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Friday, October 18, 2002 Publishing Industry Soundbytes Launches and Redesigns | Miscellaneous People · Primedia, a targeted media company, announced that Kris Paper has been named Chief Information Officer for Primedia Business Magazines & Media. In her new role, she will report to Primedia Business COO Jack Condon and will be based in Kansas City. Ms. Paper will be responsible for the total information technology function at Primedia Business. She will manage strategic direction and oversee all new IT system development for enterprise-wide systems. While working to implement and improve technology requirements across the organization, she will guide the IT staff in supporting Primedia Business' operating and staff organizations. Ms. Paper joined Primedia Business after most recently serving as vice president and CIO for Aquila, Inc., a Kansas City-based energy trading company. · National Lampoon, the company which created the National Lampoon magazine, announced the appointment of Douglas S. Bennett as Executive Vice President. As Executive Vice President, Bennett will help oversee day-to-day operations of National Lampoon. Bennett's most recent position was President and COO of iUniverse, Inc. Previously, Bennett served as CEO of EoExchange, Inc, President of Macmillan Digital, a $75 million division of Macmillan USA, and then President of Macmillan USA. · Chris Petrikin has joined the William Morris Agency (WMA) as Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, effective October 21, 2002, Jim Wiatt, President and Co-CEO of WMA, announced. Petrikin will be responsible for overseeing media relations and public affairs for the company's worldwide operations. Petrikin, a former journalist, also will facilitate the company's marketing, advertising and special events strategies and activities. He will be based in WMA's offices in Beverly Hills. Petrikin brings with him nearly ten years of experience as an entertainment business journalist. He joins WMA from the Writers Guild of America, west, where he served as Executive Editor, Publications. Prior to that, Petrikin worked as a free-lance contributor to such media outlets as the Los Angeles Times, Premiere Magazine, Salon.com and National Public Radio. From December 1999 to April 2001, Petrikin worked as Film Editor for Inside.com, and Executive Editor of Inside Magazine. · Discovery Networks announced that it has tapped Joseph Abruzzese, a lauded 30-year broadcast network sales veteran, as president of advertising sales for all of Discovery Networks' domestic channels and properties. Judith A. McHale, president and COO of Discovery Communications, Inc. (DCI) and Billy Campbell, president of Discovery Networks, U.S. made the announcement. Abruzzese, 55, joins DCI with a 22-year career with CBS Television, and for which he has led all network sales since 1991. Bill McGowan, Discovery's executive vice president/general manager of U.S. ad sales and global integrated partnerships, will report to Abruzzese. · The Hearst Corporation announced that Eve Burton, 43, will join the company as vice president and general counsel designate, effective November 1, 2002. The announcement was made by Victor F. Ganzi, the president and chief executive officer of Hearst. Burton will report to James M. Asher, senior vice president and chief legal and development officer. Burton succeeds Jonathan E. Thackeray, 66, vice president and general counsel, who is retiring on March 31, 2003. At that time, Burton will assume the full duties of the Corporation's general counsel. Thackeray joined The Hearst Corporation in 1993 from Baker & Hostetler, where he spent 28 years and served as head of the law firm's Cleveland litigation group, as well as acting as an advisor to Hearst's legal department. · AuntMinnie.com, an online portal for medical imaging professionals, announced the appointment of Mitchell M. Goldburgh as Vice President, Business Consulting Services for AuntMinnie.com. In his new role, Mr. Goldburgh will lead the creation of new services, including the development of marketing tools and intelligence for AuntMinnie's OEM customer base and registered users. · Light Reading, an information resource for the networking industry, announced that it has hired Craig Matsumoto as senior editor covering the optical components and communications chip markets. Matsumoto comes to Light Reading after a seven-year stint at Electronic Engineering Times. As senior editor covering communications, his beats have included optical networking and network processors. Prior to EE Times, Craig spent two years covering semiconductor news for the San Jose Business Journal. · Knight Ridder announced the appointment of Bryan Monroe, deputy managing editor/local news, visuals and technology for the San Jose Mercury News, as corporate assistant vice president/news. He succeeds Larry Olmstead, who was recently named Knight Ridder vice president/staff development and diversity. Monroe will begin his new duties when he completes his Nieman Fellowship at Harvard next spring. Content Deals · Reuters, a global information, news and technology group, announced an exclusive agreement with VNU Business Media, for VNU to become the sole third-party provider of entertainment content included in Reuters real-time entertainment news service. The Reuters US Entertainment News Service consists of entertainment industry news and articles that are filed in real time and chronicle the latest entertainment industry developments. Available in April 2003, the new Reuters / VNU Entertainment News Service will combine Reuters reporting with the entertainment reporting from three of VNU's premier publications, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and Back Stage. The combined service will include daily entertainment stories, expanded film and television coverage, inside and in-depth industry reporting, enhanced music and stage reporting, and expanded reviews. Subscribers will also have access to Billboard's charts, which are based on sales and airplay figures for albums, singles and videos in addition to other measurement data such as movie box-office, live events, theatre, TV and web traffic. Launches and Redesigns · ACNielsen U.S., an operating unit of ACNielsen, a VNU Company, and The Lempert Report, in conjunction with the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), announced the launch of Facts, Figures & The Future, a monthly e-publication that provides food retailers with a comprehensive review and analysis of consumer trends and their impact on the retail environment. Facts, Figures & The Future does not contain any advertisements and is sent via e-mail mid-month. · Sun-Sentinel Company has launched a weekly Spanish language newspaper to serve Broward County's growing Hispanic population. El Sentinel includes local news and information, as well as national and international news from South and Central America, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico and other nations of key interest to Broward County's Hispanic community. It features coverage of local events, community news, sports, entertainment and lifestyle. The newspaper is distributed free on Saturdays to Hispanic households in Broward County and is also available in racks throughout Broward. Approximately 60,000 copies are distributed weekly. The first issue was distributed Saturday, Oct. 12. · TDK Mediactive Inc., a global publisher of entertainment software, announced a new video game publishing imprint dubbed TDK Impulse. The division officially launched with the shipping of its first game, Shrek Treasure Hunt for the PlayStation computer entertainment system. TDK Mediactive is 73% owned by TDK USA Corp., and is part of TDK Corporation's global effort to expand its offerings to consumers of entertainment-oriented products. · Latimes.com, the website of the Los Angeles Times, has launched NewsDirect, a personalized subscription service delivering news alerts, full-text articles and other information directly to latimes.com users' desktops, email boxes or mobile devices. NewsDirect pulls primary and Southern California-specific news and information from the latimes.com, and also monitors leading news wires and more than 2,000 top regional, national and international news sites. NewsDirect is being offered to latimes.com users at an introductory price of $5.95 monthly and $64.95 annually. · iVillage Inc., a women's media company, announced the launch of iVillageAccess, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) offering. iVillageAccess includes five independent email accounts each with 25 MB of storage, web-based e-mail access, personal home pages and message boards. iVillageAccess is the latest in iVillage's line of fee-based products, goods, and services, including the recently launched iVillageSolutions vitamin and nutraceutical line. Miscellaneous · Timberwolf Press and author Bill Baldwin have reached an agreement to re-launch the bestselling military science fiction Helmsman saga. The first six books in the series, The Helmsman, Galactic Convoy, The Trophy, The Mercenaries, The Defenders, and The Siege will be re-released in new, revised, "Director's Cut" editions. In addition, Baldwin will pen a new novel, picking up where the existing series left off. Each title will be published in book form as well as in Timberwolf's signature Next Generation full-cast unabridged audiobook editions. · Palm Inc.'s Solutions Group announced its investment in and strategic relationship with a new content publishing company. Mobile Digital Media, Inc. develops content for SD and MultiMediaCard media. It will aggregate, publish and distribute software for handhelds and mobile phones. MultiMediaCard and SD media are postage-stamp-sized cards that are used in millions of handheld computers, smartphones, MP3 players, still and video cameras, and printers worldwide. The media stores applications, text, images, video and audio files or combinations of the above. Additionally, SD media includes input/output capabilities that enable small but sturdy digital cameras, bar-code readers, sensors and other devices. Blank versions of both types of cards can be used for storage and backup. The new company is funded jointly by Palm and a group of private investors with extensive publishing experience, and is led by an experienced management team. Barry Cottle, previously Palm's chief operating officer and head of its Content and Access business unit, is chief executive officer. Former Palm Chief Marketing Officer Satjiv Chahil has been named chairman of the board. 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. |
