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Friday, August 2, 2002 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes Launches and Redesigns | Miscellaneous People · Joe Ahern has been named President and General Manager of WBBM-TV Chicago, it was announced by Fred Reynolds, President of the Viacom Television Stations Group, and Dennis Swanson, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Ahern, most recently president and general manager of KGO-TV San Francisco, will oversee all operations at WBBM-TV starting Aug. 12 and will report to Swanson. Prior to running KGO-TV San Francisco, Ahern was president and general manager of WLS-TV Chicago, where he worked with Swanson to launch The Oprah Winfrey Show. · Ingram Book Group announced executive leadership changes affecting its Spring Arbor Distributors and Ingram International divisions. Spring Arbor's President, Steve Arthur, has chosen to leave the industry to pursue entrepreneurial business interests. Julie Burns, President of Ingram Book Company, will add the title of President of Spring Arbor. Also announced is the change in leadership of Ingram International Inc., as Peter Clifton, current President of Ingram Periodicals Inc., will add President of Ingram International to his duties. · Laura Nelson has been named Senior Vice President, Communications at VH1, it was announced by Christina Norman, General Manager, VH1 to whom she will report. In her position, Nelson will be responsible for all communications functions at VH1, its digital channels including VH1 Classic and VH1.com. Nelson was previously Vice President, Communications at Oxygen Media where she built the network's first media relations department. · The New York Times has announced several editorial appointments: · Mark Essa has been promoted to Business Wire's National Sales Development Manager, a newly created position. Essa, based in Los Angeles, will report to Gregg Castano, senior vice president, global sales. Among his varied duties, Essa will focus on in-depth market analysis by industry sectors, assist in new product launches, coordinate Business Wire's nationwide outreach to major public relations and investor relations agencies, and serve as a liaision to select strategic partners. Essa joined Business Wire as an account executive in 1991 and has held progressively responsible positions during his tenure in the company's Los Angeles office. His current responsibilities as Los Angeles sales manager will be absorbed by Mike Iannuzzi, LA's regional manager. Essa will continue to service key accounts. · Standard Register announced its appointment of Charles P. Simmons as vice president of sales for its Document Management strategic business unit. Reporting to Mark Little, president of Document Management, Simmons will lead the business's 600 field sales professionals and its sales leadership team. Prior to joining Standard Register, Simmons was senior vice president of sales at divine, inc. · Univision Communications Inc., a Spanish-language media company, announced that Alina Falcon, has been named Senior Vice President and Operating Manager of the TeleFutura Network. Falcon, who formerly served as Senior Vice President and Director of News Division, Univision Television Network, will be responsible for overseeing all TeleFutura Network operations, including programming, promotions, talent relations, technical operations and news. She will remain based in Miami and will report to Ray Rodriguez, President and Chief Operating Officer, Univision Networks. · Linda Alexander has been named Senior Vice President, Communications, MTV Networks Latin America, it was announced by Antoinette Zel, President MTV Networks Latin America. Ms. Alexander has relocated from Los Angeles, where she was Senior Vice President, Communications for MTV Networks' West Coast Operations. Ms. Alexander will be based in Miami and report into Zel. In her new position, Ms. Alexander will lead all external communications and media relations for MTV Networks Latin America which consists of localized networks for MTV and Nickelodeon throughout Latin America and Nickelodeon in Brazil. Digital Publishing · Xlibris, a provider of print-on-demand publishing services to self-published authors, has added a copyediting service to augment its core offerings. The copyediting service gives authors access to professional copyeditors and is priced at $3.50 per 500 words. Xlibris also announced that it has formed a marketing services business unit that will act as an author's personal marketing firm, running campaigns on the author's behalf in order to foster interest, awareness, and ultimately, book sales. This newly formed business unit will introduce several book marketing services over the next year. Content Deals · BetterManagement.com, a performance management Internet portal, announced an agreement with Harvard Business School Publishing (HBSP) to offer leadership and management elearning solutions to business professionals. More than 40 elearning modules from Harvard Business School Publishing will be offered to BetterManagement.com members. Sample titles include "Capitalizing on Change," "Keeping Teams on Target," and "Focusing on Your Customer." The programs will be available online as part of Better Management University, a division of BetterManagement.com, which currently offers over 140 business and performance management courses. · Clear Channel Worldwide and Inside Radio Inc. announced an agreement to merge the operations of Inside Radio into M Street Publications, a partially owned and independently run subsidiary of Clear Channel. The deal includes the acquisition of Inside Radio's Daily Fax, daily emails, website and the weekly publication Who Owns What. · Tele-Publishing International (TPI), a division of the People2People Group, announced that it has signed an agreement with The Washington Post of Washington D.C. to provide voice, wireless and Internet personals services to its one million weekly subscribers and three and a half million unique website visitors per month. The agreement allows The Washington Post to co-market TPI's personals products. · Vivendi Universal Publishing announced that it has signed an exclusive North American distribution agreement with Viacom's digital entertainment unit Simon & Schuster Interactive. Through VU Publishing's Games division (VU Games), the company will distribute interactive products published by S&SI over the next two years. New PC and console-based releases distributed by VU Games will include: Eve Online (PC), a massively multi-player online game (MMOG); Darkened Skye (GameCube), a fast paced action adventure with a clever attitude; Outlaw Golf (Xbox and GameCube), a golf game with a outrageous, and irreverent sense of humor; Outlaw Volleyball (Xbox), a clever, sassy twist on the familiar sport; Real War: Rogue States (PC) a continuation of the real time strategy series; and Seablade (Xbox), an action combat adventure with futuristic flying ships. · translations.com, inc., a developer of enterprise language solutions and educational publishing translations, announced that it has completed the acquisition of the localization services division of Convey Software (formerly eTranslate), headquartered in San Francisco, California. · Activision, Inc. announced that the company has acquired the publishing and distribution rights to Gungrave for the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system in Europe and Australia/New Zealand. A third person, all action game featuring anime-style cel-shaded graphics, Gungrave was developed by Red Entertainment of Japan, and is expected to ship winter 2002. The title has not yet received an ELSPA rating. · China Xin Network Media Corporation announced it has entered into an agreement with Factiva, a Dow Jones & Reuters Company, for Factiva to carry its CXN Daily News Service. The news service includes coverage of business, financial and economic news on the People's Republic of China. Launches and Redesigns · The new Financial Enquirer website focuses exclusively on white-collar crime and corporate shenanigans from everyday earnings manipulation to insider trading to high-level corporate schemes designed to defraud investors. The site features articles about past, current, and potential future scandals as well as links to scams as they are uncovered by other publications. The site also provides a free email newsletter that summarizes the top financial scandals from the previous month. · The Deal LLC said it will expand its services by launching a new weekly publication later in 2002. The launch of the new publication will coincide with the relaunch of a daily news-only version of The Daily Deal, its print edition, as well as enhanced daily electronic products, including its website, TheDeal.com · Scholastic announced the launch of The Scholastic Store Online. Scholastic said its new store contains products carefully selected for developmental appropriateness and kid- appeal, with learning benefits endorsed by a panel of early childhood experts. · The Wall Street Journal Radio Network announced that it will launch The Wall Street Journal This Morning, a new morning business news radio show. Ron Kilgore, a veteran of radio business news, will anchor the program that begins in late September. Miscellaneous · NBC Acquisition Corp., the parent company of Nebraska Book Company, Inc. (NBC) announced the sale of a minority interest in the Company to Weston Presidio by investment funds affiliated with Haas Wheat & Partners, a Dallas-based private investment firm that is NBC's majority shareholder. Founded in 1915, NBC is the nation's largest chain of independent college bookstores and one of the industry's largest suppliers of used college textbooks. NBC owns or manages 108 bookstores serving college campuses, selling new and used textbooks and a variety of general merchandise. 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. |
