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Wednesday, April 4, 2001
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Publishing Industry Soundbytes
The New York Times Company announced on 4-2-01 the
completion of the sale of its golf properties to Advance
Publications, Inc. The properties included Golf Digest,
Golf Digest Woman, Golf World, Golf World Business and
GolfDigest.com.
Proceeds from the sale were approximately $435 million.
Advance Publications announced that
Jerry Tarde, who had been Editor of Golf Digest and Senior
Vice President and Editorial Director of The New York Times
Company Magazine Group, has been named Chairman and Editorial
Director of The Golf Digest Companies, effective immediately.
It was announced by Mitchell B. Fox, President and CEO of
the companies.
Advance Publications, Inc. is a communications company that
owns Conde Nast Publications, Parade Publications, Fairchild
Publications, ACBJ Business Journals, and newspapers in
more than 20 American cities; Advance Publications also
has extensive interests in cable television, as well as
in Internet sites that are related to its print publications.
ESPN, Inc.
has acquired the business and assets of B.A.S.S., Inc., the
largest fishing organization in the world with more than 600,000
members and an array of businesses highlighted by
Bassmaster Magazine, the Bassmaster Tournament Trail and
BASS Masters Classic, which are airing on ESPN2. The announcement
was made jointly by ESPN President George Bodenheimer and Helen
Sevier, B.A.S.S. President and Chief Executive Officer.
Automatic Media, the company
behind the online magazines, Suck and
Feed, as well as the newly launched
Plastic, announced a new relationship with
AvantGo, Inc. to make even more content from Automatic Media's
properties available to AvantGo mobile Internet service users.
Joining the already popular Suck channel on the AvantGo service,
Plastic and Feed content is now available to users of handheld
devices through AvantGo.
Travelago, a streaming video
destination guide, announced a content distribution agreement
with Yahoo! Inc., a media company, to provide Travelago's video
destination guide content on Yahoo! Travel.
Under the agreement, Travelago is providing Yahoo! Travel with
more than 1,700 videos that describe the features
of more than 770 destinations around the world.
Napster announced that Prince & The NPG Music Club will
debut and promote a new song to the Napster Community through
the company's Featured Music Program, beginning Friday, April 6th.
``The Work - Pt. 1,'' is the first track from Prince's upcoming
album, The Rainbow Children, to be released later this year.
Although Prince has released several cybersingles in the past
through his own website, this marks the first time he has teamed
up with a digital music company to promote his music.
The NPG Music Club is a monthly
subscription-based service. The service launched in February
of this year. Members get new Prince songs, videos and an hour-long
radio show every month. In addition, premium members get VIP
access 2 concerts and new CDs in the mail.
Borders Group Inc., a retailer of books, music and video,
announced today that the company has been listed for the first
time in Fortune magazine's ranking of the top 500 companies
in the U.S. Borders Group achieved record annual sales of
$3.3 billion in 2000, which placed the company on the newly
released Fortune 500 list at number 485.
Katrillion Media, a daily news
and information provider for Gen Y, announced that it has
appointed Sandy Haberman to Vice President of Sales, Sponsorship
and Syndication. Haberman will be spearheading the company's
sales strategy in attracting advertisers and sponsors looking
to reach the highly targeted teen market. Most recently,
Haberman was a National Account Manager for Ticketmaster
Online-Citysearch.
Red Herring Communications, Inc., a media company focusing
on technology, has appointed John Goecke to the newly created
position of Creative Director. Goecke will be responsible for
the branding and editorial design of Red Herring Communications
platforms, the bi-weekly magazine, online, research, and events.
Most recently, Goecke served as Creative Director of Geocast
Network Systems, a data broadcasting company focused on delivering
broadband content.
Knowledge Impact, a provider of elearning and performance
support solutions, announced the completion of $24 million in
private equity financing managed by Merrill Lynch. The mezzanine
round of financing was led by Tudor Ventures Group, part of Tudor
Investment Corporation, and supported by additional investments
from Boston Millennia Partners, Arcadia Management Partners and
Ironside Ventures.
GetMusic International, a London-based wholly-owned subsidiary
of the music media company, GetMusic, announced that Mike Hales,
formerly of AOL Europe, has been hired as editorial director;
and Heidi Wendorff, who transferred from GetMusic's New York-based
headquarters, has been named vice president of content and
programming. Both senior executives will operate out of the
London office and report to GetMusic International's Managing
Director David Fischer.
Mike Hales is responsible for creating and managing the editorial
agenda and teams for the forthcoming U.K. GetMusic site. Hales
will also develop and oversee the international production team,
based in London.
Heidi Wendorff is responsible for developing new programming
formats across GetMusic's international territories, as well
as overseeing international record label relations.
American Airlines has added Fodors.com's travel
planning content to its website.
AA.com now offers
Fodor.com's
travel information for almost 200 destinations worldwide. Site
visitors simply go to the travel planning section and can
customize their travel content by selecting a destination and
then choosing to receive sights and activities; dining; lodging;
nightlife and arts; and shopping recommendations, as well as
smart travel tips.
NeoPets, Inc. announced the addition of Peter Green as Chief
Marketing Officer. NeoPets, Inc. is the parent company of
NeoPets.com, an online youth network. Green's position and
responsibilities include developing NeoPets' corporate image,
branding, acquiring of new advertising and sponsorship partners
to the company, and serving as an advisor for the creation of
NeoPets' future online and offline products and projects.
Additionally, Green will implement public service and social
programs for NeoPets.
Prior to joining NeoPets, Green helped create
the Fox Kids Club for Fox Television, and produced its quarterly
magazine with a circulation of 5,000,000 for twelve years.
Valley Media, Inc., a distributor of music and video
entertainment products,
announced the hiring of Peter R. Berger as Chief Executive Officer.
Previously, Berger served as
Vice Chairman and CEO of Edentalstore, Inc., an commerce company.
SAS Publishing, a division of
SAS Institute, a privately held software company,
announced that Sean Gargan has been promoted to director of
Publishing Solutions.
SAS Publishing was born out of the need to compete with other
software documentation presses and the desire to help customers
use SAS software to its fullest potential. SAS Publishing meets
the information needs of new and experienced users through an
array of delivery methods, including ebooks, custom textbooks,
online documentation, hard-copy books and Web-based training.
Supportgate.com, an industry portal for IT support
professionals, announced the enhanced SupportWeek Infoletter format.
Distributed weekly to over 14,000 subscribers, SupportWeek is a
publication for service and support professionals in the IT Industry.
SupportWeek is distributed via email and uploaded on the home
page of the Supportgate.com website.
Yearbook Interactive announced it has filled more than 4,000
requests from high schools across the United States for its free
authoring software for creating CD-ROM-based multimedia yearbooks.
The Yearbook Interactive Authoring Software is designed to guide
students through the yearbook development process.
During the remainder of the 2000-2001 school year, the
software is available to schools throughout
the United States free of charge. At the completion of each
school's interactive yearbook project, the company will charge
each school a $1 per disk fee for each CD-ROM yearbook
duplicated and shipped to the school.
Business.com, a resource
for business information, announced the launch of Business.com
version 2.0. This announcement comes on the heels of Business.com's
acquisition of Work.com's assets, including the Work.com domain.
The site's new features include: enhanced Search, my Business.com
as well as Industry and Company Pages. Additionally, newsletters
and in-depth bews will be added later this month.
Capco, a financial services and technology solutions provider,
announced the launch of The Capco Institute Journal of
Financial Transformation. The new publication aims to provide
senior decision makers in financial institutions with insight
on the rapidly changing industry, and practical applications on
how to leverage market opportunities to remain competitive.
Lexis-Nexis announced the debut of a monthly column by David
Nimmer that provides analysis of current copyright protection
issues. The column, entitled My Two CENTS, will add commentary
to Mealey Publications' Nimmer Report on Copyright, a monthly
publication debuting this month that provides copyright case
coverage. David Nimmer is the author of Nimmer on Copyright,
a treatise on U.S. copyright law.
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) announced the launch of
LWWmedicine.com, an Internet site for
healthcare practitioners in internal and family medicine.
LWWmedicine.com offers the full text of the just-released 30th
edition of The Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics.
HarperCollins Publishers announced that Robert Jones
has been appointed Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of
HarperCollins. Jones will report to Susan Weinberg who has been
promoted to Senior Vice President and Editorial Director of
HarperCollins, Perennial and Quill. Weinberg will continue to
report to Cathy Hemming, President and Group Publisher of
HarperCollins General Books.
Most recently Weinberg has been Senior Vice President, Associate
Publisher and Editorial Director of trade paperbacks. In her new
position she will assume editorial oversight of the HarperCollins
imprint as well the Quill and Perennial lines she currently leads.
Jones, formerly V.P. and Executive Editor, will oversee a team of
exceptionally talented editors publishing under the HarperCollins
imprint. He has worked at HarperCollins for 16 years, starting
in the marketing department and moving to editorial in 1990.
McGraw-Hill Education announced that it is implementing a
global technology-driven plan to transform all of its processing
and management systems. The company has selected Oracle Corp. and
Accenture to help execute the initiative.
The initiative will result in one global system for
all customer service, production, order fulfillment and business
management functions. Bill Pratt, McGraw-Hill Education's chief
information officer, and Frank Lawton, vice president and Global
Transformation Project program director, are leading the
initiative. The company is aiming to launch the first pilot in
Canada by the first quarter of 2002 with the U.S. to follow
later in 2002 and the rest of its global operations in 2003.
Castle Harlan, Inc., the New York-based merchant bank,
announced today that Commemorative Brands Holding Corp., one
of the nation's leaders in class rings and yearbooks, had
acquired Educational Communications, Inc., a publisher of
directories that recognize academic achievement.
Educational Communications, located in Lake Forest, Illinois,
publishes Who's Who Among American High School Students,
The National Dean's List and Who's Who Among America's Teachers.
Streaming media content and technology solutions provider
FirstLook announced that its library of more than 3.5 million
video and audio previews of movies, DVDs, video games, music
and TV shows will be distributed to Microsoft WindowsMedia.com,
InfoSpace, Inc. and Tribune.
In addition to previews, clips and trailers, FirstLook's content
library includes streaming video of exclusive celebrity
interviews, ``behind-the-scenes'' footage, entertainment contests,
promotions and text-based information on each entertainment
release including ratings, reviews, synopses, and links to official
websites.
The announcement includes an agreement with Microsoft to
showcase FirstLook as a featured provider of streaming video
and audio content at WindowsMedia.com.
Media General announced
that Thompson L. Rankin and Walter E. Williams have been nominated
to its board of directors and will stand for election at the
company's annual shareholders' meeting on May 18. They were
nominated to replace Robert P. Black, 73, and Roger H. Mudd, 72,
who are retiring from the board due to mandatory retirement
provisions in the company's by-laws.
The Upper Deck Company LLC, a sports/entertainment publishing
company, announced the addition of Michael Jordan to its board
of directors and an equity shareholder in the company.
In addition to a stake in the company, Jordan is teaming up with
Upper Deck's executive team to develop new products.
Elsevier Science, a publisher of scientific information,
announced the launch of Scirus --
a search engine dedicated to science. Scirus is a search engine
specifically designed for finding
highly relevant scientific information.
Elsevier Science is a scientific, technical
and medical information provider, publishing journals as well
as books and secondary databases. Elsevier Science is
part of the Reed Elsevier plc group,
an international publisher and information provider.
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