Fashion apparel and accessory company Jones Apparel Group launched a new distribution program this week called Million Wishes, DM News reports. Like Tupperware or Mary Kay, Million Wishes will sell its products - and educate women on the latest fashion trends - in the home of a “hostess,” and in doing so provides Jones with a network to target consumers who wish to combine shopping and a social setting.
Showing their opposition to prescription drug advertising, 211 professors from U.S. medical schools endorsed a statement that “direct-to-consumer marketing of prescription drugs should be prohibited,” Adrants reports.
Stern fans in Las Vegas will miss his final 29 terrestrial broadcasts because KXTE-FM isn’t extending his contract, which ends on Nov. 7, Mediaweek reports.
Fox Television’s WNYW in New York has been added to JetBlue Airways’ lineup of DirecTV programming, Mediaweek reports. All of WNYW’s 38 hours of local New York news programming will be available. In addition to 36 channels of DirecTV, JetBlue’s in-flight programming also includes a selection of premium first-run Fox InFlight movies.
Music magazine publisher Miller Publishing, after being offered an unsolicited $100 million for magazines Spin and Vibe, has reportedly opened up the sale to other bidders, according to Radar magazine. The deal is being brokered by the Jordan, Edmiston Group.
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Google, recently venturing into print advertising, is considering yet another new way to extend its advertising program, this time to TV, according to the New York Post. TV would perhaps be a tough nut for Google to crack, as network executives have been successful in resisting all efforts to resell their ad time and network executives - as well as media buyers - reject the idea that “buying a TV spot can be reduced to a computer-run auction,” the Post writes.
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The new Jack format that took over the much-loved oldies on WCBS/101.1 FM in New York is bombing, Newsday reports (via the Los Angeles Times). The old WCBS had bounced around the top 10 but, with its switch to the no-host Jack format, has sunk to 22nd place.
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Because of perceived threats online, including identity theft, internet users are becoming less trustful of websites and have therefore reduced their online time (30 percent of respondents) as well as stopped shopping online (25 percent of respondents), according to a survey by Consumer Reports WebWatch released Wednesday, reports Agence France Presse (via MarketingVox). Eighty-eight percent of respondents said keeping personal information safe and secure is very important; 80 percent said they were at least “somewhat concerned” about identity theft.
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Publicis Groupe has done what many in the industry have expected it to do, consolidating its two media networks under one corporate management structure, according to Mediapost. This follows a recent trend in which corporate-level oversight has been created for the disparate media organizations of major agency holding companies such as Aegis, Interpublic, Omnicom, and WPP Group.
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With the arrest of the publisher and circulation director of Laptop magazine, the federal authorities have revealed that they are still actively investigating newspaper and magazine circulation reporting fraud, and that at least one sting operation has been conducted, AdAge reports.
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CBS News’ president Andrew Heyward is out, to be replaced by CBS Sports president Sean McManus, who is adding the news to his current duties, Media Life reports. While Heyward’s departure from CBS has been anticipated for months, following years of struggle for the Number 3 news operation and last year’s flubbed report on President Bush’s Air National Guard Service, it is not clear whether he is leaving on his own or has been ousted.
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The Wall Street Journal Online continues its bid to entice new advertisers by holding an Open House from Nov. 7 through Nov. 12, during which nonsubscribers will be able to access the entire site with no subscription fees or registration required, B to B reports. Sprint Nextel and other “major blue-chip advertisers” will sponsor different days during the Open House.
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