Time Inc. will launch three new international editions of Real Simple magazine in Greece and Japan in November and South Africa in December, partnering with Imako Media S.A. in Greece, Nikkei Business Publications in Japan and 8 Ink Media in South Africa, Folio reports.
In late October, the magazine announced plans for a syndicated column through United Feature Syndicate and its first television show on PBS.
Aaron Brown is out as CNN’s longtime prime-time anchor in favor of Anderson Cooper, The New York Times reports.
The realigned CNN lineup will place Cooper’s program “360,” which had previously run at 7 p.m. EST weeknights, in the 10 p.m. time period that had been occupied by Brown’s program, “Newsnight.” Cooper will now get two hours, from 10 until midnight.
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Viacom’s revenues increased 10 percent to $5.9 billion from $5.4 billion for the same quarter last year, led by growth of 15 percent in cable networks and 54 percent in entertainment, Radio Ink reports. Viacom’s revenues from advertising climbed nine percent, fueled by a 17 percent gain in the cable division and a seven percent gain in television.
For the quarter, radio revenues increased two percent to $542 million from $529 million.
Firstlogic has released a data quality tool, IQ Watch, that it says will help businesses manage interdiction list compliance. The company says it developed the tool because increased regulatory scrutiny has required businesses to pursue measures to compare internal databases and transactions against lists from U.S. federal agencies and global sources, as well as comply with the USA PATRIOT Act and the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act.
The U.K. commercial broadcaster, ITV, has launched Britain’s first commercial trial of broadband TV, offering residents of two cities - Brighton and Hastings - seven video channels of local news, weather, local films, an entertainment guide, community video, and classified advertising, Media Life writes. The effort is a direct challenge to local newspapers, both for advertising and the attention of their readers.
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JWT has launched a $300 million integrated global campaign for HSBC, with TV spots, print, and outdoor ads driving to a website, Adweek reports. The campaign, created with some 30 sister agencies contributing to the effort, retains the previous tagline “The world’s local bank,” but adds a new spin, asking consumers to share their own points of view on any of a half-dozen topics online.
Confronting Google and Yahoo head on, Microsoft yesterday introduced two new ad-supported web services - Windows Live and Office Live - which will deliver applications and services to businesses and consumers directly via the web, without their having to download the applications, thus extending Microsoft’s reach beyond the desktop PC to smart phones and other internet-connected devices, reports the New York Times (via MarketingVOX).
Microsoft will have free and paid offerings on Windows Live and Office Live, with advertising-supported basic services. It will try to “upsell” customers more advanced and feature-rich services. And it will rely on its recently developed AdCenter advertising system to serve up ads.
AOL’s quarterly ad revenue rose by $71 million, a 28 percent increase over the year-ago period, reports ClickZ (via MarketingVOX). Paid search grew by $31 million, and Advertising.com added $31 million. In the last 12 months, AOL has lost 2.6 million U.S. subscribers, leaving it with 20.1 million. Revenue at parent company Time Warner increased 6 percent to $10.54 billion for the quarter, up from $9.94 billion in the year-ago quarter. Net income rose to $897 million, or $0.19 per share, up from the year-ago $499 million, or $0.11 per share.
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams will be the first network evening-news show to run in its entirety online, AdAge reports. While other networks, including NBC, have made news show segments available online, no network has put the full 30-minute program online as one continuous stream. CBS News does make all of its segments available at CBSNews.com, but the nightly newscast cannot be watched as a whole.
MSNBC.com, which has yet to find a sponsor for its online newscast, which begins Nov. 7, will add its own broadband commercial inventory rather than carrying the existing advertisers over from the broadcast.
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More than 200 new websites including those owned and operated by Technorati, Terra, Primedia Outdoors Online, CarDomain, AllBusiness.com, Kiplinger and New Digital Group have joined Tacoda’s online advertising network this month, bringing the count of participating websites to over 1,000 delivering more than 85 million unduplicated US unique users monthly.
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BPA Worldwide has become the first events auditor to be certified by the Exhibition and Event Industry Audit Commission, DM News reports. The certification means that the BPA’s systems and procedures conform with industry standards for independent auditing of attendance and attendee demographics at trade shows.
According to Merrill Lynch, 2005 ad spending is trailing GDP growth which is “unusual this late into an economic expansion,” Editor & publisher reports. Excluding direct mail, the research firm estimates 3.3 percent ad growth for 2005.
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Jan Wenner, chairman of Wenner Media and editor in chief of Rolling Stone, has renamed himself editor in chief of Men’s Journal, writes Mediaweek. Wenner had removed himself from the editor in chief position during the tenures of previous editors Michael Caruso and Bob Wallace.
Tom Foster, previously features editor at Rodale’s Men’s Health but a five-year veteran of Men’s Journal before that, is returning to the Wenner monthly as editor. Although Foster is the magazine’s sixth editor in five years, the company believes that Wenner’s return to his role as editor in chief will give Foster some staying power. “Like Rolling Stone, the vision of Men’s Journal truly stems from Jann Wenner,” said a Men’s Journal spokesperson. “Tom Foster shares this vision.”
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November sweeps begin Thursday and ABC and CBS are practically tied, with ABC just 3 percent ahead of its rival according to numbers released by Nielsen this morning. ABC has a season-to-date 4.1 average rating and 11 share among adults 18-49, while CBS is averaging 4.0 and 11 share, Media Life reports. NBC and Fox are tied for third at 3.39/9.
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Kellogg has told would-be participants in its $500 million U.S. media buying review that the review will be limited to two roster shops: the incumbent, Publicis Groupe’s Starcom, and WPP Group’s Mindshare, Adweek reports. Mindshare handles the client’s $100 million buying account in the U.K., and successfully defended that business in September against Starcom and another roster shop, Aegis Group’s Carat.
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A ratings free-fall during the course of its 13-week run has caused FX to decide not to renew its original Iraq war drama, Over There, for a second season, according to Mediaweek. The premiere episode drew 4.1 million total viewers and 2.4 million 18-49s, but by the Oct. 26 finale, it garnered only 1.35 million viewers, with 882,000 in the 18-49 demo.
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A former user of Google’s AdSense - a publisher with the nom de plume “Kurtpdx” - has caused some ripples by alleging that Google’s pricing system penalizes publishers who have even one low-performing site by lowering the ad prices of all sites in the publisher’s account, writes MediaPost (via MarketingVox). Kurtpdx says an AdSense representative told him that’s how it works, in an attempt to entice him back to AdSense after he switched to Yahoo Publisher Network.
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The two-day public hearings on direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising convened by the FDA began yesterday, and three things became clear, writes AdAge. First, supporters of DTC understand that change is needed, and are willing to bend a bit. Opponents want complete reform and seem bolstered by the fact that the public and political climate seems to favor them - at the moment.
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