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Friday, January 3, 2003 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes Launches and Redesigns | Miscellaneous People · Ned Desmond, President of Business 2.0, has been named Executive Editor of Time Inc. Interactive (TII). In this new position, reporting to Desmond will be the Time Inc. Interactive group, led by Jodi Kahn and Meg Siesfeld. TII will be working closely with Jim Bankoff, Executive Vice President of AOL Brand Operations, and the interactive staffs of Time Inc.'s various magazines to execute the new content strategy announced by AOL two weeks ago. Desmond will begin working immediately with Time Inc.'s magazines to develop content, business and technology plans in each of the key segments (Women, Kids, Teens and Entertainment) that have been identified as critical growth areas for AOL. Desmond will report jointly to Time Inc. Executive Vice President John Squires and Time Inc. Editorial Director John Huey, and also to AOL Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis. · Chicago native Mike Downey returns to his roots, joining the Chicago Tribune sports staff as a columnist. He will share the "In the Wake of the News" column with Rick Morrissey; Downey's first column for the Tribune will appear Sunday, Jan. 19. A veteran journalist, Downey began his career at the age of 16, writing for the Star Publications newspaper chain. A graduate of Bloom High School in Chicago Heights, he covered sports for the Chicago Daily News and Chicago Sun-Times before moving to the Detroit Free Press, where he was twice voted Michigan Sportswriter of the Year. Most recently Downey spent 15 years as sports and news columnist for the Los Angeles Times. · CityXpress Corp, a supplier of event auctions and online special sections to newspapers, announced the appointment of Bob Silver to its Board of Directors. Silver is president of The Silver Company, a Seattle-based public relations firm that specializes in developing and implementing national and international marketing communications programs. Prior to founding the agency in 1991, Silver spent 13 years as a reporter and editor for some of the nation's leading newspapers, including The St. Petersburg Times and The Seattle Times. · Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. announced the promotion of John Fleming, Walmart.com's chief operating officer, to president and chief executive officer of Walmart.com. Fleming, who joined Walmart.com in 2000 as chief merchant overseeing procurement of merchandise and managing supplier relations, previously served as senior vice president of merchandising for Marshall Fields, a division of Target Corporation. During his years with the retailer, Fleming held various retail and merchandising positions, including vice president and general merchandise manager over apparel, divisional merchandise manager for sportswear, and senior buyer. As the chief executive of Wal-Mart's online unit, Fleming will continue to report to Tom Schoewe, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Fleming succeeds the chief executive role formerly held by Jeanne Jackson. · Jerry Stoeckigt has been promoted to publisher for The Garlinghouse Company, publisher of Log Home Design Ideas and nearly 30 other Garlinghouse home design magazines and design books. Mr. Stoeckigt joined the company in June 2001 as advertising director. Stoeckigt will manage Log Home Design Ideas and Garlinghouse's advertising and marketing, set strategy, launch new products and grow market share in the shelter category for the publication group. Prior to coming to Garlinghouse, Stoeckigt served as associate publisher at O'Meara-Brown Publications. From 1994-2000, he served as Midwest manager at Hachette Filipacchi Magazines. · John Goldwyn, Vice-Chairman of the Motion Picture Group and President of Paramount Pictures, announced that the studio has entered into a three-year, first-look motion picture production deal with Lorenzo di Bonaventura. Under the agreement, Paramount will finance, market and have worldwide distribution rights to all di Bonaventura's motion picture projects, which he will oversee from offices located on the Paramount lot. di Bonaventura has shepherded many blockbuster films for Warner Bros. Pictures, including Ocean's Eleven, Training Day, Three Kings and The Perfect Storm, as well as two major franchises for the studio: The Matrix and Harry Potter. Prior to joining Paramount, di Bonaventura served as Executive Vice President for Warner Bros., Worldwide Productions, Domestic Marketing & Acquisitions. · Kathy Stover is the new director of communications for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). In the position, Stover will handle all media inquiries concerning biotechnology issues in healthcare and those with industrial and environmental applications. Prior to joining BIO, Stover was a senior managing editor at Thompson Publishing Group Inc. in Washington, D.C., where she was responsible for several publications related to activities of the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, including the FDA Advertising and Promotion Manual, the Guide to Good Clinical Practice and the Guide to Medical Device Regulation. Digital Publishing · Palm Digital Media, Inc., a publisher and distributor of ebooks for handheld computers, has released its list of December's top 10 best-selling ebooks. Palm Digital Media Top 10 Bestselling Fiction Books December 2002
· The New York Times Company and The Washington Post Company announced that they have completed the sale of The Post's fifty percent interest in The International Herald Tribune newspaper to the Times Company for $65 million. The Times Company, which had owned fifty percent of the IHT, is now the sole owner. · MSP Communications (MSP), publisher of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine and Twin Cities Business Monthly, announced that it had acquired the assets of Mardi Associates, owner of the Minneapolis- Saint Paul Wedding Guide and The Bridal Spectacular Wedding Show, for an undisclosed amount. · ProQuest Company, a provider of value-added information and content to the library, classroom, automotive and powersports industries, reported that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire bigchalk.com, inc. ProQuest is currently a minority investor in bigchalk. Bigchalk provides online educational databases and tools to more than 43,000 schools across the country. · Newsweek, together with Hong Kong's Vertex Group, will launch its sixth non-English-language edition, Newsweek Select-a Chinese-language magazine published monthly and distributed in the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong. The announcement was made in New York by Richard M. Smith, chairman and editor-in-chief of Newsweek and in Hong Kong by Steven Poon, chairman of Vertex Communications & Technology Group Limited. Newsweek Inc., a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company, and SinoWorld CNW Publishing Limited, a subsidiary of Vertex, signed the agreement Thursday, December 12 in Hong Kong. The exclusive five-year license agreement enables SinoWorld CNW to publish the Chinese-language magazine based on content from Newsweek's U.S. and international editions. It will be launched in 2003- printed in Hong Kong and written with simplified Chinese characters. · Sprint announced it has closed the sale of its directory publishing business, Sprint Publishing & Advertising, to R.H. Donnelley for $2.23 billion in cash. The sale of Sprint Publishing, the nation's sixth largest directory publisher, includes 260 white and yellow page directories. The Sprint Yellow Pages has an annual circulation of more than 18 million in and around the communities in 18 states where Sprint serves as the local telecommunications service provider. Sprint will maintain a long-term, strategic working relationship with R.H. Donnelley under which R.H. Donnelley will be designated as the exclusive directory publisher for Sprint in the markets where Sprint currently provides local telecommunications service. Instant Media Network, a provider of Music-on-Demand to hotel guests, announced a license agreement with BMG, the global music division of Bertelsmann AG. The deal gives Instant Media Network digital music distribution rights to music and music video content from BMG's US labels, including: Arista, RCA Records, RCA Label Group - Nashville and RCA Victor. BMG joins several major music companies that have granted licenses to Instant Media Network. Instant Media Network's content delivery systems allow hotel guests to listen to Music on-Demand and purchase CDs from thousands of artists by using the TV remote control. Launches and Redesigns · YesAsia.com, an Asian online entertainment store, announced its partnership with Cosmos Books Limited, one of the largest book publishers in Hong Kong, to build a "Cosmos Corner" on the YesOutlet platform. Chinese book readers can now view and purchase all books published by Cosmos, from their romance novel series to literature from well-known authors including Yi Shu, Lee Pi-Hua, Choi Lan, Li Min, Gu Long, Liang Yu-Sheng and Wan Du-Lao. · Shape magazine announced the launch of iShape, an online weight-loss tool that delivers personalized exercise and nutrition programs via the Web and email. iShape tailors plans to a a user's specific needs and lifestyle and delivers the plan daily to keep users motivated and on track to reaching their goals. Created by the nutrition and fitness experts at Shape magazine, iShape designs a weight-loss plan based on a person's favorite foods, daily schedule, and level of fitness. A subscription to iShape is $45 for three months or $99 for one year. · HotelShark, one of National Geographic Traveler magazine’s “Five Best Travel Websites” of 2002, has spawned BnBShark, a website featuring guest-written reviews of bed and breakfasts. SharkPage, Inc., the owner of HotelShark, launched BnBShark on December 27, 2002. Miscellaneous · Alacritude, LLC -- publisher of eLibrary.com and Encyclopedia.com -- announced that it has secured $3.1 million in Series A funding. Chicago-based Prism Opportunity Fund led the round. Stamford, Conn.-based 1to1 Venture Partners, LLC and a number of individual investors also participated in the first major round of financing. Alacritude's eLibrary is a subscription-based digital archive of more than 13 million documents from the world's top newswires, newspapers, magazines and journals. It has more than 1 million users and a subscription base of tens of thousands of paying customers. With the new capital, Patrick Spain, chairman and CEO of Alacritude, plans to build on the platform he created with eLibrary and Encyclopedia.com (acquired from Tucows, Inc. in August, 2002) through both internal growth and acquisitions. 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