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Friday, April 27, 2001 Publishing Industry Soundbytes · Space.com, a space multimedia company, announced the appointment of John C. Ferrara to President and Chief Executive Officer, and to the company's Board of Directors. In his new position, Ferrara will oversee corporate strategy, operations and acquisitions for the company. Space.com founder and former CEO, Lou Dobbs, will remain Chairman of the Board of Directors. Ferrara joined Space.com in November 1999 as Chief Financial Officer and was promoted to President and COO in March 2001. Prior to joining the company, he served as Executive Vice President and CFO for Golden Books Family Entertainment, Inc. · Sony Pictures Family Entertainment has begun production on Harold and the Purple Crayon, a new animated series slated to premiere in December 2001 on HBO Family, it was announced by Bob Higgins, Senior Vice President of Creative Affairs of Sony Pictures Family Entertainment (SPFE). Academy Award nominee Sharon Stone will be the narrator for the series, and Van Dyke Parks will compose the music. Based on the classic children's book by Crocket Johnson, the Harold and the Purple Crayon television series will take children on a magical adventure to new and exciting places filled with fun and interesting characters. The series centers on Harold, an inventive and curious four year old boy whose imagination -- and purple crayon -- lead him into a magical world of his own invention. · WSR Magazine, a monthly print publication distributed to institutional investors, announced that on May 7, 2001, its Premier issue will be available to the public on wsrmag.com. The Premier issue contains editorial commentary on the energy industry, as well as the medical devices, tobacco, Russell madcap value stocks, and research department profiles on Robinson Humphrey and Friedman Billings Ramsey. The premier issue also contains research on 21 public companies in four formats. · Kathleen Duffy, Medical Herbalist and owner of the Herbarium, in Chicopee, is now a contributor to the national magazine, Healing Retreats & Spas. ``From The Herb Garden,'' a question and answer article about herb and aroma therapy, debuted in the April/May issue and will be a regular feature. Her popular call-in radio show, Herbs for Health & Healing, which began in 1992 recently ended when WNNZ became a sports-only station. · Terra Lycos, an Internet network, announced a comprehensive agreement with American Media, the publishers of The National Enquirer, Star, Weekly World News and Country Weekly Magazine. News and Hollywood gossip from the National Enquirer and Star Magazine are now available on Lycos Entertainment. Lycos users will get feature articles, current news items, breaking Hollywood gossip from Mike Walker, and celebrity news and fashion reports from the National Enquirer and Star Magazine. In addition, Country Weekly Magazine, a country music magazine, will coordinate items for a celebrity charity auction on Lycos Auctions. · Essence Communications Partners (ECP), a joint venture between Essence Communications, Inc., and Time Inc., announced the appointment of Michelle Ebanks to the newly created position of group publisher. Ebanks will report directly to ECP chairman Edward Lewis in a newly formed strategic leadership role overseeing and expanding the publishing franchise. Her operational responsibilities will include advertising, marketing services, consumer marketing and production. Since November 1999, Michelle Ebanks has been a vice-president of Time Inc., working directly with the CEO on business and strategic initiatives. · WeddingChannel.com, a bridal registry and online wedding planning resource, has acquired WeddingBells U.S., a magazine with a circulation of 350,000. The partnership marries the powerful reach of WeddingChannel.com's 30 million monthly pageviews, bridal registry and content, with the local bridal market expertise, editorial and design of WeddingBells' brand. · T.H.E. Journal announced the spin-off of EduPuppy.com, a free directory and resource for early childhood education (ECE) teachers, caregivers and parents. EduPuppy.com was first launched in September 2000 as a resource for ECE teachers who want to better leverage the power of the Internet in their classrooms. Kristen L. Hammond, the site's creator, is now CEO of EduPuppy.com, based in Wallingford, CT. T.H.E. said that it will retain EduPuppy's parent, EduHound.com as a division within the company. · Time4's TransWorld Media announced the launch of transworldMATRIX.com, a content partnership between TransWorld Media, a publisher of young men's magazines, and CNNSI.com, the home of Sports Illustrated on the web and the sports site for CNN.com and CNN/Sports Illustrated, the sports news network. TransworldMATRIX.com, which debuted this week, will aggregate the top stories from TransWorld's action sports sites including skateboarding.com, transworldsnowboarding.com, transworldsurf.com, bmxonline.com, freezeonline.com, transworldmotocross.com and transworldstance.com. · Audible, Inc., a provider of Internet-delivered spoken audio, announced that three media executives have been appointed to the Board of Directors. Gary Ginsberg, Executive Vice President of Investor Relations and Communications at News Corporation, Johannes Mohn, Vice President Technology Management at DirectGroup Bertelsmann, and Richard Sarnoff, President of Bertelsmann's Random House New Media and Corporate Development Group join the company's board. · Rodale Inc., a publisher of information on healthy, active lifestyles, announced that Amy Rhodes has been named vice president and publisher of Rodale Trade Books. Steve Murphy, Rodale's president and chief operating officer, made the announcement. Rhodes, a former sales and marketing executive of Harry N. Abrams and Little Brown and Co., will begin her Rodale assignment on May 14 and will report to Steve Murphy. In her new role, Rhodes will oversee all of Rodale's trade book sales, marketing, and publicity functions for U.S. and foreign markets. Prior to joining Rodale, Rhodes served as vice president, director of sales and marketing and member of the executive committee for Harry N. Abrams since 1998. · International Data Group (IDG), an IT media company, announced that Kelly Conlin has been elected to the company's board of directors. Conlin has been at IDG for twelve years and served as President since 1995 and CEO since 1999. · Primedia Inc. a media and publishing company, announced that Michaelanne C. Discepolo, 48, was promoted to executive vice president of human resources. As the head of human resources for the past ten years, Discepolo is responsible for human resources for all of Primedia's print, video and Internet businesses. Discepolo joined Primedia in March 1991 as director of human resources and she became a vice president and corporate officer in January 1993 and senior vice president in January 2000. Before joining Primedia she served as director of benefits with Macmillan, Inc. · Standard & Poor's announced the launch of its Australia and New Zealand website. · Sheshunoff Information Services, a division of Thomson Financial's Banking, Insurance & E-Commerce group, has launched a news and analysis service for credit unions, CU-watch.com. CU-watch reports on and analyzes changes in federal regulation, legislative action, state law and regulation, and emerging trends in today's highly regulated credit union industry. · CyberRebate.com, Inc., an online retailer that offers rebates to consumers, announced the addition of several new categories to its offering, including books, CDs DVDs and magazines. · TransWestern Publishing Company LLC announced that it has agreed to acquire WorldPages.com, Inc. for $3 per share in an all cash merger transaction. TransWestern Publishing is one of the nation's largest independent telephone directory publishers and WorldPages.com is a leading provider of print and Internet telephone directories. · P. H. Glatfelter Company, a manufacture of book publishing paper, has unveiled MyGlatfelter.com, a B2B website which provides P. H. Glatfelter Company's customers with information regarding order status, shipments and inventories in real time. The new ecommerce business model was a collaborative effort between a core team of P. H. Glatfelter Company's customers, IT specialists, customer support representatives, and the business management team. The site has been in planning and development for nearly 18 months. · Annaliese S. Kambour has been named vice president, tax and chief tax officer of AOL Time Warner Inc., it was announced by J. Michael Kelly, executive vice president and chief financial officer of AOL Time Warner. Ms. Kambour, 39, will report to Mr. Kelly and will be responsible for AOL Time Warner's corporate-wide tax planning, compliance and administration. · Infogrames, Inc. announced a licensing agreement with CBS Consumer Products to develop a line of interactive games based on the CBS network television series, Survivor. Under terms of the agreement, Infogrames has acquired the exclusive rights to develop and publish games in the United States and Canada for PC and Mac, as well as current and next-generation console platforms including handheld systems. The first game, slated for release in late 2001, will be based on the current Survivor: The Australian Outback series. It is being published by Infogrames' WizardWorks division and is developed by Magic Lantern Playware, a creative business unit of Gold Creek Technology. · Digital Island, Inc. announced the Digital Island Footprint Media Manager, a new media content management solution designed for companies looking to deliver streaming media content online and monetize that content to create new revenue streams. · Reciprocal, Inc., a provider of digital media distribution services, announced the adoption of a new organization that supports the company's digital media distribution focus. The company is continuing to develop its services beyond digital rights management (DRM), to now include digital content inventory management, consulting and implementation services. As part of the reorganization Reciprocal will reduce its staff by approximately 29%. · iUniverse.com, a provider of epublishing services, announced the appointment of Doug Bennett as president and chief operating officer. As President and COO, Bennett will oversee day-to-day operations for the company, including sales, marketing, product engineering and customer support functions. Most recently, Bennett served as CEO of EoExchange, Inc., a provider of information management technologies. Previously, Bennett served as president of Macmillan USA. · Animated movie ogre Shrek, and his best friend, Donkey, are the latest characters to be featured in ads from the Newspaper Association of America encouraging young people to read. The ads are timed to run in conjunction with the movie's release on May 18. ``Go OGRE the top ... encourage your children to read a newspaper every day,'' reads the headline. Body copy asks, ``Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the smartest green ogre of them all? Shrek! Shrek reads the newspaper with his best friend, Donkey, every morning. Don't be green with envy ... You can read a newspaper too!'' The ad includes space for newspapers to run their own logos above the ``It all starts with newspapers'' tagline. The ad, which comes in three sizes (quarter page, half page and full page), is available to download at http://www.naa.org/display/shrek. Newspapers are encouraged to run the ads throughout May. The comedy, which takes a different look at classic fairy tales, is based on the children's book by William Steig. 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 © 1997-2011 by Writers Write, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
