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August 2002
- Oxygen.com Down to 15 Employees
Oxygen.com, an online resource for women,
is laying off 30 employees, about 2/3 of its staff.
The remaining 15 employees will stay on to
run the Oxygen.com website.
Source: News.com 8-28-02
- Chronicle PM Edition To Cease
The San Francisco Chronicle is ceasing
publication of its PM Edition, which had a small
daily circulation of only 8,000 copies. Friday, Sept. 27
will the last issue for the PM Edition of the
newspaper.
Source: SFGate.com 8-27-02
- Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc. announced
that it has received a Nasdaq Staff Determination
indicating that the Company has not complied with
Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4310(c)(14) by failing to
file its Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2002
n a timely basis, and that its securities are, therefore,
subject to delisting from the Nasdaq National Stock Market.
Gemstar has requested a hearing to review the Staff
Determination. 8-26-02
- F***edCompany.com Gives In to Trademark Demands
F***edcompany.com was shut down temporarily by
the Ford Motor Company. Ford said
F***edcompany.com was violating
one of its trademarks and managed to get the site's
hosting provider to temporarily close the site.
F***edcompany.com has also succumbed to
other recent trademark demands including closing its
Yahotties.com website and changing
its Amazonscan.com site to Junglescan.com.
Over the past couple years F***edcompany.com has received
many cease-and-desist letters from trademark
lawyers representing various companies.
Source: News.com 8-24-02
- Blogs Go From Very Hot to Not That Popular?
Blogging
may not be as popular as previously thought because many new
blogs are just relaunched or renamed versions of older
blogs -- or new blogs by the same people.
Neilsen//NetRatings even told Wired News that blogging
is "not that popular". However, providers of blog hosting
and tools such as Blogger.com and UserLand are still
reporting growing numbers of bloggers.
Source: Wired 8-24-02
- The Enchanted Forest, a beloved Dallas-based
independent children's bookstore is closing its doors.
Source: DallasNews.com 8-24-02
- Financial Woes Threaten DoubleTake
DoubleTake magazine, a guide to the latest
documentary work, is struggling for economic
survival. The respected magazine with an editorial
staff of six primarily survives on donations.
Source: Boston Globe 8-21-02
- DoubleClick Closes San Mateo Office
DoubleClick, a provider of advertising and email marketing
technologies, is closing its office in
San Mateo, California. DoubleClick has laid off over
1,000 workers since its peak of 2,300 employees, nearly
50% of its total workforce. DoubleClick's stock has
plummeted by an even greater percentage from over
$130 per share to around $6 per share, a staggering
95% drop.
Source: Bloomberg 8-21-02
- More Newspaper Ad Worries
Newspaper recruitment advertising revenues have
dropped again causing concern. Gannett and
The New York Times Company both reported steep drops
for the month of July. If revenues continue to drop,
it could lead to additional job cuts in the
newspaper industry.
Source: New York Times 8-20-02
- Penton Media Receives Delisting Warning
Penton Media, Inc. has been notified by the New
York Stock Exchange (NYSE) that its common
stock is "below criteria" for continued listing because
the average closing price of its common stock for a
consecutive 30-day period prior to notification was
below $1.00. Under NYSE guidelines, Penton Media
must return its share price and average share price
back above $1.00 by six months following receipt of
the NYSE's notification. The NYSE also noted that the
Company's common stock has recently traded as low
as $.33, which is often viewed by the New York Stock
Exchange as abnormally low. 8-20-02
- Serious Literature is Boring and Irritating
Serious fiction is heavily promoted by review
sources such as Kirkus, The New
York Times Book Review and The
Times Literary Supplement, but a lot of serious
literary fiction is actually extremely boring and
annoying -- according to
A Reader's Manifesto: An Attack on the Growing
Pretentiousness in American Literary Prose (Melville House Publishing).
This new book by B.R. Myers attacks serious
literary fiction by authors including Annie Proulx,
Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, Paul Auster and
David Guterson.
Source: FoxNews.com 8-19-02
- Chaos! Comics Files Chapter 7
CBR news reported that comic book publisher
Chaos! Comics has shut
down all of its operations following a
Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing.
Source: CBR 8-19-02
- Brilliant Digital Performs Poorly
Brilliant
Digital, the company behind Altnet, a
peer-to-peer network secretly installed on millions of
people's home computers, performed poorly last
quarter with a net loss of about $2 million.
Source: News.com 8-19-02
- New York Times Book Review Cuts Reviews
In the latest news about newspapers and
magazines cutting book review editorial, Newsweek
reported that The New York Times Book Review
has scaled back the number of book reviews
it publishes each issue
because of plummeting ad revenue.
Source: Newsweek 8-19-02
- Talk City Shutdown: Websites Left Stranded
Last week's Talk City shutdown has left numerous
websites without their sites and web content.
Talk City acted as a web host for about
2.5 million home pages when it was being run
by LiveWorld.
Source: News.com 8-15-02
- BarnesandNoble.com Receives Nasdaq Delisting Warning
Barnes and Noble's online counterpart BarnesandNoble.com
has received notice that it could be delisted from
the Nasdaq. BarnesandNoble.com trades as BNBN on the Nasdaq
stock exchange. The online bookstore stock has
performed terribly and trades under $1 per share.
The stock received the warning for trading under
$1 for 30 days and could be delisted if it does not
trade above $1 per share before Nov. 4th.
Some experts have been suggested that eventually
the online bookstore will be merged back into the
bricks-and-mortar company.
Source: News.com 8-14-02
- AOL Admits Inappropriate Accounting
AOL has admitted to $49 million worth
of improper transactions that were incorrectly
labeled as advertising and ecommerce revenues.
The company is being investigated by the
SEC and the Justice Department.
Source: Washingtonpost.com,
CNN,
News.com, BBC 8-14-02
- VNU announced it will cease publication
of PC Magazine, Network News and What PC? --
three UK technology magazines.
Source: Guardian 8-14-02
- CNet Stock Down 97% in 2002
CNet's stock is down 97% this year.
The online technology media and services company, which
recently laid off 10% of its workforce,
may not survive without a merger.
Source: Marketwatch.com 8-14-02
- Vivendi Posts Huge Loss, Plans Houghton Mifflin Sale
Vivendi Universal, French media company,
reported an enormous $12 billion loss for
the first six months of 2002 and now plans to sell
Houghton Mifflin, the publishing company it acquired in 2001.
Source: Boston Globe, New York Times, Washingtonpost.com, Publishers Weekly 8-14-02
- Slate Still Online, But Not Profitable
Slate, a Microsoft owned online magazine,
is still publishing content, but has yet
to make a profit. Slate, which has 33 employees,
might not reach profitability for another 18-24 months.
Luckily for Slate, Microsoft has been a very patient
supporter.
Source: OJR 8-13-02
- Cablevision Systems, a telecommunications and
entertainment company,
is reducing costs by cutting jobs and closing electronic stores.
Cablevision plans to cut 1,500 jobs about 7% of its workforce.
Source: New York Times 8-9-02
- Talk City Silenced
Talk City, an online community and provider of live chat,
has closed its website and filed Chapter 7.
Source: News.com 8-8-02
- RealNetworks,
which provides the RealPlayer software for streaming audio
and other media, is laying off 90 employees out of a workforce
of 800, over 10% of its workforce.
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, News.com 8-8-02
- Looksmart Ends BeSeen.com Services
LookSmart, Ltd is closing down its Beseen.com
website, which offered free tools for website owners, such
as counters and bulletin boards. A note on
the website reads: "Due to the high cost of
offering this free service, we regret that we
will shortly be shutting down BeSeen.com and
BeSeen services on August 26th, 2002."
- Is Eisner the Next Media Mogul to Go?
Several prominent media moguls have been booted
this year. Could Eisner be next? Disney
has been struggling and its stock's close at
$13.90 on 8-8-02 was its lowest close since November 1994.
Source: L.A. Times 8-8-02
- CBA Trying to Close Amazon.ca
The Canadian Booksellers Association (CBA) and Canadian
retailer Indigo Books & Music have requested a
judicial review to try and overturn the decision by
Canada's federal government to allow Amazon.ca to
operate. Canadian retailers have been upset with Amazon's
entry into Canada, despite Amazon's pledge to purchase
products directly from Canadian publishers and retailers.
Source: Canoe, Wired
8-8-02
- United Business Media has cut 500 employees including
employees at PR Newswire and CMP Media. CMP Media's total
number of employees has dropped from 2,700 to 1,700 since
April, 2001.
Source: O'Dwyer's PR Daily 8-7-02
- More Layoffs at Red Herring
Red Herring Communications has undergone its third
round of layoffs in the past year. This time
Red Herring is laying off 35% of its workforce -- about
33 employees. Its total number of employees, about 50, now
equals its 1996 number of total employees.
Source: Forbes.com, SFGate.com, News.com 8-7-02
- World SF Convention Attendance Down
The SFWA reported that attendance is down
and money is tight for the upcoming
60th World Science Fiction Convention to be held in
San Jose, California on August 29, 2002.
Source: SFWA 8-5-02
- Maybe someday BarnesandNoble.com will get
around to fixing its security problems? Some customers
are concerned with BN.com's slow and unresponsive
stance on its security flaws and holes. Wired reported
that some of the holes (that have not yet been patched)
allow hackers to access important customer information.
Source: Wired 8-5-02
- Hotmail Email Purge. Some users of Hotmail, a
web-based email service, are outraged that the company
has cleared out emails older than 30-days old. Hotmail
purged the emails on its non-paid accounts. The company
has been trying to move its customers towards its paid
services, which provide more options including extra
storage. Source: News.com 8-5-02
- AnywhereYouGo.com Closes
The HP AnywhereYouGo.com
website ceased operations
on July 30, 2002. AnywhereYouGo.com provided
wireless industry news, technology tutorials and profiles. 8-5-02
- End of VCR Nears
How much longer will the VCR survive?
According to a recent study from Screen Digest, 85% of Western
Europeans will be purchasing movies on DVD instead
of VCR by 2006.
Source: BBC 8-5-02
- CNN Student News Show Cuts Jobs
CNN is shortening its Student News Show from 30 minutes
to 10 minutes and letting about 10 of the 30 employees go.
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution 8-9-02
- J2 Communications (OTC Bulletin Board: JTWO), owner of the
National Lampoon trademark, announced that NASDAQ had
denied the appeal of the delisting of the Company's common
stock from the Nasdaq SmallCap Market.
J2 Communications owns National Lampoon, which
is active in a broad array
of entertainment activities, including feature films, television
programming, interactive entertainment, home video, comedy
audio CD's and book publishing. 8-5-02
- Sony Music Fires 100
Sony Music Entertainment has laid off 100 of
its 5,000 U.S. employees.
Source: Hollywood Reporter 8-2-02
- ON24, a provider of
webcast services, has closed down its
financial news division and laid off 15 people.
Source: News.com 8-2-02
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