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Tuesday, March 27, 2001
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Publishing Industry Soundbytes
- The electronic rights lawsuit, Tasini v. The New York
Times, is scheduled to go before the US Supreme Court on 28 March.
Tasini et al vs The New York Times et al is the lawsuit brought
by members of the National Writers Union against
The New York Times Company, Newsday Inc., Time Inc., Lexis/Nexis,
and University Microfilms Inc., charging copyright violation
regarding the electronic reuse of work produced and sold on a
freelance basis.
More information can be found in CNET's article,
"Supreme
Court to decide Web publishing suit."
and on the NWU's Supreme Court Appeal section.
- Scholastic Corporation
stated that it
completed its previously announced evaluation of the possible
discount purchase of selected assets of eToys in the bankruptcy
auction, focusing on the potential of eToys technology to
accelerate and reduce the costs of Scholastic's own web
initiatives. After completing its evaluation today, Scholastic
concluded that the acquisition of selected eToys assets did not
meet Scholastic's threshold for accelerating or reducing the
costs of its web initiatives. Consequently, Scholastic has not
submitted a bid for any eToys assets and will not be purchasing
eToys inventory.
This was after Scholastic Corporation had previously confirmed that
it made a contingent bid for inventory at $0.30 per
dollar (totaling approximately $8 million) as part of the
auction process in eToys.com's bankruptcy proceedings.
- Space.com announced that Bill Taylor, former Vice President
of ePod Corporation, has joined the company's management team
as Senior Vice President, Sales.
Taylor will lead the sales team and play a role in the
expansion of Space.com sales, sponsorship and alliance programs.
He will report to Space.com's President and COO, John C. Ferrara.
- Standard Media International (``The Standard'') announced
that it has appointed June Sargent senior vice president, consumer
marketing and strategy. Ann-Marie McGowan, chief operating officer
of The Standard, announced the appointment today.
Sargent comes to The Standard from Red Herring Communications,
Inc. where she was vice president of consumer marketing and was
responsible for the management and development of all strategic
growth and operational circulation programs for Red Herring
magazine.
- Dow Jones & Company announced that Steven Goldstein has
been named vice president, corporate communications. The
appointment is effective April 30, 2001.
Mr. Goldstein, 48 years old, is presently senior vice president
for the Insurance Information Institute.
Mr. Goldstein succeeds
Richard J. Tofel, who was named assistant to the publisher of
The Wall Street Journal in December 2000.
- T+D magazine, published by ASTD and formerly Training &
Development magazine, has chosen Dave Egan, THINQ vice
president of provider strategies, to sit on its editorial board,
THINQ announced. Before co-founding THINQ, an elearning
company, Egan spent
two decades in the publishing industry as a publisher and
senior media and information industry executive. Egan was
publisher of Telecommunications magazine, publisher and CEO of
Digital News Publishing Co., president and COO of McGraw-Hill's
Byte magazine, president and COO of Mecklermedia's Publishing
Group, and founder and principal of InfoMedia Strategy Group.
- Microsoft announced the
appointment of Mark Pawlosky as editor in chief of the
Microsoft MSN MoneyCentral online personal finance service.
In this role, Pawlosky will lead the MoneyCentral
editorial staff, whose articles and columns discuss investing
topics and other personal finance issues.
A familiar face to Microsoft, Pawlosky previously served as
chief editor of MSN News and executive producer at MSNBC.com.
Before joining Microsoft, Pawlosky worked as a reporter for
several daily newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal.
Most recently, Pawlosky worked for Onvia.com as vice president
and editor in chief.
- Vanguarde Media, Inc. (VMI), announced that it has appointed
P. Robert Massey Publisher of Impact Weekly and National Director
of Music & Entertainment for VMI. He will report to VMI Group
Publisher Leonard E. Burnett.
Most recently, Mr. Massey was Director of Brand Promotion at
Vibe magazine.
- R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company is taking steps in its
traditional long-run printing business serving magazine, catalog
and retail customers to create the printing ``platform of
the future'' for its customers. As part of this process, the
company will invest $300 million over the next two years to
improve the efficiency of its long-run printing network and
close its South Daytona, Fla., plant, which prints magazines,
catalogs and advertising inserts, by the end of the second quarter.
The company also informed union representatives that it is
considering closing its Des Moines, Iowa, printing plant.
- Prescribing Reference Inc., a division of Haymarket Group Ltd.,
publisher of Monthly Prescribing Reference announced its' entry
into the field of electronic publishing with the release of its'
new website: PrescribingReference.Com.
The site contains all of the editorial content from Monthly
Prescribing Reference. The drug database has been expanded to
include generic and parenteral entries. Product monographs for
over 3,200 formulations, a new products showcase, daily
pharmaceutical and professional newsbites (Monday through Friday),
disease fact sheets, treatment guidelines, resource and reference
links, charts and the ability to search for a drug by brand or
generic name, by manufacturer or by therapeutic indication, are
some of the many features available.
The site contents are updated on a monthly basis; with Product
News, including FDA approvals being updated daily. It is available for use by medical and healthcare professionals and requires a one-time registration for total access.
- Innodata Corporation announced that it has entered into an
agreement with Bell & Howell to provide XML digital content services
for its ProQuest Historical Newspapers project, creating an
XML-based digital historical archive of full-runs of national,
regional, and local newspapers. The agreement provides that
Innodata will supply the XML conversion and digital content
services required for the Project.
- Crosswalk.com, a Christian
website, announced the launch of
its new online Entertainment Channel.
Key components of the new Entertainment Channel include movie
reviews through the Dove Foundation; Christian radio music
streaming provided through a partnership with Oneplace.com, a
division of Salem Communications; and local Christian events
listings through iTickets.com.
- Software Magazine, a source of print and online news for
the software industry, announced that Michael Long has joined
the company as associate publisher. In his new role, Long is
heading up Software Magazine's sales and marketing activities,
including account support, sales infrastructure, and strategic
partnerships.
Before joining Software Magazine, Long was national sales
manager for Software Development magazine.
- ebrary, a source for online content and
research, announced that Cambridge University Press will be
making its titles available on ebrary.com.
ebrary also announced that Palgrave, the academic division of
Macmillan and part of the Holtzbrinck Group, will make
hundreds of its titles available on ebrary.com.
- ReadingVillage.com, has launched its website dedicated
to teaching preschool-age children to read.
Through a system called Power Reading,
youngsters can have picture books read directly to them.
This ``edutainment'' site is the brainchild of a team of
writers, educators, child psychologists, and programmers who
gathered together with a similar mission: to devise a vehicle
on the Internet that teaches children through fun activities.
- gURL.com, an online content and community site for teen girls,
announced that it has launched a syndicated newspaper column
with Universal Press Syndicate (UPS).
The gURL.com newspaper column is titled
``Deal With It! with gURL.com.'' The column follows the
format from gURL.com's book by the same name -- covering topics
ranging from body issues to sexuality to relationshipss.
UPS began syndication of the column to newspapers in mid-March.
The column currently appears in major newspapers in Houston,
Dallas, Minneapolis and Tucson.
- Optimism exists among Web managers in terms of site spending
and their careers according to findings of the 2001 Webmaster
Survey conducted by Interactive Week.
The newsweekly's research found that site budgets for this year
are expected to increase to an average of $508,000, up from $404,500
in 2000. Additionally, 7.5 percent of Webmasters surveyed for the
March 26 feature, ``Site Saviors,'' say their budgets for 2001
will be $1 million or greater, up from 6.2 percent who said
their 2000 budgets were in the same range.
However, more Web managers are finding that where previously they
could spend virtually an unlimited amount on their sites, today
they're under pressure to hold down costs. As Internet Economy
fever has cooled into clammy corpses of bankrupt dot-coms,
Webmasters face a very tough fight to secure any additional
dollars. Those investments must be carefully justified by
revenue-producing projects, because companies have seen buckets
of money poured into bottomless, cash-gobbling websites.
In addition to being published in the March 26 issue of Interactive
Week, the complete 2001 Webmaster Survey report, ``Site Saviors,''
will be posted to the newsweekly's website.
- DiseaseRef, Inc., an online medical information resource,
announced that it is expanding to include a
differential diagnosis database and a drug information database.
DiseaseRef now gives physicians access to Unbound Medicine's
MedWeaver, a differential diagnosis tool that
empowers physicians to make more informed decisions and improve
clinical outcomes. The differential diagnosis component consists
of more than 2,000 diseases, 4,500 findings (signs, symptoms,
and laboratory tests), and 65,000 relationships.
DiseaseRef is also integrating Clinical Pharmacology 2000
Copyright, a drug information database,
by Gold Standard Multimedia.
- Reciprocal, Inc., a provider of digital distribution services,
and Texterity, Inc., a provider of digital conversion services,
announced a joint-offer that will provide small and mid-sized
publishers with an ``entry-level'' package of ebook services.
The two companies will bundle a selection of services to facilitate
conversion, packaging and distribution of DRM-protected content.
The new service combines Texterity's TextCafe Open eBook
conversion services with the Reciprocal Digital Clearing Service
and suite of DRM technologies.
- Knight Ridder announced the appointment of Joseph T. Natoli,
president of The Miami Herald Publishing Co., to publisher of the
San Jose Mercury News, effective immediately. He replaces
Jay T. Harris, who resigned on March 19th.
Natoli, 45, has spent his entire career with Knight Ridder,
beginning as a staff accountant in the company's Suburban Division
in 1976 and moving into his current position in July 1994. During
that time, he held a variety of financial and operational
positions at The Miami Herald, including controller, vice
president/operations and president and general manager.
- Rick Krim has been named to the position of Executive Vice
President, Talent & Music Programming, VH1,
it was announced by John Sykes, President of VH1 and CMT.
As head of the Talent & Music Programming Department, Krim will
be responsible for all talent, artist and label relations
activities, serving as the chief liaison between VH1, the artists
and the recording industry. The position involves booking talent,
helping to integrate music and artists into all aspects of VH1
programming, and managing all relationships with labels, managers
and artists. In addition, he will oversee all programming of music
on the channel, including the development of new music video
shows. Krim's appointment marks his return to MTV Networks, where
he had been Vice President, Talent and Artists Relations, MTV.
- Adobe Systems Incorporated,
a software company, announced Adobe Atmosphere,
a new Web tool for authoring, viewing and interacting with
virtual 3-D worlds. Adobe Atmosphere is currently available as public beta for
Windows at www.adobe.com/products/atmosphere/main.html.
- Digital Goods, a digital content marketing company, and
Texterity, Inc., a provider of digital conversion services,
announced an agreement.
Under the agreement, Texterity's TextCafe, an automated service
that converts PDF, Quark or Word files to XML and Open eBook
formats, will be offered by Digital Goods to its content partners.
Texterity also will make Digital Goods' Amplifi the recommended
digital content marketing solution for its content conversion
customers.
- Neal Lieberman was named VP, Education for
Discovery Channel School.
In his new role in the Consumer Products & Education Group of
Discovery Communications, Inc., Lieberman is responsible for
developing and implementing strategies to extend Discovery
Communications' content and brands into the education marketplace.
Lieberman oversees a number of initiatives, including a complete
line of educational videos designed specifically for classroom
teachers and an extensive Middle School Science program consisting
of CD-ROMs, student books, videos and teacher guides.
In addition, Lieberman identifies new business and investment
opportunities, develops strategic licensing relationships and
manages numerous partnerships with educational services companies
such as Voyager Expanded Learning.
- O'Reilly & Associates announced a new series of programming
books for Mac OS X developers. The books in this series will have
been technically reviewed by Apple engineers and are recommended
by the Apple Developer Connection, Apple's primary source for
developer information.
The first titles to be released will include Learning Carbon,
Learning Cocoa, and AppleScript in a Nutshell, are expected
in May 2001. The O'Reilly
Network has opened a Mac Developer DevCenter to provide news
and articles for Mac Developers.
- Alibris, a supplier of hard-to-find books,
announced the appointment of Uday Walia as vice president,
Engineering. Walia will be responsible for the strategy and
direction of technology at Alibris.
Walia has designed and implemented highly scalable, reliable,
and secure Internet systems for a wide range of companies. Most
recently, he was chief technology officer of Done.com, a wireless
services company that he co-founded. Prior to that, he was
co-founder and chief technology officer of GetSmart.com. He
has also held management positions at Wells Fargo Bank and
Nortel Networks.
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