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Friday, January 31, 2003 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes People | Launches and Redesigns People · Susan Petersen Kennedy, President of Penguin Group (USA), announced that Ann Godoff, former president, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Random House Trade Group, will join Penguin Group (USA) as president and publisher of a major start-up, yet to be named. Ms. Godoff's appointment is effective February 4, 2003 and she will report to Ms. Petersen Kennedy. · Geoffrey Ammer has been given expanded marketing duties and has been named President, Worldwide Marketing for the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, it was announced today by Jeff Blake, Vice Chairman, Sony Pictures Entertainment. Ammer's responsibilities now include oversight of the studio's international marketing, publicity and promotions divisions. He continues to report to Blake. Ammer joined the company in September 2001 as domestic marketing president for the Columbia TriStar Marketing Group. · Donna Friedman Meir has been named president of kids' programming and production for National Geographic Television & Film, it was announced by National Geographic Television & Film President Tim Kelly. In this newly created position, Friedman Meir will oversee development of a wide range of entertainment programming properties for the youth market, which include a kids' magazine, home videos, an educational website, toy licensing, and book and school publishing. · boede&partners, an integrated marketing firm, has announced the promotion of John Kiechle to associate creative director from senior art director. In his new position Kiechle will handle creative responsibilities for the firm's work with Network Associates, a security services company that develops the McAfee AntiVirus software and other leading security products, and will continue to contribute his unique talents to the other agency clients. · MSNBC.com has named online and print news veteran Dean Wright as Editor in Chief. Wright, who helped launch MSNBC.com's news operations in the 1990s, will be based in Redmond, WA, and replaces Acting Editor in Chief Michael Silberman, who continues as Managing Editor in Secaucus, N.J. Wright returns to MSNBC.com from AOL Time Warner, where he served as Senior Director, Programming Integration for America Online. In that post, Wright helped direct the integration into AOL of editorial content from Time, Inc. magazines. · National Lampoon announced that it has renewed Editor-in-Chief Scott Rubin's contract. As Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Rubin will continue to oversee National Lampoon projects in a variety of media, including print, TV, film and Internet. During Mr. Rubin's tenure, he has produced, written or performed in numerous animations, videos, audio pieces, interactive features, or articles that have been featured on the comedy website. · Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation Miami announced the managerial appointment of Monica Rabassa as Director of Marketing and Special Projects for its four Miami radio stations. Rabassa will oversee the marketing, promotions, community service, and public relations departments for WQBA 1140AM, WAQI 710AM, WAMR 107.5FM and WRTO 98.3FM. In addition, Rabassa will work with the General Manager in the strategic planning and communication plans of the stations. Prior to joining HBC, Rabassa was Marketing Research Director for Cisneros Television Group (CTG) where she developed and supervised the Group's global research operations. · Mike Shalett has retired from his full-time role as CEO, Nielsen Retail Entertainment Information (REI) and president of Nielsen SoundScan & BDS and will assume the post of Chairman Emeritus-SoundScan. Shalett will continue as a strategic consultant to VNU working closely with Nielsen REI, a unit of Nielsen Entertainment. Shalett co-founded SoundScan, VideoScan, and BookScan and has led the Nielsen REI division, which also includes Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, since VNU acquired the companies from him and his partner Mike Fine in 1998. Rob Sisco, former REI Executive Vice President and General Manager, has been promoted to the post of President, Nielsen Music and Chief Operating Officer Nielsen REI. In his new capacity Sisco will oversee the day-to-day activities of Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, as well as direct the operational aspects of Nielsen REI's suite of businesses, which also include Nielsen VideoScan, Nielsen BookScan, and Nielsen Entertainment Marketing Solutions. Sisco will be based at REI's headquarters in White Plains, NY. · John C. Hitchcock has been named vice president/sales and marketing for OsterDowJones Commodity News (ODJ), it was announced by Merrill J. Oster, president and chief executive officer of the international news service. Mr. Hitchcock will assume the new post in addition to his assignment as managing director for Latin America and Energy for Dow Jones Newswires. Mr. Hitchcock is based in Dow Jones' Harborside Financial Center office in Jersey City, N.J. OsterDowJones Commodity News is a joint venture of Oster Communications, Inc., and Dow Jones Newswires. Mr. Hitchcock will be responsible for ODJ's global sales operations. He will work with the FutureSource and Dow Jones sales staffs as well as with other vendors that distribute the ODJ service. · George H. Cogswell III, director of circulation and marketing services for the Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers in Florida, has been named president and publisher of the Abilene (Texas) Reporter-News. The Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers and the Reporter-News are owned and operated by The E. W. Scripps Company. Cogswell, 43, succeeds David Mercier who last week announced his resignation. Cogswell's appointment is effective Feb. 1. · Chuck Ciongoli has been appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for North America, Universal Music Group (UMG), it was announced by Zach Horowitz, President and Chief Operating Officer, UMG and Nick Henny, Global Chief Financial Officer, UMG. Based in Santa Monica, Mr. Ciongoli who reports to Mr. Horowitz and Mr. Henny, will be responsible for all of UMG's North American finance activities. He will oversee performance monitoring, accounting and reporting for all North American divisions, including labels, manufacturing and distribution, and music publishing. · MarketWatch.com, Inc., a provider of financial news and information, announced that its flagship financial website, CBS MarketWatch, is expanding its mutual fund coverage with the addition of two financial writers. Syndicated award-winning personal finance columnist Charles A. Jaffe, of the Boston Globe, and award-winning mutual funds writer and author Jonathan Burton have joined the Company's personal finance team. Jaffe will be a CBS MarketWatch contributing columnist, providing three columns a week for CBS MarketWatch, in addition to audio and video analysis of breaking news affecting personal finance or the fund industry. Jonathan Burton has signed on as mutual funds editor, responsible for CBS MarketWatch's FundWatch and Mutual Understanding columns, as well as editing its Mutual Funds Weekly newsletter. He replaces Craig Tolliver, who will now edit the site's Newsletters & Research channel. · Mark Trahant, a nationally known newspaper editor and columnist, has been named editorial page editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Publisher Roger Oglesby has announced. Trahant replaces Joann Byrd, who retires in May after six years as the editorial page editor. Trahant has been chief executive officer for the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in Oakland, Calif. · Tribune Broadcasting, a division of Tribune Company, announced that Washington D.C. bureau chief Cissy Baker has been appointed vice president/news operations and that marketing executive Rick Felty has been named vice president/creative services. Both appointments are effective immediately. In her new role, Baker will oversee the news operations of all Tribune television stations and coordinate news coverage of national events. She will also continue facilitating content sharing between Tribune's newspaper and television operations. Baker joined Tribune Broadcasting as Washington bureau chief in 1994. · Tom Drozda has been named Vice President and General Manager of Professional Farmers of America (Pro Farmer), an agricultural marketing advisory service, and Bob Horton joined the company to become Regional Sales Manager for East and West Coast accounts, specializing in multimedia campaign packaging. Drozda's publishing career includes stints as director of publications for SME, vice president/group publisher of B2B magazines and trade shows for the Chilton Company and most recently as group vice president overseeing both paid- and controlled-circulation publications for Cahners Business Information. · Men’s Journal, published by Wenner Media, has announced the appointment of Deanna Lowe as the magazine’s new art director. The announcement came from Men’s Journal Editor Robert Wallace. In her new position, Lowe will be responsible for overseeing the Men’s Journal art and photography department, which includes supervising the overall artistic direction of the magazine’s cover and layouts beginning with the March 2003 issue featuring Bruce Willis. Prior to joining Men’s Journal, Lowe held various design and creative positions at some of the top consumer magazines in the country, including Worth and New York. Digital Publishing · ScriptLogic Corp., a provider of desktop administration software for Windows-based networks, and Realtimepublishers.com Inc., a provider of corporate sponsored epublishing, has announced the release of The Definitive Guide to Windows Desktop Administration. The new ebook, sponsored by ScriptLogic and authored by Bob Kelly, provides guidance and examples for creating an efficient desktop administration plan. The Definitive Guide to Windows Desktop Administration will be published on a chapter-by-chapter basis, as it is written. Registered readers will receive email notification when each chapter of the eBook is made available for download. Readers can register for the ebook at www.scriptlogic.com/ebook. Content Deals · Video Without Boundaries announced that it has acquired all assets of Brokenremote.tv, a privately held online publisher and subsidiary of CAC Media Inc. Brokenremote.tv publishes news and market analytics about the emerging convergence of the Interactive TV & Consumer Electronics, Video On Demand (VOD), & Broadband Internet Entertainment markets. · Bitpipe, Inc., a syndicator of technology vendor content, announced that it has partnered with Reed Business Information's Wireless Week, a wireless industry news and information provider, to incorporate the Wireless Week Research Library into the publication's website, wirelessweek.com. The Wireless Week Research Library offers information from a cross-section of the industry's leading vendors, service providers and analyst firms-white papers, case studies, webcasts, product literature and analyst reports of interest to wireless professionals. · Bryan Turner's newly formed MELEE Entertainment (pronounced MAY-lay) has announced a joint venture with DreamWorks Records to release DVDs that will be distributed through Universal Music & Video Distribution (UMVD). MELEE will release DVDs on branded recording artists who want to explore the visual potential of the DVD format; projects by filmmakers and other creative types that do not fit inside the traditional parameters of the entertainment industry; and special-interest products, such as sports-related, lifestyle and instructional titles. Additionally, Turner plans to release artist albums in year two, signing recording artists and setting them up through MELEE DVD releases and street marketing. · Cygnus Business Media, a business-to-business media company, has announced that its Cygnus Expositions division has acquired Professional Trade Shows (PTS) from Ohio-based Penton Media, Inc. PTS is a producer of regional industrial trade shows with over 25 shows in 22 states serving four markets - Plant Engineering & Maintenance, Building & Facilities, Material Handling and Machine Tools. Professional Trade Shows will become part of Cygnus Expositions - and will report to its President Jeff Price. · Jeff Pulver, CEO, pulver.com announced the re-acquisition of the events known as "Voice on the Net" (VON) from Key3Media. The VON events for the IP Communications Industry have served over 25,000 people since it's founding in 1997. "The Internet increasingly dominates the communication landscape," noted Jeff Pulver. · CanWest Global Communications Corp. announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Osprey Media Holdings Inc. for the sale of CanWest's small market daily and weekly newspapers and related assets in Southern Ontario for a cash price of $193.5 million. The transaction is expected to close in mid-February, with Osprey already having received all necessary regulatory approvals. Proceeds from the sale will be used to reduce CanWest's debt. Properties being sold to Osprey include four daily newspapers - St. Catharines Standard, Brantford Expositor, Niagara Falls Review and The Welland Tribune - and a number of weekly newspapers, shoppers and other publications. · Hasbro, Inc. announced that its license with Lucas Licensing Ltd., for the manufacture and distribution of Star Wars toys and games, has been extended for an additional ten years. · Sirsi Corporation, a provider of technology for libraries, and Barnes & Noble.com, have teamed up to provide libraries a service that allows their patrons to purchase books online while at the library. Sirsi customer libraries - those who have implemented the new Sirsi Rooms Context Management Solution and the iBistro, iLink and Web 2 user interface systems that include Barnes & Noble.com - will receive a percentage of the purchase price for all materials bought through the Sirsi-Barnes & Noble.com partnership links. Launches and Redesigns · Congressional Quarterly Inc. (CQ), a provider of news and analysis on Congress and the federal government, unveiled a new look and name for its print daily, formerly CQ Daily Monitor. CQ Today: The Legislative News-Daily from Congressional Quarterly, publishes Monday-through-Friday when Congress is in session, providing coverage of the official actions and closed-door activities of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. The CQ Today mission continues to be a complete run-down of everything that Congress is doing each and every day, including schedules of all committee activities. The new design provides an easier to use layout, more legislative and political reports, high-quality design and paper stock, and a tighter integration with CQ's online legislative tracking service, CQ.com. · Best Buy Co., Inc., Hastings Entertainment, Inc. (Nasdaq: HAST), Tower Records, Trans World Entertainment Corporation operator of FYE Stores (For Your Entertainment), Virgin Entertainment Group, and Wherehouse Music have announced the formation of Echo, the industry's first retailer-driven digital music consortium committed to bridging the gap between brick and mortar and digital music distribution. The consortium, created through an investment in Los Angeles-based Echo, will seek competitive licenses to enable its retail members to effectively compete in the digital music marketplace and to launch a new era of consumer-focused digital music offerings. Once licenses are obtained, retailers will be able to deliver digital music products and services through individually branded, or Echo co-branded offerings. The consortium will build upon the in-store marketing capabilities of its retail partners to drive consumer awareness of digital music offerings, and will help drive adoption of new, advanced digital music services as they evolve. · Knowledge@Wharton, the online research and business analysis journal of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, has launched a new website in collaboration with Universia.net called Universia Knowledge@Wharton www.wharton.universia.net. The new site, which is published in both Spanish and Portuguese, enables Knowledge@Wharton to reach Spanish and Portuguese speaking readers around the world. Universia.net is a university web portal with 635 member universities in Spain, Portugal and Latin America. Universia Knowledge@Wharton is the result of an agreement between Knowledge@Wharton and Universia.net to distribute business and education content from Wharton as well as from Universia.net's partner institutions. · SQL Server Magazine, a Penton Media publication, has announced the launch of the SQL Server Magazine University elearning Center. The SSMU courses are taught live, via the Internet, in one-hour blocks, by SQL Server Magazine authors and certified MCTs who have real-life business application experience. Course offerings include intermediate- and advanced-level seminars along with Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC) courses, which count towards Microsoft certification. · American Lawyer Media, Inc. (ALM), a journalism and information company, has announced the launch of a new research service, Legal Market Information Source (LMIS). LMIS will provide clients, law firms and companies marketing to the legal industry with trend data, reports, rankings and custom research on major U.S. and global law firms. Industry data will be drawn primarily from ALM's industry leading surveys, including the AmLaw 100, Global 100 and NLJ 250. Initial LMIS product offerings will cover four areas: law firm reports; legal industry briefs; industry ranking tables and custom research reports. · Primedia Inc., a special interest publisher in the U.S., and Express Publications Pty Ltd, the largest Australian craft magazine publisher, have announced a licensing agreement to print an Australian edition of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Known as the "scrapbook authority" among U.S. scrapbook enthusiasts and retailers, Creating Keepsakes' new Australian edition will be available to subscribers and retailers starting with the March 2003 issue. · Stories.Com announced that is has changed its domain name and name to Writing.Com. The website originally only allowed visitors to create interactive stories, but has expanded to encompass all types of writing. Registered members are provided with online creation tools and a free online portfolio in which to store these items. Members may create standard items such as poetry, novels, short stories, and scripts, along with other interactive literary works. The website was founded in September 2000 by 21 x 20 Media, Inc. 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 © 1997-2010 by Writers Write, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
