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Ari Brandt has left his role as digital media head of Condé Nast Business Media Group Online and joined ad technology provider Linkstorm as CEO. Linkstorm's founding CEO, David Sidman, will stay on as chairman of the board. In July 2006, Brandt was tapped as general manager of digital media for Condé Nast Portfolio. Before that, Brandt served as director of ad solutions at Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), which he had held since March 2005. He oversaw the strategy for Yahoo Tech and was the business lead for Yahoo Finance and Yahoo News.
Considering the troubles major media companies have been having lately, going to a company that promises marketers improved ad effectiveness like Linkstorm seems like a sound move. Still, display advertising is troubled too. Nevertheless, as Brandt indicated in a statement, the challenges facing online media may also work in eight-year-old Linkstorm's favor.
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Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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 —Disney (NYSE: DIS) rebrands toon channel as Disney XD: In a push to reach school-aged (6-14) boys, the WSJ says Disney is rebranding its Toon Disney cable channel as Disney XD, and building out an accompanying Website. The new Disney XD brand aims to mesh TV, videogames, social media and online video, with original series for both the channel and the site. The first piece of IP will be Aaron Stone, an action-adventure show. The Journal says Disney is hoping to recreate the multi-platform success it has had with girl-centric franchises like Hannah Montana and High School Musical.
—WB.com readies new series Rockville, CA: TheWB.com is slated to launch Rockville, CA, a new original Web series focusing on a fictional nightclub in California, Variety reports. The show will feature scripted scenes as well as performances from real indie bands like the Kooks and Frightened Rabbit. Though only short snippets of a given band's set will run during each episode, theWB.com will post a clip of of the entire two-song performance on the site afterward. Gossip Girl and The OC creator Josh Schwartz is behind the show, which premieres March 17.
—CookieMag.com bulks up video offering: Conde Nast's CookieMag.com is beefing up its video content: adding sponsored editorial clips (advertisers TBA), as well as clips promoting the Smart Cookie Awards (which honor moms that devote time/energy to charity). The videos will showcase them at work, and readers get to vote for the mom that they feel should win $35K for her charity. Video ad firm TurnHere will produce all the videos.
—NIN frontman "leaks" concert footage to torrents : The latest digital play from Nine Inch Nails comes in the form of concert footage. Techdirt reports that NIN frontman Trent Reznor gave fans details about 400GB worth of HD concert footage that had been "leaked" to torrents in a blog post—and challenged them to find it: "If any of you could find a LINK to that footage I'll bet some enterprising fans could assemble something pretty cool," he wrote. After parting ways with longtime label Interscope last year, the band released its instrumental album "Ghosts I-IV" online, with some tracks available for free; and even uploaded parts of it to The Pirate Bay, a torrent sharing site.
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 Troubled ***, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)-centric media company PlanetOut has finally found a buyer of sorts. The company is merging with here! Networks, which develops original LGBT content for cable, satellite TV and the web, and media holding company Regent Entertainment to form Here Media. Regent and Here will pump roughly $4.7 million into the new company; PlanetOut will eventually become a subsidiary of the forthcoming entity. Here Networks' CEO and founder Paul Colichman will serve as chief executive of the new company. No word on what role PlanetOut CEO Karen Magee will play.
It's been a long time coming for PlanetOut (NSDQ: LGBT). It has been on the block since last January. And this isn't the first time the company has dealt with Here Networks/Regent. PlanetOut sold its magazine and book publishing businesses to Here in April 2008 for $6 million. That deal gave Here/Regent ownership of The Advocate, Out and HIVPlus.
Terms of the merger reflect the dire financial straits PlanetOut was in: the company's shareholders will receive one share of Here Media's common stock as well as a share of "special stock"—for a 20 percent stake in the new company. In contrast, Here Media and Regent's owners will get common stock only—and an 80 percent stake in the company. The "special stock is being issued to provide a limited form of downside protection in the event of a liquidation, dissolution or winding up of Here Media ..." Or an outright sale of the company within for years of the merger for too low a price. You can read more details in this mind-boggling release.
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 Women's magazine publisher Meredith (NYSE: MDP) is cutting 250 jobs which will result in a $16 million charge—about $9 million after-tax or $0.20 per share—in Q1. It will also shutter Country Home magazine after it publishes its March issue and relocate its ReadyMade brand and Parents.com properties to Des Moines, where Meredith is based. The moves were driven, naturally, by the deepening recession. Advertising, which accounts for 60 percent of Meredith's revenue stream, continues to trend downward, said CEO Stephen Lacy, and so the company is girding itself for a tougher year.
The added caution on Meredith's part is fairly sudden. Two months ago, it acquired a minority stake in Real Girls Media Network, as Meredith appeared to be avoiding the kind retrenchment being taken by other mag publishers. The company will release its earnings on Jan. 22. Release
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Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
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Asked what Time Warner's plans for the AOL business and all its discordant parts—from access service to content and ad sales—CFO John Martin, in a Q&A at the 2009 Citigroup Global Entertainment, Media & Telecommunications Conference in Phoenix, said that the company is still enthusiastic about exploring "strategic relationships." However, to be realistic, this kind of economic environment isn't conducive to quick action. The comments were somewhat in contrast to what CEO Jeff Bewkes said last month at the UBS Media Week event, when he told attendees "I'd like to get it resolved, meaning clear… so AOL can be seen and valued… We need to do it fairly soon and we've been working hard on it."
—Still exploring alternatives: Martin: "We look at the company in three buckets, the cable, the content companies and AOL. With AOL, you have at least two big businesses in there. The access business has surpassed expectations in terms of cash flow. It's declining, but it's doing so at a predictable rate. The access business, though, is not strategic to Time Warner (NYSE: TWX). So we would be open to different options, but in this environment, we appreciate the free cash flow. As for audience size, AOL doesn't have the industry scale that some of other businesses do. So we've been in talks with other companies about creating alternative structures and seeing what we could do. But this is a tough environment to do any strategic relationships. We just completed 22 months of considerable growth in usage on the vertical channels and there is still reason to be optimistic."
Separately, Martin didn't shed any further light on Time Warner's negative financial forecast, which it released this morning. The company said it would report a net loss for 2008 ranging from $1.04 to $1.07 a share profit, instead of 5 percent growth, which it predicted back in November. More after the jump. —No relief from poor ad picture: Martin noted that the company would experience a $125 million impact related to poor ad sales at AOL and its publishing unit. "AOL has meaningful exposure to troubled categories, like autos and finance, and less demand for branded inventory. Looking at publishing, mag ad was trending down 20 percent in Q3 and looking to Q1, it's still a challenging ad environment. No one is willing to make early commitments to advertise."
—On TWC: Martin: "We remain optimistic that the regulatory approval for the spinoff "is a Q1 event, though I can't predict that. They have $13 billion in cash and debt availability. There are no considerations for changing the size of the $11 billion dividend, which will take its leverage up to 3.75 terms. In the last three months, it has reduced leverage by half-a-term. We still believe this is a transaction that's in the best interest of both companies."
—Mag business better than newspapers: All print is not created equal, Martin stressed. "Eighty percent of adults still read mags, less than half read newspapers. In 2007, mag ads were up, newspapers were down. Last year, both were down, but newspapers were down more. We don't have the exposure to classifieds that newspapers do, and that is a major difference. In any case, readership is up. But we are not sitting on our hands. The publishing unit recently reorganized around verticals and cut the global workforce 7 percent."
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Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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 Looking to conserve its resources for its PC Mag Digital business, Ziff Davis Media has sold off the 1UP Digital Network, its collection of video game sites, to Hearst Corp., which will fold it into the UGO Entertainment division. In conjunction with the sale, the related print mag Electronic Gaming Monthly will publish its last issue this month. Terms of the deal, which was negotiated by GCA Savvian Advisors, were not disclosed.
Since finishing up its Chapter 11 proceedings last summer, Ziff Davis has sought to devote more energy to building up the PC Mag online network. Before this, Ziff Davis' biggest step in the streamlining process involved the shuttering of PC Mag as a print product in November. As for Hearst's UGO, the addition of 1UP's sites is designed to further consolidate its efforts to build up content for gamers since Hearst bought the 11-year-old male-centric entertainment company in July 2007, for a reported $100 million plus. Release
Full disclosure: Ziff Davis has been a recent sponsor of paidContent.org.
Related
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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Forbes magazine has completed the print/online editorial combo it announced in November, and with it, has axed 19 edit jobs, MediaMemo's Peter Kafka reports. This was the second phase of Forbes' print and digital integration. Phase one initiated in November, when the company formed a single ad sales force. The combined edit and ad sales staffs report to the "office of the chairman," which is actually a triumvirate that consists of Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller, Steve Forbes, chairman and CEO of Forbes Media, and Timothy Forbes, the company's president and COO. About 43 employees lost their jobs in phase one, which also included shuttering the ForbesAutos.com site and paring down ForbesTraveler.
Related
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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Lacking the funds to keep going, social media magazine publisher 8020 Media is closing after two years, WSJ reported. The San Francisco company's struggles were showing back in August, when it shuttered travel mag Everywhere, leaving it with one title, JPG, which focused on photography and had a circulation of 50,000. Content for both magazines came almost entirely from readers, who submitted their reviews and photos to the mags' respective websites. 8020 was started by CNET founder Halsey Minor, who boasted that bringing user-generated content to print would revolutionize the publishing industry since it cost relatively little to run and would tap into the growing use of social networking.
As Halsey said in a note to friends, which was obtained by NYT's Bits Blog, "The riddle of having a sound web platform support that drives interactivity with a print product has been solved," but the timing of the global economic collapse made it impossible to bring it to profitability. The company had been trying to sell itself to Meredith Corp (NYSE: MDP). and Conde Nast, but so far, hasn't been able to strike a deal. 8020 was also unable to attract additional funding to keep the company afloat, as Minor declined to put any more of his money into the business. The company had 18 employees.
However, word of the company's demise has generated some interest from prospective buyers for JPG, Techcrunch reported, identifying photo-sharing site SmugMug as one potential savior.
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Consumers Union's new non-profit subsidiary Consumer Media LLC launches on Jan. 1 with newly acquired Consumerist.com as its only property but the announcement release stressed that it's the first. Does this mean more acquisitions are on the way? "The short answer is we don't know," Ken Weine, VP-communications, told us. "We may down the road acquire or create new items." Consumer Media is viewed as a way to expand the nonprofit's consumer advocacy mission and to take advantage of a growth spurt in recent years.
For now, the new subsidiary sets boundaries between Consumerist, acquired this week from Gawker Media, and CU's Consumer Reports magazine and website. "The message we're trying to project—and the reality will reflect this—is we're not purchasing Consumerist to make it into Consumer Reports and we wanted for that, among other reasons, to structurally create some distance between the two."
But that distance doesn't include a change CU's policy towards advertising. Weine said the only ads on Consumerist will be house ads for Consumer Reports products. ConsumerReports.org has 3.3 million paid subscribers and provides a blend of premium and free content. Plans call for Consumerist to remain free. Weine: "As of now the only thing in Consumer Media is free content and that's our intention." So what's the business model? Weine suggests stepping back first to see the business model for Consumers Union, which is 90 percent subscription supported. The business model for Consumerist is introducing more people—and younger people, as we reported yesterday when the sale became public—to Consumer Reports products but Consumerist editorially is also part of that overall consumer advocacy mission.
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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Consumers Union is buying Consumerist.com from Gawker Media, according to the New York Times—meshing the non-profit publisher's interest in expanding its reach to a younger online crowd with Nick Denton's latest blog diet. (The Times, the average age of a print Consumer Reports sub is 60 and ConsumerReports.com is 50, while the snarkier Consumerist draws from the 18-49 crowd.) Kevin McKean, VP and editorial director of Consumers Union, told the NYT the blog would be part of a new division, that the current editors would stay on and that the style would stay the same. Two contributors who were laid off by Gawker will rejoin the site in January. No terms disclosed.
Consumerist went on the block in November, a few weeks after layoffs across Gawker Media, and Consumer Reports had been suggested as a possible—and natural—buyer. Denton told the paper he hopes to sell gossip blog Defamer but plans to hold onto Gawker, Jezebel, Gizmodo and others. During the past year, Denton, who went public with his pessimism about online advertising ahead of the curve, sold Wonkette, Idolator and Gridskipper, then turned Valleywag from a standalone blog into one writer and a department on Gawker.com.
Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
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We are saddened to learn that Bob Nylen, a co-founder of Beliefnet.com and the first board member of online health company Waterfront Media, died Dec. 24 of cancer at the age of 64. Nylen may best be known in publishing circles for cofounding the award-winning New England Monthly with Dan Okrent but he also played a major role in the two online content companies over the past decade. As Beliefnet co-founder Steven Waldman recalled in a memorial on the site, Nylen served as president when the site was founded in 1999, raised the funding, and volunteered several times for pay cuts during the struggles to keep it going (including Chapter 11 bankruptcy). Beliefnet was acquired by News Corp earlier this year. Following Beliefnet, he was the first board member of Waterfront Media; co-founder and CEO Ben Wolin said he was instrumental in helping the company through the last six years. The Boston Globe has more details about the Vietnam veteran's life; he earned two Purple Hearts and a bronze star.
Mark Logic Digital Publishing Summit, Thursday November 6, Westin Times Square. Insight and perspective from Outsell, Gilbane, Simon & Schuster, BusinessWeek.com, more. Evening cocktail reception. Cost is complimentary. Register now!
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Doing what they can to survive the tougher economy, websites are starting to relax the rules they place on the size and formats of the ads they run. A WSJ piece doesn't find anyone admitting to resorting to the "unthinkable" (e.g., spyware). The changes spotted at major sites are more subtle and restrained than that. And they mostly represent a branching out of existing efforts, such as video sites like Veoh and Dailymotion making more use of pre-roll. In two other cases that have been evolving over the past several months, WSJ.com and NYTimes.com have been offering more online real estate space to web advertisers. Still, to listen to these and other web publishers and online ad sellers, the perilous economic situation has nothing—or perhaps very little, really—to do with these expanded ad moves.
—Plain banners won't cut it: These times cry out for more than just a simple banner ad. Considering that display was already looking sluggish even before the global financial meltdown this fall, the miserable economy surely makes it easier for web publishers and marketers to push the ad format's envelope a bit, even if it appears to rank as a poor excuse for doing so. For example, this summer saw the introduction of those Mac ads across the top of the NYT's homepage. The new year will likely bring more "welcome page" greetings from advertisers on the NYTimes.com and other publishers' pages. More interesting were the ads promoting the theatrical release of The Incredible Hulk on Break.com
—Mixing editorial and ads: There's nothing new about ads that closely resemble posts on a given blog. But some, like online celebrity gossip PerezHilton are going much further in blurring the line between editorial and marketing. For example, Perez has appeared in a video on his site promoting the romantic comedy Bride Wars. Still, considering that Perez doesn't operate a hard news site, and he's become something of a celebrity in his own right, his audience probably won't hold it against him as long as his shilling is entertaining. Henry Copeland, the CEO of Blogads.com, which helps sell ads on PerezHilton and others, calls the move "absolutely crucial," again, not because of the economy necessarily, "but because there are so many billions of impressions out there."
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—Departing Time exec's online/offline disappointment: Ed McCarrick, who leaves Time magazine after 35 years this week to go to Omnicom barter unit Icon International, tells AdAge's Nat Ives that one of his biggest disappointments was not being able to change advertisers' habits about selling beyond the paid subscription. Two years ago, McCarrick began trying to convince marketers and agencies to buy against the entire audience across print, digital and mobile. But "when you go in and have conversations, 99.9% of the time, with an agency—or even a client, for that matter—you talk about audience primarily. I don't think that's changed."
—YouTube tries to cure pharma marketers' "Excedrin Headache": YouTube's sponsored contests are pretty run of the mill at this point. But the Google-owned video channel hopes its Excedrin video challenge promoting the painkiller's curative speed this fall will open the doors to a marketing category that's remained averse to YouTube ads: big pharma. YouTube is trying to use the campaign—emphasizing Excedrin's control on the placements—as proof that being surrounded by user-gen won't cause the heavily-regulated drug makers any huge headaches (pardon the pun).
—Publishers Clearing House hopes to win digital sweepstakes: Speaking of contests, Publishers Clearing House has parked the Prize Patrol Van with its over-sized checks. Instead it is taking its sweepstakes to Twitter, the iPhone, MySpace and Facebook, offering prizes ranging from $100 to $2,500. Realizing that many younger consumers might not even know what PCH is, the company has bought time on MTV's The Real World to promote the digital contests. Still, the gambit is long on hope, short on strategy. As Alex Betancur, VP/GM of the PCH Online Network concedes: "The truth of the matter is, we have no idea how we would make money on Twitter."
—You can judge a company by its website: When consumers were asked how they define a company's brand, they say it's the entity's web presence that provides the best look. An unpublished survey by brand consultant MS&L and audience researcher GfK Roper surveyed 6,000 consumers in the U.S., U.K., France, Italy, Sweden and China on the issue found that U.S. individuals were most likely to consider a company's website when making a determination about a company's values.
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—AllBusiness.com: Kathy Yates will be stepping down from her post as CEO—though no one will assume the role. According to BtoB, Yates said the CEO position is being eliminated and the Dun & Bradstreet-owned company will be undergoing a restructuring.
—Pump Audio: Another CEO resigning… Steve Ellis made the announcement via e-mail, though he didn't specify what his upcoming plans are. The news comes over a year after Getty Images acquired Pump Audio for $42 million in order to integrate the service into its existing photo and video sites.
—KickApps: At least there's a c-level hire. David Lapter joins the team as CFO, while Tom Gaffney will head up the Customer Success division. Lapter, a VC and consulting exec, was previously CFO of CTSpace. Before attaining the VP post at KickApps, Gaffney was VP-global operations for KIT Digital (formerly Roo Media). Release.
—TV Guide Magazine: The magazine has promoted both Mark Fernberg to CFO and Ajay Singh to SVP-strategy and business development. Previously, Ferbnerg was SVP-finance for the company. Although Singh will now manage digital initiatives and B2B partnerships, he'll retain the responsibilities he had in his previous post as VP-business planning.
—Founders Fund: Online and tech consultant Dave McClure has formally joined the Founders Fund as an angel investor, ReadWriteWeb saw on his LinkedIn profile. Earlier in his career he started the Pay Pal Developer Network and more recently, has served as an advisor to LinkedIn and a number of other sites. The Founders Fund, which was started in 2005 by former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel, has made a number of investments in social media companies this year.
—IDG: Eric Lundquist has been appointed to the new post of content director-new media products. He will work with the media teams to create new focuses content sites and contribute his own commentary and analysis. Prior to International Data Group, he was with Ziff Davis where he serbed as editor-in-chief of eWeek for over 10 years. A regular tech commentator on CNN and CBS (NYSE: CBS) Marketwatch, Lundquist has also been editor-at-large for CIO Insight. Release.
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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The digital side of the business is supposed to be the salvation for magazine companies, which, like their newspaper counterparts, are shedding print jobs.
But as a recent NY Observer piece suggests, digital staffers are hardly protected. And in a few cases, they're bearing the brunt of the layoffs.
—Growth offers no safety: It's true that online ad growth has been slowing for over a year. But all the latest forecasts—such as today's downward revision from Barclays— still expect respectable gains of at least 5 percent next year. Nevertheless, CondéNet felt the need to make across-the-board cuts last month in preparation for reduced revenues. In addition, its parent Condé Nast said it was suspending all website revamps, and last week decided to close a blog network tied to Glamour, Allure and Self magazines.
More on further proof and value after the jump —Further proof: Another example of cuts falling surprisingly hard on the online side came in October, when Mansueto Ventures concentrated its 20 job cuts on the digital side of Fast Company as part of a decision to fold Mansueto Digital into the company's print operations. Meanwhile, as part of a sales reorg at Forbes Inc. between online and print, Forbes.com shuttered ForbesAuto and pared down the staff at ForbesTraveler. Just this week, The Deal Inc. let go of 10 percent of its staff and said it was shuttering its flagship magazine's Techconfidential.com channel, even as it prepares to introduce new digital features next month.
—Where the value is: One major online publisher I spoke to recently said that because of the "limited visibility" into next year, the company was told to make cuts now, even though advertisers have not pulled back yet. This source noted that the situation has been different on the company's print side, with advertisers reducing spending steadily and ad pages trending down. The reason digital isn't being spared is simple: online ad dollars still show no signs off-setting print losses. Also, as NYO, citing an AdAge interview, quotes Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner as saying, the print reader is still worth a whole lot more than the online reader.
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