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September 6, 2002 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes Launches and Redesigns | Miscellaneous People · International Data Group (IDG), a technology media company, announced the appointment of Patrick Kenealy to the position of Chief Executive Officer, following the resignation of Kelly Conlin, President and CEO, IDG. Pat Kenealy joined IDG in 1986 in Boston as the Founder and Publisher of Digital News, a newspaper for the VAX computer market. He then became the CEO of IDG's PC World Communications subsidiary in San Francisco, publisher of PC World magazine. · Amazon.com announced that Thomas J. Szkutak will become its Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Szkutak joins Amazon.com after more than 20 years with General Electric where he is currently the Chief Financial Officer for GE Lighting. He will begin at Amazon.com in the next several weeks. · Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. announced that John P. Loughlin will join the Company as President of its TV Guide Publishing Group. This newly-formed business unit will contain all of TV Guide's print and online businesses including the TV Guide Magazine Group and TV Guide Online. John O'Reilly, President, TV Guide Magazine Group, Steven Reddicliffe, Editor-in-Chief, TV Guide magazine, and Tom Hagopian, President, TV Guide Online, will report to Loughlin. He will be based in New York, and will report directly to Company Co-President and COO, Jeff Shell. He will join the Company on September 9th. John comes to Gemstar-TV Guide from Primedia, Inc., where he served as President and CEO of Primedia Consumer Media and Magazine Group and an Executive Vice President of Primedia Inc. · Ziff Davis Media Game Group, a publisher of gaming magazines, has named Tom Byron as the Editor-in-Chief of GameNow magazine. In this role Byron will be responsible for the editorial content and the day-to-day operations of the magazine and to serve as its main spokesperson. Byron is the former editor-in-chief of Start magazine for Atari enthusiasts, and the games editor for PC Home Journal. Most recently, Byron was Director of Product Marketing at LucasArts Entertainment Company. · CMP Media's CRN, a newsweekly for builders of technology solutions, announced Michael Vizard, former editor in chief of InfoWorld, has been appointed editor in chief of the newsweekly. Mr. Vizard will be responsible for the strategic vision of CRN, ensuring that editorial coverage goals are met by evolving the reporting and editorial beats to accommodate readers' information needs. Prior to joining InfoWorld, Mr. Vizard had been an editor at PC Week, Computerworld, Digital Review and ebn. · Primedia Inc., a targeted media company, announced the elimination of the position of Editorial Director of the company's Teen Magazine Publishing Group. Annemarie Iverson, who held that position and also served as editor-in-chief of Seventeen magazine, has left the company. Elizabeth Crow, who was recently named the first Executive Vice President and Editorial Director of Primedia's Consumer Media and Magazine Group (CMMG) will oversee the search for an editor-in-chief of Seventeen and will be responsible for leading Seventeen's editorial in the interim. · Bob Hall, publisher and chairman of Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. (PNI), announced that he has appointed Fred Mott to be the company's president and general manager. Mott, currently publisher of The State, South Carolina's largest newspaper, will join PNI next month. Mott has been with Knight Ridder, which also owns PNI, for 23 years in a variety of leadership roles, including the last seven years as publisher of The State. Prior to that, he was publisher of the Gary (Indiana) Post-Tribune and general manager of the Tallahassee Democrat. He began his Knight Ridder career on its corporate staff. · Knight Ridder announced that Fred Mott, president and publisher of The (Columbia, S.C.) State has been named president and general manager of Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. (PNI), and that Ann Caulkins, senior vice president/sales and marketing of the Lexington Herald-Leader, has been named president and publisher of The State, effective Sept. 23. · Holt, Rinehart and Winston announced that Bridget Hadley has joined the company as vice president of professional development. The new hire is in response to the magnitude of professional development requirements throughout the education environment. Holt created the new department and hired Hadley to develop a comprehensive and systematic training program to complement Holt's standards-based educational resources. The new department will offer high-quality and accessible professional learning opportunities designed to relate to the unique needs of the learner. · David Schneiderman, Chief Executive Officer of Village Voice Media, announced a new editorial leadership team for Seattle Weekly, naming Knute "Skip" Berger Editor-in-Chief and Chuck Taylor Managing Editor. Knute "Skip" Berger, the former editor-in-chief of Seattle Weekly, is returning to the post on August 28th after a two-year sabbatical. From 1990-2000, Berger served in a number of capacities at Seattle Weekly, including Editor-in-Chief 1993-95 and 1997-2000, Editor-in-Chief of Eastsideweek 1990-97 and Creative Director of Sasquatch Publishing 1995-96. Since he left the paper in 2000, Berger has been a regular commentator on public radio's KUOW-FM and political columnist for Washington Law & Politics magazine. Joining Berger at the paper as Managing Editor will be Chuck Taylor, a 16-year veteran reporter and editor at the Seattle Times. Taylor was also founder and managing editor of the newspaper strike paper and website, the Seattle Union Record from 2000-01. More recently, he was a writer/producer for MSNBC during the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. · Anne A. Armstrong has been named Publisher of Federal Computer Week, a publication for the federal government information technology market published by 101communications. As publisher of Federal Computer Week, Armstrong will oversee the 86,000-circulation newsweekly, as well as FCW.com, which delivers news to federal, state and local government IT professionals; electronic newsletters, and an events group. For the past three years, Armstrong served as president of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology. Prior to that, Armstrong was Editor-in-Chief of Federal Computer Week. · Ziff Davis Media Inc. announced that it has launched a new Enterprise Group. The new group, to be spearheaded by Stephen D. Moylan, Executive Vice President, will provide a more focused approach enabling advertisers to reach their most valued customers. Moylan, who joined the company in October 2001, will continue to oversee corporate sales and marketing, research, Ziff Davis Market Experts and the events group. · Knute "Skip" Berger, Editor-in-Chief of Seattle Weekly, announced the appointment of Tim Appelo as Senior Arts Writer. In this newly created position, Appelo, a former senior writer for Entertainment Weekly, will be joining the paper on September 30. His focus will be on local and national arts and culture. Appelo will be reporting to Culture Editor Mark D. Fefer, who will continue to be responsible for overseeing the Weekly's arts coverage. Appelo comes to the paper from Amazon.com, where he was editor for Bestsellers, Entertainment, Biography, History, and Art. Digital Publishing · OverDrive, Inc., a provider of digital media and ecommerce solutions, announced it has partnered with OfficeMax, Inc. to open the OfficeMax.com Digital Bookstore. The OfficeMax.com Digital Bookstore features top management, finance, computer and reference ebook titles from HarperCollins, Random House, John Wiley & Sons, St. Martin's Press, AOL Time Warner Book Group and other business and technology publishers. · eCollege, a provider of technology and services for online higher education programs, has announced a partnership with XanEdu, a division of ProQuest Information & Learning, and provider of premium content geared expressly for students, faculty and higher education institutions. Through the partnership, XanEdu CoursePacks can be seamlessly integrated into the eCollege AU+ teaching platform. Content Deals · Pearson Education, an educational publisher, and The New York Times Company announced that they have expanded their relationship to bring current and archived New York Times content to professors and students via print, online and electronic platforms. Pearson Higher Education imprints, including Prentice Hall, Addison Wesley, Benjamin Cummings, Longman, and Allyn & Bacon, will be able to expand textbooks, supplementary materials and companion websites with New York Times content. The partnership builds upon the long-standing New York Times relationship with Pearson's Prentice Hall division, which for the past fifteen years has distributed its "Themes of The Times" newspaper supplement to college students across the nation. Themes will now be available in both print and electronic formats, and all Pearson Higher Education imprints will participate in the program. In addition, a new license will enable Pearson Higher Education authors to use Times articles and photographs dating back to 1851. Pearson will also launch a higher education website designed to help students conduct research projects. The site will feature full-text feeds of current and archived New York Times articles, organized by academic discipline. In addition, Pearson will bundle discounted semester-length student subscriptions for the print and electronic editions of The New York Times with select Pearson textbooks. · The International Herald Tribune and Bloomberg News announced an alliance to provide detailed Bloomberg coverage of Asian companies and financial markets exclusively for the IHT's 78,000 circulation in Asia. The new four-page section, called "Business Asia by Bloomberg," will appear in the IHT's Asia edition five days a week, Monday through Friday. Content will be drawn entirely from Bloomberg's global news organization, including an editorial staff of more than 200 based in Asia. The material will be prepared for publication by senior IHT editors based in Hong Kong. · Business.com, a search engine and directory focused exclusively on business, has entered an agreement with INT Media Group, Incorporated to provide its business Internet search results throughout the internet.com and EarthWeb.com network of websites. Business.com's search functionality, which includes both Standard Listings (pay-for-inclusion) and Featured Listings (pay-for-placement), gives users access to more than 400,000 business-focused listings across 25,000 categories. · Vivendi Universal and the Socpresse group have formed plans to sell the consumer press division of Vivendi Universal Publishing (Groupe Express-Expansion and Groupe l'Etudiant) and Comareg (including Delta Diffusion, which is to join Mediapost). The two transactions are together worth a total cash amount of more than 300 million euros. · Riverdeep Group plc, a publisher of educational software, announced the acquisition of Broderbund LLC and its related entities ("Broderbund") by its wholly owned subsidiary, Riverdeep, Inc. Broderbund is a publisher of personal productivity software sold into the consumer and school markets. Under the terms of the agreement, Riverdeep has agreed to pay the seller, Gores Technology Group, consideration of $57.2 million in exchange for the acquired assets and liabilities of Broderbund. Key assets purchased include the Broderbund name, and its software brands such as Print Shop, Print Master, Family Tree Maker, American Greetings, 3D Home Architect, Calendar Creator, and Cosmopolitan. · Country Living magazine and Lane Furniture have signed a licensing agreement to market and develop a complete line of Country Living furniture. The Country Living Collection by Lane, developed by Hearst Brand Development and Lane Furniture and inspired from the pages of the magazine, will be unveiled at the fall High Point market, October 17 - 25, and is expected to be available at Lane furniture dealers across the country by early next year. · BusinessWeek and CNET Networks Inc. have formed a partnership on an upcoming editorial and sales initiative. The first joint editorial feature is scheduled to run in mid-November in BusinessWeek's 8th annual Technology Buyer's Guide. The print version of the Technology Buyer's Guide will appear in BusinessWeek, with the online version on both BusinessWeek Online's and CNET news.com websites. Joint editorial content will also appear on BusinessWeek Money Talks, a weekly syndicated television program, which can be seen in more than 70% of U.S. television households nationwide. This year's Technology Buyer's Guide, which will reach more than 5.6 million technology buyers, will combine CNET's product reviews team with insight and analysis from Business Week. · WRC Media, Inc., an educational publishing and media company, announced a co-marketing partnership agreement whereby USA Today will be offered to school and public libraries through WRC Media's educational book publishing arm, Gareth Stevens, Inc., located in Milwaukee, WI. Gareth Stevens will include a special offer for USA Today newspaper subscriptions in its fall mailings to its customers and will use its inhouse telesales force to follow-up with customers and take subscription orders. · Her Interactive, a developer of interactive entertainment for girls and women, announced that it has signed an affiliated label deal with Infogrames, Inc. The terms of the two-year agreement grant Infogrames the exclusive U.S. rights to distribute Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand and Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake to the retail channel. The characters and stories used in the games are based on the internationally best-selling Nancy Drew books. Launches and Redesigns · Oximeter.org is a new educational resource for clinically relevant data and publications on the monitoring of patient oxygenation. The initial contents focus on pulse oximetry, and include its history, accuracy, reliability, limitations, sources of error, and new technological developments. Future topics will include co-oximetry, transcutaneous oxygen monitoring, organ and tissue monitoring, intraarterial and mixed venous oxygen tension monitoring. · IBSystems, a provider of webportals and virtual trade shows, announced that it is discontinuing its monthly EDAVision online magazine in favor of a weekly publication, EDA Weekly. Each issue of EDA Weekly summarizes the events of the past week and will at times publish in-depth special technical and trend reports. · A new web-based alternative medicine resource is available from Natural Standard, at naturalstandard.com. Natural Standard is an international collaboration of top researchers and clinicians that provides impartial science-based information about herbs, supplements, and traditional health techniques for professionals and patients. Formed in 1998, Natural Standard now includes contributors from more than 100 prestigious universities worldwide. Subscriptions are available to individuals for $99/year per user · This month Merriam-Webster added over 4,000 new words to Merriam-Webster Unabridged, the company's subscription-based website launched earlier this year. This expansion of on-line content coincides with the publication of the 2002 copyright version of the company's flagship Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Miscellaneous · Senator John Edwards of North Carolina has signed with Simon & Schuster to publish a book that will focus on the lessons learned during his legal career. The plan was announced by David Rosenthal, Executive V.P. and Publisher of Simon & Schuster. In his as yet untitled book, Edwards will discuss some of the moving personal stories and inspiring struggles he witnessed during his career representing families in North Carolina. Simon & Schuster acquired world rights from Norman Brokaw, Chairman of the William Morris Agency, and Mel Berger, Senior Vice President of the William Morris Agency. The book will be published in hardcover at the end of 2003. · After seeing positive results from its test of Free Super Saver Shipping on qualifying orders over $49, Amazon.com announced it is further lowering the qualifying order size for its popular free shipping option to $25. The company will decide at the test's conclusion whether the $25 ordering threshold can become permanent. · Office Depot, Inc., a seller of office products, and Amazon.com, Inc. announced an ecommerce strategic alliance with launch of the Office Products store at Amazon.com. Office Depot will offer more than 50,000 products, including classic office supplies--including pens; ink and toner; paper; technology products such as computers, printers, monitors and all-in-one machines; and office furniture such as desks, chairs and bookcases. 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