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AUTHORLINK NEWS ARCHIVESLate October, 1997 Issue
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Carol Publishing
LONDON, ENGLAND/ 10/97--London-based Batsford Communications PLC, the parent company of BT Batsford Ltd, plans to merge with New Jersey-based Carol Publishing before the year's end. Batsford Ltd, one of England's oldest independent publishers, specializes in non-fiction books on topics such as crafts, film, gardening, chess and bridge. Batsford seeks to become a world leader in a number of non-fiction niche markets. The company recently acquired a specialty line and expanded into the business and personal finance categories. Carol Publishing was founded by publisher Steven Schragis, who purchased Citadel Press, Lyle Stuart, and University Books in 1988, and launched Birch Lane Press in 1989. Today, the three entities operate as imprints of Carol. Carol is known for its front list entertainment and celebrity biography titles, including nine bestsellers in recent years. The company also has an impressive backlist of non-fiction includes titles about film, travel, New Age, and African-American Studies. Carol's management will remain the same. Schragis continues as Publisher and Bruce Bender remains as president. Both will join the Board of Batsford Communications PLC. Batsford's Jules Perel will continue as Group Chief Executive and will divide his time between both operations.
John Wiley
NEW YORK, NY/ 10/9/97--Global publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JW.A) has agreed to purchase the assets of Van Nostrand Reinhold (VNR) from International Thomson Publishing (ITP), a division of The Thomson Corp.(TSE: TOC). Both Wiley and Van Norstrand Reinhold are located in New York City. The sale is subject to a legal waiting period, but is expected to close this fall. VNR publishes books and electronic products for professionals in business technology, architecture/design, environmental industrial science, and culinary arts/hospitality. Popular Wiley titles include the market-leading American Institute of Architect's Architectural Graphic Standards, Patty's Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology, the Gisslen culinary arts series for professionals and students, and the Wiley-Upside magazine partnership series for business technology professionals. Wiley and VNR are both reputed for their high-quality encyclopedias in science and technology.
Reed Elsevier
10/7/97-- The newly formed Business Information unit of Reed Elsevier plc plans to sell four computer magazines, and launch two new ones in January '98-- Pharmaceutical Laboratory magazine and Broadcasting & Cable's Digital Television. The Business Information division, created by the merger of Cahners Publishing and Chilton Publishing, is located in Newton, MA. The unit includes Publishers Weekly among its 131 titles. The four computer magazines for sale are Government Computer News, Government Computer News State & Local, Datamation (circulation 199,000) and Reseller Management. The two new magazines will be located in Morris Plains, NJ.
Independent Press
DENVER, CO./ 10/97--MacMurray & Beck, a Denver-based independent press, will launch its first imprint, DIVINA, in February, 1998. The imprint will include speculative, spiritual and metaphorical books as well as personal experiences. Divina's first release will be "An Unlikely Prophet: Revelations on the Path Without Form" by Alvin Schwartz. Titles will be distributed to the trade by WORDS Distributing Company. MacMurray & Beck titles will continue to be available direct or through Baker & Taylor, Bookazine, Bookpeople, Ingram, and Koen.
Prima Expands
ROCKLIN, CA/ 10/9/97--Prima Publishing and THQ, Inc. will collaborate to create strategy guides for some of the most highly anticipated game titles for the upcoming Christmas season: "Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain," "WCW vs. NWO: World Tour," "Ghost in the Shell," "Vs.," "WCW Nitro" and "Quest 64." The expanded relationship immediately follows release of the highly successful strategy guide for "WCW vs. The World." All of the new games are due on retail shelves between October, '97 and the first quarter of '98. "We are very excited about expanding our relationship with THQ," said Prima publisher Debra Kempker. "THQ has launched itself to the forefront of computer and video gaming, and we anticipate that our partnership will be mutually successful for a long time to come." "We are thrilled to be teaming up with a company like Prima in supporting our biggest games with the widest distribution of strategy guides," said Germaine Gioia, vice president of marketing, THQ Inc. Prima Entertainment (http://www.primagames.com) is the world's largest publisher of strategy guides for computer and console games, with almost ten million strategy guides in print. The Rocklin, Calif.-based company continues to dominate the field it created in 1990 with its Secrets of the Games imprint and enjoys a dominant position on all the best seller lists. Founded in 1984, Prima Publishing has three divisions including Entertainment, Lifestyles, and Computer Products. THQ Inc. develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software worldwide for a variety of hardware platforms including PC CD ROM and those manufactured by Nintendo, Sony and Sega. THQ is headquartered in Calabasas, California, and is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol THQI. The THQ Web site is located at http://www.thq.com.
Simon & Schuster's
NEW YORK, NY/ 10/9/97-- Simon & Schuster has launched an online children's emporium (www.redrocket.com) to help parents evaluate and select high quality educational products for their kids. Red Rocket an interactive emporium offers engaging learning products for kids ages 0 - 12. Free for anyone to browse, the site provides "exciting and developmentally sound products that kids love and parents can trust." The store's merchandise spans a wide range of media, from books and games to software and toys, featuring products from Simon & Schuster, The Learning Company, Educational Insights, and others. Red Rocket, an extension of Simon & Schuster, the world's largest educational publisher, reflects the latest trends in education and draws on Simon & Schuster's more than 70 years of experience developing children's educational materials and state-of-the-art instructional technology for the classroom. "Red Rocket helps parents make informed decisions about the best kinds of educational products for their children," said Lynne Weiss, vice president of new media for Simon & Schuster's Education Technology Group. "At the click of a mouse it is the equivalent of a personal shopper, a knowledgeable salesperson, and an educational specialist all wrapped up in one package." Simon & Schuster, the world's largest educational publisher, is the publishing operation of Viacom Inc. One of the world's most prolific interactive publishers, Simon & Schuster will derive more than one quarter of its $2.4 billion in 1997 revenues from electronic products and services. The company will publish more than 500,000 HTML pages on the Internet in 1997 through more than 100 Web sites serving its consumer, education, professional and reference publishing markets. Red Rocket is part of the Simon & Schuster Learning Products Group.
Bertelsmann Teams
AUSTRALIA/ 10/97--A joint venture between America Online, Inc. and Bertelsmann AG will bring AOL services to Australian consumers in 1998. AOL Australia, an AOL-branded Internet online service, will be launched next year, offering an easy multimedia interface, integrated Internet access, communication and personalization features, and affordable pricing. AOL in Australia will be locally managed, but will provide the added benefit of access to AOL's other global services. The Australian joint venture further expands an already successful relationship between America Online and Bertelsmann. In April 1995, the two companies formed a similar joint venture, AOL Europe, which offers service to consumers in Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria and the United Kingdom.
Washington Post
WASHINGTON, DC/ 10/6/97--Editors and reporters at The Washington Post will issue live news reports and analysis from their newsroom desks in an unprecedented agreement with Newschannel 8, the Washington area's 24-hour cable news channel owned by Albritton Television. A permanent video facility will occupy the Post's newsroom. The Post content will supplement the cable channel's existing coverage of breaking news and community programming. No other details of the agreement were revealed.
Random House
The Children's Publishing unit of Random House, has launched an online resource center for teachers in the K-4 grade levels. The site, called Teachers@Random (http://www.teachersatrandom.com) is designed to support classroom use of its award-winning books and educational materials.
Simon & Schuster
10/10/97--Prentice-Hall, a division of Simon & Schuster, the world's largest educational publisher, has agreed to package Decisioneering's popular Crystal Ball risk-analysis software with four new business school textbooks. The first 10,000 student copies of Crystal Ball will be available for courses beginning in January 1998. Textbooks included in the deal are: Introduction to Simulation and Risk Analysis (Evans & Olson); Introductory Management Science, 5th Edition (Eppen); Introduction to Management Science, 6th Edition (Taylor); and Decision Models (Monahan). Crystal Ball is a spreadsheet add-in that automates the "what if" process then graphically displays the results, showing the highest, lowest and the most likely outcomes. The user can then determine the probability of meeting or exceeding any target. Uses for Crystal Ball include capital budgeting, estimating returns on investments, organizational model building, estimating time and expenses, environmental risk assessment, construction scheduling and cost estimating, and estimating fees in business arrangements.
Nat'l Public Radio
10/97--National Public Radio (NPR) will install "NPR" Town Square kiosks in 180 Borders Books & Music locations as part of an innovative new relationship. The kiosks, to be installed by the end of October '97, will help customers easily locate and purchase books and CDs featured on NPR.
Books-A-Million
Books-A-Million, Inc. will open two new superstores, one in Mississippi and the other in Texas. The Mississippi store will be in Meridian at 1187 Bonita Lakes Circle. The other store will be in Grapevine, Texas in Grapevine Mills Mall on Grapevine Mills Parkway. Each superstore will offer hundreds of thousands of current book titles including thousands of bargain books, over 3,000 magazine and newspaper titles and much more. Books-A-Million, celebrating its 80th anniversary, is one of the fastest growing booksellers in the nation with more than 150 stores in 17 states.
Producers Buy
Award-winning American producer Martin Poll, and German producer Christian Seidel have purchased theatrical motion picture rights to "Diana: Her True Story In Her Own Words, " the new hardcover book by Andrew Morton. The book was released October 6 by Simon & Schuster, with an initial print run of one million copies in the US alone. Michael O'Hara Books released the title in the United Kingdom. The film, "Diana: Her True Story In Her Own Words" will be produced by Posey Films, Ltd., a joint venture of Poll's and Seidel's respective companies, Martin Poll Films, Ltd. and pipeline development (sic) GMBH. Filming is scheduled to get underway next March with a release date of Fall 1998. In 1993, Poll produced a four-hour miniseries, "Diana: Her True Story," based on Morton's earlier book by the same title. The program originally was broadcast on NBC-TV and then in every other major market. The hardcover book is a new version of Morton's biography based on extensive interviews with the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and includes her own direct quotes. The producers plan a cast of distinguished British actors for the new film and will conduct a search throughout the United Kingdom an actress to play the leading role.
Magic Johnson,
LOS ANGELES, CA/ 10/9/97--Pro basketball star Magic Johnson has agreed to help BIG Entertainment (NASDAQ: BIGE) develop a series of textbooks, novels, and action cartoon characters for children. The sports celebrity will work with Big E's writers and graphic designers to develop several new action figure cartoon characters in the science fiction, fantasy, mystery, horror and/or western categories. Magic Johnson will give creative input to the various projects and will have final product approval over the characters, who will become central figures in children's books, novels, film/TV programming, and toys. BIG E will also develop a series of educational textbooks, on subjects such as reading, math and science, in which the material will be "presented" by Magic Johnson and possibly other major sports figures. Initial products are scheduled to reach the market in 1998. In the NBA, Magic Johnson led the Los Angeles Lakers to nine finals in thirteen seasons, winning five championships (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, and 1989). He was chosen playoff MVP three times (1980, 1982, and 1987) and was the first rookie to be named so. Johnson was league MVP three times (1987, 1989 and 1990). In 1992, Magic was chosen for the United States "Dream Team" at the Barcelona Olympic Games. All Magic Johnson books and textbooks will be packaged by BIG E's Tekno Books division.
Hearst, Excite
NEW YORK, NY/ 10/9/97-- Hearst New Media's HomeArts Network has agreed to create original content for Excite, Inc.'s Lifestyle channel, and the Home and Family channel on Webcrawler. The women's lifestyle website is located at http://www.homearts.com. HomeArts will develop co-branded pages on Excite and Webcrawler, featuring content in the areas of food and beverage, relationships, holiday, home, and garden. "The deal between HomeArts and Excite is typical of a trend on the Web where major content sites partner with major distribution sites" says Al Sikes, President, Hearst New Media and Technology. "In the early days of the Web, it wasn't clear which content providers and which distribution points were going to have significant longevity to merit long-term relationships. Those longer term relationships are now forming and we are pleased to be working closely with Excite."
"This partnership signals an important part of the build out of Excite's channel content. As a free online service serving the interests of the major consumer communities on the Internet, it is essential that we present the highest quality content designed specifically for women, a major consumer segment that's grown dramatically in just the past year" notes Brett Bullington, Executive Vice President, Excite, Inc. The HomeArts Network is the first Internet network launched by Hearst New Media and Technology, a division of the Hearst Corporation. Since it's launch in August 1995, the Network has become the #1 women's site on the Web, with an 80% female audience and 1.5 million visits per month.
The Hearst Corporation is one of the nation's largest diversified communications companies. Its major interests include newspaper, magazine, book and business publishing, television and radio broadcasting, cable network programming, newspaper features distribution, television production and distribution and new media activities.
Scripps Posts
Media conglomerate E.W. Scripps Co. reported a 16% increase in net income for the third quarter ended September 30, 1997. The company posted net income of $38.57 million ($.48 per share) for 1997, up from $35.91 for the same period a year-ago. An after-tax gain of $11 million was attributed to a newspaper trade with Knight-Ridder in August (MD 8/26/97). Scripps also announced it will purchase six newspapers from Harte-Hanks Communications and a controlling interest in Belo Communications' The Food Network by year end. Operating revenue in the quarter totaled $168.96 million, up from $153.88 million for the comparable period in 1996. Scripps also owns newspapers in 14 domestic markets, nine television stations, the 24-hour cable network HGTV and other media properties.
Textbook Exports
US textbook exports rose 11.3% for the first half of the year, according to Department of Commerce statistics. Exports climbed from $140 million in the first six months of 1996 to $155.8 million for the same period in 1997.
Textbooks are the third largest among nine book export categories measured in dollar value by the Department. Technical, scientific and professional categories account for $282.1 million --the largest share of exports --followed by printed books of 49 pages or more, with $194.8 million in sales. A total of 16 countries imported more than $1 million worth of US textbooks for the period. The UK and Canada were the largest buyers of US the exported books ($30.7-$41.5 million), followed by Australia, Japan and Mexico ($10-$12 million), then Taiwan and Germany ($6-$10 million). The top 16 US textbook markets represented 89.3% of the world total in this category.
People
NEW PUBLISHER AT AMERICAN BABY 10/97--Darcy Miller, 44, has been named Publisher of American Baby Magazine Group. The Group includes American Baby Magazine and Healthy Kids. Before joining K-III Communications in August 1996 as Publisher of Stagebill Magazine, Ms. Miller was Executive Vice President and Publisher of Chief Executive Magazine and related businesses. Earlier she co-founded and worked at Museum Magazine. K-III Communications is a leading media company active in specialized information, educational services, and niche consumer and trade publications. BEACH JOINS CIO AS PUBLISHER 10/9/97--Gary Beach has been named publisher of CIO Magazine, a holding of CIO Communications, Inc. and part of International Data Group (IDG).CIO Communications is a global resource for corporate chief information officers and information technology executives. In his role as publisher of CIO Magazine, Mr. Beach will focus on creating new business opportunities for the publication and related businesses. A ten-year IDG veteran, Mr. Beach most recently served as senior vice president of IDG, the leading global provider of information services on information technology. INQUIRER EDITOR TO STEP DOWN 10/9/97--Maxwell E.P. King, Editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer will step down at the end of 1997 from his seven-year post at the award-winning newspaper. King, 53, will take a ten month leave of absence from Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc., publisher of the Inquirer, then will return to the newspaper as Associate Editor of the editorial pages. King's successor will be named later this year. He has been with Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. for 25 years.
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