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Publishing Industry Soundbytes
Friday, January 31, 2005 Book Deals | Content Deals | Digital Publishing Film and Television | Launches and Redesigns Miscellaneous | Music Business | People People · Reed Business Information announced that Sara Nelson has joined the company as Editor-in-Chief of Publishers Weekly magazine. She will report to Executive Vice President and Publisher William McGorry. A journalist for twenty-five years, Nelson most recently served as the publishing columnist and books editor for the New York Post. There, she wrote a weekly column on the business of publishing and oversaw all book coverage and excerpts in the daily and Sunday papers. Before joining the Post, Nelson was the publishing columnist for the New York Observer and Senior Contributing Editor at Glamour magazine. Nelson has also worked at several other publications including Inside.com, where she was the founding books editor; Self magazine; The Book Publishing Report; the Oxygen network; and Bookreporter.com. Her other career highlights include authoring the bestselling memoir/reading guide, So Many Books, So Little Time, organizing and running the NYU Summer Publishing Institute and teaching regularly at both the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and the Radcliffe Publishing Course, which is now part of Columbia. · The Hearst Corporation has named Frank J. Vega, 56, president and publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle, northern California's largest newspaper. Vega is retiring at the end of 2004 as president and CEO of Detroit Newspapers, Inc., the agency that provides business and production services to the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News. 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. Vega has been CEO of Detroit Newspapers since 1991. Prior to his work in Detroit, Vega, a 26-year veteran of Gannett Company, Inc. and a native of Tampa, Florida, served in a variety of positions with that company, including a tenure at the Bay Area's Oakland Tribune. Vega was the vice president of circulation for USA Today when the flagship was launched. He was publisher of Florida Today from 1984 to 1991, and was also a regional president, where he oversaw a number of newspapers owned by the company. Vega succeeds Steven B. Falk, 50, who is leaving the Chronicle to pursue other interests. Falk was named president and publisher of the Chronicle in March 2003, and was formerly president. · The Knot Inc., a wedding media company, has appointed Armando Cardenas-Nolazco to the position of chief technology officer. As CTO of The Knot Inc., he will oversee new application and technology development initiatives for The Knot Inc.'s media and services properties, and direct the technical integration of newly acquired businesses. During the last five years, Cardenas-Nolazco has held various positions as chief technology officer for startup companies such as gourmet retailer Dean-Deluca.com and DevX.com. In addition, he has held senior IT management positions at Charles Schwab, SBC Communications, and Wells Fargo Bank. · Penton Media has announced that IndustryWeek veteran, David Drickhamer, has been promoted to editor-in-chief of Material Handling Management magazine. Drickhamer, age 35, had been editorial research director of Penton's IndustryWeek magazine. Prior to joining IndustryWeek he covered a variety of manufacturing industries as managing editor of Penton's Welding Design & Fabrication and Forging magazines. · Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. has announced the appointment of Rich Battista as chief executive officer. Mr. Battista, most recently executive vice president of Business Development and Strategy for Fox Entertainment Group, replaces Jeff Shell, current CEO and a member of the Company's board of directors, who has resigned his positions with the Company. Mr. Battista's appointment is effective immediately. The Company also announced the appointment of Anthea Disney as executive chairman of the board of directors. Ms. Disney's responsibilities in this newly created position at Gemstar-TV Guide will be in addition to her ongoing role as executive vice president for content at News Corporation. With Ms. Disney's appointment, Lachlan Murdoch has resigned his position as a Gemstar-TV Guide director. Announcing the changes, Rupert Murdoch, a member of Gemstar's board and chairman of Mr. Murdoch thanked Jeff Shell for having steered Gemstar-TV Guide through a very difficult period in the Company's history. · Questia Media Inc., an online academic library, has announced the addition of Andy Gates as vice president of business development. Gates brings more than fourteen years of experience in publishing, education technology, elearning sales, and general management to the position. As vice president of business development for Questia, Gates will be responsible for identifying new market opportunities, business development strategy, partner relationship management, and program oversight with key strategic partners in the individual subscriber markets, secondary school area, and publishing and online content industries. Prior to joining Questia, Gates served as general manager for Thomson Custom Publishing. During his career, Gates has worked for several other educational software and publishing companies including Advantage Learning Systems, Pearson Education, and Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. · Yahoo! Inc. has announced that Dr. Usama Fayyad has been named the company's first chief data officer and senior vice president of the Strategic Data Solutions group. Fayyad will be responsible for Yahoo!'s overall data strategy, architecting Yahoo!'s data policies and systems, prioritizing data investments, and managing the Company's data processing infrastructure and analysis. He will be based in Sunnyvale, Calif. and report to chief technology officer, Farzad Nazem. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Fayyad co-founded and led the DMX Group, a leading data mining and data strategy consulting company. In early 2000, he co-founded and served as CEO of digiMine Inc. (now Revenue Science, Inc.), a data analysis and data mining company . Fayyad's professional experience also includes five years spent leading the data mining and exploration group at Microsoft Research and building the data mining products for Microsoft's server division. · Forbes.com announced that Dan Bigman has joined the Company as Managing Editor. In this new position, Bigman will have an instrumental role overseeing the day-to-day editorial operations of the site. Bigman, 34, joins Forbes.com from the NYTimes.com, where he spent six years, most recently as associate editor, and previously as business editor and producer. · Alan Murray, currently CNBC's Washington bureau chief and co-anchor of Capital Report with Alan Murray and Gloria Borger, will return to The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 1, 2005, as an assistant managing editor. In this role, Mr. Murray will be responsible for a new, twice-a-week column on business, economics and public policy. He will continue as a regular contributor to CNBC, but now as a representative of the Journal, shifting his base to New York from Washington. In addition to his responsibilities at CNBC, Mr. Murray currently writes the Journal's weekly "Political Capital" column, which will be discontinued at the end of this year. The new column begins its run in February. Before joining CNBC in February 2002, Mr. Murray served for nearly a decade as the Journal's Washington bureau chief. Mr. Murray also is a prolific author, with two bestselling books to his name: The Wealth of Choices: How the New Economy Puts Power in Your Hands and Money in Your Pocket, published by Random House in 1991, and Showdown at Gucci Gulch: Lawmakers, Lobbyists and the Unlikely Triumph of Tax Reform, co-authored with Jeffrey Birnbaum and published by Random House in 1987. He also is a regular panelist on Public Broadcasting Service's "Washington Week in Review." · Russell Denson, President and CEO of Gruner + Jahr USA has named Katherine Rizzuto publisher of Fitness magazine. The announcement is effective immediately, with Rizzuto reporting directly to Denson. Rizzuto returns to Fitness where she previously served as associate publisher in the magazine's first year. Since 2000, Rizzuto served as VP/Publisher at Marie Claire where she was responsible for managing international sales, marketing and a 40-member production staff. Prior to joining Marie Claire, Rizzuto held the position of associate publisher at Brides magazine. Before that, Rizzuto was associate publisher of Fitness during the magazine's launch. Previously, Rizzuto was associate publisher for Playbill during the publication's West Coast launch. She also held positions at various magazines including advertising director for Country America and beauty director at Woman's Day, later becoming Eastern advertising sales manager. Rizzuto began her career as a media planner at SSC&B Advertising, but her first foray in magazines was at Gruner + Jahr USA where she was an account executive at the former G+J title, YM. Rizzuto graduated with a B.A. in art history from Rutgers University. · CMP Media's Channel Group has strengthened its two flagship publications by naming Dan Dignam as publisher of CRN and Robert DeMarzo as publisher of VARBusiness, effective Jan. 1, 2005. Dan Dignam joins CRN, a newsweekly that provides information for VARs and technology integrators, following four years as associate publisher of VARBusiness. Before becoming Publisher of CRN, Dignam had been northeast regional manager of CMP's Customer First program and an account director at CRN. Earlier in his career, Dignam was with Miller Freeman Publications. Robert DeMarzo, currently a CMP Media vice president and editorial director of VARBusiness becomes vice president and publisher of the biweekly magazine that covers the business of technology integration. DeMarzo has been news editor, managing editor and editor of CRN. Before being named to his present VARBusiness position, he served as the magazine's editor-in-chief. Jeannie Cappo, western regional sales manager at VARBusiness, replaces Dignam as associate publisher. Faletra indicates that a new editor is being sought for the magazine. · CurtCo Media, publisher of Robb Report and Worth magazines, has announced the appointment of Daniel H. Galpern to the newly created position of Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Galpern has played a critical role in CurtCo's expansion, having spearheaded the acquisitions of Worth, Gulfshore Life, Sarasota Magazine and Showboats International over the last 18 months. Prior to that, he served for a decade in the private equity and mergers and acquisition industries. In this newly created position, he will oversee the company's corporate development, mergers and acquisitions, corporate financing, as well as certain advertising, sales and marketing functions. Prior to CurtCo, Mr. Galpern served as Vice President at TD Capital Communications Partners, the private equity arm of Toronto Dominion Bank. Before TD Capital, Mr. Galpern was a senior mergers and acquisitions associate at the legal firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. · Thomson Media, a provider of information, data and software tools for business professionals in the financial services and related technologies markets, has announced that Jim Ericson has been hired as the editor-in-chief of its new quarterly business intelligence publication, Business Intelligence Review. Business Intelligence Review, to be launched in April 2005, will provide information for non-technical managers engaged in business intelligence, focusing on the strategic use of technology to make organizations more effective and responsive. Most recently, Ericson was an editorial director and senior news editor at Line56 Media, a multimedia publishing company covering ebusiness technology. Before joining Line56 Media, Ericson worked as a managing editor at MSNBC and was a senior morning news producer for the NBC radio network. · Stephen J. Adler, deputy managing editor of the Wall Street Journal and editorial director of its online edition, has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of BusinessWeek, effective April 1, 2005. Adler, 49, will succeed Stephen B. Shepard, who recently announced he will retire after 20 years as Editor-in-Chief to become Founding Dean of the new Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. Adler joined the Wall Street Journal in 1988 as legal editor. He was appointed to the paper's page-one staff as special projects editor in September 1994; he was named deputy page one editor in January 1997; and appointed deputy managing editor in 1999. Adler began his career as a reporter for the Tampa Times and the Tallahassee Democrat. In 1983, he joined The American Lawyer and later became editor of the magazine and editorial director of the American Lawyer Newspapers Group, a chain of local dailies and weeklies. His book, The Jury: Trial and Error in the American Courtroom, won the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award in 1995. · The Tribune Company has announced the appointment of Darko Dejanovic as vice president and chief technology officer. Dejanovic will oversee technology strategy, development and operations for Tribune. Dejanovic was promoted to vice president/chief technology officer for Tribune Publishing in 2002, responsible for overseeing the technology strategy, development and operations for the company's 14 daily newspapers. He continued serving as vice president/chief technology officer for Chicago Tribune Company -- a role he was appointed to in 1999. In that capacity he directed all strategic and operational technology activities for Chicago Tribune and its affiliated publications. Dejanovic joined Tribune Company in 1997 as technology director for Sun-Sentinel Company in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. As Sun-Sentinel's senior technology officer, he was responsible for the management, development and support of all systems, infrastructure and applications. · Knight Ridder Senior Vice President Hilary Schneider has announced the appointment of George Riggs to chairman and publisher of the San Jose Mercury News. Riggs, 58, is currently publisher and chief executive officer of Contra Costa Newspapers, Inc., which publishes the Contra Costa Times and 14 weekly suburban newspapers located in the East Bay region of the greater San Francisco Bay Area. He has been in his current post since 1991 and he has been with Contra Costa Newspapers since 1985. A native of Hattiesburg, Miss., Riggs first came to California in 1975 -- and for most of those 30 years he has published newspapers. The first publishing job came when he was 28 years old, as owner and publisher of two small daily newspapers in the southern part of the state. He joined Lesher Communications, Inc. (owners of the Contra Costa Newspapers) in 1985 as director of its daily newspaper division with responsibility for four daily zoned editions. He became general manager of the Contra Costa Times two years later. In 1989 he was promoted to vice president with responsibility for overall operations. In his new job, Riggs will have overall responsibility for Contra Costa Newspapers, Inc. as well. He will report to Schneider. The appointment will be effective by year's end. · David Pecker, Chairman and CEO of American Media, Inc. (AMI), has announced the appointment of Thomas Eugene Severson, Jr., as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the company. The appointment is effective immediately. Mr. Severson is replacing John Miley, who resigned for health reasons, but who will continue to act for the company as a financial consultant. Mr. Severson was previously with Paxson Communications Corporation, a broadcast television station group and network where he was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Severson also was Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer for Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.. Prior to his media experience, Mr. Severson served in the audit practices of Deloitte & Touche and KPMG Peat Marwick. · Congressional Quarterly has announced that special contributor and television news analyst Craig Crawford will continue to write for CQ publications for the next two years as CQ's White House columnist. Crawford, whose "White House Trail Mix" column has been a popular weekly feature in CQ Today for the past two years, will write a weekly column for the CQ Weekly magazine about the political maneuvers and policy decisions that emanate from the Oval Office. The column, entitled "1600," will also be made available to the general public via a free email newsletter, CQ Politics Weekly, published every Friday beginning Jan. 14. Crawford is a news analyst for MSNBC and CNBC, and for The Early Show on CBS. From 1997 to 2003 he ran The Hotline, a daily online political briefing published by the National Journal Group. Previously, he was the Orlando Sentinel's Washington bureau chief from 1989 to 1997, after covering political campaigns throughout the South as a reporter for the paper. Before his career in journalism, he served as the Alabama state field director for the John Glenn presidential primary campaign, and the Georgia state field director for the Mondale/Ferraro general election campaign. He practiced law in Orlando until 1984 and, although no longer practicing, is still a licensed attorney and a member of the Florida Bar. Crawford has just completed his first book, a blend of stories and essays on stormy relations between politicians and the media, to be published in 2005 by Rowman & Littlefield, Inc. in association with the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. · Knight Ridder has announced three executive appointments: Paula Lynn Ellis, currently president and publisher of The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, will become a corporate vice president/operations, with responsibility for 11 of the company's newspapers. Those newspapers are located in: Aberdeen, S.D., Belleville, Ill., Columbia, S.C., Duluth, Minn., Fort Wayne, Ind., Grand Forks, Minn., Myrtle Beach, S.C., State College, Pa., Tallahassee, Fla., Wichita, Kan., and Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Ricky Mathews, currently president and publisher of The Sun Herald in Biloxi, will assume oversight responsibility for three additional newspapers. Those newspapers are located in Bradenton, Fla., and in Columbus and Macon, Ga. Chip Visci, who has served as publisher of the San Jose Mercury News throughout 2004, will become publisher of The Tribune in San Luis Obispo with oversight responsibility for The (Monterey County) Herald as well. All will report to Knight Ridder Senior Vice President Art Brisbane. Ellis will operate out of San Jose. Mathews will remain in Biloxi. Visci will be headquartered in San Luis Obispo. The appointments are effective by year's end. Maureen Saltzer, who has served as publisher of The Tribune since June 14, is pursuing other opportunities. · The Jim Henson Company has hired Eric Poticha as Vice President of Television and Halle Stanford as Head of Children's Television, continuing its strategic objective of increasing its network and cable programming portfolio. The announcement was made by Lisa Henson, Co-CEO (with Brian Henson) of The Jim Henson Company, to whom both will report. Poticha is charged with developing new comedy and drama series, miniseries and features for television as well as develop future Muppet projects to be produced by Henson for The Walt Disney Company. Stanford will lead the company's development and production of all preschool and children's programming for both television and direct-to-video projects in animated and live-action formats. She will also work closely with HIT Entertainment on pre-school programming for the co-production agreement recently announced by the two companies. Mr. Poticha most recently served as Vice President of Movies and Miniseries at Fox Television Studios. He conceived of and developed the FX original movie 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shootout, which became the highest rated program in the network's history, and the Fox network reality show Girl Next Door, which he co-created with Hugh Hefner. Poticha also originated the development of Muppets' Wizard of Oz, a made-for-television feature from Touchstone Television and The Jim Henson Company now in post-production. Ms. Stanford returns to JHC after successfully founding 7 Crows Stories, a children's creative company responsible for consulting on such upcoming projects as Krypto and Baby Looney Toons, two animated preschool series for Warner Brothers Animation Studios, as well as executive producing the Pat the Bunny DVD series for Classic Media. During her previous tenure at Henson, she led the children's television division with projects like Animal Jam, which she also executive produced and currently airing on Discovery Kids, and the Bear in the Big Blue House franchise which was sold to The Walt Disney Company earlier this year. · Thomas J. Wallace, Editor-in-Chief of Conde Nast Traveler, has been named Editorial Director of Conde Nast Publications, by S.I. Newhouse, Jr., Chairman. Mr. Wallace succeeds James Truman, who is returning to Europe after eleven-years as Editorial Director. The appointment is effective immediately. Thomas Wallace has been Editor-in-Chief of Conde Nast Traveler since 1990. Mr. Wallace also conceived of and supervised Conde Nast Traveler: Insider's Guide, a 26-episode series for public television that was launched in October, 2002. Before joining Conde Nast, Mr. Wallace held editorial positions at The New York Times, Newsday, and the Stamford Advocate. He lives in Pelham, New York, with his wife and three daughters. He is a graduate of Harvard University. James Truman was named Editorial Director of Conde Nast Publications in January 1994, succeeding Alexander Liberman. In 1998-1999, he supervised the design of the Conde Nast Building at Four Times Square. Before becoming Editorial director of Conde Nast, Mr. Truman was editor-in-chief of Details magazine. Mr. Truman originally joined Conde Nast in 1988 as features editor at Vogue. He began his journalism career as a news and arts reporter for the Hampstead & Highgate Express newspaper in London. · TV Guide Publishing Group, a division of Gemstar-TV Guide International and publisher of TV Guide magazine, announced that Steve LeGrice has been named editor in chief of Inside TV, a new weekly publication. The debut issue is scheduled to hit newsstands in late spring 2005. A veteran celebrity magazine editor and one of the founding editors of In Touch Weekly, Mr. LeGrice has more than 30 years experience as an editor and writer in both the United States and the United Kingdom. In 2002, he was part of the editorial launch team for In Touch Weekly. In his new role, Mr. LeGrice will collaborate with, and report to, TV Guide magazine Editor in Chief Ian Birch to ensure that each publication sustains its own editorial perspective, while reinforcing the overall position of the TV Guide Publishing Group as the authority in television entertainment. Prior to launching In Touch Weekly, where he served as executive editor, Mr. LeGrice spent ten years as executive editor at Star magazine. He started his career on London's Fleet Street as a writer and editor for the UK daily newspaper; The Daily Mail. Mr. LeGrice left In Touch Weekly to start Imagine That Publishing, a company focused on producing celebrity-oriented special interest publications. For the past several months, Mr. LeGrice has worked with the TV Guide Publishing Group on a number of different development projects. · HarperCollins Publishers has outlined the structure and mission of the company's newly established U.S. Collins Division, in addition to announcing two key appointments. In December, HarperCollins announced the creation of this division under the direction of Joseph Tessitore, President of Collins. Beginning in Fall 2005, Collins in the U.S. will be comprised of five imprints including Collins Reference, Collins Wellness and Collins Lifestyle (formerly HarperResource), Collins Business (formerly HarperBusiness) and Collins Design (formerly Harper Design. The launch list will feature 125 titles. George Bick, Senior Vice President of Sales for Morrow/Avon, has been promoted to the newly created position of Senior Vice President, Director of Sales and Associate Publisher, Collins. Working closely with Tessitore, Bick will play an integral part in the planning, strategic development and sales of Collins in the U.S. for the Fall 2005 launch and beyond. He will report to Josh Marwell, President of Sales for HarperCollins Publishers. Philip Friedman will join the Collins Division as Vice President and Publisher, Collins Reference on January 18. Friedman comes to HarperCollins from Oxford University Press where he led Project Torch (The Online Resource Center in the Humanities). Prior to that he managed Scholastic's Library Publishing Division where was responsible for Grolier, Franklin Watts and Children's Press. He has also held senior editorial and publishing positions at Macmillan, Simon & Schuster and Arco. Phil Friedman will report to Tessitore. · Gulf Publishing Company announced the following management changes effective immediately: Alexandra Pruner has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Strategic Business Development. Prior to joining Gulf Publishing in April 2002 as Vice President, Pruner spent two years in the energy technology sector and previously worked for an E&P company and investment bank. She received her BA in Economics from Brown University in 1983. Kevin Brady has been promoted to Publisher of World Oil. Prior to joining World Oil as Associate Publisher, Brady was the Corporate Marketing Manager for Precision Drilling Corporation in Houston. He also served as Marketing Communications Manager for Halliburton/Sperry-Sun. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Professional Geology from Louisiana State University and his Masters of Business Administration in Marketing from the University of Houston. Bill Baker has been promoted to Associate Publisher, Hydrocarbon Processing. Baker is a 20-year veteran with Gulf Publishing Company in advertising and catalog sales based in Irvine, Calif. Bill is a graduate of Texas Tech University. Nora Varty has been promoted to Program Director, Gulf Events. In her new role, Nora will assume day-to-day management of all Gulf Events including the World Oil Awards, Casing While Drilling Conference, World Oil Visualization Showcase and others. Nora is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. · Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. announced that Marcus E. Leaver has joined the company in the newly created position of executive vice president and chief operating officer. Mr. Leaver's appointment will be effective on April 1, 2005. Mr. Leaver has broad experience in publishing and media. Most recently, he was chief executive officer of the Chrysalis Books Group, one of the leading illustrated nonfiction publishing companies in the United Kingdom, and a division of the music and media company, Chrysalis Group. The group's imprints include lifestyle, crafts and hobbies, mind, body and spirit, maritime, popular history and sport, as well as children's books. · Peppers & Rogers Group has announced that Ginger Conlon has joined the company as editor-in-chief of 1to1 Media. In her new role, she will oversee the editorial direction of 1to1 Magazine, as well as 1to1 Media's online publications. Conlon is a 20-year industry veteran, having covered sales, marketing and customer services strategies and technologies since the beginning of her journalism career. Prior to joining Peppers & Rogers Group, Conlon was editor-in-chief of CRM magazine and before that she served as managing editor, technology editor and Web supervisor for Sales and Marketing Management. · FOX News Channel (FNC) has promoted Bill Shine to Senior Vice President, Programming, announced Roger Ailes, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, FOX News. In this capacity he will oversee all programming and production for the network and will report directly to Ailes. Prior to his promotion, Shine was Vice President, Production since 2003 where he was responsible for all news programming production for FNC. In 2000, he was named Network Executive Producer, overseeing network programming and production, including primetime. Aside from those duties, Shine served as Executive Producer of The Pulse, an investigative newsmagazine produced by FOX News for the FOX Broadcasting Network from 2001 to 2003. In addition, he served as Executive Producer for Primetime in 1999. Shine joined FNC at the network's inception in 1996 as the Producer for Hannity & Colmes. Before joining FNC, Shine was the Producer/Director of Final Edition at NewsTalk Television, the network's late night show. He also worked as producer, director and production manager at WLIW-TV (PBS) in New York, where he received an Emmy nomination for best health documentary in 1994. Shine began his career in 1985 as a producer/director at WLIG-TV in New York. · Retail Systems Alert Group has announced the editorial staff for its newest publication - ERI - Extended Retail Industry. Beginning in May 2005, Retail Systems Alert Group will distribute the journal to 23,000 senior IT and business executives. Plans call for the new journal to begin monthly publication in January 2006. Editorial Team
· Julie Bain, a health and fitness writer and frequent interview subject for health stories in print, radio and television, has been appointed Health Director of Reader's Digest magazine, it was announced by Jackie Leo, U.S. Editor-in-Chief of the magazine. Bain's writing has appeared in The New York Times, Popular Science and many other publications. Most recently she was health director at Ladies' Home Journal, where she was responsible for producing stories on health, fitness, diet, nutrition and psychology. Earlier, she had served as Deputy Editor of In Style and Editor of Wine Enthusiast. · Pamela Kaufman has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Marketing and Worldwide Promotions, Nickelodeon, a position that will broaden her responsibilities to include the strategic planning of worldwide programming launches as well as global partnership deals. The announcement was made by Nickelodeon Television President Cyma Zarghami, to whom Kaufman will continue to report. Formerly Senior Vice President, Nickelodeon Marketing, Kaufman will broaden her responsibilities to include domestic and international marketing for Nickelodeon as well as promotional partnerships for The N, Noggin, Gas and Nicktoons, the network's digital channels. She will now partner with Nickelodeon International to expand Nickelodeon's relationships with its domestic partners to include international channels. Kaufman's promotion is part of a reorganization by the network to support the strategic goals of the MTV Networks international business. She will continue to be responsible for all of the network's domestic advertising, promotions marketing and property planning as well as the marketing of its movie business with Paramount Pictures. A recognized leader and award-winning marketing executive, Kaufman has created multi-million sponsorships and created multi-platform marketing campaigns for major Nickelodeon properties and Nick brands including SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, The Kids' Choice Awards and the TEENick programming block for tweens. Prior to joining Nickelodeon, Kaufman was Vice President, Promotions, at Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., where she established the Promotions Group within TBS's Licensing and Merchandising division. Before TBS, Kaufman was Senior Director, Account Services at Equity Marketing. · Graphic Arts Monthly (GAM), a Reed Business Information magazine, has named Mark Vruno as senior editor. Vruno, a 15-year print-industry veteran, previously had served as a contributing editor to GAM, Converting, Digital Design & Production, High Volume Printing and Pre magazines. Vruno joins fellow senior editor Lisa Cross, a 20-year GAM veteran reporter based in New York; Noel Jeffrey, western regional editor; Debora Toth, project editor; Joann Whitcher, eastern regional editor; and columnists Michael Ducey (paper), Bill Farquharson (sales), Henry Freedman (technology), Theodore Lustig (ink) and Don Piontek (delivery). · Reed Business Information (RBI) has announced the promotion of Charlie Koones to President of the Variety Group in addition to continuing in his role as Publisher, Variety. Koones joins RBI's executive management group headed by CEO Jim Casella. The Variety Group includes Variety, Daily Variety, Daily Variety Gotham, VLife, Video Business, Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News, Tradeshow Week, LA411, NY411, Marketcast, Variety.com and DVD Exclusive. Previously, Koones was Publisher of Variety and Executive Vice President of the Variety Group. Koones also served as Group Vice President and Publisher of Variety. The Variety Group is part of the Media Division, led by Media Division President Tad Smith. Mr. Koones joined Variety in 1990 as a New York-based sales executive. Upon the consolidation of Daily and Weekly Variety in 1993, Koones moved to Los Angeles to oversee marketing and special reports for the combined operation. He was named Associate Publisher in 1995, overseeing domestic sales and marketing. In 1997, he became U.S. Publishing Director with responsibility for Variety's domestic business operations. Prior to joining Variety, Koones spent four years involved in commercial real estate finance in his hometown of Washington, DC. · Peter Warwick has been appointed president and CEO of Thomson West, a provider of legal information and part of the Thomson Corporation. Warwick will be based at the Thomson West headquarters in Eagan, Minn. He succeeds and will report to Mike Wilens, who has been appointed president and CEO of Thomson's newly formed North American Legal organization. Warwick brings more than 20 years of experience in the publishing and information industry to his new role. He most recently served as president and CEO of Thomson Tax & Accounting, a provider of technology and integrated information solutions to accounting, tax and corporate finance professionals. Warwick joined Thomson in 1998 as president and CEO of its legal and regulatory businesses in Asia Pacific, where he was responsible for the businesses and brands in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore. Prior to joining Thomson, Warwick served as managing director of Pitman Publishing in the United Kingdom, as deputy chief executive of the Longman Group and as chief executive of Pearson Professional in London. Digital Publishing · BookSurge and ebrary have announced the joint development of a print-on-demand offering, initially focused on the library market. The initiative will enable libraries throughout the world to purchase authoritative content in print from leading publishers. . Under terms of the agreement, BookSurge will integrate its Global Publishing System (GPS) with the ebrary Dynamic Content Platform (DCP), which combines software with more than 60,000 full-text books and other digital content from more than 200 leading publishers. Libraries that subscribe to ebrary's DCP will have the option of enabling patrons and staff to purchase select ebrary titles in print through BookSurge's international print-on-demand facilities. ebrary.com · The New York Times Book Review on Sunday December 5, 2004 includes an article that highlights the double-digit growth of the ebook market. Content Deals · Yahoo! Games, an online games site, and GameSpot, a source for gaming information, announced a partnership through which GameSpot's PC and video game content will be provided to Yahoo! Games users, starting in the first quarter of 2005. As video games become increasingly popular among a broader consumer audience, this arrangement will enable Yahoo! Games to further expand its content offering into video games, which will complement its current casual games content. In turn, GameSpot will gain greater exposure to Yahoo's audience. · Questia Media Inc., an online academic library, announced it will add more than 1,000 Cambridge University Press titles to its online collection of 50,000 books and 400,000 journal, magazine, and newspaper articles. Cambridge University Press is one of more than 250 academic and commercial publishers who have licensed content to the Questia library. Other publishers include: Oxford University Press; Greenwood Publishing Group; Perseus Books Group; Stanford University Press; Columbia University Press; Allen & Unwin; Brookings Institution Press; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; Lynne Rienner Publishers; MIT Press; M.E. Sharpe Publishers; Palgrave Macmillan; Peter Lang Publishing; Princeton University Press and Prometheus Books among many others. · Magic Media Networks, Inc. announced that it has completed the acquisition of 100% of the National Hotel Television Network (NHN) and City Traveler Television Network NHN is a leading television network for hotel guests, having exclusive relationships with 11 network affiliates and spanning more than 470 hotels and over 135,000 hotel rooms throughout the U.S. NHN's premium hotel destinations include, among others, Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt and Sheraton. The City Traveler Television Network currently owns network broadcast rights and airs programming in 27 premium destinations in South Florida, including the 1,000-room Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa, Loews Miami Beach, Hilton Miami Airport, and Marriott locations. City Traveler will change its name to Hotel TV, Inc., reflecting the Company's vertical integration of its Bar TV, Gym TV and Hotel TV brands. · The Cookie Jar Group's educational products business, Carson-Dellosa Publishing Company, a publisher of supplemental materials and teaching aids, has acquired specialty publisher Rainbow Bridge Publishing as part of the Group's continuing strategy to expand its educational properties and product catalog. Rainbow Bridge Publishing will operate as a standalone division of Carson-Dellosa. Michael Hirsh, Chief Executive Officer of The Cookie Jar Group, made the announcement. Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Rainbow Bridge Publishing targets the preschool-to-8 years of age educational segment and markets its catalog under a number of specialty product lines, which include the bestselling summer workshop series Summer Bridge Activities and the company's mass market imprint Skill Mill. · Meredith Corporation, the publisher of such well-known magazines as Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal, More and American Baby, has announced a syndication agreement with The New York Times Syndicate. The agreement will give The New York Times Syndicate exclusive rights to syndicate branded material from all Meredith magazine properties to its global network of newspapers and their associated websites. The content will be delivered in various formats that could include everything from weekly columns to seasonally themed pages or special sections. The agreement covers multiple years beginning the first quarter of 2005. Financial terms were not disclosed. · Advertising Age, a trade publication in the advertising and marketing industries has joined forces with Hispanicad.com & Adnotas.com, leaders in the Hispanic advertising and marketing industry, to form an exclusive partnership to develop and sell custom publishing sections dedicated to the Hispanic market. Jill Manee, VP and Publisher of The Ad Age Group made the announcement. The partnership's first project will be the 2005 Hispanic Fact Pact, which will be published in May. · Navarre Corporation, a publisher and distributor of home entertainment and multimedia software products, announced that it has executed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the general and limited partnership interests in FUNimation Productions, Ltd. and The FUNimation Store, Ltd. FUNimation, based in Fort Worth, Texas, is a leading home video distributor and licensor of Japanese animation and children's entertainment in the United States providing titles that include Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT, Yu Yu Hakusho, Case Closed and Fullmetal Alchemist. FUNimation also engages in third-party marketing, sales and distribution agreements with content providers, including 4Kids Entertainment Inc., Nelvana, Alliance Atlantis and WGBH. FUNimation also acquires master licenses to properties through long-term arrangements and leverages this proprietary content into various revenue streams including television broadcast, VHS and DVD home videos, toys, video games, and trading cards. · MediaBay, Inc., a spoken audio entertainment company, announced that it has reached an agreement with Hay House, to offer downloadable audiobook editions of its self-improvement and inspirational titles. These audiobook titles include bestsellers from authors including Dr. Phil, psychic Sylvia Browne, Cheryl Richardson, Depak Chopra, Joseph Campbell, and others. MediaBay will also be offering audio versions of books penned by Louise Hay, Marianne Williamson, and Alice Walker. These titles will be offered beginning in the first part of 2005 via download to MSN users in the United States on the MSN Music service as part of MediaBay's recently announced agreement with MSN. MediaBay also plans to offer these titles as part of its Larry King's Online Audiobook and Entertainment Club, which will be launched in 2005. Launches and Redesigns · IDG World Expo, the leading producer of world-class tradeshows, conferences and events for technology markets, and FuelDog Events, a developer of tradeshow concepts and solutions, has announced the launch of Syndicate, a B2B conference focused on emerging trends and technologies in content syndication. The theme of the inaugural conference will be "RSS: Risk, Reward and Revolution." Syndicate will take place May 17-18, 2005 at New York City's Marriott Marquis Times Square. · GameDaily has launched GameDaily Kids, a new website aimed at providing kids with information on the video games they play. GameDaily Kids provides young gamers with reviews, previews and features on video games that are best suited to their age group. GameDaily Kids will be updated on a weekly basis and will cover games created for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and PC platforms, and will include reviews of all titles that are rated E for Everyone by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). · LexisNexis U.S., a leading provider of legal, news and business information services, said it has acquired the editorial assets of Florida-based Gould Publications, a publisher of law enforcement handbooks, CD-ROM courses, Homeland Security publications, and training materials. LexisNexis is a member of Reed Elsevier Group plc. The acquisition of Gould strengthens and expands the LexisNexis law enforcement offerings to all 50 states and the District of Columbia. · Primedia Inc., a targeted media company, has announced the formation of Coterie (kote-e-ree), a new venture focused on the scrapbooking industry. Lisa Bearnson, Founding Editor of leading scrapbooking magazine Creating Keepsakes, and Becky Higgins, Contributing Editor, will be the creative force behind the new venture. Coterie will develop a line of products and create new licensing opportunities that broaden exposure to scrapbooking and crafting in the marketplace. The brand will deliver a fresh approach to memory preservation with simple project kits and products targeted to those new to scrapbooking and paper crafting, as well as those with limited time for their craft. · The American Diabetes Association has announced launch of a new tabloid publication, DOC News, for primary care physicians and nurse practitioners who manage the care of those with and at risk for diabetes. The "DOC" is not a play on words, but rather the acronym for one of the most important public health crises in the world: the triad of diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. DOC News provides summaries of the latest publications in the top journals, and spotlights on the latest clinical trials. DOC News addresses questions in the areas of primary care, endocrinology, cardiology, pharmacology, nursing and nutrition, and other topics crucial to all those who treat patients confronting diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. Initially released quarterly in 2004 before going monthly in 2005, DOC News has a controlled circulation of 100,000 family practice and internal medicine physicians and nurse practitioners · GuruNet Corporation, a provider of integrated online reference information, has announced the release of Answers.com, a site-and-software combination providing instant reference answers rather than lists of search engine links. GuruNet Corporation, through its Answers.com site, plans to generate revenues from ads placed alongside its topic entries, rather than from the subscription fees it previously charged for the use of its premium service. GuruNet.com will remain the company’s corporate site. Existing GuruNet subscribers will continue to be fully supported through their subscription periods, however, in conjunction with the launch of Answers.com, the Company announced that it would no longer offer new subscriptions to GuruNet. Answers.com includes information on over a million topics, drawn from a database of over 100 reference sources. Most recently, GuruNet added content from Wikipedia collaborative encyclopedi. Film and Television · Access Integrated Technologies, Inc. ("AccessIT") announced it has signed an agreement to acquire the businesses and assets of the Pavilion Movie Theater/Entertainment Complex (the "Pavilion") in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, New York. The purchase price will include approximately $3.3 million in cash and a $1.7 million 5-year note. Closing is subject to completion of due diligence and to obtaining financing satisfactory to AccessIT. · Blockbuster announced that as of Jan. 1, 2005, there will be no more late fees charged on any movie or game rental at its more than 4,500 company-operated and participating franchised stores in the United States. Under the "no late fees" program, Blockbuster still has due dates -- one week for games and two days or one week for movies. However, if customers need to keep the product an extra day or two, they can. Blockbuster now gives customers a one-week grace period at no additional charge. After that point Blockbuster will automatically sell the customer the product, less the rental fee. If customers decide they don't want to own the movie or game, they can return the product within 30 days for a full credit to their account, minus a restocking charge. · Agent155 Media Group, Inc., a provider of web content and media exposure for performers, models, filmmakers, athletes artists and agencies, has announced the launch of agent155.com. Music Business · Sirius Satellite Radio announced that it has surpassed its year-end target of one million-subscribers in 2004. The company indicated that sales of its popular portable "Plug & Play" products, especially the Sirius Sportster, were contributing to the strong numbers. Sirius delivers more than 120 channels of commercial-free music, talk shows, news and information, and sports programming to listeners across the country. Sirius offers 65 channels of 100% commercial-free music, and features over 55 channels of sports, news, talk, entertainment, traffic and weather for a monthly subscription fee of $12.95. Sirius also broadcasts live play-by-play games of the NFL and NBA. · Apple announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded more than 200 million songs from the iTunes Music Store. The 200 millionth song was part of The Complete U2 and was purchased by Ryan Alekman from Belchertown, MA · Gotuit Media Corp., a provider of video-on-demand products, and Universal Music Group (UMG), a music company, have signed a multi-year non-exclusive deal, to enable the nationwide roll out of UMG's library of music videos through the Gotuit Music On Demand Service. This relationship allows cable operators to offer their VOD subscribers instant access to popular videos from many of the biggest recording artists in the business. Gotuit offers viewers hundreds of music videos arranged in various genre, label and artist music blocks running approximately two hours in length, and it empowers them to be their own 'Video Jockey' by allowing them to personalize their music video viewing experience where they decide what videos get played. · InterMedia Inc. has announced a free website dedicated to providing the largest selection of music videos and music video codes in HTML format for Blogs, LiveJournal, MySpace, and other community-based profile websites. MusicVideoCodes.com allows users to view music videos free of charge. MusicVideoCodes.com also gives users the actual HTML code to display their favorite music videos on blogs and web-community-based profile pages that support HTML. Book Deals and News · MediaBay, Inc. announced that it has reached an agreement with HarperCollins Publishers to offer downloadable audiobook editions of titles from the extensive HarperAudio and Caedmon audiobook libraries. These audiobook titles include best sellers from authors including Michael Crichton, Elmore Leonard, Laura Schlessinger, Simon Winchester, Phillip Margolin and Lisa Scottoline, as well as classic audio recordings from the historic Caedmon audio library. MediaBay will also be offering audio versions of The South Beach Diet, Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution and Lemony Snicket's Series. These titles will be offered beginning in early 2005 via download to MSN users in the United States on the MSN Music service as part of MediaBay's agreement with MSN. · Peachpit and Pearson Technology Group have announced the results of research based on Nielsen Bookscan data for the calendar year 2004 indicating Scott Kelby is the number one, top-selling computer book author in the U.S. exceeding Microsoft Press, Maran Graphics and David Pogue in Bookscan units and dollars sold in 2004. Kelby is widely recognized as the world's bestselling Photoshop how-to book author, a digital imaging guru, and President of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Kelby published a total of 16 titles in 2003 and 2004 combined, including the industry's top-selling digital photography titles The Adobe Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers and The Photoshop Elements 3 Book for Digital Photographers. Kelby's The Adobe Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers, in addition to being number one in the market, outsold all other computer books by more than 5 percent. Overall, Kelby held 21 percent of the entire Photoshop book market in 2004. Miscellaneous · TIME magazine's archive is now available on Time.com, bringing to life over 81 years of history. The archive provides one of the most comprehensive news resources on the web with over 266,000 articles dating back to TIME's inaugural issue in March 1923. TIME editors have organized thousands of articles into collections of research on popular topics such as TIME's Person of the Year, the British Royals, Love and Sex, World War II, Space Travel and Illegal Drugs. TIME's coverage of health issues is organized into easy-to-use collections of articles on diet and nutrition, heart disease, infectious diseases, cancer, cloning, psychological diseases and learning disabilities. · A recent national survey conducted by TNS and sponsored by TRUSTe, a nonprofit online privacy certification organization, revealed that more than half of mobile phone users (53%) are against the establishment of a nationwide directory of wireless numbers. The survey, which polled 1,068 consumers, also indicated that 56 percent would opt-out of publishing their numbers. The proposed 411 directory would be a database comprising wireless mobile phone numbers provided by five major U.S. wireless carriers: Cingular Wireless / AT&T Wireless, Nextel, Sprint PCS, and T-Mobile. Verizon Wireless is the only carrier who opposes the creation of the wireless 411 directory. · American Lawyer Media, a legal media company, announced that it has changed its name to ALM, effective immediately. The new name and corporate identity reflect the company's growing array of offerings, including newspapers, magazines, books, events, market research and online information and services, for legal professionals and marketers targeting this lucrative business sector. · Thomas Nelson Inc. announced that it has entered into a lease agreement for office space at Two Lakeview Place in the Century City office park. The lease comprises over 40,000 square feet and commences August 1, 2005, according to Scott Holloway, Director of Facilities Administration for Thomas Nelson. |
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