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Friday, January 25, 2002 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes Launches and Redesigns | Miscellaneous People · AltaVista Company, a provider of search services and software, has appointed John R. Ellis, Ph.D. to the position of senior vice president, Engineering and Operations for its Internet search division, AltaVista Internet. · RealNetworks, Inc. has named Kalpana Raina, Executive Vice President and Division Head of the Media & Telecommunications Division at the Bank of New York, to its Board of Directors. The announcement was made by Rob Glaser, RealNetworks Chairman and CEO. · Vivendi Universal announced that it has appointed Hubert Joly as Executive Vice President and Corporate Chief Information officer (CIO) of Vivendi Universal, reporting to Eric Licoys, Co-Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Joly succeeds Mr. Joseph Farrelly, who recently left the company to pursue other business opportunities. Mr. Joly will continue to be based in New York. · Joel Berman has been named President, Paramount Worldwide Television Distribution, and Garry Hart has been named President, Paramount Television Production, it was announced by the Chairman of Viacom Entertainment Group Jonathan Dolgen, to whom Messrs. Hart and Berman will report. Mr. Hart has served as president of Paramount Network Television since 1993, and will add the following divisions to his responsibilities: Viacom Productions and Big Ticket Television. Spelling Television will remain a unit of the Viacom Entertainment Group and report to Mr. Dolgen. Mr. Berman has served as president of Paramount Domestic Television since 2001, and will now add the following operations to his responsibilities: Paramount International Television and Paramount International Pay TV. · Dawn Tarnofsky-Ostroff has been named President, UPN Entertainment, it was announced by Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS. In her new post, which is effective Feb. 11, Tarnofsky-Ostroff will be responsible for all creative aspects of UPN's operations -- including development, current programming, specials, movies and mini-series. She will also work closely with all other areas of UPN, including scheduling, business affairs, media relations, promotion, research, finance and other departments that support the creative efforts of the company. She will be headquartered in Los Angeles and will report directly to Moonves. · TechLINKS Media, Inc., a three-dimensional information resource and service company dedicated to the Georgia technology community, announced the selection of Paul Caplan, a 20-year magazine industry veteran, as publisher of TechLINKS. Content Deals · The National Basketball Association (NBA) has reached six-year agreements with ABC, ESPN and AOL Time Warner to have ABC, ESPN, Turner Network Television (TNT), and a new AOL Time Warner/NBA jointly owned national cable sports network, televise NBA games beginning with the 2002-03 season. AOL Time Warner and the NBA will create a yet unnamed national sports network, which will be owned 50% by AOL Time Warner and 50% by the NBA. The network will televise a wide range of sporting events including 96 NBA games throughout the NBA regular season plus additional playoff games. AOL and the NBA will engage in online/offline cross promotions, with AOL being promoted by the NBA, and the NBA being promoted across AOL's interactive brands. · America Online, Inc. and Dualstar Online, the Internet division of Dualstar Entertainment Group, announced a content and promotional alliance for the Mary-Kate and Ashley brand of lifestyle and entertainment to become a key content provider for the AOL service. Simultaneously, AOL is launching several new "Mary-Kate and Ashley" content areas on the popular Kids Only channel, designed for kids age 9-12 years. The new programming areas will provide an online destination for kids and `tweens featuring the latest fashion, lifestyle and entertainment news. · NewsEdge, a provider of news and information products, announced its Editor's Picks industry-based content service will be a core offering for Managing Automation magazine's website. Managing Automation Online is an extension of Managing Automation, a monthly magazine for business and technology managers in manufacturing. By integrating NewsEdge Editor's Picks, which include industry-based content culled from hundreds of branded news and information sources, Managing Automation Online will provide daily headlines and full text articles in manufacturing, manufacturing technology developments, management, and other topics to its readers. · divine, inc., an integrated solution provider focused on the extended enterprise, announced that it has acquired certain assets of privately held Northern Light Technology LLC, a provider of search and content integration solutions, in an all-stock transaction. Northern Light Technology is a provider of premium content, content integration and search solutions for enterprises. Its products include Special Collection, an online business research library of over 70 million pages of full text documents. · Corus Entertainment's Nelvana and MTV have signed an agreement to co-produce two new television series targeted to a young adult audience. The shows include Clone High, an animated comedy, and Varsity Blues, a live action sitcom. · A.D.A.M., Inc., a developer of interactive consumer health information, announced it has acquired a library of patient education guides developed by Health Information Publications International, Inc. (HIP International), a privately-held medical information publishing company based in St. Thomas, VI. · Cherry Lane Music Publishing and AFMA Collections, a division of AFMA, a trade organization for the worldwide independent film and television industry, announced a joint marketing and publishing agreement to promote each other's services, including the collection of audio/video and music publishing royalties worldwide. Under the agreement, AFMA members will receive music royalties and licensing fees for radio, television and, in some markets, theatrical use of their product worldwide, in addition to revenues generated through soundtracks while the copyright to their music. Concurrently, Cherry Lane will make its clientele aware of audio/visual-royalty collections services provided by AFMA Collections. Launches and Redesigns · Local Tech Wire, a web-based news service focusing on the high-tech economy in North Carolina and metropolitan Atlanta, will begin operation on Jan. 25, 2002. LTW is a daily news site featuring news coverage about companies, entrepreneurs and products. A team of writers in Research Triangle Park, Charlotte and Atlanta will be reporting stories from biotech and life-sciences to ecommerce and all forms of networking throughout each business day. · The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) has unveiling its updated and expanded website, which is filled with unique content for U.S. Olympic Team fans. Visitors will find the Olympic store with over 200 items of official U.S. Olympic Team apparel, Salt Lake 2002 and Classic USA merchandise, along with features such as photo galleries of more than 70 athletes, video interviews with top athletes from Michelle Kwan to Picabo Street to Jonny Moseley, downloadable wallpaper of over 30 athletes, and biographies of U.S. Olympic Team members. Miscellaneous · PlanetOut Partners, Inc. announced that HBO has signed on as the presenting sponsor of the 3rd annual PlanetOut.com Short Movie Awards, hosted by the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. The PlanetOut.com Short Movie Awards are online awards honoring film and video shorts by, about and of interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender audiences. · Americana Publishing, Inc. announced that a Letter of Intent to purchase has been signed with Universal Printing, Inc. Universal Printing, Inc. is a multi-media printing operation producing over $7,000,000 in annual sales. The purchase of Universal Printing, Inc. by Americana Publishing, Inc. is proposed to be a stock for stock transaction. · Snowball, an online network for young adults and home to IGN.com, a destination for gamers, announced that it has sold its HighSchoolAlumni.com website to Reunion.com, a company helping people find and reconnect with their friends and families online. Highschoolalumni.com is the second largest alumni website on the Internet, with more than 5.3 million registered users and 33,000 schools in its database. · Data Depth Corporation, d.b.a. iCopyright.com, has announced that it has raised an additional $1 million as part of a Series B financing. The funding was led by Rustic Canyon Ventures of Santa Monica, California, with participation from Bradley Resources Company and the company's existing shareholders. Data Depth Corporation, which purchased some of the assets of iCopyright, Inc. in April 2001, has raised $2.6 million to date. · Rudolph W. Giuliani has agreed to provide remarks at the Opening Night Welcome Reception on Thursday, May 2 at 6 pm at this year's BookExpo America (BEA) which will be held at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City, May 2 - May 5. This is the first time the annual book convention has been held in New York City in over ten years, so Mr. Giuliani's appearance appropriately sets the stage for a convention that will be celebrating its return to the publishing capital of the world. Mr. Giuliani's comments will focus on his own new business book, Leadership, which will be published by Talk Miramax in June 2002. · Vivendi Universal Publishing (VU Publishing) announced an exclusive, multi-year deal for the Butt-Ugly Martians franchise. The worldwide licensing agreement grants VU Publishing's Knowledge Adventure studio the rights to develop and publish Butt-Ugly Martians interactive entertainment products for the PC/Mac, console, handheld, PDA, wireless and Internet platforms. As part of a three-year agreement, Knowledge Adventure will begin publishing the interactive products in fall 2002. The products will be distributed worldwide by Vivendi Universal Games. · Scholastic Entertainment Inc., (SEI), producers of children's television programming, including Clifford The Big Red Dog, Scholastic's The Magic School Bus, Goosebumps, Dear America, and Animorphs, will produce the highly-acclaimed, award-winning children's property, I SPY, as a TV series for fall 2002 on HBO Family. · Susan Isaacs, the author of many national bestselling novels, has signed a two-book, hard/soft publishing arrangement with Scribner, Pocket Books and Simon and Schuster Audio for her next novels, it was announced by Susan Moldow, Executive V.P. and Publisher of Scribner. Isaacs is the author of the recent bestseller Long Time No See (2001). Her widely read list of novels includes Compromising Positions (1978), Almost Paradise (1984), Shining Through (1988) and Lily White (1996) among others. She has also written two screenplays and one work of nonfiction as well as being an essayist. The first book with Scribner will be published in 2004 and edited by Nan Graham, V.P. and Editor-in-Chief. Isaacs is represented by her long time agent, Owen Laster of the William Morris Agency, Inc. Since 1984 Isaacs has been published by HarperCollins. 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. |
