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February 2003
- Microsoft bCentral, which provides web hosting and newsletter
services, suffered a temporary outage on Friday. The outage disrupted
service to about 15,000 bCentral customers.
Source: News.com 2-28-03
- Saddam: French Media Mogul?
The New York Post is reporting that Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein owns a $90 million (a nearly 2% stake) in
Lagardere SCA, the French media giant and parent company of
Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. (HFM US).
HFM US, is a leading magazine publisher. Its titles include
Elle, Premiere, Woman's Day, Car and Driver and many others.
Source: New York Post 2-27-03
- Salon Begs Subscribers to Beg Friends
Salon.com, the online media company that continues to lose
money and is desperate for more cash, is now
begging its readership to contact their friends
and ask them to subscribe. Apparently,
Salon.com's own marketing strategies are not
working. Many analysts do not expect the
company to last much longer.
Sources: journalism.co.uk, Sunday Herald 2-26-03
- The Moody Bible
Institute in Chicago is ceasing publication of
Moody magazine
and closing its bookstores. The publication will end in six
months with the July/August 2003 issue being the last.
Source: Christian Science Monitor 2-25-03
- The owners of the Hot or
Not website claim the Are You Hot?
reality tv show violates its "Hot or Not" trademark. The website's
two owners, James Hong, 29, and Jim Young, 30, are considering
legal action.
Source: USA Today 2-21-03
- 1,200 writers could lose health care coverage because of a
dispute between the National Writers Union and
Unicare Health Plans. Unicare claims that Union violated its
contract.
Source: Chicago Tribune 2-21-03
- Shift magazine, a Canadian technology magazine, is ceasing
publication with the March, 2003 issue. The weak advertising
conditions were blamed for the title's downfall.
Source: Globe and Mail, Canada.com 2-21-03
- The San Francisco Examiner has laid off most of its editorial
staff -- about 40 employees.
Source: San Francisco Business Times 2-21-03
- Thomas Nelson, a publisher of Christian books, announced that
it will be laying off about 30 employees. Thomas Nelson also plans to
publish less books in the future.
Source: The Write News 2-18-03
- America Online has ended its AOLTV project after dismal
sales. AOLTV had teamed up with Philips Electronics for the
set-top box project.
Source: News.com 2-18
- Can Salon.com Pay Its Rent?
Salon.com cannot pay its
rent for February -- at least not yet. Fortunately, Salon
always seems to come up with the money just at the last minute.
Unfortunately, Salon also continues to lose money each quarter.
Source: InternetNews.com 2-14-02
- Blackout for BlackBerry Users
Users of BlackBerry
handheld devices experienced temporary outages and
connection problems on Thursday, February 13, 2003. The outages
continued from mid-morning to late afternoon.
Source: News.com 2-14-03
- Online Game Addiction Causes Divorce
For some people playing games can lead to addiction, which can then lead
to divorce. For one popular massively multiplayer online fantasy game, EverQuest, there
are even support groups for women available:
Spouses Against EverQuest and Everquest Widows.
Source: TechTV, Wired 2-14-03
- No Merger for CNN and ABC
The much discussed and rumored CNN and ABC merger will not be happening.
The two companies were concerned about the complex nature
of the merger.
Source: CNN Money 2-13-03
- News websites like CNN.com and ESPN.com are adding
paid links to their search results. News.com reported that
CBSMarketwatch.com and Forbes.com are also planning to include
this type of advertising in the future.
The paid results have caused
some concern among journalism ethics experts who argue that the
ads may make it difficult to determine which is an ad and which
is a real news article. However, CNN told News.com that the
paid search results are clearly labeled as sponsored results and
easy to distinguish from its news links.
Source: News.com 2-12-02
- The state-run New Jersey Outdoors magazine is folding.
The number of subscribers has dropped from 36,000 to 8,500
since 1993.
Source: The Press of Atlantic City 2-10-03
- Some multiplayer games could make your PC vulnerable
to attack. TechTV.com reported that Net games using
GameSpy
multiplayer software could make your PC
vulnerable to malicious denial-of-service attacks by hackers.
Games like Quake and Return to Castle Wolfenstein use
GameSpy software.
Source: TechTV.com 2-10-03
- PalmSource has cut 18% of its workforce. PalmSource
develops the Palm operating system for handheld devices.
Source: News.com 2-10-03
- Layoffs at Terra Lycos
Terra Lycos, a Spanish
media company and owner of the Lycos.com search engine, is
planning to eliminate 147 of its 647 jobs in
the U.S., about 20% of its U.S. workforce.
Source: News.com 2-5-03
- Costco and Borders have refused to carry
books from Sterling Publishing now that it is
owned by competitor Barnes and Noble, Inc.
Barnes and Noble, Inc. acquired the large
how-to publisher in December, 2002.
Source: Publishers Weekly 2-4-03
- Paid Content Model a Disaster For Some
Switching from a free to fee-based content model has
proven to be a disaster for some content providers.
For some newsletters that
switched to a fee-based format, circulations have plummeted
turning what was once a valuable advertising base into a
miniscule monthly amount of revenue from a few hundred subscribers.
Many publishers have also had to cancel their attempts at
charging for content for fear of losing too many subscribers.
To make the free vs. paid content model more confusing for
publishers there have also been a few successful fee-based
newsletters among the disasters. Despite the limited interest
in fee-based content, publishers have found success in getting
users to register for free content.
Sources: PaidContent.org, Editor & Publisher
WWForums.com Paid Content Discussion
WWForums.com Registration for Content Discussion
2-3-03
- Fake CNN News Generator, the website responsible for
creating fake stories that appeared to be from CNN, has been
taken offline. Faked CNN stories from the website were quoted
in several media outlets and websites and were spread around
by email.
Source: Wired 2-3-03
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