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Wednesday, April 11, 2001 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes · Napster announced that it has completed a transaction to bring the benefits of Gigabeat's technology and engineering team to Napster. The technologies developed by Gigabeat will be incorporated in Napster's ongoing compliance and development efforts. Gigabeat's co-founders, Dr. Wilburt Labio and Dr. Narayanan Shivakumar, as well as Gigabeat's engineering team, have joined Napster. · New Hope Natural Media announced that it has added Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals (FFN) to its global portfolio. FFN is a publication targeting food manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, pharmaceutical companies and major retailers worldwide. The magazine reports globally on the development and marketing of functional foods and nutraceuticals and examines business trends, scientific research and industry regulation. FFN will be published six times a year beginning with the May/June issue and has a circulation of 11,000. It is produced by New Hope's international division in Brighton, UK. New Hope Natural Media is a division of Penton Media, Inc. · International Data Group (IDG), an IT media company, and its Taiwan publishing partner, InfoPro Group, Inc., announced the launch of New Economy, the Taiwanese edition of The Industry Standard. A weekly publication, New Economy has an initial circulation of 22,000 copies. The companion web site www.neweconomy.com.tw features a selection of local technology news, interviews with top Internet business executives, and new product launches. The launch of New Economy brings the total number of IDG titles published by InfoPro in Taiwan to five, including Computerworld/Infoworld Taiwan and PC World Taiwan. · A new streaming video network has just launched on the Internet. VegTv.com formally debuts with a series of videos that show Americans how to switch to a healthier, plant-based diet. VegTv.com founder, Jane Velez-Mitchell, an Emmy award-winning Los Angeles television news anchor, has applied her two decades of TV news experience to teaching Americans how to switch to plant-based foods. · Cahners Business Information announced that it has sold Contractor magazine to Penton Media, Inc. As previously announced, Cahners is selling this property as part of its ongoing effort to focus growth in strategic market sectors. · Google Inc., developer of the Google search engine, announced that Yahoo! Inc. has integrated Google's wireless search technology into its wireless offerings. In addition to retrieving personalized content and services, on-the-go Yahoo! users can now use the Google search engine to browse and access Internet webpages from any web-enabled mobile phone. · Space.com, a space multimedia company, announced that its founder, Lou Dobbs, will be stepping down as CEO, and will become the anchor of the CNN Moneyline Newshour on May 14th. Dobbs will remain as a member of the Board of the Directors and will maintain his significant investment in Space.com , Inc. The company's president, John C. Ferrara, will oversee the company until a successor is named. Space.com also recently announced the launch of The Space News Business Report, a new online news-service covering the global space industry. The Space News Business Report will be a subscriber-only, premium service utilizing the reporting resources of Space.com and Space News. Space.com acquired Space News from Gannett Co., Inc. in November 2000. · Hilary A. Schneider, Chief Executive Officer of Red Herring Communications, Inc., announced the promotion of Tracy Martin to Vice President, Chief Financial Officer from Vice President, Finance. In this new role, Martin will oversee the financial, human resources and facilities divisions of Red Herring Communications. Martin succeeds Doug Jeffries, who has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Red Herring, Martin was Director, Corporate Controller of NeoMagic Corporation, a semiconductor company. · IDG.net, IDG's Technology Directory of more than 300 sites worldwide, and Google Inc., developer of the award-winning Google search engine, announced that IDG.net has implemented Google's SiteSearch technology. With this enhanced search capability, users looking for specific technology information on IDG.net will be able to quickly and easily access the information they need. This added functionality is part of the redesign of the IDG.net site, which improves usability by making information available under several category headings. · CMP Media has launched a comprehensive source of embedded information on the Web. The new community is a build-out of the popular Embedded Systems Programming website, Embedded.com. The new site will serve as a channel community on the EDTN (Electronics Design, Technology & News) network. · The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. has announced a relaunch of the U.S. edition of Selecciones, the world's leading Spanish-language magazine. The monthly, digest-sized Selecciones is distributed in 20 countries. Beginning with the May issue, U.S. `Selecciones readers will get their own edition with content that is dedicated to enriching life in their new homeland. Besides a new look and additional feature stories, the U.S. edition will include interviews with high-profile personalities who share unknown aspects of their lives as a source of information and motivation. Selecciones will incorporate culturally relevant information while still featuring popular segments like ``Word Power,'' ``Laughter,'' ``Quotable Quotes,'' ``News of Medicine'' and other favorites. The magazine continues its long tradition of offering true, inspirational stories and articles of interest to the whole family. It is distributed in 20 countries worldwide and has been published for 60 years. It has been published in the United States since 1971. · Co-publishers Emilio Estefan, Jr. and Jerry Powers announced that Sara Maria ``Fifi'' Castany has been appointed as Editor-in-Chief of Ocean Drive en Espanol. The publication, which will launch in May, will focus on the young, aspiring Hispanic person as well as on the unique lifestyle of the established Miami Hispanic businessperson, mover and shaker and socialite from an insider's point of view. Prior to joining Ocean Drive en Espanol, Castany was Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan en Espanol in Spanish and was responsible for nine editions in the U.S. Hispanic, Latin American and Caribbean markets. · MediaMap announced the launch of ExpertPR, a new electronic newsletter aimed at giving PR pros advice on best practices, tips and industry news. ExpertPR will bring PR pros a weekly dose of insider information featuring the latest news about journalists' jobs and coverage changes, contact tips, industry trends and professional development stories. The e-newsletter will also be available in print form soon after launch. · Steven M. Bornstein has been named president, ABC Television, it was announced by Michael D. Eisner, chairman and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Co., and Robert A. Iger, president and chief operating officer. In his new role, Bornstein will oversee the ABC Television Network, ABC's 10 owned television stations and Buena Vista Television, a provider of syndicated television programming. Bornstein replaces Robert F. Callahan, president of ABC Broadcast Group, who is leaving for personal reasons that require him to be based on the East Coast. Callahan will remain at ABC through September to help facilitate the transition. · PharmaLinx LLC, a publishing and communications company serving the multifaceted pharmaceutical industry, is launching PharmaVoice: the forum for industry executives July/August 2001. PharmaVoice is an industry magazine expressly written and designed to deliver the views and opinions of leading business executives who are shaping the direction of the dynamic and kinetic pharmaceutical industry. PharmaVoice reaches 10,000 pharmaceutical, biotechnology, drug delivery, device and diagnostic, research and development, advertising agency, media, and service supplier executives. · Agfa Monotype, a provider of fonts and font technologies, announced a range of affordable font licensing options for embedding its fonts into ebooks. In addition, Agfa Monotype announced the appointment of Amy Hensiek to head up their E-media font licensing department. The new ebook font licenses will give designers and publishers solutions to the dilemma of ensuring that readers see the ebook in the font that was originally specified. Font embedding is a standard feature of Adobe Acrobat and a variety of Microsoft Office applications, but restrictions by font vendors limit the distribution of documents with embedded fonts. Publishers interested in embedding fonts from Agfa Monotype's font library in their ebooks have three customized licensing options to choose from: Per-Unit royalty, Per-Title royalty and an Annual License. · Silicon Valley Community Newspapers has debuted as an independent company. The six community newspapers which have been published under the umbrella of Metro Newspapers have begun operating as an independent business under the banner of Silicon Valley Community Newspapers (SVCN Inc.). David Cohen, who co-founded Metro, Silicon Valley's weekly alternative newspaper, in 1985, has been named SVCN's Publisher/CEO. According to Cohen, the decision to spin the community newspapers into a separate company came about because both Metro and the community newspapers were growing, but the focus of each division was different. Metro Newspapers recently purchased the Oakland weekly Urbanview and relaunched the Sonoma County Independent as the Northern California Bohemian, with distribution extended to Napa and Marin counties. Metro Newspapers also publishes Metro Santa Cruz. The group of four alternative newspapers will be headed by Metro co-founder Dan Pulcrano. · Franklin Electronic Publishers announced that United States Patent 6,205,540 on the invention entitled ``Processor with Enhanced Instruction Set'' has issued to the Company. The '450 Patent covers the new 32 bit RISC processor used by the Company in its multimedia eBookMan platforms and other Franklin eBooks. The Company also announced that it has inaugurated a licensing program for its eBookMan technology package. Over the past several months, many third party software developers have been using the Company's free software developers' kit for eBookman, or SDK as it is commonly known, and as a result the Company has been in discussions with a number of potential hardware licensees. The Company has recently entered into a licensing agreement with a third party for use of eBookMan technology in consumer oriented electronic products, which technology includes the use of the microprocessor covered by the '450 Patent. · Bankruptcy Creditors' Service, Inc. announced publication of Pacific Gas Bankruptcy News, tracking the chapter 11 restructuring under taken by PG&E Corporation's wholly-owned utility subsidiary Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Pacific Gas Bankruptcy News is distributed on a subscription basis by email for $45 per issue. New issues are published as significant activity occurs (generally every 10 to 20 days) in the company's chapter 11 cases. Chapman advised that a free copy of the first issue of Pacific Gas Bankruptcy News is available via the Internet at http://www.bankrupt.com/pacificgas.txt using a standard Web browser. · The McGraw-Hill Companies announced the appointment of Scott C. Marden as president of its Information and Media Services segment. Marden, who has more than 20 years of senior operating and advisory experience in the media and technology industries, will be responsible for managing the Corporation's media and business information properties. Marden, 46, will report to McGraw and will be responsible for managing all elements of the Corporation's Information and Media Services segment, including the BusinessWeek Group, the Broadcasting Group, the Construction Information Group, Aviation Week, Platts and the Healthcare Information Group. · Vivendi Universal announced two executive appointments: Bruce Hack has been promoted to Executive Vice President of Strategic Planning & Business Development. The previous occupant of that post, Agnes Audier has been promoted to the newly created position of Co-Chief Operating Officer of Vivendi Universal Net, in charge of entertainment portals. Hack had previously been Vice Chairman, Universal Music Group. In his new capacity, he will report directly to Jean-Marie Messier, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vivendi Universal. In her new position, Mrs. Audier, alongside Frank Boulben, Co-Chief Operating Officer, will report to Philippe Germond, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vivendi Universal Net. · Adobe Systems Incorporated announced the immediate availability of Adobe Content Server 2.0, a software solution that enables publishers, online content distributors and resellers to secure and sell Adobe Portable Document Format- (PDF) based eBooks. Adobe Systems also announced a public beta version of Acrobat Reader) for Palm OS. The new software provides mobile business professionals and others the flexibility and freedom to view content in PDF on Palm Powered handheld computers. A beta version of the product is immediately available for download free of charge from the Adobe.com website at www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/betareg.html. Adobe also announced the immediate availability of Adobe Acrobat 5.0 software, The new version offers several enhancements, including tighter Web integration, support for industry standard protocols like Open DataBase Connectivity (ODBC) that connect Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) forms with back-end databases, and easier data exchange in Adobe PDF files through support for the eXtensible Markup Language (XML). · The National Basketball Association (NBA) and The New York Times Company announced that, as part of a litigation settlement, they have entered into a marketing agreement regarding the sale of photographs of NBA games taken by Times photographers. Under the agreement, The Times will continue to display and sell on its online store, photographs taken by its photographers of NBA games, and will provide a variety of promotional benefits to the NBA. Among other things, The Times will feature the NBA.com logo on NYTimes.com and in print advertisements promoting its sale of Times photographs of NBA games, and will include a direct link from its online store to NBA.com. In connection with the marketing agreement between the NBA and The Times, the parties agreed to settle a lawsuit involving The Times's sale of NBA game action photographs. · PreviewPort announced that it will feature more than 3,000 Random House authors in its International Author Index (IAI). Random House is the most recent participant in the latest movement of U.S. publishers to join the IAI which include St. Martin's Press, Henry Holt, Eerdmans, and Hyperion. · Robert D. Marcus has been named senior vice president of AOL Time Warner Inc., it was announced today by Richard D. Parsons, co-chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner. He will report to Parsons. As part of AOL Time Warner's senior management team, Marcus will work with Parsons in overseeing the company's content businesses, including Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, Warner Music Group and Time Warner Trade Publishing. · The software vendors and content providers of the PRISM (Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata) Working Group announced the release of version 1.0 of the PRISM metadata specification. It provides a metadata vocabulary for print and online publishing. The specification represents the work of more than 20 content providers and vendors--including Adobe, Quark, Time Inc., Getty Images, Artesia Technologies, Cahners Business Information, Sothebys.com, Banta New Media, IDG Publications, Interwoven, Vignette, Conde Nast and Kinecta. Several vendors serving different parts of the publishing community and other industries are also announcing support for the specification. The Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata (PRISM) standard, an initiative hosted by IDEAlliance, the research arm of the Graphics Communications Association, is a developing framework for the interchange and preservation of publishable content and metadata. PRISM also provides a set of controlled vocabularies with which to describe the content being interchanged. · Texterity, Inc., a provider of Open eBook conversion services, and Publishing Dimensions, a company providing conversions for multiple eBook platforms and print-on-demand, announced the signing of a wholesale eBook conversion agreement. Under the agreement, Publishing Dimensions will use Texterity's TextCafe service to convert customer's titles from PDF format into Open eBook format. Texterity will provide fully automated conversion of existing PDF files into OEB (Open eBook) format, using a secure file transfer method that integrates directly into Publishing Dimensions' production process. In turn, Publishing Dimensions will use the OEB files as the basis for generating high-quality eBooks for sale in multiple formats, including the Palm Reader. · OpenMind Publishing Group, a collaborative publishing service, announcing a partnership with XanEdu, a division of Bell & Howell Information and Learning. OpenMind will leverage XanEdu's tools in several different ways. Professors who are building customized CourseBooks through OpenMind's service will now have the ability to offer their students access to the XanEdu ReSearch Engine, a research tool that offers students access to its scholarly archive of journals, periodicals, newspapers, dissertations and academic collections. Additionally, instructors will be able to integrate XanEdu CoursePacks, CasePacks and LitPacks into their curriculums, providing students with articles, up-to-the-minute research, case examples and literary course materials. · Elisar Software Corporation announces the availability of its MediaRights Digital Rights Enforcement (DRE) technology. MediaRights is a content, platform and viewer independent application that secures multimedia information (images, ebooks, documents, web pages, video and audio). · ContentGuard, Inc., a provider of digital rights management (DRM) solutions, and Digital Goods, a digital content marketing company, announced a strategic alliance to link their technology and service offerings for content owners. The agreement, announced at Seybold Boston, will see the companies integrate ContentGuard's RightsEdge technology and services with Digital Goods' Amplifi content marketing solutions. · goReader, Inc., an electronic book and reading device company focused on education, and The Douglas Stewart Company (DSC), an educational marketing and distribution organization, announced a strategic partnership to provide electronic textbooks to college and university bookstores nationwide. This agreement provides goReader with a direct distribution channel to university bookstores. The goReader electronic ebook device and electronic textbooks will be available for students to purchase beginning in fall 2001 at select schools across the country. 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. |
