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Friday, April 6, 2001
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Publishing Industry Soundbytes
- Ziff Davis Media Inc.
announced that Robert Madore has resigned his position as Chief
Financial Officer of the company to pursue other interests.
Effective immediately, Vice President and Controller David F.
Mullen assumes Madore's responsibilities.
Mullen has been with Ziff Davis Media since 1997, most recently
as Controller. Prior to joining the company, Mullen held various
positions at Deloitte & Touche LLP. Mullen reports directly to
Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Tom
McGrade.
Ziff Davis Media Inc. alsoy named former DoubleClick Vice President
and General Manager Beth-Ann Eason to the new position of Senior
Vice President of Business Development within its Business Media
Group. At DoubleClick, Eason was responsible for managing the
DoubleClick Network. Prior to joining DoubleClick, Eason was
Associate Publisher at SRDS Interactive. Before that, Eason
held several advertising sales positions at publications
such as The New Yorker, Adweek and Family Circle.
- The Seventh Annual Blockbuster
Awards will be broadcast on Wednesday,
April 11 (8 p.m. - 10 p.m. ET/PT) on FOX.
Blockbuster Inc. and Entertainment Weekly magazine will present
the show, broadcast from the Shrine Auditorium in Los
Angeles. The Blockbuster Awards honor achievements in film, music
and video games from 2000. The winners were selected by
entertainment fans who cast their votes at participating
Blockbuster stores and online at blockbusterawards.com.
- Easyriders Inc. announced that its wholly owned subsidiary,
Paisano Publications Inc., has re-launched its 12-year old
V-TWIN magazine effective with the May 2001 issue which went
on sale this week.
The monthly distribution of the re-launched V-TWIN will increase
to 167,000 per issue from the current 55,000 level.
Easyriders is a publicly traded, diversified company with
publishing, retail and entertainment interests serving the
motorcycling lifestyle market.
- A new publishing company, JBS Publishing, Inc., has been
established to
concentrate in the digital publishing industry. According to Don
Johnson,
vice president and spokesman for the company, the operation will
consist
of three distinct arms. Pixel
Press Publishers will be the
publishing arm. ReaderHouse will be an
online bookstore which will sell Pixel Press products as well
as those from other cooperating publishers.
Read-A-Bargain is an electronic magazine,
featuring free browsing of short stories, essays, articles, book
reviews, columns, novel excerpts and other material of interest
to readers.
- TheStreet.com, Inc., a provider of financial analysis and news,
announced that because of continued economic uncertainties and
difficult market conditions, the Company plans to take steps to reduce
operating expenses. The Company will reduce its workforce across
the board by 20%. Other expense reductions include subleasing a
portion of its principal office space and cutting discretionary
spending in areas such as contract services, marketing and travel.
These measures are expected to save the Company over $15 million
on an annualized basis.
- Book Sense has released the third of its monthly specialty
book bestseller lists, this time featuring bestselling poetry books.
These specialty book lists are based on the previous month's sales
in the independent bookstore category.
As it did last year at this time, Seamus Heaney's translation of
Beowulf tops the list, though now in paperback. The hardcover
remains on at #7. Poets Mary Oliver and Anne Carson each have 2
books on this list. Other recent publications include the new
James Merrill collection and Bill Moyers' book of interviews with
poets. Rounding out the list, which can be seen at BookSense.com
and at the Academy of American Poets website,
are several recent and classic anthologies.
Book Sens is planning upcoming specialty bestseller lists for
young adult reading, mystery, gay/lesbian interest and audiobooks.
The weekly Book Sense Bestseller List
is based on the reporting from over 350 independent bookstores.
- Cox Interactive Media (CIMedia) announced that Lem Meador and
Tim Aligheri have been named as directors within its technology
group. The announcement came from Joseph Y. Gallo, vice president
of technology/chief technology officer.
- The Open eBook Forum (OeBF) Board of Directors and the Electronic
Book Exchange (EBX) Working Group Executive Committee announced
the completion of EBX merging into the Open eBook Forum during
the Annual Meeting of OeBF members on March 19, in Paris, France.
As a result, members of the former EBX Working Group are all
operating within the framework of the Open eBook Forum as the
standards body for the efficient development and widespread
adoption of electronic publishing standards.
EBX had operated under the auspices of the Book Industry Study
Group. The EBX Working Group will now cease to operate, but the
work completed to date will continue within the Working Groups
of the Open eBook Forum.
Before the move, the Electronic Book Exchange Working Group and
the Open eBook Forum shared many of the same member companies
and organizations. All additional members of the EBX became
members of the OeBF at the time of the transition.
- TerraShare.com, Inc., an About.com
styled network of topic-specific websites, announced that it is
seeking to be acquired by a strategic partner.
The website generated over 7.5 million unique visitors during
the month of January 2001 (based on an ABC Interactive audit).
The company has hired investment bank, Alterity Partners, to
help them find a buyer. TerraShare is looking to complete
the sale by Mid-April.
- Ellen Archer, vice president and associate publisher of
Hyperion, has been promoted to vice president and publisher,
and Will Schwalbe, executive editor, has been named vice president
and editor in chief. The announcement was made by Robert S.
Miller, who was just recently named president of Hyperion.
Miller helped Disney establish Hyperion in 1990 and held the
title of senior vice president and managing director.
As publisher of Hyperion, Archer assumes responsibility for the
editorial, production, and art departments and will continue to
supervise marketing, publicity, synergy, and sales functions
for Hyperion and its four imprints. Before joining Hyperion
in April 1999, Archer was vice president and associate publisher
of the Ballantine Publishing Group.
As editor in chief, Schwalbe will oversee the editorial and
managing editorial departments, as well as acquire and edit
fiction and nonfiction titles for the house, reporting to Archer.
- The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. announced the appointment
of Andrew Bein, as vice president/general manager of New Media.
Bein reports to Eric Schrier, global editor-in-chief and senior
vice president of The Reader's Digest Association, Inc.
Bein was most recently vice president, corporate development at
iWon.com.
- Accenture and ContentGuard, Inc. have announced an agreement
to work together to provide digital rights management (DRM)
solutions to enable clients to manage rights in digital content
such as ebooks, music and video. Accenture is a global
management and technology consultancy and ContentGuard is a
provider of DRM solutions.
Accenture and ContentGuard are collaborating to meet clients'
digital content distribution needs by offering customized
packages of ContentGuard's RightsEdge technology and services.
- Digital Learning Interactive Inc., a leading provider of
web-based interactive learning resources for college classrooms,
announced it has raised $13.85 million of private equity.
This second round of funding was lead by POD Holding L.P. and
joined by S.A.C. Capital Associates, LLC and other individual
investors.
- Stealth Press has named Robert J. Teufel
Chairman of its Board of Directors, it was announced by company
President Michael A. Shoemaker. Stealth Press publishes
hardcover editions of popular books that are currently out of print,
selling directly to readers via the Internet.
Teufel served as President and COO of Rodale (formerly Rodale
Press) for over 20 years until he retired in 2000.
- adam.com, Inc., a creator and syndicator of health information
for the eHealth and eLearning markets, announced a renewed agreement
with the National Library of Medicine, a medical library and
part of the National Institutes of Health.
NLM will license adam's Health Illustrated Encyclopedia, which
contains iver 10,000 indexed pages of health and wellness
information, for use on NLM's website MedlinePlus. NLM will
also connect the Encyclopedia to more than 4,500 health science
libraries through the National Network of Libraries of Medicine,
an organization dedicated to increasing public access to
health information. Under the agreement, NBC affiliate WRC-TV
in Washington, D.C. will be able to access the health content
from MedlinePlus.
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