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Friday, December 7, 2001 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes Launches and Redesigns | Miscellaneous People · Jerry Levin, Chief Executive Officer of AOL Time Warner, announced a senior management succession plan for the Company and said AOL Time Warner will begin to implement a six-month transition to a new leadership team. As part of this plan, Mr. Levin announced he has decided to retire at the time of the Company's annual meeting in May 2002. Under this succession plan, which calls for a new streamlined management structure effective at the Annual Meeting, Richard Parsons, Co-Chief Operating Officer, will become Chief Executive Officer of the Company, and Robert Pittman, now Co-Chief Operating Officer with Mr. Parsons, will become the sole Chief Operating Officer. Steve Case will continue to have an active role as Chairman, working closely with the top management team. · Victor F. Ganzi was named to succeed Frank A. Bennack, Jr., as president and chief executive officer of The Hearst Corporation. Ganzi, 54, will assume the presidency of Hearst in June 2002, when Bennack, 68, retires from that post. As part of his plan to position Hearst for the future, Bennack named Ganzi as executive vice president in 1997, and elevated him to chief operating officer in 1998, identifying Ganzi as his eventual successor. · Dow Jones and Company announced that Dave Kansas, the former editor-in-chief and chief strategic officer of TheStreet.com, has been named a deputy managing editor of The Wall Street Journal Online, effective December 13th. In his new role, Kansas will report to Managing Editor Bill Grueskin and be responsible for directing and expanding the Online Journal's coverage of money, investing and personal finance. Kansas becomes the second deputy managing editor at the Online Journal. · Cox Interactive Media (CIMedia) announced that Neil Helms has been named vice president of sales. Helms previously served as acting vice president of sales for CIMedia, and joined the company as director of sales. Prior to joining CIMedia, Helms was vice president of sales, East Coast, for EarthWeb, New York, N.Y., a business-to-business Internet publishing company. · Arthur Levitt, the former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, will contribute a monthly column for Bloomberg Personal Finance magazine starting next spring, editor-in-chief Steve Gittelson announced. Bloomberg Personal Finance, a monthly magazine for investors, is part of the Bloomberg news and information family. · E Ink Corporation, a developer of electronic ink technology, announced that Mark Basler has joined the company as vice president of Direct Drive. In this role, Basler will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of E Ink's Direct Drive business, which includes the company's first commercial product, Ink-In-Motion. · Ziff Davis Media Inc. announced the appointment of Aimee D. Levine to the position of Vice President of Corporate Communications. Ms. Levine is charged with corporate and brand specific media relations, internal communications and investor relations. She will report to Robert F. Callahan, Chairman and CEO and Stephen D. Moylan, Executive Vice President. · International Data Group (IDG), a technology media company, announced the appointment of Morris Levitt, Ph.D., as president and CEO of Bio-IT World Inc., a new business unit that has been established to support the technology needs of the life sciences market. Dr. Levitt is responsible for establishing and managing the new business unit's organization and operations, and will oversee upcoming Bio-IT World product launches which will be announced over the next several months. Dr. Levitt has previously held senior management positions with Advanstar Communications and PennWell. · STYLE.com, the online home of Vogue and W, announced the appointment of Janet Ozzard to the newly created position of executive editor. Ms. Ozzard has over nine years of experience covering fashion and beauty for such illustrious titles as Women's Wear Daily, W, Vogue and The New York Times. Ms. Ozzard joined the site December 4th and reports to editor in chief Jamie Pallot. · Jayne Fenton has joined Hanley-Wood, LLC, business-to-business information provider in the residential and commercial construction industry, as President of the Tucson-based Home Planners division. Fenton comes to Hanley-Wood from Newfront Productions, an online publishing and media company. Previously, she spent 8 years at Rand McNally as vice president and general manager of the consumer publishing business. · The New York Times announced that Anthony Lewis, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, would retire as a columnist for the newspaper effective December 15. His column, called Abroad at Home, has appeared on the Op-Ed page since 1969. Mr. Lewis's final column will appear on December 15. · Ona Karasa has been named Executive Vice President and General Manager of MSNBC.com after serving as Acting General Manager for the past 3 months, John Nicol, President and CEO of MSNBC.com, announced. She oversees day-to-day operations of MSNBC.com including Sales, Marketing, Technology, Finance and National and International business partnerships. Karasa is responsible for new market development and strategic planning initiatives as well. · Congressional Quarterly Inc. announced that former Aether Systems executive and Washington Post reporter Mike Mills has been hired for the position of Editor of Daily News. He will oversee the editorial operations of the CQ Daily Monitor and the company's online service, CQ.com On Congress. Digital Publishing · MediaBay, Inc., a retailer of spoken audio products, including audiobooks and old-time radio shows, announced that it will be offering on its MediaBay.com website a selection of ebooks from through its relationship with OverDrive and OverDrive's Content Reserve system. The relationship between MediaBay and OverDrive will add several thousand ebooks to the tens of thousands of downloadable audio titles already available to customers of MediaBay and its affiliate websites. OverDrive provides a secure B2B digital content marketplace for publishers and retailers from its Content Reserve system. Ebooks from leading publishers such as McGraw-Hill, Time Warner Publishing, Taylor & Francis and others will be available to MediaBay customers for download in Microsoft Reader and Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader formats. · Pearson Education announced it has partnered with Rovia, a provider of electronic content distribution services, to provide etextbook technology for the Monterey Institute of Technology. Content Deals · Factiva, a Dow Jones & Reuters Company, has announced a joint marketing and content agreement with GENIOS, Economic Databases, a division of the Handelsblatt Publishing Group, an online business information service in Germany. In addition to the new content, Factiva is announcing the availability of French-and German-language user interfaces for Factiva.com, a Web-based news and business information service. · McGraw-Hill Professional, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, and The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) announced an online collaboration for their interactive editions: www.HarrisonsOnline.com and www.nejm.org. Dual subscribers will benefit from customized cross-referencing of current clinical information with the internal medicine reference book, Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 15th Edition. For 120 days from the launch of the joint service, subscribers to each site will be eligible for a promotional free trial subscription to the other site, including editorial cross-linking. · SkillSoft Corporation, a provider of elearning solutions for Global 2000 companies, announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Books24x7.com, Inc., based in Norwood, MA. Books24x7.com is a provider of web-based digital technical and business reference content, containing 1700+ digitized reference books, journals, research reports and documentation. Launches and Redesigns · Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. and The Seiyu, Ltd. launched the premier issue of Martha Stewart Martha magazine, the Japanese edition of Martha Stewart Living. The December/January 2002 issue of Martha Stewart Martha is currently available on newsstands in Japan nationwide. · ESPN, Inc., and eBay have launched ESPN Auctions, an online marketplace offering sports experiences and products from ESPN. Continuing its program of building industry-specific web portals Verdex has officially launched its seventh such site: PlasticsHQ. · Amazon.com launched Amazon Access, an alternative version of its website designed to make online shopping easier for customers using screen access software. The site, for the visually impaired, is a streamlined version of Amazon.com's standard Internet destination with less text and graphics, providing access to Amazon.com's full line of products and personalization features. Miscellaneous · Time Inc. has signed an agreement to acquire the majority of the stock in Synapse Group, Inc. Time Inc. already owns approximately 25% of the outstanding equity of Synapse from an earlier purchase. Michael Loeb, a founder and the CEO of Synapse, will retain minority ownership in the company and will continue as CEO. Founded in 1991, Synapse is a provider of subscriptions for publishers of consumer magazines in the United States. The company distributes magazine subscription offers through a variety of marketing channels. It also sells different types of merchandise and software. · Macromedia, Inc. announced the second Macromedia eLearning Innovation Award Program in partnership with Training magazine. The quarterly award aims to advance the elearning marketplace by promoting the exchange of ideas, encouraging the development of computer and web-based instruction, and rewarding and providing exposure for authors of outstanding instructional content. The eLearning Innovation Award Program will select winners in two categories: best corporate/government training application, and best educational course. For complete information on the program and how to submit content for the contest visit: http://www.macromedia.com/go/innovation_award · Robert S. Miller, President of Hyperion and Cheryl Barnes, Publisher of VSP Books announced that they have reached an agreement to co-publish a series of books by best-selling poet Mattie Stepanek. Stepanek is an 11-year-old boy who suffers from a rare form of muscular dystrophy. His two collections of poetry, Heartsongs and Journey Through Heartsongs, both published by VSP Books, are current New York Times bestsellers. There are over 500,000 combined copies in print of his books. Under the terms of the agreement, effective December 17, 2001, Hyperion will assume marketing, printing, and distribution for the two poetry collections. The books will be co-branded under the name of both publishing companies. Hyperion and VSP will co-publish three additional books in 2002. · The Massachusetts Investor's Digest announced that its December issue will be its last printed issue, and that the publication will move to the Internet with the web address www.massinvestor.com. · Universal Interactive will publish games based on J.R.R. Tolkien's worldwide best-selling saga The Lord of the Rings. As part of Vivendi Universal Publishing's long-term deal with Tolkien Enterprises, the company acquired the exclusive rights to develop interactive entertainment based on selected Tolkien literary works. Universal Interactive will create games for multiple next-generation and PC platforms. 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