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Friday, January 10, 2003 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes Launches and Redesigns | Miscellaneous People · Andrew Lack has been named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Sony Music Entertainment (SME), it was announced by Howard Stringer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Sony Corporation of America (SCA). Mr. Lack, who has been President and Chief Operating Officer of NBC since June 2001, and President of NBC News for eight years prior to that, will join Sony in early February. He will be headquartered in New York City and report to Mr. Stringer. Lack replaces Tommy Mattola who left to start a new music venture. · James Kaminsky, editorial director of Playboy magazine, announced that he has named Steven Russell to be Playboy's deputy editor, the magazine's second-in-command, and Robert Love to be editor-at-large, helping to oversee non-fiction and long-form journalism in the magazine. Both will report to Kaminsky and will be based in PEI's Publishing Group headquarters in New York. As deputy editor, Russell will assist in all facets of Playboy's planning, top-editing and management. He was most recently the executive editor at Maxim. As editor-at-large, Robert Love will be charged with helping to further establish Playboy's narrative non-fiction while working with the nation's top writers and also developing new talent. Love most recently spent five years as managing editor of Rolling Stone, the magazine's top editorial position. · Knight Ridder has named Jayne M. Speizer, publisher of The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.), as president and publisher of The Monterey County (Calif.) Herald, effective Feb. 1. She succeeds Patricia Keil, who was named executive vice president of The Charlotte Observer. · Forrester Research, Inc. has announced Brian Kardon as the new vice president of strategy and marketing. Kardon's primary responsibilities include working closely with other members of Forrester's executive management team on the company's long-term strategy as well as overseeing the marketing and development of Forrester's products and service offerings. Kardon reports to George F. Colony, Forrester's chairman of the board and chief executive officer. Kardon was previously senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Cahners Business Information. · Walter Kolm has been appointed Senior Vice President, A&R and Marketing, for Universal Music Latino, effective immediately. In his new post, he will be responsible for directing A&R, marketing and promotion for the division, reporting to John Echevarria, President, Universal Music Latino. Mr. Kolm has been Managing Director of Universal Music Chile since July 2001. · Advanstar Communications Inc. announced the promotion of Robert Ingraham to the position of Vice President/General Manager. He was previously General Manager for all exposition, publishing and Internet operations of Advanstar's International Art and Beauty Groups. With this promotion, Ingraham retains his responsibilities for the Art and Beauty Groups, and adds Advanstar's leading International Licensing Expo held in New York, which was previously managed by Diane Stone, who recently left the Company. · Frank Rich, Op-Ed columnist and senior writer for The New York Times Magazine, has been appointed associate editor of The New York Times. In his new role, Mr. Rich will write a weekly cultural essay that will run as a column on the front page of the Sunday Arts & Leisure section beginning this spring. In keeping with The Times practice of having associate editors assist in planning the journalistic undertakings of the paper, Mr. Rich will also serve as an adviser to Steven Erlanger, cultural news editor. Mr. Rich's last Op-Ed column will appear January 18. Mr. Rich came to The Times's in 1980 as chief theater critic. · The New York Times has announced several appointments. The announcements were made by Gail Collins, editor of the editorial page. The assignments will take effect shortly.
· Nancy Dubuc has been named A&E Network's new Vice President of Documentary Development, it was announced by Abbe Raven, Executive Vice President and General Manager, A&E. Ms. Dubuc joins the Network after three years with The History Channel. In her new role, Ms. Dubuc will oversee A&E's series development for documentary programs. In addition, she will be responsible for developing and producing the Network's documentary specials. Prior to joining A&E, Ms. Dubuc was the Director, Historical Programming, for The History Channel. · American Lawyer Media, Inc., a legal journalism and information company, announced the promotion of Iain Murray to the new position of Vice President, Information Systems. Murray, currently Chief Technology Officer for the company, joined ALM in 2000 as Information Technology Director for the American Lawyer Media Newswire. Prior to his employment with ALM, Murray held a variety of information technology management positions with Time Out and Conde Nast publications. · Tribune Company has named Patrick Mullen President of Tribune Broadcasting, overseeing the company's 24 television stations, its entertainment division, and radio station WGN-AM in Chicago. Mullen has served as Tribune Television President since March 2001. Mullen joined Tribune Television in 1998 as regional vice president, overseeing the company's six Fox affiliated stations. In 1999, Mullen added five WB stations to his roster, and in March 2001 he became president of Tribune Television with oversight responsibility for the entire group. Tribune Company has also named Ira Goldstone technology coordinator for Tribune Company as well as vice president/chief technology officer for Tribune Broadcasting Company. In this new role, Goldstone will continue to oversee engineering and technology for the broadcasting group while coordinating projects involving common technologies across all of Tribune. · Journal Register Company Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jean B. Clifton announced the appointment of Marc S. Goldfarb as Vice President and General Counsel for Journal Register Company. Goldfarb, who recently served in New York as Managing Director and General Counsel of The Vertical Group, an international private equity firm, has over fourteen years of diverse legal, financial and strategic experience. · ProQuest Company, a provider of information and content to the library, classroom, automotive and powersports industries, announced that Alan Aldworth has been named chief executive officer of the company. James P. Roemer will also continue his role as chairman on a full-time basis. Aldworth, currently the company's president and chief operating officer, joined ProQuest as chief financial officer in October 2000, and was named president and COO in January of 2001. · Public Library of Science, a non-profit organization of scientists, has recruited a leading scientific journal editor, Vivian Siegel, Ph.D, to be Executive Director of their recently announced publishing venture. PLoS announced last month that it is launching a new scientific publishing venture that will make the published results of scientific research more accessible and useful to scientists, physicians and the public. This new effort is backed by a five-year, $9 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The new PLoS journals will retain all of the important features of scientific journals, including rigorous peer-review and high editorial standards, but will use a new business model in which the costs of these services are recovered by modest fees on each published paper. This new model will allow PLoS to make all published works immediately available online, with no charges for access or restrictions on subsequent redistribution or use. · Jayne Speizer, publisher of The Herald in Rock Hill, SC, is resigning from The McClatchy Company to become publisher of The Monterey County Herald, which serves a seaside community in California she and her husband Irwin Speizer have grown to love after visiting for many years. McClatchy Vice President Frank Whittaker said both the company and the Rock Hill community are going to miss Speizer, whose last day at The Herald will be January 31. · Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. announced that it has named Stephen H. Kay, a former Hogan & Hartson, L.L.P., partner, as Executive Vice President and General Counsel and that Jonathan Orlick, who has been Executive Vice President and General Counsel for the company, has been appointed to the newly-created position of President of Intellectual Property for the company. With his new responsibilities, Mr. Orlick has resigned his position on the Company's Board of Directors. Both Messrs. Kay and Orlick will report to Jeff Shell, Gemstar-TV Guide's Chief Executive Officer. · Jupitermedia Corporation announced that John R. Patrick has joined its board of directors. Mr. Patrick retired from IBM in 2001 after a 35-year career where his most recent position was Vice President of Internet Technology. He is the author of the recently published book Net Attitude (Perseus Publishing). Mr. Patrick becomes the fourth independent director on the Jupitermedia board of six. · Debra Adams Simmons, 38, has been named managing editor of the Akron Beacon Journal and will take over day-to- day operation of the newsroom in mid-February. She is currently deputy managing editor for the Virginian-Pilot, a 175,000 daily circulation paper in Norfolk, Va., owned by Landmark Communications. The appointment was announced to Beacon Journal managers by Janet C. Leach, editor. Digital Publishing · BookExpo America (BEA), in partnership with the Open eBook Forum, has announced the development and implementation of an ebook business and learning environment which will be launched at this year's convention in Los Angeles, May 29 - June 1, 2003. The special interactive center, which will be called the eBook Experience, will be located prominently in the Concourse Foyer. Content Deals · Activision, Inc. and Marvel Enterprises announced that the companies have expanded their long-term, broad-based strategic alliance and signed a multi-year extension for their current video game licensing agreements. The expanded agreements grant Activision the exclusive rights to develop and publish video game products based on Marvel's comic book franchises Spider-Man, X-MEN, Fantastic Four and Iron Man through 2009. The new agreement represents the largest deal to date between Marvel and Activision. · Yellow Book USA announced that it has completed the $69 million purchase of National Directory Company (NDC), based in Southern California, from NDC parent company Three Cities Research. Yellow Book USA publishes yellow pages directories in more states than any other publisher. With the NDC acquisition, its nearly 600 information-packed directories now reach 40 states plus the District of Columbia, serving some 71 million homes and businesses. NDC's staff of 340 will remain with Yellow Book. Launches and Redesigns · The Discovery Times Channel, a joint venture between The New York Times Company and Discovery Communications, Inc., will debut on Tuesday, March 25 with original programming ranging from terrorism to poetry. The announcement was made by Vivian Schiller, senior vice president and general manager of the Discovery Times Channel. · IDG Games Media Group, an interactive entertainment information provider and publisher of GamePro magazine, announced the launch of its retail newsletter entitled GamePro Report: The Cutting Edge Resource for Video and PC Games. Launching today, the monthly GamePro Report newsletter is targeted at the retail community and features previews of the hottest upcoming games, authoritative video game insight, industry research, and trends -- including game buyers' shopping habits and audience demographics. Future newsletters will also include excerpts from interviews with industry experts on the state of the video gaming and retail markets. · IBSystems, a provider of web portals and virtual trade shows, announced that it is replacing its monthly GISVision online magazine in favor of a weekly publication, GISWeekly. GISWeekly, a new GIS weekly newsletter published by GISCafe publisher Internet Business Systems, debuts January 6, delivered to readers' desktops. GISWeekly will publish stories of current interest as well as focus on reviewing the week's news, new products, appointments and awards, alliances and acquisitions, popular downloads, and calendar announcements. · Mobile Electronics, Auto Trim & Restyling News and Truck & SUV Performance magazines have joined forces to create AftermarketZONE.com, a directory that gives automotive retailers access to more than 5,000 suppliers and manufacturers and the ability to search more than 850 product categories on a single site. · Fortune announced the debut of three columns in the January 20 issue, available on newsstands January 13. All three columns--"This Just In," "The People Page," and "Brainstorm"--will appear in the "First" section of the magazine, which has been redesigned. "Brainstorm" will cover the broad spectrum of topics that form the basis of Fortune's annual Brainstorm conference in Aspen. "The People Page" attempts to put a human face on business news, and to capture industry buzz. And with "This Just In," Fortune has created a new type of feature: a one-page, business-related entertainment. "Stories in this space will be quirky or slapstick, newsy or evergreen, foreign or domestic, but they will all aim to make the reader smile" said Fortune assistant managing editor Tim Smith. · On the one-year anniversary of President Bush's historic No Child Left Behind Act, Houghton Mifflin announced the Company's new website dedicated to the goals of this federal legislation. The site was created to help parents, teachers and administrators understand and meet the challenges of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The website provides parents and schools with the information they need to stay informed of developments in education, and to support student learning. The site also offers a free weekly newsletter, providing links to news articles as well as new expert insight columns each week. Miscellaneous · IDG Games Media Group, announced that its newest publication, Code Vault magazine, will now be published monthly. Effective in 2003, Code Vault magazine will increase its frequency from bi-monthly to monthly. Code Vault is GamePro's publication of video game cheats, tricks, and codes for all major gaming platforms, including the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, and PC. · USA Network has announced three of the Nashville Star judges who will ultimately choose the winner of the nationwide search for the next country music superstar, premiering Saturday, March 8th on USA Network. The judges include Columbia/Lucky Dog recording artist Charlie Robison, country music journalist Robert Oermann, and Sony Music A&R executive Tracy Gershon. The host of Nashville Star will be television actress and host, Kathleen McClellan. USA Network's Nashville Star is an upcoming television series conducting a nation-wide grass roots search for the next great country music artist. · On January 8th, comic book fans will be able to purchase a full color 32-page Superman comic book for just ten cents at comic book stores across the country. "The 10-Cent Adventure is a unique opportunity for Superman fans to rediscover the comics world and catch up with their hero," said Paul Levitz, President & Publisher, DC Comics. "The comic is a great entry point into the latest adventures in the Superman mythos." Superman: The 10-Cent Adventure is the first time in forty years that a Superman comic will be on sale for just one dime. Created as an invitation for new readers, the promotion is a follow-up to DC's successful Batman: The 10-Cent Adventure, which was the best-selling American comic book in units for 2002. · BET has taken its most substantial step to date in syndicated programming by signing a multi-year deal with Paramount Domestic Television to carry the off network cable syndication runs of The Parkers and Girlfriends (currently airing on UPN), along with the basic cable debut of Soul Food (currently airing on Showtime). Soul Food will be the first of the new shows to appear on BET, starting with a sampling of 12 episodes beginning January 21. 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. |
