The Write News

Black Friday Twitter Tracks Black Friday Ads and News

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:28:00 EST

Twitter.com is a microblogging service that allows users to quickly post short 140-character updates while they are sitting at their computer. Updates can also be posted via email or with a cell phone or other mobile device. The service is also being used increasingly by the media for delivering news and by retail outlets to correspond with customers. A Twitter profile named Black Friday has been set-up that tweet news about the latest Black Friday ads and deals and the latest Black Friday happenings. Black Friday tweets from everyone on Twitter can also be found by using Twitter Search and searching for the test "Black Friday." Black Friday is a big event in the blogging world as bloggers discuss the latest deals - you can find some of the latest blog posts by searching Technorati or Google Blog Search.

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US News and World Report Switching to Monthly

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:00:00 EST

The Associated Press reports that the U.S. News and World Report is going to cut back on the number of issues it publishes. They will be switching to monthly and focus more on the website.

The Washington Post, citing unnamed staffers briefed on the decision, said the magazine's print edition will focus on popular consumer guides such as its annual ranking of colleges, while its Web site will offer expanded features.

U.S. News spokeswoman Liz Putze declined comment to The Associated Press. The magazine is owned by publisher and real estate developer Mortimer B. Zuckerman.

The magazine, which had average circulation of 1.8 million during the first half of the year, announced in June that it planned to change from weekly to biweekly publication.

This news comes not too longer after the Christian Science Monitor announced plans to also move to a monthly print cycle and focus more on its news website.

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Conde Nast to Fold Men's Vogue Into Vogue

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:00:00 EST

Bloomberg reports that Conde Nast is folding Men's Vogue and also cutting back the number of issues of Portfolio from 12 to 10.

Conde Nast Publications Inc. will fold Men's Vogue into the larger women's Vogue magazine and cut the number of issues at its Conde Nast Portfolio business title because of faltering advertising sales.

Men's Vogue will be published twice a year, the closely held New York-based publisher said today in an e-mail. Spokeswoman Maurie Perl said the company hasn't decided whether Men's Vogue will be free-standing or distributed within Vogue, a monthly. She declined to comment on a New York Observer story saying Conde Nast will cut its staff 5 percent.

Layoffs will be about 17% at Portfolio says Bloomberg.

Portfolio will shrink to 10 issues a year from 12 and the publisher will cut staff by about 17 percent, said David Carey, group president for Conde Nast.

The year-old magazine will sell about 680 advertising pages this year, Carey said. Portfolio's ad pages fell 11 percent in the third quarter to 108.75, according to the Magazine Publishers of America.

Portfolio's website can be found at portfolio.com. Vogue's online counterpart is located here on Conde Nast's style.com website.

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Christian Science Monitor to Cease Daily Print Edition

Sat, 8 Nov 2008 21:00:00 EST

BusinessWeek repots that the Christian Science Monitor will be ending its 100-year-old daily print newspaper in April, 2009. The newspaper plans to move its focus to the Internet. They will maintain a weekly print edition. The image on the right is a sample of what the weekly print edition will look like.

The Christian Science Monitor, which turns 100 years old this year, is announcing on Tuesday, Oct. 28, that it will cease daily publication next April. The newspaper will shift to a weekly print format while increasing its emphasis on its Web site, says its editor, John Yemma.

In doing so, the Monitor will become by far the most prominent newspaper to scale back its print edition substantially.

A more detailed article about the transition can be found here on the Christian Science Monitor website. The article says the print edition "has trended downward for nearly 40 years."

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Editorial Dead Zone Roundup

Fri, 7 Nov 2008 18:00:00 EST

Here are some recent news highlights having to do with layoffs, cutbacks and ceased publications.

The Daily Mail reports that Thomson-Reuters may be preparing a round of cuts.
Bloomberg reports that Gannett is reevaluating its dividend after third-quarter profits plunged 32%.
Forbes has a story about the struggling newspaper business.
LA Observed has posted an email memo from editor Russ Stanton about layoffs at the Los Angeles Times.
Folio says that CurtCo Media has put the luxury Robb Report magazine on the block again.
02138 magazine will be ceasing publication - details here, here and here.
Radar magazine is shutting down again.

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Media News Roundup 11-5-08

Wed, 5 Nov 2008 18:00:00 EST

Here are some media news highlights from around the web.

The Metropolitan Dog Club announced they are launching a new magazine called the The Blue Book Magazine. The magazine will be catering to discerning dog enthusiasts and their pampered pets.
Cafe Media, LLC has announced the launch of Cafe magazine, a Latino Lifestyle magazine in English.
Stardoll, a web magazine targeting tween girls, has cut a content deal with Elle US and its editor Malina Joseph.
Sobefit is a new healthy lifestyle magazine focusing on South Florida. DM News reports that Sobefit will launch in December with a circulation of 40,000.
The Food Network has launched Food Network Magazine. It will be bimonthly in 2009. Recipe Exchange has more details.
Spectra is an interesting visual news reader from MSNBC.
The Telegraph reports that the naked chef Jamie Oliver is getting his own magazine.

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Financial Times To Cut 60 Job Positions

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:40:00 EST

The Financial Times is reducing workforce of 1,600 people by 60 positions - primarily in commercial departments. The Guardian reports that no journalists positions are being made redundant.

FT management has begun consultation with employees about the redundancies, with staff in the editorial library and the managing editor's office at risk of losing their jobs.

Other employees who face possible redundancy include staff from advertising sales, finance, IT, conferences and marketing.

No journalists will be made redundant, but FT insiders fear the loss of librarians will affect editorial quality.

Dan Bogler, the FT managing editor, told journalists that six library staff faced possible redundancy along with two staff from his office.

The Telegraph reports that the last time the Financial Times made cuts was two years ago when they removed fifty positions.

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Yahoo to Cut 1,500 Jobs

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:15:00 EST

Yahoo, Inc. is one of the companies people think of when they think about the beginning of the Internet as a medium. Yahoo has transformed from a web search company to more of an entertainment-media-search hybrid over the past few years. Revenues were up again in the third-quarter but only by 1%. The company has also lowered revenue estimates for the remainder of the year. They will also be cutting 1,500 jobs according to USA Today.

The Silicon Valley company announced the latest round of cuts against a backdrop of poor third-quarter results and a grim economic forecast. The company's profit tumbled 64%, to $54 million, or 4 cents per share, from $151 million, or 11 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Revenue inched up 1%, to $1.8 billion, from a year ago.

The profit fell short of the 9 cents per share forecast by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Reflecting the downturn, Yahoo lowered its revenue estimates for the remainder of the year. It now expects 2008 revenue of $7.2 billion to $7.4 billion - down from a previous estimated range of $7.4 billion to $7.9 billion.

The Inquirer notes that Yahoo also cut 1,000 positions in February. Layoffs at many media companies are expected because of concerns about a deep recession. More discussion of Yahoo's cuts can be found at Tom's Guide, NewsFactor, The Week, Financial Times> and InternetNews.com.

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IGN Launches Greenpixels.com

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:00:00 EST

MediaWeek reports that IGN has launched a new website called Greenpixels.com that targets casual gamers.

The site, which is currently live in beta form, is clearly aimed at the mainstream game player who is more inclined to spend time with Rock Band, the Nintendo Wii or online puzzle games like Peggle--which appeal to both men and women. As the site's editor in chief Dana Jongewaard, puts it in her introductory note on the site, "This is no longer just a past-time for adolescent(-acting) boys and basement-dwelling social outcasts."

The popularity of casual games that appeal to a wider range of users is likely to grow. IGN's gamepixels.com website has a blog layout and includes reviews, articles, game tips and hot lists.

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Tribune Co. Gives Two-Year Drop Notice to the Associated Press

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:30:00 EST

Editor & Publisher reports that the Tribune Co. has given the AP a two-year concellation notice. E&P says the notice came after a new controversial rate structure that the AP plans to rol out in 2009.

Tribune, which owns nine daily papers including the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, joins a growing list of newspapers that have sought to end AP contracts, or given notice of that, following plans to introduce a new controversial rate structure in 2009. The notice was given earlier this week.

AP Spokesman Paul Colford confirmed the cancellation notice, but said he had no more specifics. He issued the following statement about it:

"We understand that in this climate a lot of newspapers are re-examining their strategies. The Associated Press will continue to work with all members of the cooperative to ensure that we are providing the most efficient, valued and essential news service for them."

Editor & Publisher says the notice does not mean that Tribune Co. will absolutely drop the AP in two years as future negotiations could changes things. The article also says other newspaper including The Star Tribune of Minneapolis have also given the AP a two-year cancellation notice. The Washington Post and Chicago Business also have article about the Tribune-AP development.

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Bat Boy Buys Weekly World News

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:48:00 EST

A group of investors named Bat Boy LLC has acquired the Weekly World News from American Media. The Palm Beach Post says the buyers are named after the bat boy creature made famous by the Weekly World News stories.

American Media last year stopped publishing Weekly World News after the tabloid's circulation dropped below 100,000 copies a week.

"The Weekly World News is a powerful brand in publishing, entertainment and online," said Weekly World News' new chief executive, Neil McGinness, in a statement released late Saturday. "The Weekly World News brand and its characters have inspired musicals, books, feature film projects and television shows over the years. We see tremendous potential for growing the brand and significantly expanding the business."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and neither American Media nor McGinness could be reached for comment.

The buyers are named after the half-man, half-bat creature that first appeared on the cover of Weekly World News in 1992. Bat Boy became a popular staple of the tabloid, emerging from time to time to lead police on a high-speed chase, ride the top of a New York subway train, shed his wings and endorse Al Gore for president.

The Palm Beach Post article says we don't know if or when the Weekly World News will return to drugstore and supermarket magazine racks but you can find some interesting content and t-shirts on the fake-news tabloid's website. There you will find plenty of alien and mutant content including a story about Barack Obama's half-brother Obatma.

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Heast Closes Print Edition of CosmoGirl

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:00:00 EST

Hearst is shutting down the print edition of CosmoGirl. AdAge reports that after the December issue of CosmoGirl subscribers will receive Seventeen instead. The cosmogirl.com website will continue. AdAge also reports that ad pages at CosmoGirl have been on the decline.

CosmoGirl, the Cosmo spinoff introduced in 1999, follows Time Inc.'s Teen People and Hachette's ElleGirl out of print. Ad pages in the first three quarters came in 14.4% lower than in the same period last year, according to Media Industry Newsletter. Circulation slipped 1.4% in the first half but sank 18% on newsstands, where advertisers often look for signs of a magazine's vitality, according to reports filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

"This was a very difficult decision, and I want to extend my personal appreciation to Editor in Chief Susan Schulz, who joined CosmoGirl shortly after its launch, nearly a decade ago, and has been its editor for the past five years," said Cathie Black, president of Hearst Magazines, in an internal e-mail this morning. "She is a highly talented editor and will continue to work with us on a special-projects basis."

The New York Times blames CosmoGirl's demise on "competition from the Web and celebrity weeklies." More discussion of CosmoGirl's closing can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

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New York Times to Shutter IHT.com Site

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:00:00 EST

Forbes.com reports that the New York Times Co. is going to shutter the International Herald Tribune website at IHT.com.

The Times told staff in an internal e-mail Tuesday that the paper's flagship Web site will soon become host to news from sister paper the International Herald Tribune and that the Tribune's site will be shuttered. The move will require "hard decisions about jobs at the IHT," and the company is now looking to "reassign or relocate people," according to the memo.

In an interview Tuesday, NYTimes.com General Manager Vivian Schiller insisted that "it's absolutely, positively not about cost savings." Rather, it's about growth, she said.

Schiller hopes tying the sites together will increase the Times' traffic--and, significantly for an Internet news business, give it more content against which to sell ads. Schiller also says the move will let the paper better capitalize on the roughly 18% to 20% of traffic coming from foreigners by selling more ads for them.

The New York Times Co. is not shuttering the International Herald Tribune newspaper only the IHT.com website. Content from IHT.com will be moved to the nytimes.com website which is probably a logical movie for the Times instead of running two seperate sites. More on the IHT shuttering here, here, here, here, here and here.

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USA Today Adds Tag-like Topics

Thu, 9 Oct 2008 18:00:00 EST

USA Today has launched nearly 200,000 online topics pages on its website usatoday.com. Topics pages can be found at topics.usatoday.com or by following links in story pages on usatoday.com. USA Today's topics resemble the tags found on many blogs.

USA Today's topics page categories include brands, culture, events and awards, health and wellness, legislation and acts, natural and physical sciences, organizations, people, places and geography and religion and beliefs. Each topic page features stories published by USA Today related to that topic. The topic pages also pull in content from across the Web with the help of technology partner, Daylife. Each topic page also has its own RSS feed.

"USA Today has always focused on what America is talking about and provides the content that fuels the nation's conversation," said Jeff Webber, publisher of USATODAY.com. "Our new topics pages go in-depth into subjects ranging from Sarah Palin to Starbucks; Barack Obama to Bono; and American Idol to the iPhone, all the things that make America tick."

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Tina Brown Launches The Daily Beast

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 22:15:00 EST

Former Vanity Fair and The New Yorker editor Tina Brown has launched her long-planned website called The Daily Beast. The website carries the slogan, "Read This Skip That." The Daily Beast features blog posts, articles and video. This concept for a website is not unique as The Huffington Post features a similar array of content.

The AFP says The Daily Beast takes its name from a fictional newspaper in Evelyn Waugh's novel Scoop. They also quote Tina Brown as making the following comments about The Daily Beast. Tina Brown says, "It's a speedy, smart edit of the Web from the merciless point of view of what interests the editors. We're hoping that if you like the sensibility The Daily Beast brings to choosing news and opinion then you'll trust us to be the lens you view it through."

One nifty feature on the website is the Cheat Sheet section which reviews articles of interest from around the Internet. You can read a Q&A with Tina Brown about the new website here. The L.A. Times notes that Brown says she is trying to make the website more than just an aggregator. You can read more reviews of the new site at Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Telegraph, Wired, USA Today, Paid Content and MarketingVox.

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US Weekly Plans Fashion Spin-off in 2009

Mon, 6 Oct 2008 18:00:00 EST

DMNews reports that US Weekly plans to launch a fashion magazine spin-off called US Style. The magazine will begin in 2009 as a quarterly magazine with a rate base of 450,000.

The magazine, which will have an initial rate base of 450,000, will be published four times in 2009, corresponding with key retail seasons such as back-to-school and the holidays.

"We think that the way to expand our brand is to expand horizontally rather than vertically," said Gary Armstrong, CMO of Wenner Media. "Style is an area that a certain portion of our audience responds to positively, so we're giving them a concentrated version of the style content in US Weekly."

"Monthly fashion magazines are having a hard time because they're not responding to their audience and the visual vernacular that the audience is responding to," he added. "More young women respond to the US Weekly communication style. They want to be communicated to in a way that makes them comfortable, and a key point with this messaging is the large selection of price points and the broad specter of style inspirations."

DM News says that US Style will also have a presence on the popular usmagazine.com website. The Wall Street Journal also ran a story about US Weekly's planned quarterly fashion spin-off last month.

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DC Comics Folds Minx Graphic Novels

Sun, 5 Oct 2008 21:00:00 EST

Publishers Weekly reports that DC Comics is folding Minx. Minx was a line of graphic novels targeted at teen girls. The New York Times says Minx was unable to find a large enough audience.

Minx, a line of graphic novels published by DC Comics for young adult female readers, will cease publication in January, according to a statement released by the company. The creation of the Minx imprint was announced in late 2006; with assistance from Alloy Marketing & Media, which produces the "Gossip Girl" novels, DC had planned to promote the imprint to an audience averse to traditional comic-book shops. But the books did not find enough of an audience.

An article on IGN has the following statement from DC Comics about the closure of Minx.

"Minx will cease publication beginning January '09. Minx was an experimental imprint for DC Comics and we are extremely proud of the books we published and the stories we told during the past two years. We thank all of the writers and artists who lent their talents to our endeavor and especially thank readers who came along for the ride. DC Comics remains committed to publishing diverse material for diverse audiences as we continue to welcome new readers."

The Minx website can be found here while it lasts. It looks like about a dozen books had been published in the imprint.

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FutureClaw Magazine Combines Fashion and Art

Fri, 3 Oct 2008 18:00:00 EST

A new magazine called FutureClaw aims to combine art and fashion. FutureClaw magazine premieres with over 200 pages of fashion and art editorials on colorful 12" x 15" glossy paper. The launch issue includes a cover fashion story featuring Martina, photographed by Kristiina Wilson. The debut issue also contain a feature story on artist Steven Harrington and additional story contributions by PictureBox publisher Dan Nadel, and Deitch Projects director Kathy Grayson.

The magazine website can be found at futureclaw.com. FutureClaw's complete first can also be explored online at futureclaw.com using the Issuu viewer interface. The magazine's website says the idea for FutureClaw was formed a year ago among a small group of people nestled within the Green Mountains of Vermont.

FutureClaw retails at specialty newsstands for $14.99, and is distributed by Ubiquity Distributors. Print subscriptions may be ordered directly from futureclaw.com.

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New York Sun Ceases Publication

Thu, 2 Oct 2008 16:00:00 EST

USA Today reports that the New York Sun will be ceasing publication. The paper lasted into its seventh year. It has run out of money and was unable to find fresh investors.

Tuesday's edition will be the paper's last, newspaper spokesman Michael Moi said Monday. He declined to elaborate.

Editor Seth Lipsky had been scrambling to attract new investors for the paper, one that laid claim to a grand tradition by taking the name of the original New York Sun, a Pulitzer Prize-winning giant that published for more than a century before disappearing in a merger in 1950.

On Sept. 4, Lipsky announced the paper had endured "substantial" losses and would close at the end of the month without an infusion of cash.

Lipsky had hoped to carve out a profitable niche among New Yorkers, and he succeeded, in part: The paper definitely carved itself a niche, but it wasn't profitable.

September 30th was the newspapers last issue. You can read a sad farewell here from Sun editor Seth Lipsky. There's also a feature called "Seven Years of the Sun" on the website's homepage.

Read more discussion of the Sun's departure at City Journal, Reason Magazine, The Deal, Grub Street, New York Post, New York Times and Romenesko.

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Bonnier Acquires Working Mother Media

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 15:00:00 EST

Crain's NY reports that Bonnier Corp. has acquired Working Mother Media. Founder and CEO Carol Evans will remain with the company as President of Bonnier's Working Mother Group.

Working Mother is best known for its self-titled magazine, as well as for publishing a list of the 100 best companies for working mothers. Its membership organizations also include Diversity Best Practices and NAFE, the National Association for Female Executives.

But the publisher has faced sharp criticism in recent years, in part by sentiment that a publication that mindfully separates mothers from the rest of the working population is no longer relevant. Sister publication Working Woman shut down in 2001. Over the years Working Mother has dropped from a circulation peak near 1 million and cut its frequency to eight times a year from 10. The title has also changed hands numerous times, from its launch with McCall Publishing Co. in 1979, through Lang Communications, MacDonald Communications and MCG and Ms. Evans.

Bonnier issued a statement about the acquisition here. It includes comments from Bonnier CEO Terry Snow who says Working Mother's publications are a natural fit with Bonnier's portfolio.

"Bringing Working Mother into Bonnier's existing portfolio of magazines is a natural fit," says Terry Snow, CEO of Bonnier Corp. "We already have two of the nation's leading brands for moms in Parenting and Babytalk magazines, so the acquisition of Working Mother Media allows us to strengthen our foothold in the mom market and offer advertisers the most comprehensive variety of media platforms reaching mom consumers."

And the timing is right, Snow continues: "You don't have to go very far to find current examples for working women who are also raising families. From corporate executives to teachers to entrepreneurs, these readers are not only successful at home raising a family, but at the same time are balancing challenging and rewarding professional careers."

Media Week says Working Mother magazine has a circulation of over 830,000. They also say the Bonnier is struggling to turn around Parenting - a title they acquired from Time, Inc.

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New Sports Magazine is Geared Towards Women

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EST

SET Magazine is a new sports magazine that debuted on newsstands with the September 2008 issue. SET Magazine offers an in-depth look behind the scenes of famous athletes and celebrities. SET also provides celebrity photographs and one-on-one interviews. SET Magazine will circulate 50,000 copies in Barnes & Nobles, Borders and 7-Eleven.

Publisher Danisha Rolle says SET is geared towards women who love sports and watch sports television shows but do not pick up sports magazines. "I started this magazine with women in mind, but the magazine is for all sports enthusiast," says Rolle, who is wife to Samari Rolle, cornerback with the Baltimore Ravens.

The website for SET Magazine can be found here.

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Study Finds Video Usage Exploding

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EST

The AFP reports that a new study from ABI Research has found that users watching videos streamed through a web browser has climbed to 63%. That's up from 32% just a year ago.

The study found that the number of American consumers watching video streamed through a browser had soared over the past year, from 32 percent a year ago to 63 percent today.

ABI Research said growth in consumption of online video was due to a number of factors, including an increase in the amount of rich content available and more broadband connections.

"Consumers are changing their online habits quickly," ABI's Digital Home research director Michael Wolf said in a statement.

"Broadband speeds have continued to increase at the same time that Hollywood has decided online distribution is a legitimate monetization opportunity that will increase total return on their video assets, and expand audiences."

Usage is stronger with the younger demographic but web video consumption is increasing with all age groups according to the ABI Research study. The recent launches of services like Hulu and most recently Amazon.com's Video on Demand are no doubt contributing to the web video explosion. The Writer's Strike also spotlighted the power of web video. Another example was director Joss Whedon who recently attracted a flock of people to his online offering. More and more bloggers are also adding short videos to their posts.

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Olympics and Politics Boosted Traffic to News Websites in August

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:00:00 EST

NielsenWire reports that U.S. news website had higher traffic in August, 2008 compared to August, 2007 thanks to the Beijing Olympics and coverage of the political conventions. MSNBC dominated news traffic beating second place Yahoo News by over 12 million unique viewers. Here is a chart showing August, 2008 traffic to news website from the The Nielsen Company.

Aug. 2008 Rank	Top 10 Online News Sites (ranked by unique users)	August 2008 Unique Traffic (in 000's)	August 2007 Unique Traffic (in 000's)
1	MSNBC Digital Network	52,212	29,564
2	Yahoo! News	40,787	34,277
3	CNN Digital Network	38,821	31,733
4	AOL News	23,114	21,209
5	NYTimes.com	19,862	13,078
6	Tribune Newspapers	17,652	12,550
7	Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division	14,454	13,720
8	Fox News Digital Network	13,902	8,465
9	ABCNEWS Digital Network	13,377	10,706
10	Google News	12,137	10,235

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Esquire's Electronic Cover

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:05:00 EST

Esquire's October 2008 cover will be made with E-ink technology. The novel concept has already boosted the magazine's ad pages reports the Associated Press.

"If we want to keep print vital, print advertising has to be just as vital as print editorial," Granger said.

So far, he said, the electronic display has been a strong draw: The October issue has the most ad pages of any issue in his 11 years as editor-in-chief of Esquire.

Granger wouldn't disclose the extra cost of printing the electronic display or its gain from Ford's ad buy.

A New York Times story about the electronic magazine says unlike print magazine this one will run out of power in 90 days.

"I hope it will be in the Smithsonian," said David Granger, Esquire's editor in chief, in a recent interview while showing prototypes of the cover - an early version has a cord sticking out that attaches to a battery pack.

If it does wind up in the Smithsonian, it will need a power source; on its own, the magazine will run out of juice after 90 days. Mr. Granger knows some will see the cover as a gimmick - but he says he thinks the technology behind it, which has been used for supermarket displays but never embedded in a magazine, speaks to the possibilities of print.

"Magazines have basically looked the same for 150 years," Mr. Granger said. "I have been frustrated with the lack of forward movement in the magazine industry."

Pointing to the prototype sitting on a conference room table, Mr. Granger said, "The possibilities of print have just begun. In two years, I hope this looks like cellphones did in 1982, or car phones."

You can read about how the magazine's cover was made here. It's great to see magazine being technologically innovative. The magazines of tomorrow are probably going to look more like this electronic reading device coming from Plastic Logic in 2009. Here's a video about Esquire's digital issue. NPR also has an a story about the special cover. PopSci looks at the technology involved in this post. Boing Boing Gadget is unimpressed.

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Rolling Stone Changes to Standard Magazine Size

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EST

The magazine industry has been going through some very hard times. Ad sales are down and magazine ad pages have been curtailed. The New York Times reports that the print magazine version of Rolling Stone will be shrinking. The Times articles notes that magazines printing smaller pages is a trend that coincides with the downward spiral in ad revenues.

To save money on paper, many newspapers and magazines have taken to printing smaller pages, fewer pages or both. But Rolling Stone says it will spend more and print more, not less: in addition to using more expensive paper and binding, it plans to add 16 to 20 pages per issue.

Magazine size has become increasingly standardized, at around 8 by 11 inches, give or take a fraction. Rolling Stone, at 10 by 11 3/4 inches, is, like ESPN and W, one of the few large-circulation magazines left that are significantly taller and wider.

Rolling Stone is profitable, according to Wenner, a privately held company - outside analysts agree - but like the industry as a whole, it is going through a rough period. The magazine had 486 ad pages in the first half of 2008, according to the Publishers Information Bureau, down 33 percent from the same period in 2005.

On balance, going to standard size should appeal to advertisers, according to Brenda White, senior vice president for publishing at Starcom USA, a major media agency. "But when you change something that's been that way for - how many years? - people might hesitate," she said.

Brand Republic picks out some of the noteworthy facts from the Times story. The smaller size should help Rolling Stone sell more single copy issues as it will fit better on retailer magazine displays. The first of the smaller Rolling Stone issues will go on sale October 17th.

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Amazon Buys Shelfari

Sun, 7 Sep 2008 17:00:00 EST

PublishersWeekly reports that Amazon.com has acquired Shelfari, a social networking website for readers that has about 1 million users. Amazon.com also has a stake in Shelfari-competitor LibraryThing and as the Seattle-PI notes there is no love lost between the two book social networking sites.

There's no love lost between Shelfari and LibraryThing.

LibraryThing founder Tim Spalding has called Shelfari a "bad actor" for engaging in what he called a massive campaign of "astroturfing," the practice of planting positive comments about a service on blogs.

Spalding said he came up with more than 50 examples, writing in a blog post that "it's icky to ... go on and on about how much you 'love' Shelfari without mentioning you're paid by them."

In another post, Spalding accused Shelfari of being an unethical spammer. Shelfari apologized and fixed the problems.

It is unclear what Amazon.com plans to do with its equity stake in LibraryThing.

There's a post about the deal here on the Shelfari blog. There's also post about Amazon's Shelfari acquisition here on LibraryThing. It notes that Amazon only has a minority stake in Shelfari and that LibraryThing will now be competing against Amazon.com. A few more articles about the acquisition can be found here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

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Get Your War On Comic Gets Animated

Tue, 2 Sep 2008 15:00:00 EST

23/6 is hosting an animated version of Get Your War On, a popular comic by David Rees that satrizes the War on Terror and the Iraq War. You can see the first is the series of animated clips here. 23/6 is a fake news type of website owned by IAC and The Huffington Post. Rees also has a book coming out in October called Get Your War On: The Definitive Account of the War on Terror, 2001-2008. (via Underwire)

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King Features to Syndicate Shoe Comic Strip

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:00:00 EST

King Features Syndicate will begin distribution of the daily and Sunday Shoe comic strip starting September 1, 2008 for the dailies and September 7, 2008 for the Sundays. The comic has been syndicated internationally since 1977 and now appears in more than 500 newspapers. Most recently, it has been distributed by Tribune Media Services.

Shoe was created by the late editorial cartoonist, Jeff MacNelly, who won three Pulitzer Prizes for editorial cartooning and twice received the Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society. The current creative team was handpicked by MacNelly and has continued to produce the famous comic strip for the past 16 years. Editorial cartoonist Chris Cassatt, who was MacNelly's long-time assistant, was one of the country's first digital cartoonists. Editorial cartoonist Gary Brookins trained under MacNelly at the Richmond News-Leader. And MacNelly paid his wife, Susie MacNelly, the ultimate compliment by acknowledging that she was Roz, one of the funniest of his main characters in the strip.

"We are delighted to be syndicating the creation of one of the country's all-time top cartooning talents," said Brendan Burford, King Features comics editor. "Jeff MacNelly was universally loved by his peers in our industry and his comic strip continues to be universally loved by his loyal fans. The creative team behind the strip today has done a magnificent job of keeping the strip fresh, funny and topical, and certainly true to its creator's vision"

Shoe chronicles the daily doings of a group of newspaper employees and their friends, foes and families, all of whom are portrayed as all-too-human birds in the fictional town of Treetops, East Virginia. The strip often pokes fun at various social and political issues of the day. The strip's characters include P. Martin Shoemaker, a cigar-chomping editor nicknamed "Shoe"; Cosmo Fishhawk, an overeducated but underachieving reporter and columnist who writes for The Treetops Tattler-Tribune; Cosmo's nephew, Skyler, who he is raising; and Roz, the wise-cracking waitress at Roz's Roost, the local diner.

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Yahoo Building an Internet-age News Service

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:00:00 EST

The AFP reports that Yahoo considers itself a news organization and that they are building an Internet-age news service. In its current form Yahoo acts more like a news-aggregator but they are growing their network of reports and proud of their original news scoops.

Unlike websites that just aggregate news stories plucked from the Internet, Yahoo is cutting content deals with wire services and other "traditional" outlets as well as investing in a bullpen of its own reporters.

"Yahoo News is a news organization," director of editorial programming Jessica Barron told AFP in an interview this week.

"We have been doing a lot of original reporting and we are going to be doing a lot more."

The article says one of the original Yahoo News scoops was that South Korean president Lee Myung-bak belives his country could re-unify with North Korea in his lifetime. Another one was when Condoleezza Rice admitted to having a crush on actor Denzel Washington. Yahoo's Jessica Barron told the AFP that "We want to be the number one independent news source on the Internet."

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Analyst Ups Kindle Sales Forecast to 380,000

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:50:00 EST

Bloomberg reports that a Citigroup analyst is doubling the projection of the number of Kindles Amazon.com may sell this year. The number has increased from 190,000 to 380,000. The analyst also says, "Kindle is becoming the iPod of the book world."

The company may sell 380,000 Kindles in 2008, up from its earlier projection of 190,000, Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney wrote yesterday in a research report. Apple Inc. sold 380,000 iPod music players in 2002, the first year they were sold, according to Mahaney. He recommends buying the stock.

"Kindle is becoming the iPod of the book world," Mahaney wrote. "Kindle could be one of the top `gadget' gifts this holiday season."

Amazon.com, which began as an online bookseller, introduced the paperback-sized Kindle in November and has increased the number of books, magazines and newspapers offered by two-thirds. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos wants to compete with Apple by offering media services, including movie and music downloads, and reduce its reliance on sales of books, CDs and DVDs.

"Kindle's apparent success highlights the very significant and consistent innovation focus that Amazon has maintained over the past five years and helps hedge the company against the digitization of media products," Mahaney wrote in the note.

Companies in Germany and France are plotting Kindle killers but Amazon.com can probably can remain the ebook device leader unless Steve Jobs and Apple are also plotting a Kindle killer. Estimates for 2010 make the Kindle a $1 billion business for Amazon.com reports Silicon Alley Insider.

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Some U.S. Olympic Fans Look For Foreign Coverage

Sat, 9 Aug 2008 18:00:00 EST

The New York Times reports that NBC's 12-hour tape delay on the Olympic ceremony had some U.S. residents checking for updates and scores elsewhere.

NBC's decision to delay broadcasting the opening ceremonies by 12 hours sent people across the country to their computers to poke holes in NBC's technological wall - by finding newsfeeds on foreign broadcasters' Web sites and by watching clips of the ceremonies on YouTube and other sites.

In response, NBC sent frantic requests to Web sites, asking them to take down the illicit clips and restrict authorized video to host countries. As the four-hour ceremony progressed, a game of digital whack-a-mole took place. Network executives tried to regulate leaks on the Web and shut down unauthorized video, while viewers deftly traded new links on blogs and on the Twitter site, redirecting one another to coverage from, say, Germany, or a site with a grainy Spanish-language video stream.

As the first Summer Games of the broadband age commenced in China, old network habits have never seemed so archaic - or so irrelevant.

"The Olympics to me is a benchmark for how fast we've gone with technology," Brad Adgate, the senior vice president for research at Horizon Media, a media buying firm in New York, said. "Thirty months ago, no one was talking about YouTube. Now, it's a verb."

U.S. residents can get information on foreign sites like BBC News and CBC.ca although the videos are blocked for U.S. viewers. Bloggersblog.com has a list of blogs and Twitters that are covering the games - some of them are doing it live. NBC's own coverage is online at NBCOlympics.com. It's not all delayed like the Opening Ceremony either as NBC is said to be planning 2,200 hours of stread live coverage.

Delays may not bother everyone as the time zone difference makes many of the live events at occur at times when many U.S. residents are sleeping.

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Tina Brown to Launch The Daily Beast

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 15:00:00 EST

Tina Brown is planning to launch a new website will be dubbed The Daily Beast reports Gawker. That name comes from the tabloid in Evelyn Waugh's novel Scoop. The site will be backed by Barry Diller of IAC.

Tina Brown has worked in the US for more than two decades, since taking the helm of Vanity Fair in 1984; and she's now attempting to reinvent herself for the internet. But Lady Evans, as the 55-year-old former magazine editor is also entitled to call herself, remains at heart a Brit of an earlier generation, pickled in ink and arch wit. Her forthcoming news site, backed by old patron Barry Diller of IAC, is to be dubbed The Daily Beast, after the shameless tabloid of Evelyn Waugh's 1938 novel Scoop. The Digg kiddies will be so confused.

Daily Intel says Brown's website will be a "new take on an aggregator Website." However, it won't compete with site like the Huffington Post because it apparently won't take an ideological stance.

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The Hollywood Reporter and Yahoo Partner

Thu, 7 Aug 2008 15:00:00 EST

The Hollywood Reporter has announced a partnership with Yahoo Movies. THR content will appear on the Yahoo Movies website and vice versa. THR will also present Yahoo's Purple Filmstrip Award.

Under the agreement, Yahoo Movies will feature THR content on its site, and THR will promote Yahoo Movies trailer content and data in its digital and print editions, and on THR.com.

The brands also will present Yahoo's new "Purple Filmstrip Award" program, a monthly honor given to a film studio with the most successful movie title on Yahoo Movies as measured by a combination of the most trailer streams and best user reviews.

Yahoo, in association with THR, presented the first Purple Filmstrip Award to Warner Bros. on Wednesday for "The Dark Knight."

"We are thrilled to be working with Yahoo Movies to further move the THR brand into the digital space and extend our content to new readers," THR publisher Eric Mika said.

"With Yahoo's consumer reach and our leadership position in covering the business of entertainment on a global scale, this deal solidifies our symbiotic relationship and allows us to take advantage of an evolving model where media outlets can broaden and deepen their engagement with audiences," he added.

Yahoo has cut similar content deals with other media partners for its other destination channels such as Yahoo Food and Yahoo Sports. You can see the Purple Filmstrip Award winners here. The Dark Knight won the award for July.

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Comcat Buys DailyCandy

Wed, 6 Aug 2008 21:00:00 EST

Silicon Alley Insider reports that Comcast has acquired DailyCandy for $125 million. DailyCandy is a popular email newsletter publisher covering fashion, food and entertainment in major U.S. cities.

As previously reported, Comcast (CMCSA) was indeed interested in buying DailyCandy. But they ended up paying much more than the $75 million we head about earlier this month -- the cable company is paying Bob Pittman's Pilot Group Ventures $125 million for newsletter business, a source close to the sale tells us.

We hear that Viacom was also interested in the property, which has been off and on the blocks for the last few years, and had been considering paying $120 million. We also hear the company dropped out of the bidding process, run by Web 2.0 bankers Montgomery & Co., in June. In a congratulatory letter to the DailyCandy staff, Pittman says that the company is on track to hit $25 million in revenue this year and EBITDA of "well over" $10 million:

The WSJ's story on the deal says DailyCandy had 2.5 million readers. Comcast seems to be becoming somewhat more of a content company as they develop. Caroline McCarthy at CNET's The Social notes that Comcast also recently acquired Movies.com and Plaxo, a social aggregator. Bizjournals.com says Comcast's interactive division is "responsible for developing and operating Internet businesses focused on entertainment, information and communication" - so they are definitely into content building but nothing on cable rival Time Warner's scale - at least not yet.

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Robert Novak Retires Following Brain Tumor Diagnosis

Tue, 5 Aug 2008 21:00:00 EST

Conservative Chicago Sun-Times political columnist Robert Novak is retiring following the diagnosis of a brain tumor. The Sun-Times reports that Novak's prognosis is "dire."

Robert Novak has announced his immediate retirement following the diagnosis of a brain tumor, a prognosis the Sun-Times' political columnist describes as "dire."

"The details are being worked out with the doctors this week, but the tentative plan is for radiation and chemotherapy," Novak said.

The Evans-Novak column was first distributed by Publishers Newspaper Syndicate on May 15, 1963, with the New York Herald-Tribune, the flagship newspaper. When the Herald-Tribune folded in 1966, the Chicago Sun-Times became their home newspaper.

Novak's column has run since 1963. It was co-written by Novak and Rowland Evans until Evans retired in 1993. You can some other articles on Novak's retirement on CNN, The Caucus, The Conservative Voice, L.A. Times, U.S. News and Guardian.co.uk.

Photo source: Wikipedia

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