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August 2001
- More Bad Advertising News
An article in The Financial Times discusses
an advertising industry recession, which is what many
advertising professionals are already calling it.
The article reports that Zenith Media is forecasting
advertising spending to decrease
by 4.2% in the U.S. this year and 3% in the U.K.
Just last week The Guardian ran an article
about falling advertising revenues which also used
the 'R' word. 8-31-01
- Penton Media has cut the publication frequency
of Internet World to monthly from 22 issues per year.
Ten staffers have also been cut from the publication.
Source: SF Gate, New York Daily News 8-30-01
- Online Journalism Review columnist Ken Layne tells how he was
plagiarized by BusinessWeek in his article,
"Want My Story? Help Yourself". As
Layne explains, "This is the Internet. Take something from
an online journalist and call it your own, and that online
journalist will find you." 8-30-01
- Downloads Cover Up Banners and Change Text
The IAB
(Internet Advertising Bureau) has accused
Gator.com of
illegal business practices. Gator.com's
software covers up banners and editorial
content on websites with pop-up windows.
Gator.com also sells advertising to run on these pop-ups.
The IAB said that the business practices of Gator.com
substantially infringe on the trademark, copyright and
intellectual property rights of Web publishers and
advertisers, and do not adequately
protect consumers from unauthorized content.
Gator.com has responding by filing a lawsuit against
the IAB in an attempt to
protect its Companion Pop-up Banner software.
Critics have also suggested that Gator.com's software
download is "hidden" in the download of its password
and username management software for websurfers. And Critics
have also argued that the software is difficult to remove
once installed. Similar complaints have been made against
TopText, software which which changes the text on
webpages (on any website) to highlighted yellow links
that advertisers have purchased from eZula, the
producer of TopText. Websites such as Scumware.com,
Stopscum.com and Take Back the Web
have emerged to combat the recent outbreak of banner and text
changing software.
Source: The Write News 8-29-01
- In addition to canceled technology publications, specialty
technology sections in major newspapers are also
folding. However, many technology-related articles
will still appear in other sections of the newspapers, such
as the business section.
Source USA Today 8-28-01
- Primedia, Inc. and
key Primedia executives have been accused of racketerring
in a lawsuit filed by a Primedia employee. In addition to
violating racketeering statutes the suit also alleges breach
of contract, promissory fraud, and failure to pay wages due.
The law firm of Rosenfeld,
Meyer & Susman, LLP filed the case
in the central district of California and is seeking additional
Primedia employees to join in the lawsuit.
Primedia called the lawsuit "frivolous and baseless" in a
statement made to DotCom Scoop.
Source: Dow Jones, DotCom Scoop 8-28-01
- Red Herring, a technology business publication,
is likely to change its publishing frequency,
but will continue publishing. The publication may soon
lower its frequency from biweekly to 12-18 issues annually.
The company, which has laid off employees more than once this
year, denied rumors that it would be shutting its doors.
Source: MediaWeek 8-28-01
- As expected Standard Media, publisher of The Industry
Standard, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The
company announced that it would cease publication of the
print edition of The Industry Standard last week.
Source: TechTV, Financial Times, The Industry Standard,
New York Times 8-28-01
- Flooz.com, an Internet currency, has closed its doors.
At one point you could buy books from Barnes & Noble and music
from Tower Records with Flooz. 8-28-01
- .INFO Fraud
A study has found that as many as 25% of all early .info
registrations from Afilias
may be fraudelent.
In these registrations people claimed to
own the trademark when they filled out a pre-registration
form to claim the domain name. The early registration
period was supposed to only be for trademark holders.
Source: Newsbytes 8-28-01
- Publishers Face Growing Piracy Problem
Publishers and authors face a growing concern
from Internet pirates. Envisional, an Internet
monitoring company, found about 7,300 copyrighted
titles being traded for free over the Internet. Stephen
King, J.K. Rowling, Terry Pratchett, J.R.R. Tolkien, Tom Clancy,
Douglas Adams, Iain M. Banks, John Grisham, Douglas Coupland
and Irvine Welsh were the top ten pirated authors.
Source: The Write News 8-24-01
- Print Begins Its Decline
Hammered by lower dot-com advertising, rising postal rates
and canceled subscriptions by consumers that increasingly
prefer the Web, the circulations of many print magazines
have started to shrink. The most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations
report found that circulation has dropped for 76 of
the top 200 magazines. TV Guide suffered a huge plunge. With
a decrease of 13.1% it missed its rate-base by over 500,000 copies.
Source: Ad Age 8-24-01
- Artist Television Group (ATG), Michael Ovitz's
television production company, has notified its writers and
producers to look for work elsewhere. ATG also recently
laid off most of its 38 employees. Agents claim that ATG still
owes writers $8 million.
Source: L.A. Times 8-24-01
- AOL Time Warner has cut 90 positions from IPC, the British
magazine publisher it recently acquired. IPC's
BEME.com, Uploaded.com and UnmissableTV.com websites will
be shut down. Source: CNET, Financial Times 8-24-01
- Some people do not trust AOL or Microsoft. A study from
Gartner found that 37% of those surveyed
have a "high level of distrust" in AOL and
29% have a "high level of distrust" in Microsoft.
Source: Newsbytes 8-24-01
- The Knot, Inc., an online wedding resource,
has been delisted from The Nasdaq National Market, effective
August 23, 2001. The Company's common stock will now trade on
the NASD OTC Bulletin Board. 8-24-01
- The Guardian Uses The 'R' Word
The Guardian has used the word recession in article
describing the decline in advertising sales at major
advertising agencies in the UK.
Source: MediaGuardian 8-24-01
- Excite's own accountants have reported that the company
may not be able to continue. Excite, a web portal,
search engine and high-speed Internet access provider,
was one of the first web search portals along with sites like Yahoo.
Source: USA Today, CNET, Newsbytes 8-23-01
- Fairchild Publications is putting the
launch of WWD.com, the subscription-only website of
Women's Wear Daily, on hold. The site was
to launch on September 10th and Fairchild was planning to charge
$895 per year for subscriptions to the website.
Source: New York Post 8-23-01
- Digitrends.net,
a resource for marketing professionals,
has not updated its online news or articles since July, 2001.
8-23-01
- Hearst Magazines is ceasing publication of
Classic American Home, a bimonthly magazine with a
circulation of over 500,000. Here is a link to Hearst's
current website for the magazine.
Source: New York Times 8-22-01
- Affiliate solutions provider BeFree, which represents retailers
and content-related companies including Barnes & Noble.com,
About.com, Digital Goods and Reader's Digest, has laid off 25 %
of its workforce. BeFree managed affiliate solutions for many
struggling or failed dot-coms that have canceled their affiliate
programs including Quokka Sports, Digital Goods,
Etoys.com, Altavista, NBCi,
NetRadio, Garden.com, Octopus.com, iBelieve, iThought and Xdrive.
This is BeFree's second round of layoffs this year. In April, 2001
BeFree cut 16% of its workforce.
Source: Revenews 8-23-01
- AOL Time Warner has cut 1,200 jobs for its America Online
unit, plus 500 jobs from its iPlanet, its software alliance
with Sun Microsystems. The job cuts had been rumored for
weeks. AOL Time Warner has cut thousands of
jobs this year.
Source: CNET, Newsbytes 8-23-01
- Buy.com, an online retailer of books, computers, software,
games and other products, might be unable to continue operations
if it is unable to find a new credit card service provider.
Buy.com's arrangement with its current credit card service
provide will expire on September, 1st.
Source: CNET, Financial Times 8-22-01
- Wired reported that some print-on-demand (POD)
publishers plan to raise the cover prices of their books
by as much as 30%.
Both Xlibris and 1stBooks plan to increase the sale price
by as much as 30% effective September 1st, 2001.
The POD publishers claim that retailers are willing
to pay less to stock the books. Wired reported that
iUniverse.com is not yet raising its cover prices, but it
is evaluating the issue and will make a decision in a
few months. The price increase will send the
cover price of some POD books on online retailers such
as Amazon.com over the $20 mark and authors are
concerned this could have an impact on their books sales.
POD books are printed as paperback books.
Source: Xlibris, Wired 8-22-01
- Booktech.com has hired Altas Capital Services, an investment
banking firm, to explore a possible sale of the company.
The company has encountered difficulties in raising
additional capital.
Source: Publishers Weekly 8-22-01
- Peter Bart, Variety's editor in chief,
has been suspended following
a cover story about Peter Bart in Los Angeles magazine
entitled, "Is this the most Hated Man in Hollywood?"
The article quotes Bart using derogatory comments and terms
about blacks, Jews and gays. The article also reported that
Bart was trying to sell a screenplay while working at Variety.
The suspension was announced
by Tad Smith, president of the Cahners media division,
who sent a memo to all Cahners' employees.
Source: L.A. Times, New York Times 8-20-01
- Working Woman magazine will go on hiatus following
publication of the September issue,
with plans for a re-launch next year. The entire staff
of Working Woman magazine was let go and some
of the Working Mother employees were also let go.
The publications were acquired by Carol Evans, a
former publisher of the magazine, and MCG Capital.
Evans is relaunching the company as Working
Mother Media.
Source: The Write News 8-17-01
- Creative Planet, a resource for entertainment
professionals, has cut
another 25 positions, leaving the company with just 80 employees.
Earlier this year the company employed over 220 people.
Source: Newsybtes 8-17-01
- Bold Magazine,
a celebrity gossip and
entertainment magazine, has temporarily suspended publication.
Source: Wooden Horse Publishing 8-17-01
- Excite has laid off another 200 employees.
The struggling web portal has laid off about 700 employees this
year. Source: Newsbytes 8-17-01
- The Industry Standard is ceasing publication of its print
magazine and laying off most of its 180 employees.
Only a few will remain to update the website at
thestandard.com. The print publication has lost over
70% of its advertising since the Internet's golden days.
The Industry Standard has succumbed to an advertising
drought that appears to be stretching into 2002.
Standard Media International, the parent company of
The Industry Standard, is expected to file for Chaper 11
bankruptcy.
Source: The Write News, TheStandard.com, The Washington Post,
AdAge.com, CNET, The New York Times, MSNBC 8-17-01
- Toilet Paper Publishing
New publishing launches usually are not mentioned on the
Editorial Dead Zone, but a company named
Wishi, which
plans to reprint classic literature on toilet paper,
deserves a mention. The German advertising company plans
to print the toilet paper books in installments if
they are too long for one roll of toilet paper. The books
will be presented at the next Frankfurt book fair.
Enough said.
Source: Ananova 8-16-01
- What are some of the worst selling books on Amazon.com?
A recent investigation by the Associated Press uncovered
several rarely purchased titles including Mastering Management:
Your Single-Source Guide to Becoming a Master of Management
(ranked No. 2,196,969) and Vol. VII of the papers of John
Winthrop -- the first governor of Massachusetts.
Source: CNET 8-16-01
- Tribune Media Services, a subsidiary of the Tribune
Company, is laying off 52 employees at
entertainment products operations in Glens Falls, N.Y.
Source: Editor & Publisher 8-16-01
- American Lawyer Media has instituted an aggressive cost management program to reduce operating costs in response to softening economic and advertising conditions. In addition to workforce reductions, the company has consolidated recent acquisitions, lowered marketing expenses and taken steps to reduce newsprint usage across publications. The company did not give specifics on the
number of employees that would be affected.
``Despite a substantial increase in law firm advertising revenues in the first half of the year, adverse economic conditions had a substantial impact on general classified and display advertising revenues. At the same time, we believe that our performance during this slowdown has outpaced peer publishing groups,'' said William Pollak, President and Chief Executive Officer of ALM. ``In response to the advertising downturn across the industry, we undertook substantial restructuring and cost reduction programs in the first half of the year, and will continue to further reduce operating expenses in the months ahead.''
- Buy.com's shares have been delisted from
The Nasdaq National Market. 8-15-01
- Nerve Magazine, a 75,000 circulation
sex and culture publication, is
going on hiatus until next Spring and has laid off
a few employees.
Source: Silicon Alley Daily 8-14-01
- eWeek,
an ebusiness enterprise magazine published by
Ziff Davis, has laid off four
employees.
Source: Press Access 8-14-01
- The World Wide Wrestling Federation which uses the
initials WWF will be required to abandon the
wwf.com domain name
after losing a court battle
to the World Wildlife Fund,
which owns the trademark to WWF.
The producer of wrestling entertainment will be
allowed limited use of the WWF initials in the United States.
Source: CNET 8-13-01
- Fifty employees were let go at Hearst, including
employees at Good Housekeeping, Country Living and Esquire.
Source: The New York Post 8-13-01
- Microsoft is shutting down ClickTrade, an
affiliate network with over 120,000 affiliate members.
The company is referring affiliates and merchants
to Commission Junction, a competiting affiliate network.
ClickTrade has posted a FAQ explaining the shutdown.
ClickTrade will be shut down on September 6, 2001.
8-13-01
- Media General, a newpaper and media company,
has cut holiday bonuses for some of
its 3,200 employees. The company said that only
employees at The Tampa Tribune, the Richmond Times-Dispatch
and Media General's Richmond, Virginia headquarters will have
their holiday bonuses cut.
Source: MediaWeek 8-10-01
- Blue Zone, Inc., a content management company, announced that
Nasdaq will no longer list its stock on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market.
The Company's securities can now be found on the OTC Bulletin
Board under the symbol BLZN.
The decision to delist Blue Zone's securities was based
on the Company's failure to maintain a minimum bid price of $1
per share and to satisfy the $2
million net tangible assets requirement. 8-10-01
- AOL is expected
to make an announcement this week
about heavily rumored layoffs. About 1,000 of AOL's 90,000
employees are expected to be laid off.
Source: CBS MarketWatch 8-10-01
- Ziff Davis has launched a comprehensive
restructuring program. Over the past few weeks
the company has announced layoffs, the closing of
FamilyPC magazine and has put several magazines on
the block. In its Quarter Two statement the company
announced that the restructing plan includes a
reduction of its workforce by 23%, suspension of the
publication of FamilyPC (as previously announced) and
a reduction in office space. 8-10-01
- Bridge Information Systems is laying off
130 of its 140 editorial employes. The company
is selling its business contracts to Dow Jones.
Dow Jones will hire the ten remaining Bridge
employees.
Source: CBS MarketWatch 8-10-01
- Readers Dump Magazines for the Web
Lyra Research has found that a significant number
of magazine readers are canceling their magazine
subscriptions because information can be found easier
and faster online. 24% of those surveyed said
they had already canceled magazine subscriptions.
It is difficult for print magazines to compete with
the Internet when information is printed
weeks, or even months, after it is available
online. The survey is yet another indication
that print magazines are on a slow march towards
extinction.
Source: Media Life Magazine 8-10-01
- Salon.com
is laying off 14 employees after receiving
a last-minute $2.5 million in additional funding.
One of the tough conditions of the new funding is that
Salon must break even without the need for any additional
funds. Salon is also planning a 10-to-1 reverse stock-split
to keep its value about Nasdaq's $1 minimum requirement. There
are 55 employees remaining at the company.
Source: The Industry Standard,
Newsbytes,
SFGate.com 8-10-01
- Listen.com, an online music website,
has cut 30 of its 95 employees, about 32% of its workforce.
Listen.com
has now laid off 107 employees since the start of the year.
Source: Newsbytes 8-9-01
- 7,000 media jobs have been lost in the U.K. so
far this year as advertising revenues have plummeted.
Source: MediaGuardian 8-9-01
- Dot Info Fraud
Reports indicate that some dishonest
domain name grabbers are submitting
false entries to Afilias (the company operating the new .info
domains) claiming they have registered trademarks.
During the sunrise period only companies holding
legitimate trademarks registered prior to October 2000 are
allowed to pre-register for a .info domain name, but
critics indicate that some registrants are submitting
false entries in an attempt to grab coveted domain names.
The false entries could potentially cause numerous delays
and disputes.
Source: Newsbytes 8-8-01
- Editors at The
New York Times allowed an unusual
crossword puzzle titled "Homonames" to slip through.
New York Times editors claim the puzzle was about
homonyms, but the puzzle included references to
celebrities presumed to be gay as well as possible
allusions to gay life. The Times stated it would
never have done this intentionally in an
Editor's
Note because "Slurs involving
sexual orientation would be a
violation of The Times's standards."
Source: MSNBC
via Jim Romenesko's
MediaNews 8-8-01
- Playboy Enterprises has cut 14 sales and marketing
positions. Two cuts were at Playboy magazine and the rest
were from Playboy.com, its Internet division.
Source: MediaWeek 8-8-01
- VNU eMedia
has laid off editorial staff at
AdWeek.com, MediaWeek.com and EditorandPublisher.com.
Layoffs also occured in other deparments.
About 14 employees were let go.
Source: SiliconAlleyDaily.com 8-7-01
- Internet.com Laid Off 25% in Q2
During the second quarter, INT Media Group eliminated approximately
25% of its total workforce and dropped the dot.com from its name.
The company was formerly known as Internet.com. The company stated
that most of the reductions involved positions made redundant by
acquisitions of websites and Internet media properties. INT has
acquired numerous web industry businesses and websites over the
past few years, including ClickZ.com. The company said the rest
of the reductions were the result of the softening advertising
market. The company had 270 employees as of June 30, 2001. 8-7-01
- London based Booktailor.com has shut down. The company blamed
economic conditions for its downfall. A note on Booktailor's
website stated, "Due to the current downturn of the
media market and to Booktailor's sensitivity to this situation,
Booktailor's Investors and Management have decided to
discontinue activities."
Booktailor provided tailor publishing services -- services
that enabled publishers to offer dynamic customized books
to their customers. Bertelsmann was an investor
in the company. 8-7-01
- Gazette Publications, a group of California weekly
newspapers, has cancelled several of its editions.
Source: Editor and Publisher 8-6-01
- 300 employees in AOL Time Warner's publishing unit have
accepted buyout offers. More layoffs are expected at the
company in the near future.
Source: Washingtonpost.com 8-6-01
- Christian book publisher and
distributor Thomas
Nelson Publishing is cutting about twenty employees,
including a few senior executives.
Source: The Write News 8-3-01
- TheGlobe.com will be shutting down its web community
theglobe.com
and its web hosting service webjump.com.
The company is also looking to sell its gaming websites
and publications. The company also announced it will cut
60 employees, or 49% of its workforce. Another 59 employees
were let go in April, 2001.
Source: The Write News 8-3-01
- Miller Publishing Group has slashed staff at
Vibe.com
and Spin.com.
Only two employees remain to run the online music websites.
Source: Newsbytes 8-3-01
- United Business Media,
parent company of CMP Media (publisher
of Information Week and Internet Week),
has cut about 700 jobs this year. 500 of the cuts
were in the U.S., where the technology publications
have suffered because of the advertising downturn.
Source: MediaGuardian 8-3-01
- Comedy Central
has cancelled That's My Bush!, a
White House sitcom from Trey Parker and Matt Stone,
the creators of South Park. That's My Bush!
had about 1 million less viewers than South Park and
cost over twice as much to produce.
Source: MediaWeek 8-3-01
- The Oxford
American, which recently decreased its frequency from
monthly to quarterly, is in need of subscribers. With the
last issue current subscribers received a letter from editor
Marc Smirnoff requesting their help to find
additional subscribers to help keep The Oxford
American alive.
Source: Media Life Magazine 8-3-01
- Time Out, a London listings magazine, has fired most of
its online staff. 7 of the 10 employees at Timeout.com
have been let go.
Source: Media Guardian 8-3-01
- Future Network, the publisher of
Total Film and PlayStation 2 and former
publisher of Business 2.0, is putting itself up
for sale. The company has laid off over 500
employees this year.
Source: Media Guardian 8-2-01
- Correction: The End of Free is Still Alive.
In early June we posted that TheEndofFree.com, a
weblog covering web publications and services that
switch from free to fee-based business models,
had shut down. The End of Free has informed us that
the site is still active and had only shut down for a few days
because of network problems. The weblog is still actively
covering companies switching from free to fee-based
business models and they should be able to find plenty
of content for the rest of this year given the
way things are going. The End of Free can be found at:
http://www.theendoffree.com. 8-2-01
- Netcentives Inc., an online marketing company, has
cut half of its staff. 180 of its 345 employees will
be laid off.
Source: Newsbytes 8-1-01
- The Weekly Alibi, an alternative newsweekly in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, has laid off 3
editorial employees.
Source: AAN 8-1-01
- World Publications
has lost Garden Design editor
Michael Boodro and possibly five other editorial staffers
after announcing the publication would be moved from New
York to Winter Park, Florida.
Source: MediaWeek 8-1-01
- Verlagsgruppe Milchstrasse, a German publisher, has
closed Net Business, an Internet business magazine.
Source: Newsbytes 8-1-01
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