RSS
FEATURES |
eBUSINESS |
HR |
MANAGEMENT |
MARKETING |
ENTREPRENEUR |
SMALL BUSINESS
INDUSTRIES:
Book Publishing Jobs, Job Listings & Careers Search
Find your next Book Publishing career. Search Book Publishing jobs from thousands of job and career search sites.
A search engine for jobs with a different approach to job and career searches. In one simple search, job
seekers get free access to millions of employment opportunities from thousands of websites.
Find your next job in Book Publishing today.
Books Get Boost From TV
Gordon Cox
There's good reason to get hopes up. On the evidence of not only 'True Blood' but other book series-to-small-screen transfers such as 'The Vampire Diaries' and 'Dexter,' a link to a larger, high-profile entertainment property has big benefits on the publishing side of the equation.
Cuts put end to Paste
Publishing News: Music mag keeps website -- The long-imperiled yet highly-regarded music magazine Paste has folded its print edition, laying off nine of its 12 staffers.
Plays booking a novel source
Publishing News: Theater returns to literary adaptations and both benefit -- Americans are catching up to Brits when it comes to finding legit material on bestseller lists.
USA Today's overhaul cuts 130 jobs
Publishing News: Paper makes move to de-emphasize print edition -- USA Today, the nation's second largest newspaper, is making the most dramatic overhaul of its staff in its 28-year history as it de-emphasizes its print edition and ramps up its effort to reach more readers and advertisers on mobile devices.
Eisner: Content still king
Publishing News: Former Disney CEO offers a few thoughts to 'Variety' -- Eisner said he is glad to have taught a valuable lesson to Comcast's Brian Roberts and Steve Burke.
Tribune Co. says negotiations have failed
Publishing News: Debt-laden company to try one last time to win over creditors -- The Tribune Co.'s plan to emerge from bankruptcy has unraveled in the wake of an independent report concluding that talks leading up to the company's 2007 leveraged buyout bordered on fraud, attorneys said Friday.
Gordon Hitchens dies at 85
Publishing News: Former Variety journo wrote for weekly in 1970s, '80s -- Former Variety journo Gordon Hitchens died Aug. 7 in Long Island of cancer. He was 85.
Griffin succeeds Moore at Time Inc.
Publishing News: Outgoing exec credited with helping to recruit successor -- Jack Griffin, former national media group prexy of Meredith Corp., was named CEO of Time Inc. Monday, succeeding Ann Moore.
L.A. sets Bradbury tributes
Publishing News: Sci-fi novelist turns 90 this month -- "Live forever!" The sentiment at the center of fantasy legend Ray Bradbury's semiautobiographical "Something Wicked This Way Comes" feels less far-fetched as the scribe turns 90 this month.
Bill takes on 'libel tourism'
Publishing News: U.S. legislation limits suits on 1st Amendment grounds -- "Libel tourism" sounds like it refers to something like an egregious defamation of the Queen Mary II, but in the eyes of Congress, it is a First Amendment threat.
Execs promoted at Random
Publishing News: Random House imprint ed Kamil upped to pub -- Susan Kamil has been named publisher of the Random House and Dial Press imprints of the Random House publishing group, prexy and publisher Gina Centrello announced Tuesday.
Moore book moves from page to stage
Publishing News: 'Freckleface' musical will play Off Broadway in the fall -- New family-aud tuner "Freckleface Strawberry," based on the childrens' book by Julianne Moore, is set to play Off Broadway in a run that begins in September.
Klutz falls for Brown
Publishing News: Toymaker to topline tot texts -- Matt Brown has been named president of children's book line Klutz Books and senior veep at Scholastic, Klutz's parent company.
Abrams taps Steve Ross
Publishing News: Exec new director of the agency's book division -- Abrams Artists Agency has tapped Steve Ross as its new director of the agency's book division.
Variety.com fully behind paywall
Publishing News: Content available to subscribers but not to nonsubscribers -- Effective this month, Variety.com is completely behind a paywall -- meaning all Variety content is now accessible to subscribers at no extra charge but blocked from nonsubscribers.
ZelnickMedia to buy Alloy
Publishing News: Deal calls for company to pay $9.80 per share -- Alloy Inc., the book packaging company behind the "Gossip Girl" and "Vampire Diaries" franchises, has struck a buyout deal with ZelnickMedia valued at $126.5 million.
News Corp. on a digital tear
Publishing News: Company buys Skiff, Journalism Online -- News Corp. is assembling the "building blocks" of its long-term strategy to squeeze more revenue out of its news and journalistic content online.
News Corp. moves to charge for news content
Publishing News: Acquires e-reader Skiff from Hearst; invests in Journalism Online venture -- As promised, News Corp. is diving deeper into the paid content biz, cutting a deal to acquire Hearst Corp.'s e-reader platform Skiff LLC and making an investment in the Journalism Online platform that aims to serve as a hub for publishers to charge readers for broad access to news content.
National Lampoon doc in the works
Publishing News: 4th Row Films duo option rights to comedy banner's story -- Douglas Tirola and Susan Bedusa of 4th Row Films are gearing up to make a doc about National Lampoon.
Lit takes a hit in Hollywood
Publishing News: Market's lean for heavyweight literature -- As the adult-skewing drama becomes an endangered species at the studios, is there any hope for that venerable subcategory, the literary-book-to-screen adaptation?
Variety hires Tom Lowry
Publishing News: Senior editor to cover biz beat from Gotham office -- Tom Lowry has been named senior editor for Variety, spearheading the paper's coverage of business and finance from its Gotham bureau.
Variety.com - Publishing News
The premier source of entertainment news. Turn to Variety.com for timely, credible articles, reviews and analysis of film, TV, music, theater, video, gaming and movie and television production -- information vital to your showbiz career.
eBay Online Millionaires? - Sponsored Link
Ad - www.InsiderOnlineSecrets.com Sep 2 2010 3:50PM GMT
Authority publishes books on cultural values of 56 nationalities
EthiopianNewsAgency Sep 2 2010 3:50PM GMT
ebrary?s Academic Complete E-Book Database Tops 50,000 Titles
San Jose Mercury News Sep 2 2010 3:48PM GMT
Chinese author Xie Chaoping detained after book criticises dam project
Guardian.co.uk Sep 2 2010 3:43PM GMT
"know Your Audience" Is The Paramount Principle Of Marketing Psychology, Says Author Of New Book On The Topic
OfficialSpin Sep 2 2010 3:37PM GMT
Deals: Dundurn acquires new Kenneth J. Harvey, Doubleday acquires new Claire Mulligan, and more
Quill & Quire Sep 2 2010 3:19PM GMT
"know Your Audience" Is The Paramount Principle Of Marketing Psychology, Says Author Of New Book On The Topic
OfficialWire Sep 2 2010 2:57PM GMT
How bookseller Blackwell used long tail search to increase sales
New Media Knowledge Sep 2 2010 2:28PM GMT
David & Charles Publishers - Joss Whedon Writes Foreword for Comic artists New Book
Cision Wire Sep 2 2010 2:02PM GMT
Penguin, Puffin and the Paperback Revolution
Media Newswire Sep 2 2010 1:57PM GMT
Ohio school system taps Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Boston Globe Sep 2 2010 1:54PM GMT
Amazon Kindle 3 e-book reader review
V3.co.uk Sep 2 2010 1:37PM GMT
Davenport Lyons steers HarperCollins to court victory in Top Gear Stig book dispute
Legal Week Sep 2 2010 1:14PM GMT
Amazon Kindle 3 e-book reader review
Yahoo! UK and Ireland Sep 2 2010 12:45PM GMT
Borders Group posts GAAP net loss of USD46.7m in Q2 2010
TradingMarkets Sep 2 2010 12:41PM GMT
Following an effective Social Media Campaign, Green Business Book Author John Wilkerson releases "Greening the Supply Chain" on Amazon.com
DBusinessNews.com Sep 2 2010 12:30PM GMT
Bharat Book Bureau: Global and China Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) Industry Report, 2009-2010
TMC Net Sep 2 2010 11:54AM GMT
Bharat Book Bureau: Global and China Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) Industry Report, 2009-2010
TMC Net Sep 2 2010 11:54AM GMT
Global and China E-book Industry Report, 2009-2010
TMC Net Sep 2 2010 11:49AM GMT
Staples to start selling Amazon Kindle reader
China Post Sep 2 2010 11:18AM GMT
UK press attack Blair over book
Sky News Australia Sep 2 2010 11:09AM GMT
UK press attack Blair over book
BigPond News Sep 2 2010 11:04AM GMT
UK press attack Tony Blair over book
Sky News Australia Sep 2 2010 10:45AM GMT
UK press attack Tony Blair over book
BigPond News Sep 2 2010 10:41AM GMT
Egyptian buyers book Turkish rebar after Ezz raises prices
Metal Bulletin Sep 2 2010 10:41AM GMT
Court rejects ban on Stig's book
Special Broadcasting Service Sep 2 2010 10:14AM GMT
Imara publishes sugar sector investment book
Biz Community Sep 2 2010 8:21AM GMT
Slovenian Author Publishes New Book with RoseDog Books
TMC Net Sep 2 2010 8:12AM GMT
State Dept. Pressed for Imam Book Explanation
Human Events Online Sep 2 2010 7:54AM GMT
Book Talk: Bangalore author Usha KR looks beyond IT
IBNLive India News Sep 2 2010 7:47AM GMT
HMV investors unhappy over Waterstone?s performance
Planet Retail Sep 2 2010 7:33AM GMT
Moreover Technologies - Book publishing news
Book publishing news - more than 340 categories of real-time RSS news feeds
Avoid The Newsstand Bloodbath
Distribution can be as brutal as ad sales. But it doesn't have to be. Here are some thoughts on how to best work with and around the system... first up, the newsstand.
What's on Your Back Cover?
Everyone knows that a book’s back cover needs a bar code along with ISBN and price information, but once those are in place, new publishers often are unsure what to add to the back cover of their books. While there are many different views about what should be on a back cover, I believe the best use is to see the back of your book as a mini sales page, including four elements.
Getting Out There
Michael Brooke's eighth article in his series on independent magazine survival gives advice on getting new subscribers. Is bigger better, or does slow and steady win the race?
The Advantages of Self-Publishing
While there has traditionally been a stigma attached to self-publishing, for some writers the option to self-publish has many advantages.
Interview with Independent magazine publisher Woody from Sneaker Freaker
Started as a way to get free shoes, Sneaker Freaker has become a world-wide pheonomenon with a ton of influence in its niche.
Why Book Publishers Should Be on Twitter
When I speak to publishers about the benefits of Twitter, I get one of two reactions. They either respond enthusiastically, or they declare that Twitter is a complete waste of time.
Who are the needles in the haystack?
Michael Brooke's seventh article in his series on independent magazine survival shows you which readers your magazine should be pursuing.
Are Self-Publishing Companies Cheating by Removing the Hurdles to Get Your Books Published Faster?
Are self-published authors not paying their dues? Are self-publishing services encouraging cheating the system? Brent Sampson thinks not.
A to Z of Self-Publishing
This excerpt from The Economical Guide to Self-Publishing: How to Produce and Market Your Book on a Budget takes you through self-publishing from A to Z
What's Your Magazine's Focus?
A ball bearing publisher is not concerned primarily by size but rather by stature. What does that mean? Find out in the sixth installment of The Ball Bearing and the Beach Ball where Michael Brooke talks about focus.
Interview with Gloria Hildebrant of Escarpment Views Magazine
Gloria Hildebrant, a freelance writer and editor, has contributed to many magazines over her career, but now has a magazine of her own. Along with co-publisher Mike Davis, she has a little over one year of publishing Escarpment Views under her belt. Learn how she's keeping her readers and advertisers happy, even in a tough economic climate.
Learn to Write Like Ben Franklin
Ben Franklin wasn’t born a gifted writer. He had a rigorous and demanding method to improve his writing that you can use too.
Selling Advertising
Michael Brooke's fifth article in his series on independent magazine survival shows how a niche publisher can attact and keep advertisers.
Interview with Suzanne Soto-Davies of Silver and Gold Magazine
While some print magazines are looking at a bleak future, Suzanne Soto-Davis has her sights set high. Her two year-old magazine's 55+ demographic is growing, they're a boon to advertisers, and they are avid magazine readers.
5 Ways Authors Can Find Out Who is Buying Their Books
Authors must find out who their readers are in order to build profitable lasting relationships with them. Identifying readers who buy books from bookstores and independent distributors is usually impossible. The solution? Bonus content online.
Magazine Survival Guide : Advertising and Sales
Michael Brooke's fourth article in his series on independent magazine survival explains how he approaches advertising.
A Strategy For Getting Your Self-Published Book into Bookstores
It's fine to say that you don't need to have your books in brick and mortar bookstores as long as you've got the Internet, but every author and publisher wants that real world presence in their local bookstore, and especially in bookstore chains. Here's a strategy to make that happen.
Interview with Cynthia Moyer of Open Magazine
Cynthia Moyer is a social enterprise publisher of a health and living magazine with one of the most unique twists to magazine publication we've seen. Each issue of Open Magazine is focused around one colour, and all the products, stories and articles are linked to that colour. Find out how colour, a social mission, and a strong desire to serve open minded, intelligent women, are driving explosive growth for one magazine.
Magazine Publishers: Let's Get Small!
Michael Brooke's third article in his series on independent magazine survival advises new publishers to be small. Very small.
A Crash Course in Submitting a Children's Book Manuscript
While the submission process may feel like second nature to experienced writers, it's easy to forget that newcomers aren't aware of the specific procedures. And since everyone can benefit
from a refresher course now and then, here's a rundown of the steps.
Why do you want to publish a magazine?
Michael Brooke asks why on earth you're in, or want to enter, this ghastly, cruel marketplace, and has some great advice if you've got the gumption to stick it out.
Booklets, Another Way to Sell Your Books
Why would someone want to turn their book into a booklet? This gives readers a bite-sized palatable introduction to a new topic in their life rather than first delving into a 200-page book as their first experience with new information.
Publishing Books in a Slow Economy
Previous economic downturns have shown that people continue to spend on entertainment. In fact, movie attendance actually spiked during the Great Depression. Some have attributed this to the need to escape bleak reality, and what is better escapism than spending a few hours with a book?
The Ball Bearing and the Beach Ball - Introduction
What does it take to survive, or even thrive, as an independent magazine publisher during these tough financial times? Michael Brooke begins a weekly article series exploring the question.
Consumer Magazines
Consumer magazines generally cater to a non-professional audience whereas trade magazines target a specific profession, trade, or field of science. Some magazines, like computer trade magazines and job listing weeklies, fall into the gray area in between the two categories.
How I Became a Children's Book Author
Multi-genre author Mayra Calvani explains how she went from writing horror fiction to writing books for children, and what she gets out of the experience.
What is a Magazine?
Publishing Central's introduction to magazine publishing begins by trying to narrow down exactly what a magazine is.
Interview with Michael Brooke of Concrete Wave Magazine
Michael Brooke is something of a legend in the skateboarding world. As publisher of Concrete Wave Magazine, he describes himself as a "skater turned publisher," but as our interview reveals, he is as intently passionate about the written word as he is about skateboarding.
Interview with Independent Magazine Publisher Tom Kirkman of Rodmaker Magazine
Ten years ago, Tom Kirkman did what many people would say was nearly impossible. He launched a glossy, color magazine for a small niche market. A decade later, his magazine, Rodmaker Magazine, is still going strong. We interviewed Tom about his successes, difficulties, and lessons learned as a successful independent magazine publisher.
Learn How Kids Can Be Published Authors Too
Kenton Verhoeff is a 12-year old homeschooled boy who has written and published his own book. He offers advice to other young aspiring authors here.
The Rise of Self Publishing
Not long ago, self published books were considered just a few steps above pamphlets run off on a Xerox machine. How did this big change come about?
How To Find A Fashion Magazine Internship
If you are looking to get into fashion magazines as a career, an internship is one of the only ways to break into the business, especially if you want to work for a top level fashion magazine like Allure, Elle or the highly regarded Vogue.
10 Ways to Monetize your Author Blog
If you’re an author who realizes the importance of having a blog to develop a relationship with your existing readers and to find new readers but also needs to write in ways that produce more direct and immediate revenue instead of just tiny blips in the royalty check, then perhaps you need to find a way to make your blog make money for you while it builds your readership.
Publishing Central Updates
Learn about book, magazine and newsletter publishing, plus writing, editing and proofreading tips from Publishing Central.
Yankee Magazine Celebrates 75th Anniversary
Yankee Magazine celebrates its 75th anniversary with its September/October 2010 issuee. Included in the collector's edition is a special anniversary section featuring "The Ultimate Yankee Quiz" and "75 Things Every New Englander Should Do." Author, educator, and environmentalist Bill McKibben wraps up his four-part series called "How New England Can Change the World" with an article on how small-town banks in Massachusetts' Berkshire Hills are printing their own regional currency. The issue also names name the top 25 foliage towns in New England. Also included in the issue are Yankee's best recipes from the past 75 years and editor-in-chief Judson D. Hale Sr. reminiscing about his first day at Yankee, more than 50 years ago.
"Robb Sagendorph, Yankee Magazine's founder, created something unique in 1935," says editor Mel Allen. "He created a magazine that held the voices of a region within its bound pages. And as New England changed and evolved, so too did the magazine; the voices may be different today, but they still come from the same place. This issue is our roadmap to the fun and pride we feel about belonging to New England. Enjoy the trip!"
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
AOL Launches 100th Patch Site
AOL has launched its 100th Patch site, Morristown Patch. Patch is AOL's hyper-local news service. AOL announced that it plans to expand Patch to more than 500 U.S. neighborhoods in 20 states by the end of 2010. AOL also says it has over 500 journalists still to be hired. Patch claims it will be the largest hirer of full-time journalists in the U.S. this year. Each Patch site has one professional editor working with a group of freelancers.
Warren Webster, President, Patch Media, said. "We believe Patch is a revolutionary and efficient approach to producing relevant, quality local journalism at scale, and we couldn't be more excited about expanding into hundreds of new communities across America this year."
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Time Warner Zaps Bed Bugs
Bed bugs are a growing problem in Manhattan. Several retailers had to shut in order to remove them. Bergdorf Goodman is even patrolling its stores with beagles. Smart Money reports that Time Warner's headquarters were infested, so they called in professionals.
Time Warner said, "As part of a routine cleaning and preventive process, it was discovered that there were bed bugs present in a small contained area within Time Warner's offices. The problem was treated by professionals and is no longer an issue."
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Gifts & Decorative Accessories and Playthings Magazines Merger
Gifts & Decorative Accessories and Playthings magazines have merged. The magazines are both published by Sandow Media LLC. Nancy Wolkow, Publisher, Gifts & Decorative Accessories explains the merger in an article published here on giftsanddec.com.
So, starting with the September/October 2010 print issue, Gifts & Decorative Accessories will include a dedicated section within the magazine called Playthings. It will open with its own heavier stock cover and contain all of the regular Playthings content. We will follow the industry with the same insight and expertise that our readers have learned to expect. We will flag the new section on the cover of Gifts & Decorative Accessories, just to make sure every reader understands where to find the toy industry coverage. The new combined publication will boast a circulation of over 26,000.
The playthings.com website becomes a secton of giftsanddec.com. The magazines will be combined and published under the Gifts & Decorative Accessories name.
And as we are doing with the print products, we will do the same with the websites and other electronic products - rolling the www.playthings.com site into its own dedicated section on www.giftsanddec.com. We will continue to publish the Playthings electronic newsletters (Playthings Extra, Breaking News, and Playthings Buzz) with content focused exclusively on the toy industry.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Montreal Gazette Ends Print Edition of Sunday Paper
The Montreal Gazette has announced it is ending the Sunday Gazette. The Sunday version of the paper will go web-only. The Gazette will cease publishing a print version of the paper on Sundays as of Aug. 8.
In its 22-year existence, the Sunday Gazette has struggled to find significant advertising support to cover the costs of printing and distribution. Subscription rates and single-copy sales cover only a small percentage of total costs; therefore, The Gazette has decided to focus its resources on the six remaining print editions and on the Web.
Newspapers cutting back on Sunday issues has become a major in the industry as the newspaper publishing industry continues its slow migration to become an all-digital industry.
La Presse made a similar decision last year and other newspapers, both in Canada and the U.S., have reduced their print editions in recent times.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Forbes to Launch Middle East Publication
Forbes has signed an agreement to launch Forbes Middle East in partnership with Arab Publisher House. The magazine will be based in Dubai, UAE. The launch will be held in Dubai, with the first issue slated to be published in October 2010. Forbes Middle East will have an initial circulation of 25,000, rising to 30,000 within six months. Arab Publisher House also plans to bring ForbesWoman, ForbesLife and other magazines to the Middle East.
Dr. Nasser Al Tayyar, President of Arab Publisher House, said, "I want to thank Forbes Media for the confidence and trust it has placed in Arab Publisher House by choosing us out of 20 publishers who bid for this license. We believe in the Forbes brand, the most trusted business brand in the world, and Arab Publisher House will invest extensively in positioning the brand in the Middle East. We have a very strong multinational, multilingual team with a passion for editorial excellence, and we will uphold Forbes standards and quality."
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Sam Zell Sees a PDF Newspaper Future
Reuters reports that Sam Zell, Chairman and Chief Executive of Tribune Company, see PDF replacing the home delivery of newspapers.
"Going forward it's going to require all kinds of different approaches, including, probably the most significant, the elimination of home delivery and the replacement of it with PDFs. The iPad is the real example of almost replicating a newspaper on an instrument. I think that is only the beginning of how that is all going to evolve."
Newspapers print will be replaced, but PDF does not seem like a good choice. People need to be able to search for what they want from newspapers on the Internet with a browser. Keeping the newspaper format the same and just dumping it out as a PDF file is not going to solve the problem. The content of a newspaper has to be broken apart to be useful with today's technology.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Borders Group Reaches Deal to Sell Paperchase
Borders Group has entered into an agreement to sell Paperchase Products Limited to Primary Capital Limited, a private equity firm. Paperchase is a retailer of stationery, cards and gifts based in the U.K. Most Borders stores nationwide feature Paperchase gifts and stationery products. Under the agreement, Borders Group will continue to purchase and carry products designed and sourced by Paperchase in its U.S. stores.
The company will receive proceeds of approximately $31 million upon closing, which is expected within the next week. The company is required to use $25 million of the proceeds to reduce the amount outstanding under its $90 million term loan credit facility.
"The sale of our Paperchase business is another major step in strengthening our balance sheet - and enables us to place an even greater focus on our financial and strategic initiatives, which are vital to a Borders turnaround and revitalization of the brand," said Mike Edwards, President of Borders Group, Inc. "We look forward to continuing our strong relationship with the Paperchase team to provide our customers with the wide array of fashionable gift and stationery products they've come to expect from Borders."
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Conde Nast Lowers Price of Wired iPad App
PadGadget repots that Conde Nast has already lowered the price for its Wired iPad app. The price for the June and July issues in $3.99.
Another move by Conde Nast was to drop the price of the current issue compared to last month. The July issue is a dollar cheaper, which means you can purchase the issue for $3.99. We don't know if this will be the official price going forward, or if the price will be reduced even more. Magazine representatives have mentioned the recent price cut is associated with their investigation of different business models.
When the Wired iPad app first launched it costs $4.99. It will be interesting to see if Wired sticks with the lower price for the rest of the year.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Conde Nast to Try Newsstand Specials
Conde Nast is going to make the plunge into newsstand specials. Magazines that will participate include The New Yorker, GQ, Glamour, Bon Appetit and Vogue. Crain's New York reports that Conde Nast has been resisting the move to newstand specials because of its belief that they could cheap the brands.
Newsstand specials, which do not depend heavily on advertising, are part of the revenue mix at virtually every other magazine publisher, but at Conde Nast they fell into the category of moves that were believed to risk cheapening the brands
Crain's gives one example of the newsstand specials we can expect from Conde Nast: Glamour's "Do's and Don'ts."
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Harlequin Launches Digital Imprint Called Carina Press
Harlequin Enterprises Limited has launched a digital imprint called Carina Press. The books in the imprint will be published first as ebooks and will be sold directly to consumers through the Carina Press website and third-party websites. Carina Press will begin by publishing 37 books in its first month-approximately 10 books a week-across a broad range of fiction with an emphasis on romance and its subgenres, including science fiction, fantasy, erotica, gay/lesbian, mystery, suspense and thriller. Carina Press ebooks vary in price from $2.99 to $6.99 depending on the length of the work, which can range from 20,000 to more than 100,000 words.
"As a digital-first publisher Carina Press is a natural extension to our business; it builds on our digital strength and leadership position. It gives us greater flexibility in the type of editorial we can accept from authors and offer to readers. As such, we expect to discover new authors and unique voices," said Donna Hayes, CEO and Publisher of Harlequin. "As well, we hope to reach a new group of readers with niche editorial."
Carina Press is currently accepting submissions in all genres. Carina Press will consider shorter length stories, genre novels from 50,000 to more than 100,000 words and complex narratives of over 100,000 words. Carina Press says it will also acquire books that have been previously released in print form, but for which the author has either retained digital rights or had digital rights revert to them.
"More and more readers are migrating to the digital world," said Angela James, Executive Editor of Carina Press. "They're as interested in refreshingly original stories, told by authors with truly distinct perspectives, as they are compelled by the immediacy of digital publishing. With a click they can have the book right in front of them on their computer or portable device. There's no waiting for a book to arrive and it's never out of stock."
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Reader's Digest Cutting 270 Jobs
Mediaweek reports that the Reader's Digest Association is going to cut 10% of its worldwide workforce.
In an internal announcement, president/CEO Mary Berner said the cuts were aimed at ensuring the company's healthy financial future.
Folio says the cuts amount to around 270 employees. The company emerged from bankruptcy earlier this year.
"To that end, we've made the difficult but necessary decision to reduce headcount across many areas of the company," she said.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
French newspaper Le Monde Up For Sale
The AFP reports that Le Monde, a leading French newspaper is up for sale. Reuters reports that five companies are bidding on the French newspaper.
Among the candidates are French weekly magazine le Nouvel Observateur and its director Claude Perdriel, who is a board member at le Monde. Spanish media group Prisa, publisher of Spain's daily El Pais, and the Swiss media group Ringier, publisher of daily Le Temps are also said to be interested.
Le Monde has been struggling like most newspapers during the recession and the new Internet economy. The New York Times says the newspaper has struggled to make money from its website. Le Monde's website can be found at lemonde.fr.
Also in the running is an unlikely trio of Lazard banker Matthieu Pigasse, French Internet tycoon Xavier Niel, who founded the telecom group Free, and Pierre Berge, a wealthy industrialist and patron best known as the long-time partner of designer Yves Saint Laurent.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
CNN Turns 30
CNN turned 30 on June 1st. The network transformed news coverage with its 24-hour news service that launched on June 1st, 1980. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a good article about CNN's 30th birthday. It may have sagging ratings, but CNN remains a very strong brand.
The revolution Ted Turner launched on June 1, 1980 -- by turning on round-the-clock news for everyone everywhere, then never turning it off again -- keeps trying to make CNN feel older than it is. Sagging ratings, scrappy social-media kids threatening to run rings around it and all.
The Wrap lists several events that CNN covered that helped make it the go-to news channel.
"It's a 30-year anniversary, but it might as well be 150 or 200," said Brian Solis, a digital analyst and sociologist who advises Fortune 500 companies and others about new media. "What Twitter and other social media is doing today is similar to the impact CNN had 30 years ago."
Among the events that helped to cement CNN's presence in the minds of the American public: the Jan. 28, 1986, Challenger disaster; 1987's around-the-clock coverage of the rescue of "Baby Jessica," a toddler who fell into a well in Midland, Texas; the first Gulf War in 1991, with Peter Arnett reporting live as bombs exploded behind him in Baghdad; and even the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a story that was broken by CNN.
Today CNN has its website with breaking news and video at CNN.com. CNN is also active on Twitter, where its @cnnbrk Twitter has almost twice as many followers ad MSNBC owned @breakingnews.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Haute Living Launches Blogs for Eight New Markets
Haute Living Magazine has added eight new markets to its online division: Hawaii, London, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix/Scottsdale, and Dubai. This brings the total number of markets that Haute Living covers to twelve. The first four markets eastablished include Miami, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco,
Each of these new markets has a dedicated home page that can be accessed via hauteliving.com. The individual city sites feature coverage of the market's luxury lifestyle in a blog that is updated throughout the day. The city sites also include articles from Haute Living's print editions.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
AOL Using Thousands of Writers for Online Content Creation
AOL has transformed from a software company to a content company. They now employ 4,000 writers according to a TechCrunch story. 3,500 of these 4,000 writers are freelance writers.
It's no secret that AOL is aggressively building out its content strategy. Today at TechCrunch Disrupt, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong says that the company now employs 4,000 journalists, 3,500 of which are part-time or freelance. As of last October, the company employed roughly 3,000 journalists.
AOL has used acquisitions of sites like Weblogs, Inc., Seed.com and Patch Media to grow its large network of blogs and content sites. Yahoo, Inc. is also looking to online content creation for growth. Yahoo recently acquired Associated Content, which employs thousands of writers to create a huge amount of articles.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Barnes & Noble to Launch PubIt Digital Publishing Service this Summer
Barnes & Noble has announced a service called PubIt that will enable independent publishers and writers to distribute their works digitally through Barnes & Noble.com and the Barnes & Noble eBookstore. The platform is targeted at independent publishers and self-published authors.
B&N's Pubit service will compete with Amazon.com's Digital Text Platform. Barnes & Noble has not yet disclosed the royalty rate for its digital epublishing service. They also did not disclose what rights they will take. In the press release, they only state that they will offer a "simple and competitive royalty model and compensation process." A B&N spokesperson told CNET the rate will be "attractive and competitive."
B&N has launched a website for Pubit here that says the service will launch this summer.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Time has launched NewsFeed, which promises to cover breaking news and trendy news. NewsFeed describes itself as "your in-the-moment guide to what matters most."
Whether it's in the news or on Twitter, YouTube or Google, there's a wealth of information being created, searched and shared every minute. Newsfeed is your in-the-moment guide to what matters most. We're not here to break news. Instead, NewsFeed puts breaking news and trends into perspective, telling you what it means, why its important and why people are talking about it. And we'll always make it smart, snappy and easy to share with your friends.There are a number of breaking news blog out there already, such as USA Today's On Deadline and the New York Times' The Lede. MNSBC also has BreakingNews.com, which ties in with its Twitter, @breakingnews. There are also many breaking news Twitters on Twitter itself. You can see a list here.
We're also your guide to the weirdness of the viral Web. Confused about why Justin Bieber is a trending topic on Twitter every single day? We'll let you know. Not sure what it means to get Rickrolled? We're, um, never going to let you down.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Viz Media Cuts 40% of Workforce
Publishers Weekly reports that Viz Media, a leading manga publisher, has laid off as many as 60 employees - about 40% of its workforce. PW says manga sales plunged 20% in 2009.
CBR reports that Viz Media also had a small round of layoffs in February, 2009.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Betty White Gives SNL Ratings Boost
Entertainment Weekly reports that Betty White's appearance on Saturday Night Live was a big win for the weekly comedy show. You can see some of the skits from the show here. Betty's appearance gave SNL its biggest overnight ratings in 18 months. The telecast averaged an 8.8 rating/21 share among 56 local markets according to Nielsen. EW says this was the best night for SNL since Jon McCain appeared on the show with Sarah Palin on Nov 1, 2008.
Facebook users pushed to get Betty White on the show. SNL was smart to respond to the fan request. It will be interested to see if this success will give Internet campaigns more power.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Playboy Plans Safe for Work Website
PaidContent reports that Playboy plans to launch a free website that is safe for work. A launch date for the site is not given.
In addition to expanding its mobile presence, Playboy is working on a "free, safe-for-work site" its calling TheSmokingJacket.com, as well as additional subscription content. The strategy is clearly aimed at slightly tamer rivals like Maxim, which has captured much of Playboy's targeted readers over the past decade, despite past troubles of its own.
There are scant details on TheSmokingJacket.com, but it sounds like a wise move for Playboy to take on Maxim and FHM. However, they might want to consider a shorter name.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Washington Post Co. to Sell Newsweek
The Washington Post Co. has announced that is plans to sell Newsweek. Allen & Company has been retained by the Washington Post Co. to explore the possible sale of magazine. The newsweekly was launched in 1933 and purchased by The Washington Post Co. in 1961.
"The losses at Newsweek in 2007-2009 are a matter of record. Despite heroic efforts on the part of Newsweek's management and staff, we expect it to still lose money in 2010. We are exploring all options to fix that problem," said Donald E. Graham, chairman of The Washington Post Co. "Newsweek is a lively, important magazine and website, and in the current climate, it might be a better fit elsewhere."
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Playboy Plans to Return to 12 Issues a Year
Mediaweek reports that Playboy will be publish one more issue than it planned this year. They plan to be back to twelve issues a year by 2011.
Hugh Hefner's bunny-eared men's magazine said it would publish 11 issues this year instead of the 10 it originally planned, and return to a 12-times annual frequency in 2011.
Maybe the publication is getting a boost from its Ashley Dupre spread? It is a positive sign, but only a small one for Playboy. Mediaweek notes that Playboy's circulation has shrunk from a high of 7 million in the 1970s to just 1.5 million today.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Zondervan Cuts 30 Jobs
Publishers Weekly reports that Christian publisher Zondervan is laying off 30 employees. The job cuts were primarily from Zondervan's sales and marketing departments.
"While streamlining our operations is necessary in the context of both our business mandate and our mission to reach more people for Christ, it makes these changes no less difficult," read a statement from Zondervan.
The company is expanding its digital offerings. A press release says they had as many as 1,000 titles ready for the iPad launch.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Reed Business Information Closes 23 Trade Publications
Reed Business Information (RBI) has concluded its divestment of US controlled circulation magazines. They announced the closing of a number of trade titles today.
To conclude the divestment process, the publishing operations of the remaining RBI-US controlled circulation titles are to be closed: Building Design+Construction, Chain Leader, Construction Bulletin, Construction Equipment, Consulting-Specifying Engineer, Control Engineering, Converting, Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, Graphic Arts Blue Book, Graphic Arts Monthly, HOTELS, Logistics Management, Material Handling Product News, Modern Materials Handling, Plant Engineering, Professional Builder, Professional Remodeler, Purchasing, Restaurants & Institutions, Semiconductor International, Spec Check, Supply Chain Management Review and Tradeshow Week.
RBI begin its plan to close or sell Reed Business Information magazines in July, 2009. A number of RBI titles - including Broadcasting & Cable, Library Journal and Interior Design - were sold. Publishers Weekly was acquired by former PW publisher George Slowik, JR. earlier this month.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
John Wiley to Publish Blomberg Books
Bloomberg L.P. and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. have announced that Wiley will be the exclusive global publisher of Bloomberg and Businessweek branded books under Blomberg Press, a Wiley imprint. Wiley intends to publish the content using all media platforms including print, e-books and digital.
"We are proud of the great books we've published and hope to continue to grow the Blomberg Press imprint further," said Bloomberg News Editor-In-Chief Matthew Winkler. "As one of the foremost book publishers for professionals, Wiley is the ideal custodian of the Bloomberg and Bloomberg Businessweek brands, and we are delighted with this new relationship."
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
RadioTimes
The Guardian reports that BBC Worldwide is likely to sell its magazine which include Top Gear, Radio Times, Gardening World and BBC Good Food.
The review said the BBC had already implemented the findings on a BBC Trust-ordered review of BBC Worldwide's activities, published last year. It included a new remit for BBC Worldwide, which excluded any activity "not in keeping with the BBC brand", and ruled out future undertakings similar to its controversial purchase of the Lonely Planet travel guides business.
The company says it is "looking to move away from physical media (such as magazines) in the UK."
Today's report said it had already begun the process of disposing or outsourcing non-core assets, such as audio books, and exiting non-BBC branded channels overseas.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Bedford Communications Files for Bankruptcy Protection
Crain's New York Business reports that Bedford Communications Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Bedford publishes Laptop Magazine and several buyer's guides.
According to the filing, Bedford has liabilities of from $1 million to $10 million, and between 50 and 99 creditors. They include Laptop's printer World Color (USA) Corp., which is owed more than $900,000, and the magazine's paper supplier, Gould Paper Corp., which is owed nearly $800,000.
The tech magazine category is one of several print media categories that are struggling. Technology publications in particular are struggling because there is a vast amount of similar content available free online.
Bedford also owes its landlord, LH Charney Associates, nearly $500,000 in rent.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
National Enquirer Could Win Pulitzer Prize
Emily Miller at The Huffington Post reports that the Pulitzer Prize Board accept the National Equirer's submission for a Pulitzer Prize. The John Edwards affair story is the story the Enquirer submitted.
The Pulitzer Prize Board has officially accepted The National Enquirer's submissions for breaking the John Edwards scandal, according to sources close to the Board. In a historic move, the Pulitzer Board conceded that the self-proclaimed tabloid is qualified to compete with mainstream news outlets for journalism's most prestigious prize. The Enquirer is in the running for the Pulitzer in two categories: "Investigative Reporting" and "National News Reporting" for The National Enquirer staff.
The Enquirer certainly deserves to have a chance at winning. The story was breaking news about a man who could have been the President. Even after Edwards lost he still had the potential to be part of President Obama's cabinet. The Enquirer also continued to report on the story while other media oulets ignored it.
"We're excited to be officially part of the Pulitzer competition," The Enquirer's Executive Editor Barry Levine told me when contacted for his reaction to the decision. "We know we'll be judged against other very outstanding submissions, but our work on Edwards is truly worthy of the Prize."
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Berkeley Daily Planet Stops Print Edition
The Daily Californian reports that the Berkeley Daily Planet is temporary suspending its print edition. The move is because of costs and not because the paper simply wants to move completely online.
"The only way to cut expenses further is to give up print publication for the moment," the editorial reads. "We know that many if not most of our 40,000-plus faithful readers prefer paper, and frankly, we do too. But our central mission continues to be reporting the news, and new technology has made online news delivery very attractive."
The paper will continue to be published online at berkeleydailyplanet.com.
The paper, which used to be printed six times a week, moved to weekly print publication in April 2008 amidst declining advertising revenue and a struggling journalism industry, said Becky O'Malley, the paper's executive director.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Jay Leno to Headline White House Correspondents' Association Dinner
CNN reports that Jay Leno will headline this year's White House Correspondents' Association dinner. The comes fresh off Leono's battle for the coveted Tonight Show job with Conan O'Brien and NBC.
Leno agreed earlier this month to appear at the event, before NBC announced his return to hosting "The Tonight Show," the group said. The network's move was prompted by affiliates protesting the poor ratings of Leno's prime-time show.
White House Correspondents' Association dinner will be held in May. The website for the dinner can be found here.
The comedian will share the stage with President Obama at the correspondents' dinner at the Washington Hilton. By tradition, presidents fire jokes at the news corps, political opponents and even themselves at the event, where politicians, journalists and celebrities rub elbows.
Photo: The Jay Leno Show
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
NYTimes.com to Introduce Metered Plan
The New York Times has announced plans to start charging for content on its website at nytimes.com. Users will be allowed to read an unknown number of articles for free each month. To read more articles users will have to pay a fee. Subscribers to the print version of the Times will get unlimited access to nytimes.com.
Starting in January 2011, a visitor to NYTimes.com will be allowed to view a certain number of articles free each month; to read more, the reader must pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the print newspaper, even those who subscribe only to the Sunday paper, will receive full access to the site without any additional charge.
The plan does not come without significant risks. The New York Times has become a world source for news because of the Internet and they risk losing significant traffic if regular users decided not to pay to use the website. If nytimes.com starts losing traffic than the company may have a more difficult time selling advertising.
Executives of The New York Times Company said they wanted to create a system that would have little effect on the millions of occasional visitors to the site, while trying to cash in on the loyalty of more devoted readers. But fundamental features of the plan have not yet been decided, including how much the paper will charge for online subscriptions or how many articles a reader will be allowed to see without paying.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Editor & Publisher Returns Under New Ownership
Editor & Publisher, a leading media industry news source, has returned under new ownership after being closed by Nielsen in December. Duncan McIntosh Co. Inc. now owns E&P. Charles McKeown will continue as publisher and Mark Fitzgerald is E&P's new editor.
Charles "Chas" McKeown, who will continue as publisher of E&P, hailed
the sale and the speed and professionalism with which McIntosh and
Nielsen completed the transaction. "Everyone knew what was at stake
here," McKeown said. "Newspapers, which are transforming beyond the
printed page to all forms of digital media, simply could not lose the
one place where the industry could have a conversation with itself and
exchange ideas and best practices for navigating the uncertain waters
ahead, exemplified by our Interactive Media Conference which includes
cable, TV, radio and other media."
Duncan McIntosh said he knew right away he wanted to buy E&P and keep it running. McIntosh said, "Such a critical information source for a newspaper industry so desperately in need of help should not go away. I've
been a reader of E&P over the course of 30 years and know its incredible value to readers and advertisers."
Duncan McIntosh Co. Inc. is the publisher of several well-respected
boating magazines and newspapers, including Boating World magazine; Sea Magazine, America's Western Boating Magazine; The Log Newspaper; and FishRap. The company also produces the Newport Boat Show in the spring and the Lido Yacht Expo in the fall. Both shows are held in California.
Mark Fitzgerald, a 26-year veteran, was named as E&P's new editor. He had most recently served as E&P's editor-at-large.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
RBI Closes Video Business Magazine
Video Business, a home entertain business trade publication, has ceased publication. The January 4 issue was the magazine's last. Video Business says its publisher Reed Business Information (RBI) is in the process of divesting itself of itself of most of its business-to-business publications in the U.S.
Marcy Magiera, editor-in-chief and associate publisher of Video Business, said, "I'm extremely proud of the role VB has played in the home entertainment industry, consistently breaking news, while providing important analysis and insight to our readers for almost three decades. Every staff member and regular contributor here is a first-class business journalist, and I will miss working with this smart, dedicated and caring group of people."
BtoBonline.com reports that Reed Business Information also ceased publishing two other titles, Manufacturing Business Technology and Industrial Distribution. You can read more on the magazine closures at Folio.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Washington Times Cuts Sports Section
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Washington Times has cut its sports section and reduced its newsroom staff by 40%.
The newspaper will revamp to focus on politics, business and investigative reporting. The newspaper's Thursday edition announced the layoffs and said the last sports section would appear Friday. A new print edition will be launched Monday.
The new cuts come in addition to job cuts in early December. The Washington Times sports section was printed for the last time on December 31st.
Among those let go was the newsroom leader, Managing Editor David Jones. The newspaper announced several management changes, though it's not clear who will oversee the newsroom operation. Christopher Dolan was appointed Wednesday as national politics editor and Brett Decker as editorial page editor.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Ashton Kutcher Relaunches Show on YouTube
The CW quickly canceled Ashton Kutcher's model drama, The Beautiful Life, after just two shows. Ashton Kutcher isn't letting that stop his show. He is turning to YouTube to relaunch the show. Reuters reports that Kutcher believes the show can "find its legs on the Web."
"What we feel like we're doing is creating, in some ways, an industry first," Kutcher told Reuters. "A show that couldn't find its legs on television, we believe can find its legs on the Web."
Several episodes that never aired on tv will be aired on YouTube. Ashton Kutcher is hoping he will be able to land sponsors that will allow new web-only episodes of The Beautiful Life to be produced. It is interesting gamble.
Ashton Kutcher also a huge Twitter following to help him drive traffic to the shows on YouTube. The YouTube channel can be found here.
Using his own production company, Kutcher created "The Beautiful Life" as a show that looked at the underside of the modeling industry, including its cut-throat competition.
YouTube and Kutcher are banking on the TV-level quality to attract viewers in a crowded Web landscape that has plenty of expensively made reruns, but not a lot of high-end original content.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Washington Blade Publisher Shuts Down
FishbowlDC reports that Window Media LLC, the nation's largest gay and lesbian newspaper publisher is closing down. Some of the newspapers they publish ininclude the Washington Blade, South Florida Blade & 411 Magazine, Genre Magazine and Southern Voice.
Politico is also confirming that the LGBT publisher is closing its doors. The closure announcement was also posted on the Washington Blade twitter account. The New York Times has also published a story about the publisher closing its doors.
Posted in ____
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
100 Jobs Cut at the Guardian
The Guardian reports that Guardian News and Media (GNM) are cutting 100 jobs at the Guardian. The Guardian's Thursday Technology print section will also be shuttered.
Staff in GNM commercial departments are due to be told about the impact of the latest cost cutting on their jobs by 9 December, while changes at editorial will take longer to complete because cuts are being managed through voluntary redundancies and redeployment. GNM publishes the Guardian, the Observer and the guardian.co.uk website network, which includes MediaGuardian.co.uk, and employs about 1,700 people.
Layoffs have been widespread and deep throughout the newspaper industry over the past several years. This year has been especially brutal thanks to a combination of internet competition and the recession.
GNM also revealed in the series of staff briefings today that the Guardian's Thursday Technology print section will cease publication at the end of the year.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Hachette Filipacchi Media Closes Metropolitan Home and Pointclickhome.com
Hachette Filipacchi Media is shuttering Metropolitan Home magazine. Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. will focus on its other home decor title, Elle Decor, instead. Hachette Filipacchi Media is even closing its home portal Pointclickhome.com.
The WSJ says data from the Publishers Information Bureau indicates ad pages for Metropolitan Home fell 33% in the first nine months of 2009. The December issue of Metropolitan Home will be its very last.
Other home magazines including Conde Nast's Domino and O at Home have also been closed recently because of diminished advertising revenues in the recession.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
TopTenReviews Acquires Space.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com
TopTenReviews has acquired the Consumer Media Division of Imaginova Inc., a privately held company based in New York City. Included in the acquisition are Space.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com. TopTenReviews has established the TechMediaNetwork to incorporate these properties. Combined, 12.2 million people visit TechMediaNetwork sites each month.
"This acquisition expands TopTenReviews' coverage as a trusted technology adviser and strengthens the company as a source of technology news," said TopTenReviews founder and CEO Jerry Ropelato. "We see strong potential for growth in traffic and revenue as a result of the synergy between the sites."
PaidContent says TopTenReviews raised $6 million in 2008.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Fortune Reduces Its Publishing Frequency
Fortune magazine is reducing the number of issues it publishes annually from 25 to 18. Reuters reports that the business magazine may also cut staff.
Fortune, like many other U.S. business magazines, has struggled in the advertising downturn.
The New York Times reports that the cuts are part of a new round of layoffs from magazine publisher Time Inc.
Fortune will publish two issues some months and just one issue during other months, in the new publishing schedule is part of a remodeling that is expected to result in staff cuts and a sharper focus on the long stories that have been its trademark, the Journal said.
The changes are part of another round of budget cuts at Time Inc., the nation's largest magazine publisher. Some layoffs were expected by year's end, though the executive said the number had not yet been determined. The news was reported in Friday's Wall Street Journal.
The Wall Street Journal story about the changes at Fortune says big changes are planned for Fortune.com. The WSJ article says the magazine is even considering charging for features like the Fortune 500.
Through September, ad pages across the magazine industry have fallen 27.3 percent this year, but business magazines fared much worse. Fortune, down 34.9 percent, was among the hardest hit, while its closest competitor, Forbes, was down 30.8 percent. Fortune's paid circulation, just over 850,000 in the first half of this year, has changed little in the last decade.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Newsday Starts Charging $5 Weekly Fee
Newsday has announced that people who are not Optimum Online customers or Newsday customers will have to start paying a $5 weekly fee to access Newsday.com.
Those who are not customers of Optimum Online or the newspaper - both owned by Bethpage-based Cablevision Systems Corp. - will have to pay a $5 weekly fee. However, nonpaying customers will have access to some of newsday.com's information, including the home page, school closings, weather, obituaries, classified and entertainment listings. There also will be some limited access to Newsday stories.
"We are excited about this model because in addition to a unique ability to immediately reach about 75 percent of Long Island households, we believe the hyper-local approach is right for Long Island," said Debby Krenek, Newsday managing editor and senior vice president/digital.
Newsday described the move as one that would create a "pioneering Web model," combining the newspaper's newsgathering services with Cablevision's electronic distribution capabilities. About 75 percent of Long Island households are Newsday home delivery or Cablevision online customers or both, according to Newsday. Optimum Online customers total 2.5 million in the New York area, the paper said.
$5 a week is a lot to charge for online access. Even the Wall Street Journal doesn't charge that much for an annual online subscription. Dvorak says it amounts to $260 a year. Editor & Publisher says Newsday will "listen" to feedback and may tinker with what content is hidden behind the online newspaper's subsscription wall.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
New York Times Cutting 100 Newsroom Jobs
The New York Times Media Decoder blog is reporting that the Times is cutting 100 newsroom jobs, about 8% of the total newsroom jobs. The job cuts will happen by the end of the year, which is not far away.
The program mirrors one carried out in the spring of 2008, when the paper erased 100 positions in its newsroom, though other jobs were created, so the net reduction was smaller. That round of cuts included some layoffs of journalists - about 15 to 20, though The Times would not disclose the actual figure - which was the first time in memory that had happened.
Media Decoder says the Times is mailing buyout packages to the entire newsroom staff on Thursday and employees have 45 days to decide whether to apply for it. A lot of newspapers and magazines are struggling right now because of the recession and the switch to from print to online news. It reduced advertising dollars from the recession came at a terrible time for the newspaper industry.
The paper has made much deeper reductions in other, non-newsroom departments, where layoffs have occurred several times. But the advertising drop that has pummeled the industry has forced cuts in the news operation as well. The newsroom already has lowered its budgets for freelancers and trimmed other expenses, and employees took a 5 percent pay cut for most of this year.
Reuters has published a memo about the job cuts from New York Times Executive Editor Bill Kelle here.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Get Married Magazine Debuts
Get Married Media has announced the launch of Get Married magazine, a new shopping and trend guide for brides. The wedding magazine includes editorial features on real brides, wedding professionals and experts, as well as an array of inspiring challenges, trend round-ups, product profiles, shopping guides and informative articles.
Get Married is giving the first issue of its magazine for free. Subsequent quarterly issues will be on newsstands beginning January 2010. Annual subscriptions (4 issues) are available at $14.96.
"Get Married magazine is as smart as it is fun, and the response has been tremendously positive from brides, advertisers and wedding professionals. By creating a user-friendly tool that offers choices and guidance on an array of the latest wedding products and trends, we make it easy for brides to simultaneously plan and shop," said Stacie Francombe, founder and president of Get Married Media. "Brides are smart, they are passionate, they like to discover, and they enjoy instant information, and Get Married magazine and getmarried.com afford them the luxury of immediate gratification - it's a girl's dream."
Get Married magazine is closely integrated with the Get Married TV show and GetMarried.com website, which offers brides an interactive experience, including a newly-launched wedding shop that sells products as seen in the magazine, as well as a wedding blog, video segments from the show, articles, image galleries and tools.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Conde Nast Closes Several Publications
The big news in the magazine industry this week was Conde Nast's decision to shutter several publications. The publications being closed include Gourmet, Cookie, Elegant Bride and Modern Bride. 180 people at Conde Nast will lose jobs as a result of the titles closing.
The L.A. Times describes a sudden switch at glossy magazines form generous expense accounts to cutbacks and firings.
Generous expense accounts were de rigueur at glossy fashion and lifestyle magazines. Some top editors and publishers enjoyed clothing allowances and mortgage assistance. Even lowly assistants flitted about in chauffeur-driven town cars.
There have been reports that consulting firm McKinsey & Co. put Conde Nast publications through a brutal review. Even with the cuts and closed publications, Conde Nast may still have job cuts and other cost cutting in its future. Slate compares Conde Nast to General Motors. The Guardian says Conde Nast is slated to lose $1 billion in revenue this year. A publisher can't endure that kind of advertising setback without drastic cuts.
But that culture has been turned on its head as the magazine business reels from the battered economy, the drop in advertising revenue and restraints on expenses.
Conde Nast's unexpected closure Monday of venerable Gourmet and three other magazines underscored the swift and brutal fall of what had been one of the city's most elite and free-spending industries.
Meanwhile, Conde Nast is launching a dating site targeted at fashionistas. This does not seem like the type of project that will boost the company's revenues by much.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
New Large Format Pet Magazine Deubts
Tame is a new large format, broad-spectrum pet magazine for the Southwest Area. The format of Tame is slightly larger than your standard magazine. Tame is conscious of the ever growing problem of abandoned and abused pets. It's staff is active in raising awareness and support for local animal charities. A portion of ad sales and subscriptions directly benefit animal rescue efforts.
Tame is a free quarterly publication. You can the website here.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Ebony Magazine May Be Up For Sale
Newsweek has a story that says Johson Publishing may put its flagship publication, Ebony, up for sale.
It's been a year of excruciating decisions for publishing companies-layoffs, pullbacks, closures. Now it appears Johnson Publishing's chairman and CEO, Linda Johnson Rice, has reached what must have been an agonizing decision: Johnson Publishing is seeking a buyer or investor for its flagship publication, Ebony, in an effort aimed at securing the survival of the nation's oldest magazine devoted to African-American life. It's unclear whether the company's other properties, including Jet, would be part of a possible sale.
It's not a good environment to find a buyer or investor for a print magazine in this economy and in the the digital age. However, the strongest brands, like Ebony, should do the best. Ebony's website can be found at EbonyJet.com.
According to media and investment executives familiar with the developments, Chicago-based Rice, the daughter of Ebony's legendary founder, the late John H. Johnson, has approached, among others, Time Inc., Viacom, and private investors that include buyout firms. Time Inc., the world's largest periodical publisher, already owns Essence, a monthly lifestyle, beauty, and fashion magazine for African-American women. Viacom, meanwhile, owns BET (Black Entertainment Television).
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
Poll Finds Just 5% of Brits Would Pay For Online News
A recent PCUK/Harris Poll found that just 5% of British news readers would pay for online news. 75% would immediately switch to an alternative free news source.
Someone should send the results to Rupert Murdoch since he really, really wants users to have to pay.
(via 901am)
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
MSNBC Acquires EveryBlock
MSNBC.com has acquired a local news service called EveryBlock. The service is billed as a news feed for block. It lets users track nearby crimes, restaurant inspections, news and more by zip code.
"EveryBlock's talented team has a track record of innovation in the industry, and we're excited to add them to the msnbc.com brand family," Tillinghast said. "They've broken new ground with their unique approach to collecting, organizing and presenting news down to the block level. Their impact and importance in the community space is extremely valuable and carries promise for journalism and new business models."
EveryBlock's service is offered in about a dozen cities so far. MSNBC also acquired the social news website Newsvine in October 2007.
"Joining with msnbc.com gives us the resources to turn EveryBlock from a cool, useful service into something much bigger," said Adrian Holovaty, founder of EveryBlock. Holovaty and the company's staff of five will remain based in Chicago.
Permalink | Archives | News Feeds
The Write News
News, features and resources for media and publishing professionals.
Visiting 30 Mosques in 30 Days
Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq are spending Ramadan on a 12,000-mile road trip, visiting mosques across America and writing about their experiences on 30 Mosques in 30 Days. They were interviewed by NPR at the start of the trip: ... a lot of Muslims that live in small communities across the country, whether it be the Midwest, down South or even on the West Coast, they might feel, "I'm the only one going through this struggle. I'm the only kid in school that has a funny name. Or I wear a headscarf -- I'm a Muslim woman -- and I get dirty looks and, you know, people make me feel uncomfortable." So this is a way to show that we're not the only ones going through our struggles ourselves, you know. Ramadan is a month to bring people together. One of the first mosques they visited was the Park51 mosque two blocks from Ground Zero. They made a stop last week here in Jacksonville at the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida on the city's southside. As they drove to the mosque, they spotted a "hilariously racist" sign for The Sheik, a sandwich shop that describes itself as "Home of the Camel Rider." I've seen that place for years but been afraid to eat there. A CNN.Com reporter accompanying Ali and Tariq was more courageous: Wayne [Drash] isn't fasting so he decides to go inside and order this place's infamous Camel Rider sandwich. He walks outside showing me what's the sandwich: ham, salami, and American cheese. "I think this is probably the most American sandwich that you could possibly eat," Wayne says. If you're as disgusted as I am by the round-the-clock media narrative that Muslims are anti-American subversives who attend "terror mosques," check out Ali and Tariq's excellent adventure.
Do We Believe in Freedom of Religion or Not?
I am one of the 52 percent of Americans who believe that Muslims should be able to build mosques wherever any other people can build houses of worship. That number should be 100 percent. When I first heard about the mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero, I thought it was a non-issue. Two city blocks is a long distance. It's not a "Ground Zero Mosque" -- no one called the former tenant the Ground Zero Burlington Coat Factory. The strip club around the corner is not the Ground Zero Titty Bar. The community and zoning authorities in Manhattan overwhemlingly approved the project and Faisal Abdul Rauf, the imam in charge of the project, is so respected that Presidents Bush and Obama have sent him to do outreach to international Muslims. It has been extremely disheartening to watch anti-Muslim fervor sweep the country fed by Fox News, the New York Post and other right-wing media. The people who have fueled this controversy the most, such as the blogger Pamela Geller, are motivated by a fierce hatred of Muslims. They've been telling blatant falsehoods to stir outrage about the project, such as the untrue claim that it was scheduled to open on Sept. 11, 2011. (To give you an idea of Geller's credibility, this frequent Fox News guest has used her blog to spread the claim that President Obama's father is secretly Malcolm X.) A lot of Republican politicians have opportunistically jumped into this issue, feeding off the media-generated outrage. To my great disappointment, a few Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have joined them. There are more than 1.1 billion Muslims in the world and perhaps as many as two million living in the U.S. They're neighbors, coworkers and friends. They serve in our government and in our military. They can be found among the dead on 9/11 and in our national cemeteries. The fact they've been able to worship freely here without interference has been a testament to this country's deep respect for religious freedom. That may be changing. The controversy over this mosque has inspired protests against other mosques around the U.S. and legitimized the idea that the U.S. is at war with Islam. In Sheboygan, Wisc., some Muslims who fled persecution elsewhere are afraid to worship here. If you are one of the Americans who thinks Muslims are the enemy, you're giving Osama Bin Laden the propaganda victory he hoped to achieve with the 9/11 attacks. Photo credit: The photo of a Detroit mosque was taken by Just Us 3 and is licensed for reuse.
How to Join Kurt Vonnegut's Family
Last June, I began writing my first novel, a thriller about nuclear terrorism. I finished the first draft a month ago and sent two copies to people I know who are avid students of fiction writing. I just got back one copy covered in handwritten notes. The other is still out, Wade Duchene. When I mailed the manuscript, these were the first two people who had seen the novel aside from my wife Mary. I encouraged the reviewers to be critical, stressing to them that I'm already a published author and understatedly handsome man. My self-esteem is not in jeopardy. They could be brutally honest about weaknesses in the novel. I wanted them to be as tough on the manuscript as the first prospective agent or publisher who pulls it off the slush pile. This was, of course, a pack of lies. When I encouraged tough criticism, I only did so in the belief that my novel contained no weaknesses. Somewhere in the mail, the book acquired some significant flaws. I've been hearing about them at great length over the phone and dutifully taking notes. Most notably, as it turns out, a man and woman in bloom of first infatuation would not stop to make out when they're minutes from nuclear catastrophe. Even if the man is a decent guy beset by incredibly hard times and she is a beautiful and ballsy college student with corrected vision -- thinly veiled author's wife alert! thinly veiled author's wife alert! -- the imminent death of thousands is a mood killer. It's hard to enjoy having your esophagus grouted by the protagonist's tongue when his skill set is perfectly suited to saving the world. So I'm now working on the second draft. One of the things that kept me from writing a novel was the nagging suspicion that I might prove myself a bad novelist. By spending almost 43 years successfully not writing novels, I have kept that dire possibility at bay. In 1989, Kurt Vonnegut wrote a letter to first-time novelist Mark Lindquist, who had thanked him for being an inspiration. Although Vonnegut makes clear he did not read Lindquist's book, he offers this encouragement: The fact that you have completed a work of fiction of which you are proud, which you made as good as you could, makes you as close a blood relative as my brother Bernard. My new goal is to finish the book, making it as good as I could, and become Kurt Vonnegut's blood relative.
Google's bin.clearspring.com Warning Explained
Several web sites I've visited today, including Time Magazine and Planet 107.3, are triggering a malware warning in Google Chrome: The website at www.planet93.com contains elements from the site bin.clearspring.com, which appears to host malware -- software that can hurt your computer or otherwise operate without your consent. Just visiting a site that contains malware can infect your computer.For detailed information about the problems with these elements, visit the Google Safe Browsing diagnostic page for bin.clearspring.com.Learn more about how to protect yourself from harmful software online. Twitter users report the same problem on Fast Company and the Chicago Tribune, so it's presumably hitting a lot of media sites. I've encountered these warnings before when a third-party advertising service was hit with a malware attack. Every site using widgets or ads from the domain bin.clearspring.com is probably triggering Google's warning. A blog post on Clearspring states that their widget delivery network was hit Saturday with a malware attack detected by Google: We noticed early this morning via Twitter that a large number of folks using Chrome were being warned of malware when visiting sites with Clearspring Launchpad widgets. To summarize the event, our portion of the Content Delivery Network (CDN), the service we use to efficiently host all Clearspring widget internals, was compromised with files that redirected users to a certain malware domain (which we wonâÂÂt link here). We quickly fixed the issue and are now back to normal operation as far as the CDN is concerned. Because of Google's aggressive malware prevention policy, users may continue to see warnings until Google completes its re-review process. ... Note that this issue had no affect on the AddThis sharing platform, only on widgets served via the earlier-generation Clearspring Launchpad platform. When Google thinks a web site may be serving malware, it displays a warning in place of the site. Although it's possible to ignore the warning and continue to the site anyway, that's a monumentally bad idea. Within 24-48 hours, the bin.clearspring.com warning will likely go away if Clearspring has cleared up the problem. I've never heard of Clearspring before, but letting its servers become infected with malware files and delivering those files on third-party sites is a massive PR disaster. The company also was criticized in a Wall Street Journal piece Saturday for putting 55 different Flash-based tracking cookies on the computers of people who visited Comcast's web site: Clearspring, based in McLean, Va., says the 55 Flash cookies were a mistake. The company says it no longer uses Flash cookies for tracking. CEO Hooman Radfar says Clearspring provides software and services to websites at no charge. In exchange, Clearspring collects data on consumers. It plans eventually to sell the data it collects to advertisers, he says, so that site users can be shown "ads that don't suck." Comcast's data won't be used, Clearspring says.
Laura Linney Puts the Comedy in Cancer
There's an interesting cover story on the actress Laura Linney by Frank Bruni in the current New York Times Magazine. Linney's had a remarkable career in movies, television and Broadway, but it didn't begin taking off until she was 35. Now she's one of the small number of actresses over 40 getting meaty roles. After losing close friend Natasha Richardson last year in a fluke accident that occurred on a ski trip, Linney's taken the lead role in the mortality-themed The Big C, a Showtime comedy about a woman with terminal cancer that premieres Aug. 16. Linney was approached about The Big C in the summer of 2009. The first episode -- the pilot, really -- was shot in November, long before all the others, and Condon remembers that when she asked him to direct it, "she talked about how she felt almost this kind of compulsion to do this, because NatashaâÂÂs death had really, really brought so much into focus for her about the fragility of life, and figuring out what to do with it." What her character on The Big C does with expressly numbered days is eat more desserts. Sneak cigarettes. Dig the backyard pool she has always wanted. Insist that her son spend time with her. And hammer certain life lessons into him before she loses the opportunity to. I hope the show is funnier than Bruni makes it sound -- the Times has a tendency to make everything sound like an AP English homework assignment. Apparently, laughs are going to be mined from the life changes Linney makes, going from being a sensible wife and mother to someone who lets "her freak flag fly." Showtime's example of the depths of her unleashed freakiness: "Who says you can't eat dessert as an appetizer?" That still doesn't sound remotely entertaining. Linney has a tough job ahead of her.
A Mulatto, An Albino, A Mosquito, My Libido
Ladies and gentlemen, the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain. They also rock Shaft, Psycho Killer and Teenage Dirtbag. When they played London's Royal Albert Hall in 2009, the sold-out crowd of 6,000 included 1,000 people who brought ukeleles to accompany them on Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."
The Destruction of Andrew Breitbart
We here at Studio B did not run the video and did not reference the story in any way for many reasons, among them: we didn't know who shot it, we didn't know when it was shot, we didn't know the context of the statement, and because of the history of the videos on the site where it was posted, in short we do not and did not trust the source. -- Fox News anchor Shepard Smith on Andrew Breitbart By his own admission, he was an aimless and frustrated college graduate in the mid-'90s when he discovered the Internet and decided to reinvent himself on it: "I said to myself, 'O.K., you are going on a date tonight, and you are not going to bed until you have gone all the way.' And I remember hooking up to the World Wide Web that night, and it was a revelation. It was just like shooting yourself into outer space, and trying to latch onto anyone else who was out there. I remember finding weather sites and earthquake sites, and being able to monitor earthquakes in real time, and that was weirdly invigorating." I did not expect that Breitbart would rise as far as he has, but now that he's obliterated his reputation with an ugly racial smear against a decent woman in government service, I think the seeds of his destruction have been in place for years. A little over a year ago, I wrote about how enraged he is all the time: All external indicators would suggest that Breitbart has a lot to be happy about, but I've followed his work for years and he operates in a constant state of anger at the perceived mistreatment of conservatives, particularly in Hollywood. Since he's around my age, he's lived during an era in which the right wing was ascendant in American politics. I'm not sure he could have survived the '60s and '70s, back when conservatism was the marginalized ideology of Barry Goldwater and washed-up B-movie actors. Four months ago, I documented how Breitbart has been lying to the media for years: ... Breitbart [has] the good fortune to work in online agenda-driven journalism, where no one is ever held accountable for being wrong. Breitbart lied back then, lied about the ACORN sting and will probably lie in furtherance of the next scoop he peddles to the mainstream media. He can't be trusted. I wonder how long it will take the Times and the rest of the major media to figure that out. There are political points I could score here, since Breitbart's hatred of liberals makes it satisfying to enjoy his fall from grace. But as a self-made web publisher myself, I find it disappointing that he won't simply apologize to Shirley Sherrod and admit a mistake. He managed to turn his association with Drudge into a huge media platform and doesn't have to answer to anyone. There's no reason he has to be as nakedly self-preservational as the major media, the way the New York Times and USA Today acted when caught publishing Jayson Blair and Jack Kelley's fictional news stories, as if the entire reputation of the papers would collapse like a house of cards if they engaged in open self-criticism. Breitbart is his own boss. He appears to be rolling in dough. He has Founding Father hair. What good is being a self-employed media mogul if you can't admit you fucked up and try to make it right? Related:
By virtue of publishing the Drudge Retort, I've been following the career of Andrew Breitbart for more than a decade. His rise to prominence from Matt Drudge's uncredited collaborator to liberal-hating firebrand has been quite remarkable, given the fact that he's just a self-made web publisher who never held a job of any importance in media, politics or academia.
Hey! You! Get Off of RssCloud
Cadenhead you are being a jerk putting words in the mouth of Dave Winer --again-- as those of us who used to read the RSS mailing lists can attest; so herein I speak for myself in this regard.Secondly, if you were as professional as you imply Cadenhead --and-- if you were an all-around decent kind of fair play fella (which you are having a problem with) you would use your ill-deserved name recognition to expose the fact that the feed validator at feedvalidator.org has been coded by the sleazy-weasel(s) Sam Ruby et al. to undermine RSS. ... It is only your dishonesty, the lack of information, the lack of coding skills of the typical web developer and the bully pulpit that causes the rssCloud element to now appear as if must be relegated to the back seat. I'd like to see rssCloud have a fair chance, the developers of WordPress agree and support rssCloud too so gfy Roger. Normally I'd have some fun with his over-the-top personal attack and Winer psychodrama, but I'm completely bored with that stuff. RSS is eleven years old. Winer and his BFFs have their view and the RSS Advisory Board has ours. We endorsed the Feed Validator and wrote an RSS Profile to help publishers and developers adopt the format with a minimum of aggravation. For people like Gallagher who think we suck rocks, the validator is open source and the profile is licensed under Creative Commons. If you hate Sam Ruby, hate me or hate the RSS board, you can use our own work to put us in our place. Though I must warn you there's no money in it and the RSS community is painfully short on groupies, if you don't mind that, knock yourself out. As for RssCloud, it is now a year since Winer tried to revive it and he's never bothered to write a specification for all the changes he was making. Life is too short to waste time implementing his half-assed ideas. I use PubSubHubbub for real-time RSS support in my software. It's well-specified and it works great.
Clinton Gallagher recently posted a blistering tirade against me in the comments of Workbench. He thinks that I'm part of a dishonest campaign against Dave Winer and the RssCloud element:
Modern Journalism is a Serious Pickle
The recent firings of Dave Weigel by the Washington Post and Octavia Nasr by CNN show that mainstream journalists, who are expected to display some personality and attitude on social media to better connect to the audience, will be fired the minute they make an important group mad. I don't envy the job of a reporter at a major media outlet pressed into blogging or tweeting for the company. Conservative journalist James Poulos sums up the predicament well: Writers now have competing pressures -- to be witty, quick, ironic, noticeable, flip, to dispatch every clay pigeon tossed up by a culture pandemic with pigeons; but also to self-edit, to self-moderate, to be reticent at the right time, to pussyfoot expertly, to pick battles, to avoid perils, to besmirch rarely, to duck blame, to satisfy spectral overseers. This is a serious pickle, is it not? And yet it now appears to be the cost of doing business. Possibly, this is the internet imitating life. I found this great quote in a funny fake media orientation video.
Woot Mocks AP's DMCA Copyright Bullying
The DMCA copyright battle between the Associated Press and the Drudge Retort took place two years ago, but Woot CEO Matt Rutledge remembered it in a blog post this week. Rutledge noticed that when AP covered the sale of his company to Amazon.Com, it quoted from his blog. The AP, we can't thank you enough for looking our way. You see, when we showed off our good news on Wednesday afternoon, we expected we'd get a little bit of attention. But when we found your little newsy thing you do, we couldn't help but notice something important. And that something is this: you printed our web content in your article! The web content that came from our blog! Why, isn't that the very thing you've previously told nu-media bloggers theyâÂÂre not supposed to do? So, The AP, here we are. Just to be fair about this, weâÂÂve used your very own pricing scheme to calculate how much you owe us. By looking through the link above, and comparing your post with our original letter, we've figured you owe us roughly $17.50 for the content you borrowed from our blog post, which, by the way, we worked very very hard to create. ... We're major digital players now. Don't force us to pass this matter to a collection agency. In response to Rutledge's mockery, I can only say woot! Two years ago, when the AP was taking a massive barrage of criticism over using the DMCA to squash the free speech rights of blogs and social news sites, the wire service told Saul Hansell of the New York Times that it was going to produce fair use guidelines for bloggers. The Associated Press, one of the nation's largest news organizations, said that it will, for the first time, attempt to define clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt without infringing on The A.P.'s copyright. AP never produced those guidelines. My gut feeling at the time was that AP would wait for the issue to blow over and forget it made that promise, because the company sells headline-and-lead syndication packages around the world. Telling people they might possibly be able to quote its stories without getting sued undercuts its business.
Not Tonight, Honey, I'm Psychologically Satisfied
A reader comment by Fabius Cunctator to an op-ed column against gay marriage: Homosexuals do not achieve psychological satisfaction by engaging in same-sex sex. That is the reason that homosexuals are highly promiscuous compared to heterosexuals. Homosexuals can desire sex again only one or two hours after same-sex because they are not psychologically satisfied by their sex. Heterosexuals often can go for days, weeks or months before desiring sex again because they have achieved psychological satisfaction from their last physical sex act. So heterosexual sex is so satisfying that one can go months without wanting to do it again. Homosexual sex, on the other hand, is so unsatisfying that it's desired as soon as one hour later. He goes on to tell a married man of 20-plus years that having sex with his wife every 2-3 days is "abnormally frequent sex." My condolences to Mrs. Cunctator.
Review: 'Tinkers' by Paul Harding
This year's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Tinkers by Paul Harding, is one of the best I've read in years. The slim 191-page book is about the last eight days of dying clock repairman George Washington Crosby, whose hallucinating mind wanders across time in his final hours, stopping at disordered points in his life and that of his father. I don't often like awardbait -- difficult literary novels with spare plots seemingly tailored for award consideration -- but the language of Tinkers is as exquisite as a T.S. Eliot poem. Harding is at his most evocative when describing the workings of an antique clock or the natural wonder of the New England countryside, yet the entire book is written with an tinkerer's eye towards the world. There may never be a more eyebrow-curling description of halitosis than when George's father Howard pulls the tooth of a suffering hermit who buys from his tinker's wagon: "A breeze caught the hermit's breath and Howard gasped and saw visions of slaughter-houses and dead pets under porches." When George witnesses his father's epileptic seizure at the dinner table on Christmas Day, it's a perfectly described moment of absolute terror -- and you can see why he's taking it to the grave. At times, Tinkers wanders into pure existential reverie, like these thoughts from George's father as he drags his wagon of goods from one rural homestead to another: Your cold mornings are filled with the heartache about the fact that although we are not at ease in this world, it is all we have, that it is ours but that it is full of strife, so that all we can call our own is strife; but even that is better than nothing at all, isn't it? And as you split frost-laced wood with numb hands, rejoice that your uncertainty is God's will and His grace toward you and that that is beautiful, and part of a greater certainty, as your own father always said in his sermons to you at home. And as the ax bites into the wood, be comforted in the fact that the ache in your heart and the confusion in your soul means that you are still alive, still human, and still open to the beauty of the world, even though you have done nothing to deserve it. And when you resent the ache in your heart, remember: You will be dead and buried soon enough. I wasn't sure about this novel until I was 50 pages in, and even briefly considered abandoning it for fare more light than an old man's deathbed vigil. The cumulative impact of passage after passage like the above convinced me that Tinkers was a masterwork that would be cherished for generations, like a centuries-old grandfather clock. Related posts:
The first novel by Harding, Tinkers was rejected by numerous publishers and sat in a drawer for several years before it found a home at Bellevue Literary Press, an obscure non-profit publisher based in New York's Bellevue Hospital. It's the first book from a small press to win the Pulitzer since John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces in 1981.
Exercising My Right to Petition the Government
On Tuesday I visited five Congressional offices in the Capitol to make the case for small publishers who rely on targeted Internet ads for revenue, an event that rated a story in Politico. The Interactive Advertising Bureau invited web entrepreneurs to come to DC and meet members of Congress and their aides, hoping to make the point that thousands of Americans are running businesses powered by these ads. We're one of the only sectors of the economy that's been growing during this recession. Although I had to pay my own travel and hotel costs, I accepted the invitation to tell the story of the Drudge Retort. As a former newspaper journalist, I've been able to run a social news site that receives two million visits a month because of the revenue generated by online ads. My wife lost her job as a reporter in a layoff two years ago, and we've endured the tough economic times with the help of the site. There are a lot of Americans running web-based businesses in circumstances like ours. Reporting jobs are disappearing, so we've started our own media empire out of the house. With several web publishers and a lawyer for the IAB as chaperone, I met aides for Reps. Diane DeGette (D-Colo.), Michael Castle (R-Del.), Bill Young (D-Fl.), Charlie Melancon (D-La.) and Mike Rogers (R-Mich.). We wandered around a catacomb of ancient underground hallways that connect the Rayburn, Longworth and Cannon buildings where members of Congress work, getting 10-15 minutes with each aide to argue that proposed new legislation would crush our businesses, send jobs overseas and cause web advertising to be considerably more annoying than it is today. There's an Internet privacy bill by Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), currently being circulated as a draft, that could be interpreted to require every bit of targeting in online marketing to be opt-in. Although that sounds OK in principle, in practice there's a lot of personalization going on today thanks to anonymous cookies, IP addresses and the relationships customers build with online sites. Dell sends an email to you offering a warranty extension for your laptop. Google delivers local restaurant ads based on the geographic location of your IP address. An Amazon shopper who buys the latest Justin Bieber album is told he might also enjoy earplugs. I thought I did OK in the meetings, though it's a challenge to pitch the public benefit of something that's so obviously tied to your own self-interest. I was reminded of the old saying that "what's good for IBM is good for America." Before I went to the Capitol, I sought advice from the members of the Retort, getting all manner of helpful and not-so-helpful suggestions. One comment from Dirk, a libertarian member of the site, gave me something to talk about in several meetings. At the end of the day the internet is about servicing humanity through the vital sharing of information. Government intrusion only hinders this important service that you provide. ... Right makes might and you are in the right. This is "a unique medium for humanity to share information and ideas" don't let anyone compare it to any other areas of communication that have been regulated in the past and if they attempt to point out where those forms of communication have died off. If you've spent any time on the Retort, you know that it's a cantankerous community of people of all political stripes who show up each day to yell at each other about the news of the day. And yell at me. But one thing the members do agree on is that the Retort and thousands of other independent blogs are an important vehicle for free expression. The third-party ads that run on the site leave me beholden to no one, because I'm not required to directly solicit advertisers and other entities for support. The stories that run on the site are based on my own editorial judgment and that of the users who contribute their own links. The users of the site are as invested in the success of this business model as I am. Although I did not get to meet a member of Congress in an official capacity, while crammed into one of the Capitol's tiny elevators in the Rayburn building, I accidentally elbowed a well-dressed mustachioed gentleman square in the nose. He had been graciously helping us find the tunnel to the Longworth building. I found out later he was Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas). Related posts: Credit: The photo of the U.S. Capitol tunnel going to the Cannon Building was taken by Indianagal.
Mr. Cadenhead Goes to Washington
I'm in Woodbridge, Va., this morning about to head out to the Long Tail Alliance Fly-In, a gathering of small web publishers organized by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Google. As a publisher who uses context-based advertising on the Drudge Retort and other sites, I was invited to come to DC and meet with members of Congress to talk about why this form of advertising is important to online media. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has concerns that Congress is working on regulations that would kick this form of advertising in the fiddly parts: Political campaigns have been launched at the federal and state levels to seek government regulation of many of the core processes and technologies that support interactive advertising. The IAB believes a disproportionately negative impact would be felt by small publishers whose advertising sales are largely or entirely managed by ad networks. This would affect advertising revenues and potentially diminish the diversity of voices and ideas on this most diverse of communications media. I'll be liveblogging the event on Twitter using hashtag #iabdc. Follow me on Twitter to live this adventure in real time. I don't know yet who I'll be meeting (Michelle Bachmann! Michelle Bachmann! Michelle Bachmann!). As the publisher of a liberal-leaning web site that calls itself "Red Meat for Yellow Dogs," it could be amusingly awkward if I get some conservative Republicans. Then again, I'm here on my own dime trying to keep my bidness free of government regulation. So I'm practically speaking Republican already.
BP Reporter Calls Cleanup 'Ballet at Sea'
On May 28, BP-employed reporter Paula Kolmar filed this dispatch from a shrimping vessel hired to skim oil from the Gulf of Mexico before it reached Alabama's coastline: Over about four hours we, all guests of Gulf Coast native Captain Wade and his local crew, enjoyed the spectacular ballet at sea. ... Watching the captains weave the long black boom as seamlessly as a professional ballet troupe performs an intricate dance, I found it difficult to believe that the rehearsals only started some weeks ago. ... Gently caressing the sea surface, the three vessels circled and swirled, guiding the boom without changing the design. A ballet at sea as mesmerising as any performance in a concert hall, and worthy of an audience in its own right. If you'd like to see the ballet, made possible by a contribution of 40,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico, it will be running through August and may be extended into the fall.
Workbench
Programming, Publishing, Politics, and Popes