writenews.com
|
News, features and resources for media
and
publishing professionals.
|
Friday, March 23, 2001
Blogs
| Subscribe
| Interviews
| Events
| Films
| Book Blog
Media Cynic
| Forum
| Advertising
| Classifieds
| Jobs
Publishing Industry Soundbytes
- Variety.com, an online
edition of the movie industry magazine, has launched a re-design and
will also now charge for all of its content. Previously,
the site provided some free content to visitors.
Source: CNET
- BusinessWeek will relaunch its monthly small business edition
BusinessWeek SmallBiz next month. Previously known as frontier,
BusinessWeek SmallBiz will continue to appear each month within
BusinessWeek, with its own cover and staff, offering insight on
technology, marketing, financial and managerial issues affecting
small business owners.
- Borders Group announced that Chairman Robert DiRomualdo will
step down from his operational role with the company at the end
of 2001. His planned departure is the final step in a management
transition strategy put in place 16 months ago to support then
incoming President and Chief Executive Officer Greg Josefowicz.
The company's Board of Directors finalized DiRomualdo's employment
agreement, specifying that he will serve the company throughout
2001 in a reduced operational role that phases-out completely
at the end of the year. However, it is anticipated that he will
remain on the company's Board of Directors beyond 2001.
Following the departure
of DiRomualdo, Josefowicz will take on the role of Chairman.
- On the heels of Appellation's editor-in-chief, Jim Gordon, being
named editor-at-large for eVineyard, the online wine retailer
and magazine have signed an advertising and co-marketing agreement.
They will jointly create direct mail and online offers featuring
content from Appellation and product specials from eVineyard.
Appellation readers will find exclusive specials on the eVineyard
website, where there will also be online subscriptions to the
magazine.
- Webnoize, an authority
on the digital entertainment economy, reported that file-sharing
service Napster has unveiled a deal to acquire the assets of music
indexing technology company Gigabeat.
Though Napster may be moving to shore up its ability to filter out
copyright-protected songs, new research findings by Webnoize
estimate that the average number of daily users has plunged 25%,
suggesting that casual Napster users are losing interest as the
song selection shrinks.
A court document Napster filed Wednesday suggested the company
might acquire ``certain assets'' of Palo Alto, California-based
Gigabeat, a developer of music indexing and song recommendation
engines. The complete article by Mark Lewis, ``Shared Files on
Napster Edge Up; Service Cuts Deal with Gigabeat,'' can be
accessed online at Webnoize
News.
At the same time, Webnoize Research has found that Napster's
current efforts to filter its system are eroding the company's
user base despite the fact that the average number of files
shared per user edged up to between 100 and 120, compared to
the average of 71 immediately after the filter went in place
last Wednesday. As of March 22, Napster had 1.13 million users,
compared to 1.49 million users as of March 14, according to
Webnoize Analyst Matt Bailey.
- IDG Games Media Group, publisher of GamePro magazine,
a multiplatform gaming magazine, and
GamePro.com, an online
source for gaming, announced the
appointment of Doug Faust as vice president and associate publisher.
Effective this week, Faust joins GamePro with over 8 years experience
in the video game industry. In his previous position at
Imagine Publishing, he was publisher for several console magazines
including PlayStation Magazine and Next Generation.
- Minerva Audio Publishing
is a new audiobooks self-publisher which labels itself as
"we are to audiobooks what the vanity press is to
print." Minerva Audio Publishing was founded by Daniel J. Geduld,
an audio engineer and voice actor who has several years
of experience in the world of audio publishing.
After seeing several author friends frustrated at the inability to
get their audiobooks published, Daniel decided to found this company
to help them and all authors to sell their audiobooks.
- Dr. Pete Keesling, DVM, a veterinarian and former head
writer with Pets.com, and Disney Kids has joined
PetCity.com as an advisor
and senior feature writer. PetCity.com offers "Ask The Pet Expert,"
where visitors to the site can ask questions of experts and
sign up as experts to answer questions.
- Microsoft Corp. has unveiled an expansion of the MSN
HomeAdvisor online home and real estate guide. The new site
features content areas for decorating, food and gardening
as well as a fully integrated site design.
The new content sections on HomeAdvisor include
Garden., Food and Decorate.
- Ian K. Marsh will join The
Reader's Digest Association,
Inc. as a Senior Vice President and become
President of Reader's Digest Europe, effective June 1, announced
Chairman and CEO Thomas O. Ryder. Marsh will assume responsibility
for managing all European operations. He will be based in London
and report to M. John Bohane, Senior Vice President and President,
International.
- CMP Media Inc.
announced this week at CT Expo 2001 that Computer
Telephony magazine is being renamed Communications
Convergence. Communications Convergence has a
circulation of 120,625, according
to the December 2000 BPA statement. The first issue of
Communications Convergence will appear in June 2001.
- Lonely Planet, an international travel publisher of
guidebooks and travel information for adventurous travelers,
announced Monday that Don George, perviously of Salon's
Wanderlust and the San Francisco Examiner, has joined
their staff to serve as Travel Editor.
Don will be writing and editing original
content for Lonely Planet's website; bringing
writers into Lonely Planet's literary travel book series,
Journeys; and developing a series of interviews with
travel writers and travelers, to be called Lonely Planet
Conversations.
- Hart Publications, a Houston-based energy publisher,
announced the return of Jack Stevenson and the merger of the
two industry newsletters. The new title is Transaction
in Oil & Gas Incorporating Oil and Gas Interests. This move
provides customers with information found in Hart's
Oil and Gas Interests, an industry activity newsletter,
with the perspective of Jack Stevenson.
Stevenson is a 35-year petroleum veteran with extensive hands-on
U.S. and international operational experience. Transaction
in Oil & Gas Incorporating Oil and Gas Interests emphasizes
profit-impacting information for today's active oil and gas
industry: producing properties sales and acquisitions, E&P
company and personnel news, and financial activity relating to
the sector.
- The finalists for the James Beard Award have been announced.
The James Beard Foundation/KitchenAid Book Awards are the
oldest recognition program for books on culinary topics in
the United States. The Book Awards Committee was established
by R.T. French in 1966. After R.T. French discontinued its
funding for the program, the Committee was sponsored by a
number of different organizations including: Duncan Hines,
Joseph E. Seagram & Sons and the International Association
of Culinary Professionals before becoming a permanent part of
The James Beard Foundation Awards in 1990.
The list of finalists can be found at:
http://starchefs.com/JamesBeard/awards/2001/list.html
- The New York Times announced the creation of The New
York Times Library Service Award and The New York Times Librarian
Award for library staff members and librarians of public libraries
within the five boroughs of New York City. These annual awards,
which will be given for the first time in 2001 as part of the
commemoration of The Times' 150th Anniversary, are intended to
recognize those individuals who provide outstanding community
service on a consistent basis.
One librarian and one library staff member from each borough of
New York City will receive an award. Nominations for the
Librarian Award will be made by librarians while nominations
for the Library Service Award will be made by members of the
public.
Nomination forms for the first annual awards will be made
available in libraries, schools and community organizations in
April and accepted until June 29, 2001.
Winners will be selected by committee
and announced in The Times in September 2001. A special awards
ceremony honoring the winners will also be held in September,
when each winner will receive $2,500 in recognition of his or
her achievements.
- Dorothy Kalins, editor-in-chief of Saveur and Garden Design,
was named executive editor of Newsweek, it was announced
by Chairman and Editor-In-Chief Richard M. Smith and Editor
Mark Whitaker.
- ITworld.com, an information resource for enterprise
IT professionals, announced the appointments of Doug Loyer
to vice president of engineering and systems and Betsy Bellar to
vice president of electronic publishing.
As vice president of engineering and systems, Doug Loyer will
work to streamline the engineering and systems program
at ITworld.com. Prior to joining ITworld.com, Loyer was
development manager for Atex Media Solutions.
Electronic Publishing Vice President Betsy Bellar will be
responsible for maintaining content,
creative site features, and product enhancements. Bellar
previously served as director of epublishing prior to assuming
her new role as vice president. Before joining ITworld.com,
Bellar served as the assistant director of production for
Harvard Business School Publishing.
ITworld.com is a business unit of IDG.
- MLB Advanced Media, L.P. (MLBAM) the interactive media and
Internet company of Major League Baseball, announced a
number of executive appointments:
Effective immediately: Marjorie Adams, 31, has been named Vice
President, Business Development; Jennifer Caputo, 32, has been named Vice President,
Human Resources; Joe Choti, 41, has been named Senior Vice President
and Chief Technology Officer; Lynn Dumais, 32, has been named Senior Vice
President and Chief Financial Officer; Jim Durham, 46, has been named Senior Vice
President, Sponsorships and Affiliate Relations; Jim Gallagher, 52, has been named
Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications; Noah Garden, 30 has been named Senior Vice
President, E-Commerce; Dinn Mann, 36, has been named Senior Vice President and
Editor-in-Chief; Deck Rees, 43, has been named Vice President,
Design; Mike Mellis, 35, has been named Vice President and
General Counsel. All of these executives are headquartered at
MLBAM headquarters in New York City.
MLB Advanced Media, L.P. was established in June 2000 following
a unanimous vote by the 30 Major League Baseball Club owners to
centralize all of Baseball's Internet operations.
MLBAM manages the official league site,
MLB.com, and each of the 30
individual Club sites.
- The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the nation's
center for the performing arts, announced a new
partnership with Scholastic Entertainment, which will result
in six new theater pieces for youth and family audiences. The
Kennedy Center has commissioned six playwrights to adapt
for the stage, six novels from Scholastic's series
of children's books, Dear America and My Name Is America.
- Los Angeles Times has launched ``City of Angles,'' a
new column by Ann O'Neill, covering Los Angeles' social scene
and the famous residents -- particularly from the region's
entertainment industry -- who inhabit it.
The column will appear in The Times' Southern California Living
section Sunday, Tuesday and Friday.
City of Angles takes a look at the lighter side of the
City of the Angels -- from lawsuits and lifestyles of the rich
and famous to the glamorous and less-than-glamorous side of the
media, entertainment and local nightlife. City of Angles expands
on O'Neill's earlier column, ``The Court Files,'' which had
covered the local celebrity lawsuit beat since 1997.
- iVillage Inc., operator of the iVillage
Network (which includes iVillage.com, Lamaze Publishing and the
Newborn Channel) and the Society for Women's Health
Research (SWHR), a non-profit organization
dedicated to women's health research, announced an
exclusive partnership to provide online users with the latest
information specifically gleaned from research examining the
impact that sex differences have on health. Women can find
news and information about gender differences
in health and medicine, as well as an inside look at the
current politics of women's health.
Information from The Society for Women's Health Research will
be integrated into a designated content area on iVillageHealth.com
titled, ``Sex Matters!'' Divided into two sections, ``Gender and
Health'' and ``The Politics of Women's Health,'' each section
will feature a series of articles that offer an inside look at
medicine through the prisms of gender and politics. ``Gender
and Health'' will focus on sex differences and how they affect
the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease. News stories
from the Society will cover issues such as the changing face of
heart disease as it strikes more young women, the recent recall
of several drugs that were found to be more detrimental to women,
new research on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and cervical
cancer, and discrepancies in insurance coverage and research
funding.
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.
|