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Friday, May 24, 2002 Publishing Industry Soundbytes Launches and Redesigns | Miscellaneous People · Primedia Business-to-Business announced that Cable Neuhaus, a media journalist and editor, has been named editor-in-chief of Folio, a monthly publication for the magazine industry, effective June 17. Neuhaus comes to Primedia from Time Inc., where he served in a variety of positions for 20-plus years. He was People magazine's bureau chief in several East Coast cities. · CMP Media's Optimize magazine announced the appointment of Karyl Scott as executive editor. In her new position, Karyl will work with editor-in-chief Brian Gillooly to establish editorial direction, manage editorial operations and develop content across the magazine, its online resources and executive programs. A seven-year CMP Media veteran, Karyl was most recently the senior managing editor for InformationWeek's Tech Analysis and Business Applications sections. · Chuck Ross has been appointed publisher and editorial director, Electronic Media, a Crain Communications Inc weekly newspaper serving the television industry. Formerly editor of EM, he succeeds Marc White who chose not to relocate his family to the West coast. Mr. Ross will officially assume his new position on June 3. Mr. White will remain at Crain Communications through June 30 to help with the transition. · Wolters Kluwer North America announced the appointment of Kim Becker to the newly-created position of Vice President, Communications, for the publishing and professional services company's North American business units, Legal, Tax and Business North America (LTBNA). The announcement was made by Nancy McKinstry, CEO of LTBNA and Executive Board Member of the Wolters Kluwer nv corporation. Ms. Becker will report directly to Ms. McKinstry. She comes to Wolters Kluwer from Bravo Networks, where she served as Vice President, Public Relations. · CNET Networks, Inc. announced the appointment of renowned conference and event executive Peter Shaw, 45, as vice president in charge of its new audience-driven events business. Shaw will establish a business unit responsible for innovating audience-driven events. The first of these events -- each of which will be tightly integrated with a specific CNET Networks brand such as TechRepublic and Builder.com -- is expected to roll out in the second half of the year. · Fred Muir, a 17-year veteran of the Los Angeles Times, is joining Fleishman-Hillard International Communications Inc. as a senior vice president in the Los Angeles public affairs practice. Mr. Muir, a member of three Pulitzer Prize-winning project teams at the Times, provided news coverage of the City of Los Angeles, California water policy -- including the Department of Water and Power -- and the banking industry. He was most recently Entertainment Editor in the Times' business section, where he oversaw coverage of the film, television and music industries. · Sean Holzman, Vice President of Primedia Enterprises, announced that Jack Westerkamp and Eric Goldman have been appointed to senior positions, reporting to him. Mr. Westerkamp is the Senior Manager of Direct Merchandising and Mr. Goldman is Senior Manager of Licensing. In addition, Pamela Harris has been appointed Director of Licensing, also reporting to Mr. Holzman. Jack will be directing Primedia Enterprises in adding branded merchandise to the pages of all magazine titles held by Primedia. Jack Westerkamp was previously the Director of Licensing at Salerno and Associates. Eric Goldman, who was previously a Senior Accout Executive at About.com, will be overseeing Liscensing projects for the automotive group. Ms. Harris will be responsible for sales efforts on action sports and crafts licensed magazine brands managed by Primedia Enterprises with emphasis on The Gravity Games, (July 27th - August 4th) a week long event of competition, culture, and cutting edge music. · The Sports Network has announced an exclusive relationship with well-known sports journalist Norman Maclean. Mr. Maclean, a veteran of 52 years as a journalist, television commentator, editor of national publications and author of 33 hard and soft cover books on sports, is going to be devoting his experience and knowledge of sports to a regular feature column on TSN's sports site (sportsnetwork.com) as well as across its international wire service. · Baxter Brings, President & CEO of Advanced Academics Inc., announced that Jeffrey A. Elliott has joined the company as Chief Operating Officer. Elliot comes from Seattle-based Wright Group, where he served as Vice President of Business Development. · Acclaim Entertainment, Inc., a video entertainment software developer and publisher, announced that it has appointed Christopher Hickey to the position of Senior Vice President of Sales. Reporting directly to Edmond Sanctis, President and Chief Operating Officer of Acclaim North America, Mr. Hickey will be responsible for overseeing the sales, distribution and direct marketing of the Company's video games, strategy guides and affiliated publishing. · GUILD, LLC, a publisher and retailer of original art and fine craft, announced that the lifestyle retailer and author Louis Sagar, has joined GUILD. Sagar will serve as executive editor of The Artful Home, GUILD's new series of books that inform and connect consumers to leading artists and studios creating unique decorative art for the home. Sagar will serve as executiveeditor of GUILD's The Artful Home series, scheduled for an initial launch in early 2003. Sagar will also contribute articles and essays to be integrated across GUILD's catalog and ecommerce channels, and serve as a consultant on merchandising, product and brand strategies. · Charles Bierbauer, 20-year veteran of U.S. political and international news coverage with the Cable News Network, is now joining another pioneering project -- the Ifra Newsplex at the University of South Carolina. Bierbauer, who most recently was CNN's senior Washington correspondent, has been named inaugural dean of the South Carolina university's new College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, where the Newsplex prototype multiple-media micro-newsroom is currently under construction by the Ifra Centre for Advanced News Operations. Content Deals · iVillage Inc., a a women's media company, announced that it has completed its acquisition of Promotions.com, Inc., a promotion and direct marketing company. The acquisition received stockholder approval at a special meeting of Promotions.com stockholders on May 24, 2002. · Outdoor Life Network, a provider of outdoor and adventure programming, and FLW Outdoors, a marketer of competitive fishing, have announced an agreement allowing OLN to broadcast six episodes of FLW Outdoors May 25 through July 5. FLW Outdoors is a magazine-style program featuring guest appearances by fishing legends, angler profiles and news from the professional fishing world, including coverage of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, EverStart Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League and Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Circuit. OLN was launched in July 1995 and acquired by Comcast in 2001. Current OLN programming includes Wal-Mart's Great Outdoors, In-Fisherman, Fishing University, Fishing with Roland Martin and The Best of Bill Dance. · PayPal, an Internet payment service, and Topica Inc., a provider of email publishing products, announced a partnership which brings integrated ecommerce capabilities to email marketing. Small businesses, non-profits, web entrepreneurs and other users of the Topica Email Publisher product can now create secure PayPal "Buy It" buttons directly within the Topica application while designing their newsletters to collect sales, donations, or tips from their subscribers. · The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. has completed its acquisition of the businesses of Reiman Publications LLC, a publisher of cooking, gardening, country lifestyle and nostalgia magazines and books in the United States and Canada. The purchase price was $760 million in cash. · Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), a licensing agent for text reproduction rights, and VNU eMedia, Inc. announced that VNU eMedia has gone live with Rightslink Permissions on editorandpublisher.com. The company will also be implementing Rightslink Permissions on a long list of their other online publications. VNU eMedia is using CCC's ecommerce solution to instantly license the use of copyrighted articles, 24/7, at the point of content. The Christian Science Monitor also announced that CCC's Rightslink Permissions has been selected as the newspaper's digital permissioning solution for its online edition, csmonitor.com. And, MSNBC.com also announced that Rightslink, CCC's digital rights management solution, is live on MSNBC.com. · TDK Mediactive, Inc. and Activision, Inc. have announced a strategic agreement to co-develop and co-publish video games. The companies have agreed that their initial collaboration will be based on TDK Mediactive's existing license to the sequel to DreamWorks Pictures' blockbuster film Shrek. Additionally, TDK Mediactive and Activision have agreed to co-develop and co-publish a yet-to-be-announced title originating from Activision's portfolio of video game brands. · INVESTools Inc., a provider of investor education, announced that it has entered into a definitive letter of intent with multimedia investment advisory publisher Phillips Investment Resources LLC ("Phillips"), a Phillips International Inc. company. As part of the agreement, INVESTools is selling its approximately 240,000-name "INVESTools Advisory" customer list to Phillips in exchange for the right to market investor workshops to Phillips' online lists for a period of three years. INVESTools will continue to serve subscribers of its paid investment newsletter products. · The McGraw-Hill Companies, an information services provider in the financial services, education and business information markets, has announced plans to publish a self-help guide for job-seekers in partnership with Resume.com, a career services website. The book aims to help job-seekers write an effective resume. Launches and Redesigns · Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games), a division of Vivendi Universal Publishing, announced the launch of its new website, VUGames.com. The site provides comprehensive information about the company, its development studios and its roster of popular interactive products. A publisher of PC, console and online-based interactive content, Vivendi Universal Games' portfolio of development studios includes Blizzard Entertainment, Sierra Entertainment and Universal Interactive. · The Medical Letter, Inc. announced today the launch of its new website, , which offers medical professionals and consumers electronic access to their unbiased and comprehensive drug evaluations. The newly designed site offers users the most current issue posted on the date of publication as well as access to searchable archives of The Medical Letter. The new site also provides live links for all references cited in articles published in the year 2002. Access to The Medical Letter website is free for individual subscribers to the print version. · eMeta Corporation, a provider of content management and commerce software, announced that its flagship technology, eRights, is powering the digital commerce capabilities of the improved FT.com website. As the commerce backbone for the new, enhanced FT.com, eRights is enabling the sale of two levels of subscription packages, which include business analysis, research and intelligence services. An enterprise software solution, eRights makes possible the management of the customers, products, subscriptions and billing necessary for FT.com to facilitate the sale of digital content. · American Banker is combining the resources of American Banker and TheBankingChannel for its redesigned American Banker Online website. American Banker Online will offer news, data and analysis, including the complete daily content of American Banker -- the night before the print edition is published. The site will also feature selected news and data from Thomson's family of financial services publications and third-party information providers. Daily topics of coverage include: Technology, Insurance Products, Community Banking, Mortgages, Markets and Market Monitor, Washington, Cards, and Investment Products. · Homeland Security Research Corporation (HSRC) has announced the launching of a new, independent, anti-terrorism newsletter Homeland Security Analyst. The newsletter provides homeland security industry analysis, market and product information, analysis and recommendations. The newsletter is aimed at "Techno-tactic" professionals within the homeland security vendor and user communities. Miscellaneous · Atomised by Michel Houellebecq, translated by Frank Wynne (Heinemann and A.A.Knopf & Vintage) has been announced as the winner of this year's IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The award is open to works of fiction written in or translated into English, and libraries in major cities throughout the world make the nominations. The prize of €100,000 is the world's richest literary prize for a single work of fiction. A list of past winners of the awards can be found here. · Gwyneth Jones has won this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award for her novel Bold as Love. The Arthur C. Clarke Award is awarded every year to the best science fiction novel which received its first British publication during the previous calendar year. The Award was established with a generous grant from Arthur C. Clarke with the intention of encouraging science fiction in Britain. A list of past winners of the awards can be found here. · At its E3 press conference, Tecmo announced that it has entered into a deal whereby DreamWorks will produce a film based on Tecmo's popular survival-horror game Fatal Frame. The agreement, which is still being finalized, gives DreamWorks the exclusive option to the live-action production rights for Tecmo's Fatal Frame. In March of 2002, Tecmo shipped Fatal Frame for the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system. · Wal-Mart and SAM'S CLUB associates, in partnership with country music artist Phil Vassar and Anderson Merchandising, are putting the wheels in motion to help curb the growing illiteracy epidemic. Through the Wal-Mart Good Works Foundation, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., announced the launch of its national literacy initiative to help Americans improve their reading skills, and in some instances learn to read. The campaign kicks off with a $3.3 million national grant program to fuel local literacy efforts in each of Wal-Mart's more than 3,300 communities, the availability of a national literacy call center referral service, and the release of a new music single dedicated to the effort, written and vocalized by Arista Records' artist Phil Vassar, on behalf of Wal-Mart. Vassar's literacy single, titled "Words Are Your Wheels," hits the retail shelves today and will be sold exclusively at Wal-Mart. Arista is donating the proceeds from the sales to the National Institute for Literacy (NILF), an organization that shares information about literacy and supports the development of literacy services so all Americans can develop essential basic skills. In addition, Wal-Mart this year will award $1,000 community literacy grants through its 3,380 Wal-Mart stores, SuperCenters, SAM'S CLUBS and transportation and warehouse facilities, an effort totaling more than $3.3 million. Wal-Mart has also established a literacy call center that can be reached toll free at 1-800-929-4458. Operators will provide callers with names and numbers of local literacy agencies and programs. · NBC has announced a deal to bring Martha Stewart to the small screen. The movie will be based on the national bestseller, Martha Inc.: The Incredible Story of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (Wiley, 2002) by Christopher Byron. Jaffe/Braunstein Films producer Howard Braunstein optioned the story and NBC executive Vice President longform/alternative Jeff Gaspin and Vice President Stephen Bulka are producing the film for the network. Martha, Inc. is being developed for Spring 2003 at the earliest, though it would more likely air during the 2003-04 season. 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 © 1997-2011 by Writers Write, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
