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July 2002
- AOL's Accounting Practices Investigated
AOL Time Warner is under investigation for its accounting
practices by both the US Justice Department and
the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Source: BBC 7-31-02
- Ziff Davis Bankruptcy Filing Expected
Ziff Davis Media, the struggling technology publisher that has
shut down a number of titles this year including
Yahoo Internet Life, Expedia Travels and Family
PC, is now expected to file for
bankruptcy protection.
Source: AdAge.com 7-30-02
- Sales of Business Books Drop
Business books are a tough sell these days
thanks to the dot-com collapse and poor economy.
Source: CNN 7-30-02
- Black Sparrow Press, an independent book publisher,
has closed its doors and sold the rights to its three
top authors to HarperCollins.
A note on the Black Sparrow website reads:
"After 36 years, John and Barbara Martin are retiring from
publishing. Our books will continue to be available from the
following publishers. Thank you again (and again) for your
interest and loyal support all of these years."
Source: SFGate.com 7-30-02
- Surfers Despise Pop-up Ads
Web publishers beware: run pop-up advertisements and annoy
away your users. They may damage the brand names
of the advertisers as well, according to iVillage's
recent survey. iVillage.com
has decided to do away
with nearly all of its pop-up advertisements after it discovered that
more than 95% find them frustrating. Google also
maintains a no pop-up policy.
Source: News.com 7-29-02
- Media Mogul Booting Outbreak
The heads of many media companies are being booted.
Recent media mogul boots include Thomas Middelhoff of
Bertelsmann, Jean-Marie Messier of Vivendi Universal SA and
Robert W. Pittman of AOL Time Warner. Who's next?
Source: Washingtonpost.com 7-30-02
- The Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA)
website has been shut down by a denial-of-service
attack. The attack was possibly related to the RIAA's
recent endorsement of a controversial bill that allows
companies to hack into peer-to-peer networks and PC's
used to illegally trade files.
Source: News.com 7-29-02
- Bertelsmann Boots Middelhoff
Bertelsmann, the
German-based media giant, has
given CEO Thomas Middelhoff the boot after
a dispute with the supervisory board.
Source: BBC, Fortune 7-29-02
- Could Terra Lycos Lose Bertelsmann?
Spanish media giant Terra Lycos is at risk of losing
Bertelsmann, its biggest advertiser. Lycos
has $675 million remaining on a $1 billion deal it signed
with Bertelsmann in May, 2002.
Reuters reported that one analysts said losing Bertelsmann
could be the end of Lycos. Terra Lycos runs the lycos.com
and hotbot.com search engines, Raging Bull, Tripod,
Wired News and other websites.
Source: Europemedia.net, Reuters 7-27-02
- Lousy BtoB Magazine Ad Sales
The Business Information Network (BIN) reported total
magazine advertising pages for May 2002 were 51,321,300,
a 16.5% decline vs. year ago.
Advertising revenue for the same period totaled $640,222,800,
down 16.9% vs. year ago. BIN measures more than 1,300 titles
in 12 mega categories from computers to finance, business
and advertising to automotive to telecommunications.
Source: BIN 7-26-02
- Miramax Films and Hearst Magazines have terminated
their employment of Tina Brown.
Tina Brown's Talk Magazine was a failure and ceased
publishing in January, 2002. Until this final termination,
Ms. Brown had remained with the company
after the closing of Talk Magazine and was working
with the Talk Magazine Books division.
Source: The Scotsman 7-25-02
- Hollywood industry groups such as the
MPAA and
RIAA are seeking the
right to hack and disable your PC and peer-to-peer networks
if illegal file trading is possibly occurring. CNET reported that
Congress is about to introduce the controversial bill.
Source: News.com 7-23-02
- AOL Layoffs
More AOL layoffs appear likely, especially after the
recent sell-off in AOL shares.
About 60 of AOL's 1,000 employees in Dulles, Virginia
are expected to be let go.
Source: Washingtonpost.com 7-20-02
- The Crash of 2002: Media Stocks Plummet
The stock values of many major media companies
dropped by as much as 5-15% Friday as the
Dow sank by nearly 400 points.
Source: Marketwatch.com 7-19-02
- Book Thieves
Book theft appears to be on the rise.
This article from the New York Times called
"The Best Stealer List" discusses
the types of books thieves like to steal.
Expensive art and photography books are a popular
choice.
Souce: New York Times 7-18-02
- Cable Guy Turned Spy
Is your cable guy spying on you?
How about the meter reader or the postman?
The new Terrorist Information and Prevention System (TIPS)
plans to turn millions of people with professions like these and other
volunteers into spies to report suspicious behavior to
the government. Operation TIPS is scheduled to be launched in late summer or early fall 2002.
Source: News.com, Operation TIPS 7-17-02
- Publishing Insurance Rises
Publishers Weekly has reported that
insurance companies are raising fees on
libel and copyright infringement policies. This,
in turn, raises costs for publishers and authors.
According to the article, the National Writers Union
(NWU) has already dumped its libel insurance policy for
authors and Random House has already promised to pass
these extra costs onto its authors.
Publishers may also change their policies and publish
less risky titles.
Source: Publishers Weekly 7-15-02
- Writing Degree Overload
Are there too many writing degrees and writing
courses available? Are they all being taught by
qualified people? There probably is a glut of writing
programs according to this article from the Chicago
Tribune -- but there is also a high demand for them.
And as one might expect, there are good courses
and not so good ones.
Source: Chicago Tribune 7-14-02
- CNET, a provider of
technology information and services,
has blocked its staff from accessing the f***edcompany.com
website after laying off about 10% of its workforce. CNET
said it blocked access to the site because some of the postings
""violate our non-discrimination and non-harassment policy."
Source: Washingtonpost.com 7-15-02
- Ad Pages Down Yet Again
Advertising pages are down nearly 10% for the year according
to the Publishers Information Bureau. And technology
ad pages are down over 30% as the advertising recession continues
to pound print magazines.
Source: AdAge.com 7-12-02
- Judge Orders Gator to Stop
Gator has been ordered to temporarily stop running its pop-up
advertisement on the websites of publishers.
Several leading publishers, including the New York Times
and Washinton Post, had filed suit to
get Gator to stop running the advertisements on their
websites. The publishers, which call Gator a parasite,
also accused Gator of promoting
its ability to place ads on their websites through marketing
materials.
Source: News.com 7-12-02
- The Financial Times is dumping its Saturday
supplement, the Business. The company blames the weak economy for its
decision to axe the supplement.
Source: The Guardian 7-12-02
- USA Today Hacked, False Stories Posted
The USAToday.com website has been hacked. The hackers were
able to change the front page of the newspaper's site and
post several fake stories. The hack was caught quickly and the
site was down for about four hours while the breach was
corrected.
Source: Drudge Report, Forbes, News.com 7-12-02
- Burly Bear, a
cable TV and new-media company, has shut down and
laid off 60 employees.
Source: Hollywood Reporter 7-8-02
- Enews.com,
an online magazine subscription retailer jointly owned
by BarnesandNoble.com and Barnes and Noble, Inc. has
shut down and laid off 40 employees.
Source: Washingtonpost.com 7-8-02
- Fake Harry Potter Novels
China has been hit by a wave of fake Harry Potter Novels.
In the fake novel titled Harry Potter And Leopard Walk
Up To Dragon Harry Potter has become an obese dwarf
with no magical powers. The novel is written by an
anonymous author and not by J.K. Rowling. The novel begins
with the line, "Harry doesn't know how long it will take to
wash the sticky cream cake off his face."
Source: BBC 7-8-02
- Reuters announced new cost reductions that will
reduce headcount by a further 650, primarily in senior and
middle management ranks. The Associated Press reported
that Reuters has cut 1,800 jobs in the past twelve
months.
Source: Reuters 7-3-02
- Hughes Communications has folded and closed its
three magazines: Sales & Marketing Strategies and News,
President & CEO Magazine and Human Capital.
The company had 47 employees.
Source: Rockford Register Star 7-2-02
- Yahoo Internet Life to Fold
Ziff Davis is folding
Yahoo Internet Life, its
Internet lifestyle magazine. The publication had over
1.1 million paid subscribers. All 35 employees
at Yahoo Internet Life were let go. August 2002
will be the last issue.
Source: News.com 7-2-02
- PricewaterhouseCoopers Forecasts Serious
Book Publishing Piracy Problems
PricewaterhouseCoopers annual global five-year industry
forecast stated that unless an industry-wide solution is reached,
piracy issues will begin seriously affecting other major
entertainment and media sectors, including filmed entertainment,
home video and consumer book publishing. Despite the threat to
books the report indicated that music publishing will be the
industry most damaged by piracy.
Source: The Write News 7-1-02
- Scumware Takes Profits From Publishers
A News.com article is proposing new laws to combat
spyware and scumware which can steal profits from
publishers and ecommerce websites and track the online
surfing habits of consumers. How can
consumers and publishers be protected from these
emerging threats?
Source: News.com 7-1-02
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