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Friday, August 16, 2002 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes Launches and Redesigns | Miscellaneous People · RealNetworks, Inc., a provider of media delivery software, has named Merrill Brown Senior Vice President. Mr. Brown will be responsible for RealOne services for the Americas including RealOne SuperPass, RealOne GamePass and other associated subscription and advertising products. Mr. Brown previously worked as Senior Vice President and Editor-in-Chief at MSNBC.com. · Where Miami, a visitor publication in South Florida and publisher of Where Charleston, announced the appointment of Irene Moore as editor-in-chief. With two decades of experience in the fashion world, Moore plans to share her shopping secrets with Where Miami readers. Before joining Where Miami, Moore was 'The Personal Shopper' at W Magazine, a position she developed to promote the publication to subscribers and consumers. At W, her responsibilities included serving as the magazine's spokesperson, along with writing both the Personal Shopping page and Internet articles plus managing the Personal Shopper Hotline. · Kevin Leap, advertising director/associate publisher, Oceanside for The North County Times, has resigned his position there to become associate publisher/advertising director at San Diego Magazine. Prior to joining The North County Times seven years ago, Leap was a founder of ComputerEdge Magazine and Computer Publishing Enterprises, an international computer book-publishing company. He also served as president and owner of a local mid-sized advertising and public relations firm. · Entering its third year of publication with its biggest issue to date, Dwell magazine has named two top-level executives to new positions as President/Publisher and Editor in Chief, Dwell founder Lara Hedberg Deam announced. Effective immediately, Michela O'Connor Abrams will serve as President and Publisher and Allison Arieff becomes Editor-in-Chief. Previously, Abrams's company, HeavyLifting, consulted to Dwell and Arieff was Senior Editor of the San Francisco-based magazine devoted to accessible modern design. As Chairman and Founder of Dwell LLC, Lara Hedberg Deam will continue her strategic role with the magazine, serving as Chairman of the Dwell LLC board and overseeing the long-term strategies of Dwell magazine and the Dwell brand. · Living West Magazine and Sabot Publishing announce the hiring of Wolf Schneider as acting editor and Lisa Smith as sales manager. The announcement was made by James D. Causey, Sabot president and CEO. Schneider joins Living West with immediate responsibility to shape editorial and design direction and bring a strong slate of national writers to the magazine. Lisa Smith is hired as Southwest sales manager, focusing on real estate, home furnishings, fashion and jewelry, travel, and lifestyle. Both are based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Schneider joins Living West after two years at the Santa Fean as its editor-in-chief, where she won three Clarion Awards and was a finalist for two Maggie Awards. Smith was senior account executive at the Santa Fean from 1998 until 2002. · Julia Hood has been named as the new editor-in-chief of PRWeek, a weekly title for the public relations business. She takes up the role with effect from September 23, 2002. Hood succeeds Jonah Bloom, who joins Advertising Age as executive editor after a year at the helm of PRWeek. Hood is a Connecticut native who earned her MA in journalism at New York University. She joined PRWeek in 2000 as a reporter covering the healthcare and airline industries. Prior to that, she held a number of PR research and media relations positions with Mobil and BAT Industries. She has also worked with the National Kidney Foundation. · Conquest Business Media announced the appointment of Vince Cavaseno as the U.S. Publisher of The Manufacturer, a publication targeting top managers in the manufacturing industry. Vince joins The Manufacturer from Supply Chain Management Review where he served as Publisher. He was responsible for launching their website and monthly e-mail newsletter focused on delivering solutions-oriented content. · Carolyn Curiel, who has been serving as a visiting fellow on The New York Times editorial board this summer, will formally join the board. Gail Collins, editor of the editorial page, announced the appointment. The appointment is effective immediately. Previously Ms. Curiel, 48, was a senior fellow at the Pew Hispanic Center since 2001. From 1997 to 2001 she served as the United States Ambassador to Belize and from 1993 to 1997, Ms. Curiel was a presidential speechwriter at The White House during the Clinton administration. Prior to that she was a producer-writer for ABC News Nightline from 1992 to 1993. Ms. Curiel worked previously for The New York Times from 1987 to 1992, when she served as desk editor for the Week in Review, for the Foreign and National desks. DTS, the digital technology company that is a pioneer in multi-channel sound, has appointed music industry executive Jeff Skillen as Vice President of Business Development for DTS Entertainment, the company's independent record label. In his new role, Jeff will lead business affairs, A&R, sales, and production activity for the group. In addition, he will oversee relationships with artists, recording labels, producers and engineers. He will report to Jon Kirchner, President and CEO of DTS. Most recently, Jeff served as Executive Vice President of Valley Entertainment, an independent recording label. · LitWatch announced that Paul Pien, Esq., has joined the company as its Vice President for Sales & Marketing, concentrating on the legal market. Most recently Paul Pienheld positions as an executive and in-house counsel with several technology companies, including Data Clearinghouse, eVelocity, and eLawForum. LitWatch is a litigation news service publishing real-time analysis of significant business litigation. LitWatch also publishes actual litigation documents. · Midway Games Inc. announced that effective immediately it has named Anthony (Tony) Adams Managing Director, Europe. In this capacity, Adams will have direct responsibility for overseeing and expanding Midway's operations throughout Europe. Adams will report to Midway Games' Senior Vice President-Publishing, Mark Beaumont. Before joining Midway, Adams founded and managed Tony Adams Associates, a sales and marketing consultancy serving interactive entertainment clients including Microsoft, Motorola, Mathengine PLC, Tao Group and Mad Catz Interactive. · Borders Group, Inc. recently named three new directors. Diane Mangan was promoted from associate director, children's merchandising to category director, children's. Kathryn Popoff was hired as director of multimedia and marketing and Greg M. Yarrington was appointed director of consumer commerce and human resource systems. · Joshua Plaut, historian, scholar, and photoethnographer, has been appointed executive director of the Center for Jewish History in New York City, effective September 1, 2002. Prior to joining the Center, Mr. Plaut spent the years from 1993-2001 as the spiritual leader of Martha's Vineyard Hebrew Center and as Hillel Chaplain at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He succeeds Joseph D. Becker, who served as interim executive director. · Patti Burke has been appointed Head of PDI/DreamWorks, the Palo Alto-based computer animation affiliate of DreamWorks SKG, it was announced by Ann Daly, DreamWorks' Head of Feature Animation. PDI/DreamWorks created Shrek in 2001 as well as the hit film Antz, which was released in 1998. Burke will take over for Aron Warner, Shrek producer and former Head of PDI/DreamWorks, who is now producing the sequel to Shrek, slated for a Summer 2004 release. Digital Publishing · RealRead, a provider of online book sampling software, announced that they have initiated a new service for magazines and mail order catalogs. RealRead online magazine samples would look exactly like the print versions in that people can flip through them instead of endlessly scrolling. The RealRead online mail-order catalogs would look exactly like the print versions, and can be emailed directly to customers. The layout can be customized so that window frame, buttons, etc. can be arranged for various customers' needs. As in the existing book service, RealRead magazines and catalogs would not require special plug-ins or a large download file since they use a regular web-browser and documents are displayed one page at a time. · Students with visual impairments or severe learning disabilities will have access to the contents of textbooks with the nationwide release (September 3, 2002) of digitally recorded textbooks on CD from Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. An inaugural collection of 6,000 digitally recorded educational titles, ranging from Harry Potter to Systems of Psychotherapy: a Transtheoretical Analysis, will be added to RFB&D's collection of 91,000 accessible textbooks. To listen to RFB&D's AudioPlus textbooks, students need a portable CD player equipped to play RFB&D's books or a standard multimedia computer equipped with a CD-ROM drive and specialized software. Playback hardware and software will be available through RFB&D for nonprofit sale. Content Deals · Nelson, part of The Thomson Corporation and a division of The Thomson Corporation's wholly owned subsidiary Thomson Canada Limited, announced the completion of the acquisition of Irwin Publishing Ltd, a subsidiary of General Publishing Co. Limited. Terms of the agreement have not been disclosed. Nelson is a leading developer of Canadian-authored learning materials and online resources for education, business, consumer and government markets. Nelson's markets include K-12, post-secondary and adult corporate training. Irwin Publishing Ltd. is a educational publisher based in Toronto. · Mosaic Music Publishing, a joint venture between Mosaic Media Group and CDP Capital Communications, has purchased a 50% interest in a catalogue of songs composed by the band Aerosmith. Aerosmith will continue to own the other 50% and Mosaic will be responsible for the administration of the catalogue and its assets worldwide. The catalogue is comprised of seven albums produced from 1973-1982: Aerosmith, Get Your Wings, Toys in the Attic, Rocks, Draw the Line, Night in the Ruts and Rock in a Hard Place. The albums encompass 53 songs including the hits "Walk This Way," "Back in the Saddle," "Toys in the Attic," "Sweet Emotion," and "Dream On," which rap artist Eminem recently re-mixed and released as "Sing For the Moment". The catalogue was acquired from Daksel, LLC and Seldak, LLC companies operated by Aerosmith's early managers Steve Leber and David Krebs. Launches and Redesigns · R.R. Bowker, a publisher of bibliographic information, announced the U.S. launch of the International Standard Music Number (ISMN) system, a uniform global standard for identifying all printed music publications available worldwide. The ISMN, which consists of the letter M followed by nine digits, is used to identify all international printed music publications available for sale, for rental, for free copies or for copyright purposes only. The purpose of the ISMN is to establish and identify a particular song from one specific publisher, allowing for more efficient marketing of printed sheet music products within publishing houses, music companies and libraries. They are assigned by ISMN agencies around the world and are centrally coordinated by the International ISMN Agency in Berlin, Germany. Since 1968, the book publishing trade has been served by the International Standard Book Numbering (ISBN) system, which provides ISBNs as unique identifiers for book and book-related products. The ISMN is intended to serve as a similar global standard for the music publishing industry. As the independent agent in the U.S. market, R.R. Bowker is inviting the participation of domestic music publishers in the ISMN system. Miscellaneous · AOL Time Warner announced the completion of its planned purchase of an additional 15.3% stake in VIVA Media, a German cable and satellite television music company. The shares purchased were formerly held by EMI Group. With the conclusion of the regulatory approvals process, AOL Time Warner now owns 30.6% of VIVA Media. · General Mills and Simon & Schuster Audio have teamed for a unique audibook and cereal promotion. The promotion features Stephen R. Covey's bestselling audiobook, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This free on-pack offer, scheduled for full retail visibility beginning September through December, can be found on an exclusive banded pack of two General Mills cereals -- Oatmeal Crisp Raisin and Basic 4. Several other General Mills cereal brands, including Wheat Chex, Multi-bran Chex, Oatmeal Crisp Almond, Oatmeal Crisp Apple Cinnamon, Raisin Nut Bran, as well as Oatmeal Crisp Raisin and Basic 4, will individually promote a free mail-in offer for a number of Simon & Schuster titles. 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. |
