Worldly Investor Network (WIN), parent company of worldlyinvestor.com, announced today that ASI has acquired worldlyinvestor.com. Worldlyinvestor.com, a global financial information site, provides advice, commentary and investment ideas on issues ranging from investment management to wealth maintenance strategies to taxation. The company has just released the first title, The Worldly Investor Guide To Beating The Market, in a three book deal with John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Advisor Software, Inc. is a developer of Web-based institutional-level financial planning solutions for individual investors and investment advisors. Franklin Electronic Publishers, Inc., a provider of handheld ebook reading devices, announced the availability of a French/German/English multi-lingual edition of their eBookMan multimedia device. Digital Goods, a provider of digital content marketing services, announced that the company has entered into a strategic marketing agreement with 1stBooks Library, an epublisher. Digital Goods initially will market 85 1stBooks Library titles, mostly in the career, travel and self-help genres. The titles were chosen to best take advantage of Digital Goods' strengths in packaging and presenting digital content for online special-interest audiences. Additional ebook titles from 1stBooks Library will be added to the Digital Goods online catalog in the coming months. 1stBooks Library has a base of 6,000 published authors. 1stBooks provides fee-based services which allow authors to publish print-on-demand books and ebooks. Tribune Company named new chief financial officers at its publishing and broadcasting divisions and at the Chicago Tribune newspaper. The appointments were announced by Dennis J. FitzSimons, Tribune's Executive Vice President, and are effective immediately. Gerald W. (Jerry) Agema, currently Vice President/Administration and Chief Financial Officer for Tribune Broadcasting, has been named to the same position for Tribune Publishing. Succeeding Agema at Tribune Broadcasting will be Thomas D. Leach, Vice President/Corporate Development. Phil Doherty, currently Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Tribune Publishing, has been named to the same position at the Chicago Tribune. TechTV, , a cable television channel covering technology, and Que Publishing, a computer book publisher and part of Pearson Technology Group, announced an alliance that will lead to the creation, development and distribution of a series of technology related instructional books and videos. The TechTV series of books and videos will be published by Que over the next three years and will include 30 book and video titles featuring TechTV's on-air personalities. The series will be launched this summer with TechTV's Upgrading Your PC and TechTV's Starting an Online Business. Yahoo! Inc., an Internet communications and media company, announced the appointment of Gregory G. Coleman to the position of executive vice president of North American operations. Reporting to Jeff Mallett, Yahoo!'s president and chief operating officer, Coleman will be a key member of Yahoo!'s management team and will be responsible for driving Yahoo!'s overall business operations in North America. In this role, he will oversee the sales, marketing and client services organizations, as well as manage all of Yahoo!'s consumer services and programming initiatives. He will join the company in late April. Coleman was most recently senior vice president of publicly-held Reader's Digest Association and president of U.S. Magazine Publishing. Standard Media International has appointed Bob Ciano creative director for The Industry Standard. Editor in chief Jonathan Weber announced the appointment. Prior to The Standard, Ciano was the creative director for Encyclopedia Britannica, where he was responsible for all design and media acquisition projects. Before that, he was an art director at the New York Times. eBT, a provider of content management solutions, announced that eHarlequin.com, a division of Harlequin Enterprises Limited, is now using eBT's content management solution. Harlequin Enterprises first went online in 1996 with a site called Romance.net. The company, a publisher of romance fiction, launched a new, expanded site, eHarlequin.com, in February 2000 as part of the Women.com network. The eHarlequin.com site has recently been relaunched, using eBT's content management solution. The newly redesigned eHarlequin.com site consists of seven main channels including: Buy Books, Community, Magazine, Online Reads, Authors, Learn to Write, and Membership. Monday, the Chicago Tribune launched a redesigned and enhanced newspaper. The improved newspaper is designed to deliver benefits to readers based on conversations with hundreds of them during the past two years. It is the first comprehensive redesign of the newspaper in two decades. Warner Bros. Pictures and Bel-Air Entertainment have acquired the motion picture rights to Street Boys, a new novel by Lorenzo Carcaterra, for producers Barry Levinson and Paula Weinstein. The announcement was made by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, president of Worldwide Production, Warner Bros. Pictures, and Steven Reuther, chairman and chief executive officer of Bel-Air Entertainment. The tentatively-titled Street Boys is set against the backdrop of World War II and tells the fictionalized account of a regiment that played an unlikely but crucial role in the defeat of the German Army. Ballantine, a division of Random House, has slated Street Boys as its lead novel for Summer 2002. Barry Levinson, who intends to direct the project, will produce with Paula Weinstein and Steven Reuther. Lorenzo Carcaterra will write the screenplay and executive produce along with Lou Pitt. The SCI FI Channel has broadened its focus to include a brand-new slate of original movie and miniseries projects. Upcoming projects include: Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers, Firestarter: The Next Chapter, Clive Barker's Saint Sinner and Taken. Steven Spielberg, DreamWorks Television and SCI FI form a unique alliance for the exclusive presentation of Taken, a 20-hour original dramatic event slated to air in 2002. Taken is an epic science fiction adventure that weaves together over 50 years of alien abductions into the story of three families' experiences. Les Bohem is the executive producer and writer of Taken. The SCI FI Channel is owned and operated by USA Cable, a division of USA Networks, Inc.'s Entertainment unit. LearnCom, Inc. announced that it has reached agreement in principle to acquire certain assets of TrainSeek.com of Salt Lake City, Utah, a website for marketing of training videos, courseware, elearning, books, manuals, CD-ROMs, seminars, and consulting services. TrainSeek's library totals more than one million titles from 2000 vendors, partners and producers. Subjects range from IT to employee and management training, safety, technical skills, etc. Closing is expected within 30 days. Books-A-Million, Inc. announced that the Bankruptcy Court has approved the Company's assumption or sub-lease of 18 Crown Books Corporation real estate leases in the Washington, D.C. and Chicago metropolitan areas. The approval was finalized on Friday, March 16, 2001. Books-A-Million had previously finalized the purchase of the inventory in these stores. 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. |
