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March 7, 2003 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes Launches and Redesigns | Miscellaneous People · The Hearst Corporation announced several promotions in the ranks of senior management at its San Francisco Chronicle, northern California's largest newspaper. The announcement was made by Victor F. Ganzi, president and chief executive officer of The Hearst Corporation, and George B. Irish, president of Hearst Newspapers. Steven B. Falk has been named president and publisher of the Chronicle. Formerly president, associate publisher and chief operating officer of the Chronicle since November 2000, Falk has been a key Hearst newspaper executive in San Francisco for more than 15 years. Falk succeeds John F. Oppedahl, publisher, chairman and chief executive officer of the Chronicle, who will depart the paper to pursue new opportunities. Additionally, Gary Randazzo, formerly the Chronicle's vice chairman and associate publisher, has been named executive vice president and general manager. Reporting to Falk, Randazzo will assume responsibility for advertising, circulation and production operations. Phil Bronstein, formerly the Chronicle's senior vice president and executive editor, has been named executive vice president and editor of the paper. Also reporting to Falk, Bronstein will add responsibility for the editorial page to his current duties overseeing the newsroom operation. · Jeff Giles has been named Newsweek's senior editor for Arts and Entertainment, Editor Mark Whitaker announced. Since coming to Newsweek in 1993, Giles has served as senior writer in the Arts section and was named a senior editor in 1997. Prior to joining Newsweek, Giles served as a contributing editor for Rolling Stone. He also wrote the Nightlife column for The New Yorker and freelanced extensively, writing about popular culture for Details, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly and other publications. In addition to editing the section, Giles will also continue to write for Newsweek. In a separate announcement, Giles announced the hiring of Sean Smith. Coming to Newsweek from Premiere Magazine, where he is west coast editor, Smith will work out of Los Angeles as a senior writer covering the entertainment industry. Whitaker also announced several promotions. David Gates, who covers arts and entertainment and writes essays on other cultural topics, will become a senior editor, which will involve continuing his wide-range of writing and editing assignments, and supervising the Newsmakers page. David Noonan, also promoted to senior editor, will continue working in the Society section on everything from health care to sports to family issues. David Kaplan also moves up to senior editor, running Newsweek's Enterprise section and its work with the Kaplan college guide. In addition, Giles announced the promotion of Devin Gordon to general editor. Gordon covers movies, music, sports and pop culture trends. · New Age Publishing, Inc., announced that Janesse Thaw Bruce has joined the company as Chief Executive Officer and Publisher of Body & Soul magazine. Between 1990 and 1995, Bruce led the buyout and turnaround of Walking magazine. Bruce has most recently been CEO of Integrative Medicine Communications, a company that pioneered the dissemination of science-based information about alternative therapies and their use in conjunction with mainstream medical treatments. Body & Soul was launched as New Age Journal in 1974. · Melinda Henneberger has joined Newsweek Magazine as a contributing editor. She will write political profiles and will work in the Washington office. Henneberger previously was a reporter for the New York Times for 10 years, seven of which were spent in the Washington bureau. She has also been a reporter for New York Newsday and the Dallas Morning News. She is married to Bill Turque, formerly of Newsweek, who is now an editor on the Maryland desk of The Washington Post. · Morningstar, Inc. has announced the appointment of Kunal Kapoor to editor of Morningstar Mutual Funds, the company's flagship print publication. He succeeds Scott Cooley, who was promoted to chief operating officer of Morningstar operations in Sydney, Australia. Kapoor began his career at Morningstar in 1997 in the data department. He became a fund analyst in 1998, covering the American Funds, TIAA-CREF and Fidelity families. In 2001, he joined Morningstar Investment Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. as a research analyst. · The Discovery Times Channel, a joint venture between Discovery Communications, Inc. and The New York Times Company, has announced the appointment of Sheryl WuDunn, a Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist, to the role of anchor and principal writer for Page One, the network's nightly three-minute program that gives viewers an exclusive first look at the stories headed for the next day's front page of The New York Times. Premiering on Tuesday, March 25 at 10 PM ET, Page One will also include interviews with The Times's editors and reporters, as well as the paper's images. During the 1990s, Ms. WuDunn served as a New York Times correspondent and completed reporting tours in Beijing and Tokyo. After returning from the tours, Ms. WuDunn, who also holds an MBA from Harvard University, held important posts on the business side at The New York Times. Most recently, she served as a project director in the strategic planning area. The role as anchor for Page One will return Ms. WuDunn to The New York Times's newsroom. Ms. WuDunn and her husband Nicholas Kristof, an Op-Ed columnist at The Times, jointly won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of China's Tiananmen Square democracy movement. · Gaylord Entertainment, a hospitality and entertainment company whose primary holdings include Gaylord Hotels and the Grand Ole Opry, announced that Ms. Rickie E. Hall has been named senior vice president and chief information officer for the Company. Prior to joining the Company, Hall was vice president and chief information officer of ANC Rental Corp. She also previously held information technology leadership positions with Hilton, Harrah's Entertainment, Promus and Holiday Inns. · Serge Schmemann, a member of the Editorial Board of The New York Times, will become the editorial page editor for the International Herald Tribune (IHT) effective in May. Mr. Schmemann will succeed Robert J. Donahue, who is retiring after having served as editor of the editorial pages for 22 years. Mr. Schmemann will be based at the IHT headquarters in Paris. Under Mr. Schmemann, the IHT will produce editorials of its own alongside those written by The New York Times. In the past, all editorials were reprinted from other papers. Andrew Johnston, who was recently named deputy editor of the editorial page, will report to Mr. Schmemann. On January 1, the Times Company completed a transaction that provided it with full ownership of the IHT. Mr. Schmemann, 57, a 1991 Pulitzer Prize winner in international reporting for coverage of the reunification of Germany, joined The Times's Editorial Board earlier this year. From 2001 to the end of 2002, he was a senior foreign affairs writer based in New York and chief of the Times's United Nations bureau, contributing regular news analyses and articles on major international issues. · Shelly L. Maxwell, a veteran television management executive, has been named senior vice president of programming, production and on-air strategy for the Shop At Home Network, a 16-year-old nationally televised home shopping service. Maxwell will be responsible for broadcast production, technical operations and on-air sales presentations for all on-air programming for the Network. She will be responsible for broadcast promotions and on-air graphics, including the development and creation of a new on-air look and feel. Maxwell comes to Shop At Home from Qwest Digital Media in Nashville where she served as vice president and general manager since November 2000. Digital Publishing · Two Internet retailers, envi.con KG of Berlin and GiantChair, an American company based in Paris, are the first online bookstores to offer German and French language editions of Palm Reader eBooks, Palm Digital Media, Inc. announced. The ebooks include best-selling titles from major publishers such as Bertelsmann, the parent company of Random House; and Hachette, parent company of Virgin Megastore. Content Deals · Gigex, Inc., a promotion and marketing service for interactive entertainment, has announced that it has acquired GameDaily, a daily email newsletter for video game industry professionals. GameDaily has 18,000 subscribers. Gigex is an Internet distributor of video game trailers and demos, reaching 23.9 million unique monthly visitors through its site and strategic partnerships with 75 online affiliates, including Yahoo, MSN, and Excite. GameDaily.com Publishing industry veteran Simon Tonner, who has more than 11 years of experience working for media powerhouses Ziff Davis, IDG and CMP, where he served as marketing director for ComputerLife and Equip magazines, national sales director for GamePro magazine, and show director for the WEB2001 and Internet+Mobile Conference and Expositions, has been appointed publisher of GameDaily and is responsible for directing sales, marketing and operations. JP Morgan Partners (JPMP), the private equity arm of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.; Veronis Suhler Stevenson; and Ascend Media has announced the acquisition of Atwood Publishing and GEM Communications. Atwood is a publisher for trade industry associations. GEM Communications a publisher of magazines, conferences and exhibitions for the gaming industry. Ascend Media's formation was first announced in August of 2002. The Atwood/GEM acquisition is the company's first and will serve as its business platform company. Launches and Redesigns · With its March issue, Alternative Medicine, published by Tiburon, CA-based Alternative Medicine, relaunched after five years on the newsstands. The relaunched Alternative Medicine has a new look and a new editorial formula, giving the magazine a more mainstream appeal. Alternative Medicine's new mission is upbeat and positive, concentrating on preventing an entire range of ailments or pain -- from allergies to cancer -- instead of focusing only on how alternative therapies can ease pain from terminal or life-threatening illnesses. The latest issue includes features on good-for-you fats and aromatherapy's anxiety-alleviating properties. Blair Kellison, Alternative Medicine's president, and Ellis have assembled an impressive group of health journalists for the magazine's relaunch, including Executive Editor Nan Wiener and Managing Editor Katherine Griffin, both from Health. Kellison also hired design director Jonathan Tuttle, formerly of Parenting and BabyCenter.com, to redesign the title. · Ziff Davis Media has announced the launch of topic-driven channel supersites -- Storage, Security and Wireless. The new websites are the first of several targeted business-to-business sites focusing on specific product categories, which will provide fresh editorial content as well as aggregate content from Ziff Davis Media's eWeek.com and PCMag.com and other Web sources. · Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day, a free subscription feature of Merriam-Webster OnLine, has received a full makeover including-in response to subscriber demand-new audio pronunciations. The email service has been redesigned with an enhanced visual format and improved readability. Along with the new audio pronunciations recorded by real voices, the new features includes surveys and a link to challenging word games. Merriam-Webster launched its website in 1996 by offering free Internet access to its dictionary and thesaurus titles. Merriam-Webster OnLine has since been joined by a site just for kids, Merriam-Webster's Word Central, and, most recently, Merriam-Webster Unabridged, a premium site featuring unlimited access to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Combined, Merriam-Webster's three websites receive over 75 million page views a month. Miscellaneous · Zoomerang, an online survey tool, has announced the launching of their 500,000th survey. Zoomerang is an online survey tool that allows users to create, deploy and analyze survey results in real time. · Reunion.com, a destination for individuals hoping to reunite with former school friends, old sweethearts, or long lost family members announced its member base has reached 10 million. Reunion.com said its membership has grown by over 300% in the last year and the site adds new registered users at a rate of up to 40,000 per day. 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. |
