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Friday, October 17, 2003 Publishing Industry Soundbytes Launches and Redesigns | Miscellaneous People · Knight Ridder has named Joe Natoli president and publisher of Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc., effective Jan. 1, 2004. He will replace Robert J. Hall, who recently announced his retirement effective the same date. Natoli, now president and publisher of the San Jose Mercury News, has been in his current job since March 2001. Prior to that, he was president of The Miami Herald Publishing Co., a position he held since 1994. In San Jose, Natoli, 48, is responsible for all business and news operations of the Mercury News, as well as its Vietnamese and Spanish-language weeklies, Viet Mercury and Nuevo Mundo. · Ziff Davis Media Inc., a special interest media company, has announced the appointment of Tim Castelli to Senior Vice President and Publisher of the PC Magazine Group. He will continue to report to Robert F. Callahan, Chairman and CEO of Ziff Davis Media. In the 11 years since he joined PC Magazine as a classified sales representative, Mr. Castelli has risen through a succession of increasingly complex responsibilities. He become District Sales Manager for New England in 1994, District Sales Manager for the Midwest in 1996, West Coast Publisher in 1998, National Associate Publisher in 2000 and Publisher in 2001. · Aviation Week Group, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, announced that it has named Executive Vice President/Publisher Kenneth E. Gazzola to the additional position of Publishing Director of Business & Commercial Aviation, A/C Flyer and B/CA Show News. The position of Publisher has been eliminated from these publications, and former Publisher Gil Wolin is in discussions to become a consultant to the group for new business. In addition, Regional Sales Manager Ken Ross has been appointed Sales Director for Business & Commercial Aviation, A/C Flyer and B/CA Show News. To further integrate Aviation Week Group's sales operations, Jim Eubanks, Sales Director for Aviation Week & Space Technology, will assume the additional responsibilities of Sales Director of Overhaul & Maintenance magazine and the newly relaunched World Aviation Directory & Aerospace Database. · Ziff Davis Media has announced today the promotion of Randy Zane to Director of Corporate Communications. In his new role, Mr. Zane will manage Ziff Davis Media's external and internal communications efforts. Mr. Zane brings to the position over 10 years of public relations, public affairs and marketing communications experience. He will report directly to Robert F. Callahan, Chairman and CEO of Ziff Davis Media and Bart W. Catalane, COO/CFO. In his most recent assignment as Public Relations Manager, Mr. Zane was responsible for the day-to-day publicity efforts on behalf of the company including its market-leading publications, websites, eSeminars, eNewsletters, events, conferences and research. · Leslie Glenn-Chesloff has been named Senior Vice President, Planning, Scheduling and Acquisitions, Lifetime Entertainment Services, it was announced by Barbara Fisher, Executive Vice President, Entertainment. Ms. Glenn-Chesloff, currently Vice President/General Manager, WPHL-TV, the Tribune Broadcasting Company station in Philadelphia, brings more than 20 years of experience in television programming, marketing and research to her new position. In her new role, Ms. Glenn-Chesloff will oversee scheduling and acquisitions for all Lifetime programming for Lifetime Television, Lifetime Movie Network and Lifetime Real Women. She will be based in New York. · MSNBC.com, a news website, has announced new hires to its health section. The new health team will include Editors Molly Masland and Jane Weaver, and Contributing Editor Jacqueline Stenson. Masland began working for MSNBC in 1998 and went on to serve as news producer, editor and reporter prior to assuming her role in the health section. Before joining MSNBC, she worked for Bloomberg News. Masland will remain in MSNBC's Redmond office. Weaver was named health editor after a seven-year career for MSNBC.com, where she was a senior writer who covered a wide range of business topics, including media, advertising, and ecommerce. Prior to joining MSNBC.com in 1996, she also held writing and editing positions at TV Guide and Adweek, as well as contributed to the New York Times, New York Magazine and other publications. Weaver is based in MSNBC's Secaucus office. Stenson rejoins MSNBC as contributing editor; she will be covering fitness in her column "Smart Fitness." Stenson began her tenure at MSNBC in 1998 as a senior health producer, where she then went on to become a health and fitness freelance writer in Los Angeles. Before joining MSNBC, she was a managing editor and reporter with the defunct Medical Tribune News Service and at Self Magazine. · Ziff Davis Media has promoted Martha Schwartz to Vice President of its Custom/Conference Group. The group produces over 120 annual customer driven face-to-face CIO roundtables, workshops and conferences that bring together senior-level IT buyers and technology influencers. Ms. Schwartz was previously Group Sales Director for Ziff Davis' Enterprise Group, responsible for integrated sales and marketing efforts including conferences, on behalf of eWEEK, Baseline and Ziff Davis CIO Insight magazines. She will continue to report to Sloan Seymour, Senior Vice President, Ziff Davis' Enterprise Group. · Primedia Inc., a targeted media company, announced that Martin E. Maleska, 59, Chief Executive Officer of Primedia's B2B Group, was elected an executive vice president of the company. Mr. Maleska's election to this position is effective immediately and he reports directly to Charles G. McCurdy, President and Interim CEO of Primedia. Mr. Maleska was appointed CEO of the B2B Group in August and is responsible for overseeing Primedia Business Magazines & Media, Primedia Workplace Learning and Federal Sources, Inc. Mr. Maleska joined Primedia from Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), where he was Managing Director, Business Information Services. He earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Fordham University and an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University. · CurtCo Media has announced the appointments of Dwight Cass and Marianne Cotter to the respective positions of editor-in-chief and managing editor of wealth management monthly Worth. The appointments follow CurtCo's June acquisition of Worth, which for 11 years was a leading source of news and information for high net worth individuals. Under CurtCo's ownership, the new monthly title will debut with its December 2003 issue, hitting newsstands on November 18. Most recently, Mr. Cass served as editor of Risk magazine, a monthly publication dedicated to risk management, quantitative finance and global derivatives markets. He holds a bachelor's degree from New York University and a master's from Columbia University. Ms. Cotter, also a 15-year editorial veteran, has held management positions for a variety of publications, including Knowledge Management and eCRM magazines. Both executives will report to CurtCo Media Senior Vice President, Editorial Brett Anderson. · CurtCo Robb Media LLC, owner of Robb Report magazine, has named James N. Dimonekas to the newly created position of Vice President, Associate Publisher for the monthly luxury lifestyle publication. Reporting to Vice President, Publisher Ernest J. Renzulli, Mr. Dimonekas will direct all of the magazine's advertising sales. Mr. Dimonekas brings more than 15 years of experience in advertising, ad sales and management to Robb Report. His publishing background includes over 11 years in various senior management positions at Playboy magazine, where he most recently served as vice president and publisher. Earlier in his career, Mr. Dimonekas held sales management positions at The National Sports Daily, Military Lifestyle Magazine and PC Week. · Reader's Digest has named Christopher L. Lambiase as Vice President, Publisher. Lambiase will join Reader's Digest on October 6, from the SmartMoney enterprise, where he was President and Publishing Director. The SmartMoney enterprise is co-owned by The Hearst Corporation and Dow Jones & Company. As Publisher, Lambiase will lead all publishing activities for Reader's Digest. Lambiase joined SmartMoney from The Wall Street Journal, where he had been in advertising sales for the previous 12 years. · Gregory M. Anderson, advertising director for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, has been named publisher of the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colo. His appointment is effective Nov. 1. Anderson, 44, has been advertising director in Memphis since 2000. He succeeds Colleen C. Conant who retired as editor and publisher of the Daily Camera in August. The Commercial Appeal and the Daily Camera are owned and operated by The E. W. Scripps Company. Anderson has worked for Scripps since 1991 when he joined the company's Treasure Coast newspaper group in Florida as vice president and advertising director. · Keith Sutton has been nominated as the next vice president of the Society of Editors. Sutton, 57 is currently Editorial Director, of CN (Cumbrian Newspapers) Group and editor of the daily News & Star in Carlisle and The Cumberland News. He has the unanimous support of the board of the society and if his election is confirmed at next month’s annual meeting during the society’s London conference (October 12, 13 and 14) he will be set to take over as president of the society in a year’s time. Sutton began his career in journalism on a local newspaper in Surrey in 1962, moving to Fleet Street in 1966. He edited the North West Evening Mail in Barrow from 1987 to 1993 when he took over as editor of The Cumberland News and News & Star. · Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., the music and print music publishing arm of Warner Music Group (WMG), announced that Dale Bobo has been named senior vice president Nashville. In his new capacity, Bobo will report to Warner/Chappell Music president Rick Shoemaker and will oversee Warner/Chappell's Nashville operation. Bobo joined Chappell/Intersong (which became Warner/Chappell Music after it merged with Warner Bros. Music in 1987) in 1983 as associate professional manager, working in the tape copy room. · Pulitzer Newspapers, Inc. (PNI), a subsidiary of Pulitzer Inc., announced that Jane Amari, currently editor and publisher of the Arizona Daily Star, has been named vice president-news for Pulitzer Newspapers, Inc. She will continue in her present role as editor and publisher of the Arizona Daily Star. In this newly created role, Amari, 56, will consult with PNI publishers and editors on editorial strategies, redesigns, acquisition assessments and retention and professional development issues. PNI operates 12 daily newspapers and related weekly publications and online businesses. Amari joined the Arizona Daily Star in 1999. · The Village Voice, an alternative weekly newspaper, has announced the appointment of Charles McNulty as Senior Editor, Theater/Obies, effective immediately. In addition to his editorial role, McNulty will be responsible for administering the Obies, the Village Voice's annual award show honoring Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions worthy of distinction. McNulty began his career at the Village Voice in 1992 as intern to long-time theater editor and Obie award chairman Ross Wetzsteon, subsequently becoming the Assistant to the Obie award panel in 1995 and an Obie judge in 2000. He became a contributing writer at the Voice in 2000. · David J. Pecker, Chairman, President and CEO of American Media, Inc., announced that Colleen Wyse has been named Vice President/Publisher of Star Magazine. As has previously been reported, Star is scheduled to re-launch as a 120-page glossy magazine in early 2004. Prior to joining American Media, Ms. Wyse was Associate Publisher at Jane. Prior to Jane, Ms. Wyse served as Associate Publisher of W and publisher of WWD. She was formerly the Ad Director at Glamour and prior to that, Beauty Manager for Vogue. · Jay McGill has been named senior vice president and publisher of SmartMoney. Cathleen P. Black, president of Hearst Magazines, and Richard F. Zannino, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Dow Jones & Company made the announcement. SmartMoney is a joint venture between Dow Jones & Company and The Hearst Corporation. McGill will start in his new role immediately and will report to Edwin A. Finn, Jr., chairman and editor in chief of SmartMoney and editor and president of Barron's. A replacement for McGill will be named shortly. McGill was most recently vice president and publisher of Popular Mechanics, another Hearst title, a position he held since May 1997. He joined Hearst Magazines in 1979 as an advertising representative for Popular Mechanics. Over the course of his 24-year tenure at the company, McGill has also served as the publisher of Country Living (1993-1997) and of Sports Afield and Motor Boating & Sailing, two enthusiast titles that Hearst sold in December 1999. Digital Publishing · In a retail first, digital book company eBooks.com announced that it has indexed its entire collection, enabling fast, relevant searches across every word in every title in its database. eBooks.com is one of the oldest retailers of commercial ebooks on the web, offering 25,000 titles across all subject categories. · Palm Digital Media, Inc., a publisher and distributor of ebooks for handheld and desktop computers, set company records for sales and traffic in the month of September. The record setting sales volume brings an industry wide sigh of relief following a busy month for the ebook market, which saw Palm Digital Media purchased by PalmGear, Inc. and the announcement from Barnes and Noble that they would exit the ebook market. Content Deals · The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. has announced a new licensing agreement to publish Reader's Digest in India with Living Media India Ltd., India's largest magazine publishing company and publisher of India Today, the nation's bestselling magazine. The licensing agreement replaces one with RDI Print & Publishing Private Ltd., Inc, which had published Reader's Digest for the past 25 years. In all, Reader's Digest has been in India for more than 40 years. It currently is published only in English and has a circulation of 500,000 copies. · Game Universe, Inc., a provider of Internet-based gaming solutions, and iVillage Inc., a women's media company and website, announced that they have partnered to create a gaming platform targeted specifically to women and have entered into a revenue share agreement on subscription and for-pay games. The platform will become the iVillage gaming channel and will be available throughout the iVillage network of sites. Game Universe will supply a customized gaming channel for league, subscription, pay-per-play and downloadable games. · HCPro, Inc., a provider of integrated information, education and consulting products and services in the areas of healthcare regulation and compliance, has announced its acquisition of the assets of Advisory Publications. Based in Conshohocken, Pa., Advisory Publications has been an independent publisher of financial and practice management advice and solutions for physicians in private practice and their managers. · Jessica's Biscuit/ecookbooks.com, a catalog and internet-based company devoted to cookbooks, announced that it has entered into an expanded affiliate relationship with Conde Net Inc., the online division of Conde Nast Publications. Through this new component of the relationship, a special section will be created on the relaunched Conde Net website, Concierge.com (the online home of Conde Nast Traveler magazine), which will be linked to the Ecookbooks.com site so that visitors may learn about, preview and/or purchase featured travel books. This expanded deal builds on the established relationship between the two parties, in which a cookbook store on the website Epicurious.com (the online home of Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines) allows visitors to preview certain featured cookbooks in the Jessica's Biscuit/ecookbooks.com inventory of over 9,000 titles. · Thomas Nelson, Inc. announced that it has purchased certain assets of the World Bible Publishers division of RiversideWorld, Inc. on September 19, 2003. The purchase was made for cash. The Company also announced that it expected to operate the business as a wholly owned subsidiary of Thomas Nelson, Inc. under the leadership of Terry Draughon. Launches and Redesigns · Napster, a division of Roxio, announced that Napster 2.0 has begun beta testing and will be available to all music fans in the United States on October 29th. The new service will offer 99-cent downloads from a digital music library with over 500,000 songs. Napster 2.0 will also feature a series of partnerships that help consumers move music from the PC to digital audio devices, into the living room and their cars. · Hispanic Market Weekly, a business-to-business newsletter for executives interested in the U.S. Hispanic market, on October 1st will launch HMW online an interactive website that will give users access to HMW's seven-year archives. At its launch, HMW online will offer users Market Profiles with up-to-date detailed information on the top 21 Hispanic market DMAs, including for each one, 40 demographic variables, population projections using Claritas estimates, language use figures and a complete media directory. The new website will also offer Research Updates, a guide to the most important research available in the Hispanic market with synopses of reports in seven research categories, date of publication, sample and language criteria, key topics and benefits, and researcher contact information. At launch, and every two weeks thereafter, HMW online will also post the Trends Page, an analysis of change happening in the Hispanic market. · America Online, Inc. said it plans to launch KOL, a experience on the AOL service for kids a ged 6-12, and the KOL JR. service, a customized version of the AOL service for pre-schoolers and parents. The KOL service is the first version of the AOL service designed entirely for kids that allows them to customize their own Welcome Screen, toolbar and Buddy List feature with special desktop themes and innovative navigation effects. The KOL experience begins at the desktop where kids can customize their own version of the service by choosing from a range of six desktop themes that offer fun, game-like navigation features for them to explore the different content and departments. Kids can access exclusive content from brands, including Cartoon Network, Looney Tunes, Kids' WB!, DC Comics, Mary-Kate and Ashley, TIME For Kids and Sports Illustrated For Kids. · IGN Entertainment -- home to IGN.com, an information and entertainment destination for gamers -- announced that it has launched IGN Sports, a new editorial channel covering sports games, athletes and lifestyles. IGN Sports will focus on interviews with top professional athletes and game publishers. IGN Sports will cover games from football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis, wrestling, golf and more. · MarketWatch.com, Inc., a publisher of business news and information, announced that it will launch Retirement Weekly, an online newsletter to be sold through the Company's flagship business news website, CBS MarketWatch. The first edition will appear Oct. 10. The third paid-subscription product to be launched by MarketWatch this year, Retirement Weekly will focus exclusively on financial issues of concern to baby boomers nearing retirement as well as those already in retirement. It will be edited by Robert Powell III, a noted personal finance journalist whose articles and analysis on retirement planning have been featured on CBS MarketWatch and in The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and other publications. · SparkNotes, an educational publisher, has launched SparkNotes Audio Study Guides. These downloadable audio guides will include readings of the complete SparkNotes literature guides by notable actors such as Phil Morris ("Seinfeld"), Yvonne Craig (television's original Batgirl) and Jason Robards III. Each will be available in three different formats: MP3, Windows Media and QuickTime. Students will have the option of downloading the entire SparkNotes Audio Study Guide or just the sections they need most. Each SparkNotes Audio Study Guide will contain the same concise literary summary and analysis already available in print and online. The initial launch will include the following titles: To Kill a Mockingbird, Hamlet, The Odyssey, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Scarlet Letter. They are available for download at SparkNotes.com and BN.com for $4.95. Miscellaneous · Scholastic announced that since its June 21 release twelve weeks ago, the company has sold 11 million copies of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Scholastic released the fifth Harry Potter book at midnight on June 21 and sold an astonishing 5 million copies in the first 24 hours, breaking all publishing records. · Prima Games, a division of Random House Inc., announced it has achieved an astonishing 91.6% unit market share, according to The NPD Group, Inc. Gaming Guide Report. The 91.6% unit market share comes in the "Both" category which tracks strategy guides for games available on console and PC platforms. Leading the way in August for Prima Games was Madden NFL 2004: Prima's Official Strategy Guide. Prima's guide to Madden was the best selling guide of the month, with over 100,000 guides sold. · Overstock.com announced that consumer purchases from its Books, Music, Videos & Games (BMV) Department have reached two million units since the department's launch last November. It took nearly eight months for Overstock.com to sell its first million BMV units to consumers; it took less than four months to sell its second million BMV units. Overstock.com launched its BMV department at the start of November 2002 with an inventory of a few thousand titles. Today, Overstock.com's has an inventory of 350,000 titles including new releases, bestsellers and backlist titles. On September 1, Overstock.com began pricing all bestselling books a flat 25% off Amazon.com. Nearly all book titles are displayed along with Amazon.com's price for comparison. · CMP Media LLC announced that Communications Convergence, its enterprise telecommunications magazine, is changing its frequency from monthly to bi-monthly in 2004. The new six-time schedule will be bolstered by a quarterly NetSeminar series and digital delivery of the publication. Circulation will remain at 40,000. Rick Luhmann, general manager of CMP Media's CommWeb, will become editor-in-chief of the magazine. Luhmann previously served as editor-in-chief from 1994-1999 and prior to that, he was editor-in-chief of Teleconnect. Current editor John Jainschigg will become editor emeritus, writing regularly for Communications Convergence and handling special projects. 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 © 1997-2011 by Writers Write, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
