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Wednesday, September 5, 2001 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes Launches and Redesigns | Miscellaneous | Movie Business People · Following the completion of an investigation into allegations reported in Los Angeles Magazine, Cahners Business Information announced that long-time Variety Editor-in-Chief Peter Bart would receive a twenty one-day suspension without compensation as well as participate in diversity training. Mr. Bart will resume his duties on the morning of September 10, 2001. Cahners and Mr. Bart agreed that his compensation for the twenty one-day period would be donated to appropriate organizations dedicated to the promotion of diversity. Cahners will also make a substantial donation to the same organizations. Cahners said its investigation did not substantiate allegations that Mr. Bart sold a movie script while Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper. However, Cahners did find that Mr. Bart's actions created the appearance of a conflict of interest, and it directed Variety to strengthen and publish its editorial policies shortly after Mr. Bart returns to work. · Zinio Systems Inc., a company that develops technology and provides services that enable magazine publishers to sell and electronically distribute cover-to-cover digital versions of print magazines, announced the appointment of Daniel Okrent to its Board of Directors. Okrent brings more than 25 years of magazine and book publishing experience and an in-depth understanding of the needs and future direction of the industry. Prior to joining Zinio, Okrent spent more than 10 years at Time Inc. before retiring in July 2001. · Healthwise, Incorporated, announced that Donald W. Kemper, MPH, Healthwise chairman and CEO, has been named to the editorial board of Medicine on the Net magazine. Donald W. Kemper founded Healthwise in 1975 to help consumers make better health decisions. He has spent the past quarter century as a passionate advocate for patient-physician partnerships. · Thomas F. Trinkner, D.D.S., of Columbia, S.C., has been named editor of The Journal of Cosmetic Dentistry. The magazine is published quarterly by the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD). Dr. Trinkner maintains a full-time esthetic and restorative dental practice in Columbia, S.C. · Yahoo! Inc., an Internet media company, nnounced it has appointed Elizabeth ``Libby'' Sartain, as its senior vice president of human resources and Chief People Yahoo. An executive with more than 20 years of experience in human resource management, Sartain was formerly the vice president of people at Southwest Airlines Co. In her role at Yahoo!, she will be responsible for overseeing the company's global human resources efforts, including employment, development and training, benefits and compensation, and legal compliance. Sartain joined Yahoo! earlier this month and reports to Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker. · John Temple, who led the editorial staff of Denver's Rocky Mountain News to its first Pulitzer Prize, has been named publisher of the newspaper, effective immediately. Temple, who also holds the title of editor and president, oversees the editorial operations of the Rocky Mountain News and serves as the newspaper's top executive and chief liaison with the recently created Denver Newspaper Agency. Temple, 48, was named president of the News in January 2001. · Steve Wilson is joining the WXYZ-TV/Channel 7 Action News team as lead investigative reporter effective September 1, 2001. The announcement was made by Channel 7 News Director Bill Carey. · Primedia has formed The Primedia Magazines Teen Sales and Marketing Group within its Broad Reach Magazine and Media Group to optimize its combined teen assets. Linda Platzner has been named President and Group Publisher of Teen Magazines and will lead the enlarged enterprise. In her new role, Linda will oversee the sales and marketing efforts of Seventeen, Teen magazine, the Youth Entertainment Group and Cover Concepts. · Key senior management changes in Primedia's teen category include the promotion of Ellen Abramowitz to Publisher of Teen magazine, formerly an emap property. Abramowitz had been Associate Publisher at Seventeen magazine. In a related move, the Youth Entertainment Group (Bop, Tiger Beat, Teen Beat) has named Lauren Fisher, Publisher. She had been Associate Publisher of both Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly. · CMP Media's InformationWeek, an IT media brand, announced the appointment of Scott Vaughan as publisher, and the selection of the editorial staff for the recently announced new magazine Optimize, which will launch in November of 2001. Mr. Vaughan will oversee the publication of Optimize; a monthly magazine for business technology executives including CIOs, CTOs, VPs of IS and technology-involved CXOs. Prior to working with Optimize, Mr. Vaughan was vice president, marketing, for Centricity Software. His background also includes seven years of experience at CMP Media, which included the role of associate publisher for InformationWeek. Additionally, InformationWeek has appointed an editorial staff consisting of Managing Editor Paula Klein, Senior Editor Cheryl Rosen and Editor-at-Large Clint Wilder, all previously with InformationWeek. The staff will report to Editor-in-Chief Brian Gillooly. · Gaylord Entertainment, a hospitality and entertainment company whose holdings include the Opryland Hotels and the Grand Ole Opry, announced that the Company has hired David C. Kloeppel as its new executive vice president and chief financial officer. Kloeppel joins Gaylord Entertainment from Deutsche Bank. Digital Publishing · Texterity, Inc., a provider of electronic publishing services, announced TextCafe eBook Logistics Service. The new service expands on the core functionality of TextCafe to provide automated conversion of Open eBook format files into multiple eBook formats and automatically distribute the resulting eBook files to electronic retailers. Major customers using the service include iPublish.com at Time Warner Books and Penguin Putnam. The service supports ebook formats including Microsoft Reader, Adobe eBook, Palm/Peanut Reader, Gemstar REB-1100 and REB-1200, netLibrary, and MobiPocket. · San Jose based LizSoft and Chicago based MDK & Associates, Inc., have announced a web content management application that enables small to midsize businesses to make content changes without the assistance of a webmaster or IT professional. The company claims that with the lizContent Web content management application, businesses can make instantaneous changes to their website content without the need to use web publishing and editing programs. · MetaText, the digital textbook division of netLibrary, Inc., announced an agreement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc. MetaText will develop electronic versions of 15 of Wiley's college textbooks, eight of which will be available for review and adoption in the Fall of 2001. · ingenta, a resource for academic and professional research articles online, has announced a new agreement with McGraw-Hill Professional, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, a provider of educational and professional materials. The contract expands McGraw-Hill Education's existing partnership with ingenta, which provides online hosting services for Access Medicine, McGraw-Hill Professional's portal to its medical and scientific information and resources. The new agreement, which covers services to be delivered during 2001 and 2002, extends the collaboration to the creation and support of web versions of more than 20 additional medical titles within the Access Medicine family. · Clickability Inc., a provider of online publishing solutions, announced the launch of CMPublish, its new content management system that enables ebusinesses to manage and deliver relevant content to their online audience. CMPublish integrates with Clickability's suite of Intelligent Online Publishing Solutions (I-OPS). Content Deals · The Atlantic Online, the digital edition of The Atlantic Monthly, and audible.com, have announced an integrated marketing program that consists of two new audio features for visitors to The Atlantic Online as well as a comprehensive ad and co-marketing campaign. Listen of the Month will feature free audio streams, updated every month, from categories such as Fiction, Politics, Science/Technology and Foreign Affairs. Some of the first titles available will be from best selling authors such as David McCullough and John Irving. Audible will also become a featured sponsor at The Atlantic Online and will be promoted via online ads and emails to the site's dedicated readers. · As part of its new website improvements, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield has teamed up with magazine publisher Rodale Inc. to provide Highmark members with the latest information on health-related topics. Rodale, located in Emmaus, Pa., publishes health and fitness publications, including Prevention Magazine, Men's Health and Runner's World. Members are able to access the information when they visit the Highmark website. Located in the My BlueLink section of the site, articles focus on a number of topics, such as active living, exercise and fitness, food and nutrition, learning and weight loss and general news information. The content, which changes daily, also includes recipes for healthy meals. · Columbia TriStar Television Distribution, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and eBay, an online marketplace, are teaming up to launch a new television project for Fall 2002. The project's cornerstone will be a daily series that taps into the phenomenon of modern-day collecting through unique stories behind the items traded daily on eBay and other venues. The series will be produced by eBay and LMNO Productions, in association with CTTD. The series, designed for afternoon and early-fringe time periods, will be distributed by CTTD to local stations in syndication, with national barter handled by Columbia TriStar Television Advertiser Sales. The series will also offer local stations cross-promotions, including online links between stations' websites and the activities of eBay. · Pulitzer Newspapers, Inc. (PNI), a subsidiary of Pulitzer Inc., announced it has sold the weekly Petaluma Argus-Courier in Petaluma, California, to The New York Times Company. Pulitzer acquired the Argus-Courier as part of its purchase of Scripps League Newspapers in 1996. Zondervan Publishing House and the 14,000-member Christian Medical Association (CMA) have announced a publishing agreement. Both founded in 1931, the two organizations will produce 20 health books over the next 5 years. The first two books in the series are now in stores: Jesus, MD: A Doctor Examines the Great Physician and Alternative Medicine: The Christian Handbook. · Hungry Minds, Inc., and Minutemeals.com, Inc. announced a joint multi-title publishing agreement to produce books inspired by the creative quick recipes and content on Minutemeals.com's website. The partnership brings together Minutemeals.com, a provider of menus doable in 20 minutes or less and Hungry Minds, a publisher of how-to books. Hungry Minds and Minutemeals will initially bring three Minutemeals-branded books to market in 2002. Under the agreement, Hungry Minds will create new material and select the best of the website's original content for the Minutemeals product line. · Vivendi Universal announced that it successfully completed the acquisition of San Diego-based MP3.com, Inc. in a combined cash and stock transaction on August 28, 2001. The corporate offices of MP3.com will continue to be based in San Diego. · Hungry Minds, Inc., creator of books, web properties and licensed products, will license its For Dummies brand to Crescent Associates in connection with a Dummies-branded cookie jar kit. Homemade Cookies For Dummies, the For Dummies brand's first license in the food/perishables category, is scheduled to hit retail in October. The announcement was made by Marc Mikulich, Senior Vice President, Strategic Brand Management and Business Development, Hungry Minds, and John Kirkpatrick, Vice President, Crescent Associates. Scheduled for nationwide distribution in grocery and drug stores in October 2001, the package will be cross-merchandised with the new Cookies For Dummies title and will be presented on corrugated floor displays. Incorporating the For Dummies look and tone, Homemade Cookies For Dummies will feature a ceramic cookie jar containing a recipe card with the For Dummies instructions and humor, as well as cookie mix, and chocolate chips. Launches and Redesigns · Network World, a network news publication for Network IT Executives, will unveil a new design with the September 10 Networld+Interop show issue. The goal of the design update is to refine the look and make the tabloid newsweekly easier to read and navigate. Continuing its editorial mission of delivering breaking news and industry coverage, Network World is enhancing its front page by adding more content and a scaled up banner. Other changes include:
· Amazon.com announced the launch of its Computer store, where customers can purchase new and refurbished computers. The store includes desktops and notebooks from leading brands including Apple, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Toshiba. Order fulfillment for new computers sold through the Amazon Computer store will be handled by Ingram Micro, Inc., a wholesale provider of technology products and services. Miscellaneous · With the tragic loss of Aaliyah (born Aaliyah Dana Haughton), one of the music industry's brightest stars, Vibe magazine will publish a commemorative November tribute package to pay homage to her all-too-short yet remarkably prosperous career. Vibe's tribute to Aaliyah will include a commemorative cover photo, available on newsstands only beginning October 1, and a six-page inside-the-magazine tribute package, offered in every November Vibe, that will feature interviews and remembrances from Gladys Knight, Missy Elliott, Q-Tip, Jermaine Dupri, and other celebrities, friends, and fans. · Community Software Acquisition Corp. announced a name change and the simultaneous formation of MediaSpan Group, Inc., which will do business as MediaSpan. The company was assembled to identify and acquire media-focused technology companies serving the newspaper, radio and television industries. · GoodThings, Inc. a Seattle-based media company, announced that its weekly opt-in e-magazine, the GoodLetter, has reached the 50,000-subscriber mark. The free weekly GoodLetter features good people, good deeds, and good organizations as an extension of GoodThings, Inc.'s website. Movie Business · The Oscar-winning actor, Tom Hanks, is in negotiations with DreamWorks Pictures to topline Catch Me If You Can -- the film version of the best-selling memoir of the same name by Frank Abagnale Jr., the international con man, who as a counterfeiter, impostor, and escape artist, cashed $2.5 million worth of bad checks between 1964 and 1970 -- before his 21st birthday. In his brief but notorious criminal career Abagnale passed himself off as an airline pilot, a physician, a stockbroker, a professor and the associate attorney general of the state of Louisiana. Catch Me if You Can was a national bestseller when it first published in the 1970s and was recently brought back to life when Broadway Books reissued it in August 2000. In the book, Abagnale spins the yarn that really was his life. Eventually Abagnale did time for his crimes, but Lucky Lady stuck by him and he was sprung from prison in a one-time-only fashion: the FBI needed his help catching con artists. Today, Abagnale heads a successful fraud consulting company and instructs law enforcement officers and federal agents at the FBI National Academy on the subjects of forgery, counterfeiting, and fraud. Also, he is the author of the upcoming book, The Art of the Steal: How to Protect Yourself and Your Business from Fraud, America's #1 Crime, to be published by Broadway Books on October 9, 2001. The movie version of Catch Me If You Can, which is scheduled for release next summer, will star Leo DiCaprio as Frank Abagnale Jr. Tom Hanks will portray FBI agent Joe Shaye, who gained notoriety for having tracked down and captured Abagnale. Steven Spielberg will direct. 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. |
