|
|
writenews.com
|
Friday, June 6, 2003 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes Launches and Redesigns | Miscellaneous People · David J. Pecker, Chairman, President and CEO of American Media, Inc., announced that Peter Sikowitz has been named the new editor in chief of Men's Fitness magazine. Mr. Sikowitz was formerly the editor in chief of Men's Fitness from 1992 to 1997, during which time the magazine's circulation doubled. Prior to joining AMI, Mr. Sikowitz was at Time Inc.'s custom publishing division. He also served as the editor of Bicycling magazine. · Nat Fuchs has been named to the post of vice president, human resources, for Universal Television Networks. The announcement was made by David Goldhill, president & coo of Universal Television Group, and Ken Kahrs, executive vice president of human resources for Vivendi Universal Entertainment. Fuchs will oversee all Human Resources functions for the cable networks group. Fuchs joins Universal from Disney Publishing Worldwide, where he managed human resources. · Kevin Cook has been named Editor of Golf Magazine, effective immediately, it was announced by Mark Ford, President of Time4 Media. Cook was Executive Editor of T&L Golf. As Golf Magazine's new Editor, Cook, 46, will further develop and enhance the magazine's editorial content to create, in conjunction with Golf Magazine Publisher Chris Wightman, the number one golf media company in the country. Cook succeeds Jim Frank, who has left the company. · Blue Dolphin Group, an Internet magazine retailer, announced that it had promoted its CMO, Lou Weiss, to the newly created position of President. Weiss will oversee sales, marketing, member services and product management of the company's profit centers, and will continue to report to Chairman & CEO Don Nicholas. · CMP Media has named Keith Dawson editorial director of Call Center Magazine and callcentermagazine.com. A senior editor at CommWeb since 2001, Dawson also had responsibility for callcentermagazine.com. Dawson first started covering the industry as a senior writer for CMP's Inbound/ Outbound -- the precursor to Call Center Magazine -- in 1990. · Ziff Davis Media, a technology publisher, announced that it has promoted Ellen Pearlman to Vice President and Editor-in-Chief. Ms. Pearlman helped launch CIO Insight magazine. CIO Insight provides research and analysis to 50,000 CIOs and senior-level technology executives. · Primedia Inc., a targeted media company, announced that Matthew A. Flynn (45) has been named Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer for the company. Robert J. Sforzo (56), who has been Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller for the company, has been named to the newly created position of Chief Accounting Officer. Mr. Flynn replaces Lawrence Rutkowski, who has resigned in a decision that was made mutually with the company. Mr. Flynn will report to Charles G. McCurdy, President and Interim CEO of Primedia. Mr. Sforzo will report to Mr. Flynn. Mr. Flynn joined Primedia in March 2001. Prior to joining Primedia, Mr. Flynn was a Managing Director in Investment Banking for Banc of America Securities LLC in the Media & Telecom Group. · DigitalGlobe announced Henry Dubois has been promoted to serve as president, in addition to his role as COO and CFO, for DigitalGlobe. Herb Satterlee remains as CEO and chairman of the board. Dubois joined DigitalGlobe in September 1999 as CFO and COO, responsible for all financial and commercial business aspects of the company. Previously, Dubois led a telecommunications and multimedia company in Indonesia as CEO and CFO. DigitalGlobe is an Earth imagery and information company in Longmont, Colorado, USA. · Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. announced that Christine Levesque has been appointed executive vice president, communication, marketing and government affairs. In this newly created position, Ms. Levesque will oversee corporate communications, media relations, brand management and government affairs for Gemstar-TV Guide and its media and technology assets including TV Guide Magazine, TV Guide Channel, TV Guide Interactive, VCR Plus+, GUIDE Plus+ and the new TV Guide On Screen. Based in New York, Ms. Levesque will report to Jeff Shell, Gemstar-TV Guide's Chief Executive Officer. She will join the Company on June 4, 2003. Ms. Levesque was most recently senior vice president, communication and marketing at Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc., the television programming subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation. Digital Publishing · At Book Expo America, the Open eBook Forum (OeBF) announced an industry-wide program to collect and publish eBook and eDocument sales and publishing statistics on a quarterly basis. The program and the survey methodology were developed by the OeBF eBook Industry Special Interest Group with active involvement and support from publishers such as Random House, Inc., Simon & Schuster, St. Martin's Press, HarperCollins Publishers and AOL Time Warner Book Group; technology companies including Palm Digital Media, Gemstar-TV Guide International, Microsoft Corporation and Adobe Systems Inc.; and electronic retailers and distributors like OverDrive, eBooks Corporation and Fictionwise.com. · eBooks Corporation announced that it is collaborating with international university and research libraries to develop an eBook lending platform. eBook Library or "EBL" is scheduled for release in select university and research libraries in September 2003 and will be officially launched in January 2004. EBL will feature Non-linear Lending(TM), a multiple-concurrent lending model which allows a single title to be checked out simultaneously by multiple patrons. Other features of EBL include digital interlibrary lending, unique eBook reserve functionality and lending by the chapter. eBook titles can be browsed online and then downloaded to a desktop, laptop, or hand-held device for use offline. The system will allow patrons to perform full text searches across their library's entire eBook collection. The impetus to develop EBL was client driven. Unable to find an existing eBook library solution that was suitable for his specialized research environment, Jens Vigen, Scientific Information Officer at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva approached eBooks Corporation. CERN's Education and Technology Transfer Division is now working closely with eBooks Corporation to shape an eBook lending product that meets the special needs of research and academic libraries. Content Deals · Primedia Inc., a targeted media company, announced that it has completed the sale of Seventeen magazine and its companion properties including a number of Seventeen branded assets, Teen magazine, seventeen.com, teenmag.com and Cover Concepts, an in-school marketing unit. The sale was made to The Hearst Corporation, for $182.4 million, subject to standard post-closing adjustments. With the completion of the sale of Seventeen and related teen assets, Primedia has generated approximately $530 million in proceeds from its non-core asset divestiture program. · Kelley Blue Book's and Car and Driver have entered into an online content deal. Consumers can find accurate and timely new vehicle pricing from Kelley Blue Book directly on caranddriver.com. Additionally, kbb.com's visitors can now read Car and Driver's road test reviews each month and 'User Road Tests' of vehicles from the drivers visiting both sites. As part of the agreement, Kelley Blue Book's new and used car pricing will appear on Hachette's other automotive website Road & Track later this summer. Charlie Vogelheim, executive editor and 17-year veteran of Kelley Blue Book also joins Car and Driver Radio host Alan Taylor as a bi-weekly guest host, discussing topics important to car enthusiasts and car-buyers. Launches and Redesigns · CMP Media's InformationWeek, an IT media brand, announced that it has strengthened its brand platform by launching the InformationWeek Vertical Industry Network. The Network consists of Bank Systems & Technology, Insurance & Technology and Wall Street & Technology, Government Enterprise and the soon-to-be-launched Healthcare Enterprise. · Advanstar Communications is launching Applied Mobility, an all-mobile magazine for IT leaders in the mobile industry: enterprises, manufacturers, government and mobile operators. Applied Mobility launches in September 2003 with a nine-time frequency and circulation of 50,000. The magazine will receive Official Publication Status during October's 2003 CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment tradeshow. · The nation's largest auto show producer, formerly known as Liberty Productions, Inc., announced that the company is formally changing its name to Motor Trend Auto Shows, Inc. The company will function as a division of the Primedia Consumer Automotive Group. Founded in 1984 as Liberty Productions, the company has grown to produce 17 international auto shows across the country. In 2001, Liberty Productions and Motor Trend were joined under the umbrella of their new parent company, Primedia Inc. · David J. Pecker, Chairman, President and CEO of American Media, Inc., announced that the company will launch a Spanish language version of its best selling women's magazine, Shape, in October 2003. Mr. Pecker added that Shape En Espanol will launch with a 300M copy distribution using the retail network of supermarkets, mass merchandisers and bodegas that AMI had previously built for its Latino celebrity magazine, Mira. · El Dia Inc. publishers of El Nuevo Dia, the largest circulation Spanish-language daily newspaper in the United States, has announced the launch of a Spanish-language daily newspaper that will cater to Latinos living in Orlando and Central Florida. The newspaper, which will also carry the name El Nuevo Dia, will begin publishing Monday through Friday editions in August of this year. El Nuevo Dia's editorial content will include local, national, international, entertainment and sports news. It will also cover news from Puerto Rico and from other Latin American countries. Another of the newspaper's objectives will be to become an integral part of the community and to bring forth issues that are relevant to their daily lives such as education and healthcare among others. Miscellaneous · James Brady’s book, Warning of War, published by St. Martin’s Press is the winner of the W. Y. Boyd Literary Novel Award for Excellence in Military Fiction. The award was given to the best military novel written in the year 2002. The W.Y. Boyd Literary Novel Award honors the best fiction set in a period when the United States was at war. The $5,000 award and citation, donated by author W.Y. Boyd, recognizes the service of American veterans and military personnel, and encourages the writing and publishing of outstanding war-related fiction. 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. |
