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Friday, May 18, 2001 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes · Match.com, an online personals website, announced it will be the exclusive online provider of personals for the New York Magazine and Chicago Magazine websites. Match.com is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ticketmaster and New York Magazine and Chicago Magazine are publications of Primedia Inc. · Computer Games Online, a destination for gamers and part of games.theglobe.com, is re-launching with a new look to compliment its newly designed, sister print publication, Computer Games magazine. CG Online's new look offers a sleek new graphic design and page layout, streamlined navigation and greater readability. · Vulcan Ventures announced it will acquire New York-based Small World Media, a leading provider of fantasy sports games and operator of smallworld.com. The assets of Small World Media will become part of The Sporting News (TSN), a US sports media company and publisher of the weekly magazine, various books, radio and other Web content. Small World's founder and CEO, Mark Jacobstein, will remain with the company and serve as vice president, general manager fantasy sports of The Sporting News. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. · The Totalwoman.com network, a vertical content network of websites for women has added a new advice column. The career advice column, ``Work Life,'' by Margaret O. Kirk, joins ``Ask Patsy,'' by Patricia McLaughlin to provide Totalwoman.com visitors with the opportunity to ask questions relating to their careers and worklife. ``Work Life'' covers all aspects of life at work, from cubicles to cafeterias. Its author, Kirk, is an award-winning freelance writer who specializes in business and medical reporting. The ``Ask Patsy'' fashion column answers questions on the ins and outs of how to dress for business and social occasions. Its author, Patricia McLaughlin, writes a weekly column on style that appears in the Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine. · In an effort to reorganize its debts, LocalBusiness.com Inc. -- a network of local business news sites and publisher of digitalsouth magazine -- will consider the sale of some of its nonessential assets. LocalBusiness.com filed for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the Southern District of Florida on May 2nd. LocalBusiness.com is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Assets of LocalBusiness.com include a content archive of more than 48,000 original news stories and company profiles, the VentureTracker database of original reporting on more than 2,800 private equity-funded companies, a national email subscriber base totaling more than 100,000 names, as well as the domain names LocalBusiness.com and dbusiness.com. Digitalsouth magazine is a bimonthly publication, regionally focused on uncovering hot Southern companies overlooked by national magazines. Assets of digitalsouth include archives of past stories, charts, and information (22 issues), an email subscriber base totaling more than 8,000 names, and a circulation database comprised of entrepreneurs and professionals. In addition, the domain name digitalsouth.com is available. Parties interested in purchasing assets of LocalBusiness.com and/or digitalsouth may contact Cathy Lerman at 954/776-5279 and leave contact information or via email at clerman@localbusiness.com. · InsideEducation.net, the complementary online publication to Inside Education magazine, has announced its official launch. · The Learning Company (TLC), a publisher of productivity and education software, announced the appointment of Greg Bestick to president. Mr. Bestick will report to James R. Bailey, CEO of The Learning Company and group president of Gores Technology Group (GTG). Mr. Bestick will be responsible for all marketing, development, sales, operations and finance worldwide for the company. · Emilio Estefan, Jr. and Jerry Powers, co-publishers of Ocean Drive en Espanol, announced that Anolan Dragitsch has been appointed as associate publisher of the magazine. Ocean Drive en Espanol, a publication targeting the growing U.S. Hispanic market, will launch this May and will feature Miami's fashion, nightlife, travel, arts and design. In addition to her current role at Ocean Drive en Espanol, Dragitsch is vice president of sales for Ocean Drive magazine. · PBI Media, LLC announced the appointment of Larry Kovarovic to Senior Vice President, Trade Shows & Conferences. Larry will oversee all worldwide tradeshows and conference for PBI Media, LLC. Larry's most recent experience comes from Reed Exhibitions where he was Senior Vice President in their trade show and conference division. · Meredith Corporation announced it has reached an agreement to sell Golf for Women magazine to The Golf Digest Companies, a subsidiary of Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc., an Advance Publications Company. Terms were not disclosed and the sale is expected to close in seven to 10 days. Meredith acquired Golf for Women magazine from Brumitt Publishing in 1989. Published bimonthly, it has a circulation of 400,000 and carried 433 pages of advertising in calendar 2000. · Lifestyle magazine publisher, Conde Nast, has chosen web-hosting specialist, iXguardian, to host the online versions of its ten titles, including Vogue, GQ, Glamour and Conde Nast Traveller. The move is part of Conde Nast's strategy of targeting its content at the growing number of PC and Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) users. · Cox Interactive Media (CIMedia) announced that Margot Sinclair Savell has been named city site manager of its Seattle, Wash., city site, SeattleInsider.com. The announcement came from Keith Greer, regional general manager. Savell joined CIMedia in 1999 as a content manager and senior producer at SeattleInsider.com. Prior to joining CIMedia, Savell was managing editor for Internet Broadcasting Systems, launching its third television web site in Portland, Ore. · iUniverse, a provider of epublishing services, announced the appointment of Lynn Zingraf as General Manager, Mass Market; Richard Landsman as Senior Vice President of Engineering; and Chris Taylor as Vice President of Marketing. In addition, Joseph Lindstrom, who most recently served as Director of Business Development for iUniverse, was promoted to General Manager, Infrastructure Services. · Torstar Corporation announced an agreement has been signed to sell Frank Schaffer Publications to McGraw Hill Education, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. Frank Schaffer Publications is a publisher of elementary school and early childhood teacher resource materials, headquartered in Torrance, California. This sale represents the first transaction in connection with Torstar's previously announced decision to divest its Children's Supplementary Education Publishing assets. The sale is expected to close within the next two weeks. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. · Clean Edge, Inc., a provider of publications and consulting services on clean technologies, announced the launch of a new Resource Center on its website. The new feature provides businesses, investors, governments, and entrepreneurs with free access to a wide range of clean-technology business information and resources. · Media General announced that Reid Ashe will become president and chief operating officer, effective July 1, 2001. The company also announced that Marshall N. Morton will become vice chairman and continue as chief financial officer. J. Stewart Bryan III will continue as chairman and chief executive officer. Ashe currently serves as president and publisher of The Tampa Tribune, and Morton is senior vice president and chief financial officer. Ashe joined Media General in 1996 as president and associate publisher of The Tampa Tribune and became publisher at the beginning of 1997. Prior to that he had been president and publisher of The Wichita (Kansas) Eagle since 1986. · Fitzhenry & Whiteside and Stewart House Publishing announced the establishment of the Stewart House Distribution Services. Effective June 1, 2001, Stewart House Distribution Services (SHDS) will take over the operation of Fitzhenry & Whiteside's 76,000 square foot distribution center in Markham, Ontario. Fitzhenry & Whiteside will become SHDS' first client, although both firms will retain separate customer service and accounts receivable facilities. SHDS personnel will share office facilities with Fitzhenry & Whiteside at the Markham location. · The Boston Globe said it will publish a new weekly column on higher education beginning Sunday, May 20. The column, entitled Campus Insider, will contain news items, trends and other reports from the world of higher education. · Bell & Howell's Information and Learning unit and Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive announced an agreement that will bring more than 120 years of The Washington Post to the Web through the ProQuest online information service. Issues dating back to the Post's first issue on December 6, 1877, will be available through the service. The agreement also allows for Bell & Howell to distribute the resulting database to educational institutions, libraries, and other markets around the world. The Washington Post digital archives will be a key part of Bell & Howell's ProQuest Historical Newspapers project. · Erwin Potts, chairman of the board of The McClatchy Company, announced he is stepping down from that post and Gary Pruitt will assume those duties in addition to his role as president and chief executive officer. Potts, 69, who has served as chairman since 1995, will remain on the board. The announcement came at the annual McClatchy shareholders meeting in Sacramento, where the company is headquartered. The change was approved later in the day by the McClatchy Board of Directors and became effective immediately. The McClatchy Company is a newspaper publisher. It publishes 11 daily and 13 non-daily newspapers located in western coastal states, North and South Carolina and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Along with the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, McClatchy's newspapers include, among others, The Sacramento Bee, The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), The Fresno Bee, The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) and the Anchorage Daily News. · VentureWire, a source for venture capital news, announced the launch of a daily news service about high-technology management, VentureWire People. VentureWire People alerts readers to dozens of promotions, hirings, departures, and reassignments among top executives at high-growth companies -- those financed by venture capital. Each day the service also profiles an emerging company that is seeking senior managers. The feature, called ``Who's Hiring,'' provides close-focus case studies of how startups go about the task of building an executive team. · Havas Interactive, a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal Publishing, has changed its name to Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing (VU Interactive Publishing). The company is comprised of two operating divisions, Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing North America (VU Interactive Publishing NA) and Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing International, each of which is charged with directing the sales, distribution and operating activities in its respective region. The name change completes the company's organizational evolution that began with the formation of parent-company Vivendi Universal in December 2000 and Havas' subsequent name change to Vivendi Universal Publishing in January 2001. · Zany Brainy, Inc., a specialty retailer of toys, games, books and multimedia products, announced that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware has approved the Company's Debtor-in-Possession (DIP) financing agreement with Wells Fargo Retail Finance. The Court granted interim approval of the $115 million DIP facility, which made funds available. The DIP facility will allow the Company to normalize merchandise flow and quickly replenish all of its 187 stores nationwide with fresh product. · Barnes & Noble.com announced that it has named Marie J. Toulantis president and chief operating officer, a new position, effective immediately. Ms. Toulantis has been chief financial officer of Barnes & Noble.com since April 1999. In her new position, she assumes responsibility for merchandising, marketing, engineering and product development for the company. She continues to have responsibility for the company's finance, investor relations, corporate communications, human resources and other administrative functions. Ms. Toulantis reports to Steve Riggio, vice chairman of Barnes & Noble.com. 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 © 1997-2010 by Writers Write, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
