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Friday, July 4, 2003 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Publishing Industry Soundbytes Miscellaneous People · David J. Pecker, Chairman, President and CEO of American Media Inc., has announced the appointment of Bonnie Fuller as Executive Vice President and Chief Editorial Director for the entire company. Ms. Fuller resigned her position as Editor In Chief of US Weekly to accept her new role. Ms. Fuller will oversee AMI's magazines and its paperback book division. She will be in charge of editorial for all six AMI tabloids, including The National Enquirer, Star and Globe, which collectively sell more than 3 million copies per week. She will also oversee AMI's Consumer Magazine Division. · Randy Siegel has been named Publisher of Parade Magazine, effective immediately, Walter Anderson, Parade Chairman and CEO, announced. He will replace Jack Griffin, who joins the Meredith Corporation as Magazine Group President. In this new capacity, Siegel is responsible for the magazine's day-to-day operations as well as its overall business strategy. Siegel was named Associate Publisher of Parade earlier this year. Previously he was an Executive Vice President, overseeing all marketing, business development, communications, newspaper relations and interactive media functions. He joined the magazine in July 2001 as Senior Vice President of Planning and Development. · Meredith Corporation announced that Jack Griffin will become President of the Meredith Magazine Group, effective June 30. In this role, Griffin will oversee Meredith's stable of magazine titles, which include Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal, American Baby and Country Home. Griffin, 42, will replace Jerry Kaplan, who announced he will retire at the end of calendar 2003. In the interim, Kaplan, 56, will serve as Executive Vice President of the Meredith Publishing Group, helping with Griffin's transition and handling special assignments for Meredith Publishing Group President Steve Lacy. Griffin currently serves as President of Parade Publications, Inc. and Publisher of Parade magazine. · Ziff Davis Media announced the appointment of Chris Dobbrow to Senior Vice President of Corporate Sales and Publisher of eWeek. Dobbrow, a Ziff Davis veteran, will rejoin the company effective July 14th. He'll work closely with Robert F. Callahan, Chairman & CEO of Ziff Davis, on sales and integrated marketing initiatives for corporate accounts and with Sloan Seymour, Senior Vice President of the Enterprise Group, on driving the company's eWeek franchise. Mr. Dobbrow served most recently as the Chief Executive Officer of Red Herring magazine. · Primedia Inc., a targeted media company, announced that Dave Ellett, currently Chief Operating Officer, has been promoted to President and CEO of Primedia Workplace Learning. In his new role, Ellett will lead the company and oversee Primedia's integrated learning solutions for the industrial, healthcare, banking, automotive, fire & emergency, government, law enforcement and the private security markets. Ellett replaces former CEO Josh Klarin, who is leaving the company. Before joining Primedia, Dave Ellett was Chairman and CEO of Docent, Inc. · Rick Haskins has been promoted to Executive Vice President and General Manager of Lifetime Entertainment Services, and Lynn Picard has been elevated to Executive Vice President and General Manager, Lifetime Television Network, it was announced by Carole Black, President and CEO, Lifetime Entertainment Services. In these newly created positions, Haskins and Picard will continue to report to Black. Haskins, who joined the company in August 1999, as Executive Vice President of the Lifetime Brand, will oversee the day-to-day operations of Lifetime Entertainment Services. He also will remain directly responsible for the company's branding, marketing, online and brand extensions. In her new capacity, Picard will supervise the day-to-day operations of Lifetime Television Network. Picard, who has been Executive Vice President, Sales, since August 1999, will continue to be responsible for all advertising sales for Lifetime Entertainment Services. · Ascend Media Gaming Group has announced Paul Doocey as the new editor of Casino Journal, effective immediately. Doocey, a former editor of the company's flagship magazine, IGWB, returns to Ascend Media Gaming Group after spending several years as editor of a technology business-to-business magazine. Doocey was most recently editor-in-chief of Bank Systems and Technology magazine. In his previous stint with Ascend (formerly GEM Communications) he spent eight years as a writer and editor of International Gaming and Wagering Business (IGWB), including three years as Managing Editor. · Ziff Davis Media, a technology and videogame media company, has announced the appointment of Larry Green to Senior Vice President, Business Development and Worldwide Licensing, effective immediately. He will report directly to Robert F. Callahan, Chairman and CEO and Bart Catalane, COO/CFO. In his new role, Mr. Green will work closely with senior corporate and line management to drive the development and execution of growth initiatives across the company. Additionally, he will oversee the worldwide licensing for Ziff Davis Media's 10 U.S.-based consumer and business publications, online properties and 39 foreign editions in 64 countries. Prior to Ziff Davis, he was a Partner at the Boston Consulting Group, a global leader in business strategy. · Advanced Marketing Services, Inc., a provider of customized services to book retailers and publishers, has announced that Richard C. Freese, formerly President and CEO of MBI Publishing Company, has been named President of Publishers Group West (PGW), Advanced Marketing Services' global distribution company. Freese succeeds Charlie Winton, founder and former president and CEO of PGW, who is now Group Chairman and CEO of Avalon Publishing. In his new post as President of PGW, Rich will report directly to Kevan Lyon, Executive Vice President - Distribution/Publisher Services at Advanced Marketing Services. · The Village Voice, an alternative weekly newspaper, has announced the promotion of Martin Jorgensen to the position of Vice President & General Manager of the Village Voice. Jorgensen began his career at the Village Voice in November 2002 as Controller, where he was responsible for the company's overall financial functions, including strategic planning and budgeting processes, credit and collections, as well as the company's accounting and tax matters. In his new position as Vice President & General Manager, Jorgensen will be responsible for all of his previous duties as well as the management of the I.S. and Production departments. Jorgensen came to the Voice with more than twelve years of planning, reporting and operations experience at the New York Times Company, where he was Group Controller for the Boston Globe. Content Deals · Marvel Enterprises, Inc., a provider of entertainment content, and X3D Technologies Corp. announced a strategic licensing cooperation that grants X3D exclusive 3-dimensional publishing rights to past and upcoming Marvel Comics comic books in CD-ROM formats -- Marvel ComX3D. · Jupitermedia Corporation announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire all of the shares of ArtToday, Inc. from International Microcomputer Software, Inc. for $13.0 million in cash, 250,000 restricted shares of Jupitermedia common stock and an earn-out that could result in an additional $4.0 million in cash consideration over the next two years. The transaction is expected to close by June 30, 2003 and is subject to customary closing conditions. ArtToday.com offers paid online subscriptions for photographs, clipart, Web graphics, animations and fonts. Launches and Redesigns · The Times is launching a weekly guide to life in London on July 5. Published each week with the Saturday Times, The Knowledge will be an insider's guide to the capital, showing Londoners how to navigate their city. It will carry full entertainment listings and provide an upbeat look at the pleasures of the city as a whole, covering restaurants and shopping as well as by far the best guide to events for the family. It will reveal some of London's best-kept secrets and provide special offers for Times readers. In an A5 format and 64 pages, The Knowledge is edited by former Time Out editor Dominic Wells and designed by Tomaso Capuano. · The Arthur Web team at WGBH has created a series of new interactive games that encourage hearing and sighted children to become more aware of how their peers who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, or visually impaired learn, play, and enjoy many of the same things that they do. Three new games that explore this issue have just been added to the Arthur website. The final feature in the series will be added this summer. Miscellaneous · Nielsen//NetRatings shows traffic to Oprah.com jumped 51 percent during the week ending June 15, as surfers logged on to access information on the relaunch of Oprah’s Book Club. More than 303,000 unique visitors at home visited the site, as compared to 200,000 the previous week. More than a year after suspending the popular book club on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Winfrey last week announced the revival of the program. Of those visiting the website last week, more than 29 percent of the audience traffic accessed a promo page announcing the relaunch of the book club. · Scholastic announced that the Company is going back to press for a third printing of 800,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which will be shipped to retailers over the next month. J.K. Rowling's fifth Harry Potter book hit bookstores nationwide at midnight on June 21, 2003 and sold an unprecedented 5 million copies in the first 24 hours, breaking all publishing records. The 800,000 copies is in addition to Scholastic's record breaking first print-run of 6.8 million and a second printing of 1.7 million copies, bringing the total in print number to 9.3 million copies. · Publisher iUniverse announced that author Brian Wiprud, a member of the iUniverse Star Program, has signed a publishing contract with Random House's Bantam Dell Publishing Group. The two-book deal includes Wiprud's award-winning novel Pipsqueak (originally published by iUniverse) and a sequel to be written. Pipsqueak won the "Lefty Award" for the most humorous mystery novel published in the United States in 2002, presented at the Left Coast Crime Conference. The novel was also recently nominated for a "Barry Award" for Best Paperback Original by Deadly Pleasures Magazine. · Bauer Publishing has announced the second rate base increase for In Touch Weekly, the new weekly entertainment magazine. On October 28, 2002, Bauer Publishing launched In Touch Weekly with a rate base of 250,000 and increased the rate base to 350,000 with the April 14, 2003 issue. Bauer Publishing is increasing In Touch Weekly's rate base to 500,000 effective with the October 6, 2003 issue. In Touch Weekly is a weekly entertainment magazine designed for today's women in their 20s and 30s who are seeking entertainment news and celebrity lifestyle information. 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. |
