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Friday, May 4, 2001 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes · Vivendi Universal Publishing and Fox Interactive have announced a three-year, worldwide co-publishing agreement which grants VU Publishing exclusive rights to manufacture, market and distribute key titles for PC and next-generation console platforms. · The editors of Cadence magazine have re-launched cadenceweb.com, a resource for the Computer-Aided Design industry. Cadenceweb will integrate the site's information archives with interactivity, personalization, and navigation tools. The new site now features precise & efficient navigation, scrolling industry news headlines, archived magazine and newsletter content, and a searchable database of unique online content as well as several unique new features. CADscope, a quarterly, magazine-style, industry analysis special report, will also debut on the new site. The first issue will take a closer look at collaborative approaches to design and 3D modeling and is written by writers Laura Carrabine, Joe Greco, and Arnie Williams. · Audible, Inc., a provider of Internet-delivered spoken audio, announced that Foy Sperring has been promoted to senior vice president of Strategic Alliances. In this newly created position, Mr. Sperring will be responsible for developing and expanding key relationships with strategic business partners, which currently include existing alliances with Microsoft Corporation, Amazon.com and AudibleReady portable digital device manufacturers. · MightyWords, a seller and distributor of digital content, and internet.com, an IT Network, announced that MightyWords' catalog of business and technical titles is available across internet.com's network of 160 websites. · Miramax Films has acquired the rights to the novel Me Times Three, by NY Times style reporter Alex Witchel, it was announced by Meryl Poster, Miramax co-president of production. The film will be produced by Bobby Cohen (Cider House Rules, Bounce) with Gwyneth Paltrow attached as a co-producer, the first time she has assumed that role. Paltrow is attached to star in Me Times Three. Me Times Three which will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in January 2002, is the story of a young, suburban New York woman who works as a Junior editor at a hip fashion magazine. She is engaged to her high school sweetheart and life seems perfect -- until she discovers that her fiancee has been secretly engaged to not one, but two other women. · Ariba, Inc., a B2B ecommerce solutions provider, has launched aribamag.com, a resource for its Ariba magazine. The Spring issue of Ariba features a cover story about Pete Solvik, senior vice president and CIO of Cisco Corporation, who credits corporate culture as one of the driving forces of the company. Other articles include a personal interview with Chris Beall, chief strategy officer for Requisite Technology, a trip back in time to explore the evolution of B2B commerce, and many more special features and regular columns. Ariba magazine currently reaches over 50,000 senior corporate, finance, technology and purchasing executives in global 2000 corporations. Aribamag.com will be updated quarterly in 2001, to coincide with each new issue of the print version. The next update is scheduled for June 4, 2001. · SmarterKids.com, Inc., an online educational store and resource, Earlychildhood LLC, a retailer of educational products, and LearningStar Corp., announced that the combination of SmarterKids.com and Earlychildhood has been completed and became effective on April 30, 2001. As a result of the combination, both SmarterKids.com and Earlychildhood became wholly-owned subsidiaries of LearningStar, whose shares will be traded under the symbol ``LRNS'' on the Nasdaq National Market beginning on Tuesday, May 1, 2001. Due to the combination, SmarterKids.com common stock has been delisted from quotation on the Nasdaq National Market effective as of the close of business on April 30, 2001 and SmarterKids.com ceased to be a public company. LearningStar is a developer, manufacturer, and retailer of educational products. · Consumers get news and information from a growing multitude of sources, but they see newspapers as more credible than TV, radio, magazines or the Internet, according to findings from a Newspaper Association of America study, ``Leveraging Newspaper Assets: A Study of Changing American Media Usage Habits.'' Respondents also cite newspapers as their primary source for information in areas including local news, local entertainment information, business news and personal finance information. · Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. announced that Marcia E. Miller has been appointed to Publisher, Martha Stewart Weddings, effective immediately. Miller, who joined MSO in 1994, was previously the Associate Publisher for Martha Stewart Weddings. Prior to joining MSO, from 1994 to 1995, Miller served as the President and Publisher for Black Book Marketing Group, Inc. · MSNBC.com has hired Dan Fisher to be the ombudsman for the online news organization. In the newly created position, Fisher will monitor the quality and balance of reporting on MSNBC.com and will comment on the way news is gathered, edited and presented. He will report with complete independence from the MSNBC.com news operation, with his column appearing in the Opinions section beginning in May. As MSNBC.com's ombudsman, Fisher will act as an advocate for users, while offering MSNBC editors and producers input and feedback on their stories and features. · Primedia announced that Jack Condon, 51, had been named the chief operating officer of its Business-to-Business Group's Intertec Publishing and Event Unit. Condon will supervise the technology, magazine manufacturing, and circulation and finance departments. In addition, he will be responsible for the procedural development and implementation of new products within Intertec and will play an important role in maximizing profitability of Intertec's publications, Internet activities and events. Condon will fill the post of chief operating officer that was vacated by Ron Wall, a 22-year veteran of Intertec, who was promoted to president in December 2000. Condon, like Wall, will report directly to Intertec CEO Tim Andrews. · Hot Neuron LLC has launched SaveTheFreeWeb.com to provide information and a forum for discussion about the the future of ad-supported online content, with an emphasis on the impact of ad-blocking software. SaveTheFreeWeb.com provides links to articles and a discussion forum to help people learn more about the future of ad-supported content. · R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company has decided to close its Des Moines, Iowa, printing plant, which employs approximately 775 people. Production will be transitioned gradually to other plants in the company's network. The Des Moines plant is expected to shut down completely by July 1, 2002. · Owen Youngman, a Chicago Tribune executive, has joined the board of directors of Legacy.com, Inc., an online obituary company. In his role as the Tribune's vice president of development, a position he has held since 1999, Youngman is responsible for the creation of new Tribune products, services and business ventures, as well as strategic planning and marketing communications. · Line56, an ebusiness media company, announced that business editor and journalist George Hopkin has been named the magazine's managing editor. Last week, Line56 announced the appointment of Lester Craft, formerly editor-in-chief of eCommerce Business (Cahners), as editor-in-chief. The company also announced last week that it has closed on $5 million in second-round funding. Hopkin's experience includes editing business magazines in the UK and Europe. · Paul Ehrmann a writer whose work was presented to Storybay has signed with Boyd Hancock of the Irv Schechter Agency. Paul Ehrmann was signed by Boyd Hancock of the Irv Schechter Agency it was announced by AB Fischer, Executive Vice President, Storybay. Storybay, a provider of services to unsigned authors and screenwriters, also announced that Godless a novel written by Drew Stepek was viewed 36,000 times in less that one week. Godless tells the ten-year struggle of a young writer and his painful attempt to overcome bulimia, alcoholism and drug abuse. · Business 2.0 has annoucned the debut of Motion, a new quarterly supplement covering travel. The supplement's premier issue, focusing on ``destinations,'' debuts bound in to Business 2.0's May 15 issue (on newsstands May 1). The premier issue of Motion features information on the latest innovations and hottest trends emerging in business travel today. Each subsequent issue of Motion will focus on a specific travel theme, with the August 21 issue covering transportation, and the following issues to be published in the fourth quarter of 2001 focusing on mobile offices and meetings, respectively. Business2.com also debuted an online component, the Motion Travel Center, offering additional tools and resources. · The reference publisher R.R. Bowker activated bi-directional links between ulrichsweb.com, an international serials directory, and the ISI Journal Citation Reports on the Web, a core journal evaluative tool. Available to mutual subscribers, these links allow users to identify and critically assess serials in a streamlined session. · XanEdu, a division of Bell and Howell Information and Learning, announced a partnership with John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Using XanEdu's echnology, Wiley Higher Education will offer custom CoursePacks as an online supplement to their business and economic textbooks. Additionally, Wiley will package XanEdu's MBA ReSearch Engine with the print editions of these textbooks. · BCL Computers, Inc., which provides a free online PDF-to-HTML publication service, GoHTM.com, is launching another online service. GoBCL.com, a free server-based solution like GoHTM, allows users to submit documents from any Windows application for publishing to PDF. Users point their browsers to GoBCL.com and register. After registration, GoBCL.com instructs the user to submit the document for publication through their browser. Users can submit as many files as they like, as long as the size of each doesn't exceed 5 MB. Then GoBCL.com processes the document, generating a PDF representation that preserves the content and layout of the original. Finally, GoBCL.com zips and e-mails the final PDF output back to the user. · Jungle Interactive Media, publishers of MBA Jungle and JD Jungle magazines, announced it has closed a second round of venture capital financing led by three investors: Kingdon Capital, Korn/Ferry International and Ridgewood Capital. The Company maintains the websites MBAJungle.com and JD Jungle.com. Kingdon Capital led the round with a $5 million investment in the Company. Korn/Ferry and Ridgewood Capital, early investors who backed Jungle in May of 2000, each invested $2 million in the second round. Other prominent individuals close to the Company invested roughly $500,000. With this deal, Jungle Interactive Media has raised $14 million to date. · Aiming to help investors gain a better understanding of profit, loss and performance at a challenging time in the market, Bloomberg.com has launched an Earnings Center, a resource for insight into earnings news, profit warnings and analyst ratings. · Clickability Inc., a provider of Web-based interactivity tools for online publishers, announced an alliance with CNN Interactive. Clickability's Save This, Email This and Print This tools will be made available across CNN's Web properties. · Franklin Electronic Publishers, Inc., a provider of handheld ebook reading devices, announced that CompUSA, Best Buy, J&R Electronics and Electronic Boutique have joined Staples and Amazon.com in offering the eBookMan. · The Coriolis Group LLC, an IT publisher and subsidiary of Haights Cross Communications, announced that Keith Weiskamp, the company's president and chief executive officer, has left the company. Joseph Esposito has been appointed to serve as acting president and CEO until a permanent candidate is named. The company's location and daily operations will remain unchanged by the transition in management. Esposito has served as CEO of Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. and also for Tribal Voice, an Internet communications company. · Borders Group announced that it will transition the warehouse and shipping duties currently handled by the company's distribution center in Dexter, Mich., to facilities it owns in Mira Loma, Calif., and LaVergne, Tenn. It is expected that the transition will continue throughout the balance of 2001 and will be concluded in early 2002 when the facility will be closed. The change is expected to displace approximately 80 workers at the Dexter site, most of them hourly warehouse personnel. While their current positions will no longer exist once the transition is complete in early 2002, the company is committed to helping employees identify other employment opportunities in the area. · Microsoft Corp. announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire NCompass Labs Inc., the developer of NCompass Resolution -- a Web content management system. · Ingram Book Group announced the closing of its Chino, California, book distribution facility effective July 2. Customers in Southern California previously served by the Chino facility will now be served primarily by the company's Roseburg, Oregon, distribution center. Specific changes affecting delivery schedules are being communicated to customers formerly served by the Chino facility. Approximately 185 Ingram employees will be affected by the closing. They will be offered outplacement assistance and, in some cases, relocation to other Ingram locations, Ingram officials stated. Ingram Periodicals Inc., the magazine distributor that is also located in the Chino Distribution Center, will maintain a facility in Southern California. · Zany Brainy, Inc., a retailer of toys, games, books and multimedia products, announced that Thomas G. Vellios has been named Chief Executive Officer. Since September 2000, Mr. Vellios has served as President and Acting CEO of Zany Brainy and a member of its Board of Directors. · Warner Bros. Online has launched looneytunes.com, an Internet destination for all things Looney Tunes, including new original animated programming, the first of which is a 10-part serial, Toon Marooned, starring the Looney Tunes characters duking it out ``Survivor''-style for a $100 purse while stranded on a jungle peninsula. · Interfase Capital LP, an Austin-based venture capital firm, announced that it is providing debtor-in-possession financing to Stan Lee Media Inc. for operations during reorganization. · GlobeSt.com, a content website for commercial real estate professionals, announced the opening of the GlobeSt.com office in London, covering regional commercial real estate news on a daily basis. The London office will open in conjunction with the launch of King Sturge research reports and banner ad on the GlobeSt.com homepage. King Sturge will provide commercial real estate data and analysis to GlobeSt.com readers. Recently appointed, Graham Parker will act as the London News Bureau Chief of GlobeSt.com. · Kanakaris Wireless announced that it is developing BookWear, a system of book encoding and distribution, to complement its CinemaWear video encoding process. Just as Kanakaris Wireless showcases CinemaWear on its online movie site CinemaPop.com, it will utilize BookWear on the next generation of its WordPop.com ebook website which will launch this summer. · Vivendi Universal Publishing and Tolkien Enterprises announced a long-term, exclusive deal calling for the development of interactive games based on J.R.R. Tolkien's worldwide best-selling novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Under the deal, VU Publishing's Sierra studio will develop and release multiple games based on the literary works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings over the next eight years. The first game, The Fellowship of the Ring, in development by Seattle-based WXP, Inc., will be released in early 2002 for a next-generation console system. · The Narrative Press has introduced its collection of true, first-person accounts of high adventure and exploration. The books include narratives of pioneers, archeologists, circumnavigators, big game hunters, wild west sheriffs, soldiers, and many others. The authors include Ernest Shackleton, Kit Carson, Elizabeth Custer, Buffalo Bill, and Henry Stanley, as well as more recent and lesser-known writers. All of the books are available through the company's online catalog at narrativepress.com, or through the printed catalog, which can be ordered by calling 1-800-315-9005. The company sells traditional paperback editions, but it also sells ebook editions of all of its titles. · Jessica Levinson Giat has joined Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers as the U.S. Director of Marketing; Consumer Products. In this role Jessica will be focusing on four Penguin Putnam Brands: Peter Rabbit, Spot, Froggy and Mad Libs. She will oversee marketing and promotional activity for these brands as they cross between the book product and outside licensees. Jessica will be working closely with Fredrick Warne & Co Ltd, part of the Penguin Group, to create and direct North American brand marketing and retail strategies, specifically for the Peter Rabbit and Spot properties. · Travlang, Inc. announced that its ticker symbol has changed from IIGR to TRVL. The change in ticker symbol is reflective of the change in the company's name from iiGroup, Inc. to Travlang, Inc. Travlang, Inc. operates Travlang.com, its wholly owned subsidiary. Travlang.com, a foreign language and travel website, was acquired by iiGroup, Inc. in January 2000. Travlang.com offers foreign language and travel information, products and services. 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