Simon & Schuster, Inc., has opened an in-house digital production studio that will serve as the company’s primary source for original multimedia content about its authors and their books.  The studio will produce high-definition video interviews and features, as well as audio and photos, for use on the company’s website, for viral marketing purposes through blogs, social networks and other outlets, and for the company’s retail and external marketing partners. 

The studio’s cameras are fully portable, so that interviews and video segments can be filmed on the premises, on location at events such as book signings, readings, and parties, in hotel rooms while authors are on tour, or as man-on-the-street style pieces. The state-of-the-art studio also includes multiple backdrops, including a versatile “green screen” that can be used to create a variety of digitally produced backgrounds for display behind the author. 

The first video produced in-house features blockbuster author Stephen King discussing his episodic graphic digital video series “N.” The King interview, which was featured exclusively on My Space for 48 hours from September 10-12, now resides at http://www.nishere.com/, a custom microsite developed by Simon & Schuster Digital for the “N.” video initiative.  The company has an ambitious schedule of filming planned for the coming months, with more than 25 interviews currently in pre- or post-production, including Arianna Huffington, Blair Underwood, and Philippa Gregory.  Simon & Schuster expects to produce and post more than 600 pieces of multimedia content annually. 

President and Chief Executive Officer Carolyn Reidy says, “Our new production studio is an important step in Simon & Schuster’s evolution as a digital era publishing company.  It fits perfectly with our goal of enhancing the readers’ experience and expanding our authors’ audience by providing original and exciting interactive content that puts the author directly in front of their readers.”

Executive Vice President, Chief Digital Officer Ellie Hirschhorn added, “Digital multimedia is now an essential tool for reaching internet savvy consumers, and our new studio provides us with the flexibility to experiment and move creatively and quickly to satisfy fans’ interest in our authors and their books.  Looking ahead, a wide selection of new content will feature prominently in both our upcoming website re-launch and our ongoing plans to use every possible digital means, including viral marketing and third party marketing partnerships, to connect readers to books.”

The studio, based on the 4^th floor of the company’s offices at 1230 Avenue of the Americas, will be managed by Charlie Corts, Director, Video Production and Development.  Corts, who previously held positions in digital production at Yahoo! and CBS Interactive, will both record and edit the author interviews. 

Videos and other media produced in the Simon & Schuster Studio will be published and distributed on Simonsays.com and across the Internet using the industry-leading Brightcove Online Video Platform.

Simon & Schuster, a part of the CBS Corporation, is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Digital, and international companies in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Time Inc. is re-launching its health brand through a new health and wellness destination at www.Health.com and a redesigned Health magazine, announced Ann Moore, Time Inc.’s Chairman and CEO. Health magazine is published by Southern Progress Corporation, a subsidiary of Time Inc.

Health.com, debuting on May 19th, will balance the human and clinical aspects of health, combining a trusted, empathetic voice and clear, intuitive navigation. It will offer a mix of original reporting, first-person stories, video, accredited medical content and community. By taking a practical, problem-solving approach to health problems, Health.com will help users take better control over their own health experience.

The centerpiece of the site’s approach will be its Health”journeys”, rich content on the most commonly-searched health conditions.”If you take the way a condition is experienced by real people in the real world, and you map it out visually as a series of steps, from symptoms through to survival and coping, what you have is a powerful, easy-to-navigate way of going through a condition,” says Health.com Editorial Director Scott Mowbray. Each journey will feature a broad array of content, including patient testimonials, doctor advice and clinical information. At launch, seven Health”journeys” will explore America’s most-searched health concerns: breast cancer, depression, diabetes, heart health, pain management, sexual health and sleep.

Through Health.com, Time Inc. will provide a destination for the more than 50 million people who go online for health information each month. Time Inc.’s long tradition of service journalism and storytelling authority means Health.com will provide better answers to complex questions in a way that’s practical, compassionate and complete.

Health magazine, which currently engages over eight million readers, has been completely redesigned under Editor in Chief Ellen Kunes who joined the magazine in early 2007. The March 2008 issue of Health unveiled several new changes, including a new logo, new sections and features, a Health Expert Network available to readers looking for advice, lush photography and a more modern look.”Women who come to Health magazine already know how to stay in shape,” says Kunes.”What they want to know is how to enjoy doing those things, so we give them all the tools they need to enjoy living the healthy life.” Early advertiser feedback to the magazine’s redesign has been positive, with brands including Burt’s Bees, Sephora, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Cadillac, Propel, Walmart Intimates, Vanity Fair Bestform, Bumble Bee, Dove Chocolate, Subway, GNC, and Wrigley joining the pages through May.”As the media landscape continues to evolve and health information can be obtained at a click of a button, it’s quite necessary to refresh the communication platform to align with consumers behavior,” says Robin Steinberg, SVP Director of Print Investment and Activation at Mediavest.”The evolution of Health magazine as well as the launch of Health.com provides consumers with two distinct touch points to access important, relevant and credible information. I am very excited to continue the partnership with such an incredible and vital brand.”

The magazine and website will share content in ways that add value for both online users and offline readers, showcase staff and contributors across print, online and TV, and utilize marketing resources to extend the traffic and readership footprint of the brand. The site and magazine will share the same voice, one that is authoritative and empathetic, real and reassuring, and eminently practical.

The site will continue to roll out new features over the next 6-12 months, including additions such as a healthy recipe database, a health news channel, message boards, social/community features, and diet and weight-loss tools.

About Southern Progress Corporation
A leader in lifestyle information, Birmingham, Ala.-based Southern Progress Corporation (www.southernprogress.com) publishes Southern Living, Cooking Light, Health, Coastal Living, Southern Accents, Cottage Living, and Sunset magazines, and book through Oxmoor House. It also has a strong Web presence through branded portals, including MyRecipes.com and MyHomeIdeas.com, as well as 10 individual Web sites. Southern Progress is a subsidiary of Time Inc.

About Time Inc.
Time Inc., a Time Warner company, is one of the largest content companies in the world. With more than 120 magazines, it is the largest magazine publisher in the U.S. and a leading publisher in the U.K. and Mexico. Each month, one out of every two American adults reads a Time Inc. magazine, and one out of every seven, who are online, visits a company web site (more than 26 million unique visitors). Time Inc.’s popular brands and successful franchises extend to online, television, cable VOD, satellite radio, mobile devices, events and branded products.

The Wall Street Journal continues to defy industry trends, growing Individually Paid Subscriptions by 1.6% to 1,351,396 and overall circulation by 0.3% to 2,069,463.

This continues a trend over the last four reporting periods that has seen Individually Paid Subscriptions grow 12%. This is the outcome of the Journal’s strategy to maintain the highest quality circulation by focusing on growing home delivery subscribers while reducing other paid circulation. The Journal has a high number of Individually Paid Circulation with more than 50% more—or 500,000 more—than the next highest newspaper total as reported by ABC.

The Wall Street Journal Online (www.wsj.com) has also steadily grown its subscriber base, increasing paid subscribers 11% year-over-year in 2008, rising to 1,035,085 subscribers from 931,000. The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, which comprises WSJ.com, MarketWatch.com, Barron’s.com and AllThingsD.com also generated significant year-over-year growth in terms of both visitors and page views. Visitors to the WSJDN increased 70% while page views increased 32%.

“Over the last few years when other publications have seen declining circulation, the Journal franchise has gone from strength to strength showing growth in circulation and improving quality,” said Paul Bascobert, chief marketing officer of The Wall Street Journal. “With the recent expansion to both the print and online editions of the Journal we expect to build on this positive pattern of growth with new opportunities to serve our core audience while engaging new readers.”

During the six months ending March 31, 2008, as reported in the ABC March 2008 FAS-FAX, total average paid circulation for the Journal grew to 2,069,463 from 2,062,312.

About The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal, the flagship publication of Dow Jones & Company is the world’s leading business publication. Founded in 1889, The Wall Street Journal has a circulation of more than 2 million, reaching the nation’s top business and political leaders, as well as investors across the country. Holding 33 Pulitzer Prizes for outstanding journalism, The Wall Street Journal provides readers with trusted information and knowledge to make better decisions. The Wall Street Journal print franchise has more than 750 journalists world-wide, part of the Dow Jones network of nearly 1,900 business and financial news staff. Other publications that are part of The Wall Street Journal franchise, with a global audience of more than 3.8 million, include The Wall Street Journal Asia and The Wall Street Journal Europe. The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com is the largest subscription news site on the Web with 10.9 million users each month. In 2007, the Journal was ranked No. 1 in BtoB’s Media Power 50 for the eighth consecutive year. The Wall Street Journal Radio Network services news and information to more than 280 radio stations in the U.S.

Source: Circulation percentages calculated by The Wall Street Journal based on data filed with the Audit Bureau of Circulations for the six months ending March 2008 (subject to audit); and the March 2007, March 2006 and March 2005 ABC Publisher’s Statements.

comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released on March, 13 the results of a study of the differences in online behavior among heavy, medium, light and non-newspaper readers (segments defined below). The results showed that non-newspaper readers are likely to be younger, and they are actually heavier than average online news consumers. Meanwhile, heavy newspaper readers are more likely than average to engage with traditional print news brands online.

“That current generations are growing up getting their news online for free is an indicator that print circulations are likely to continue their decline,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore. “But the Internet represents a significant opportunity to extend – and even improve upon – existing news brands and reach out to new consumers with living, breathing real-time content. Just because print circulations are declining does not mean there are fewer news consumers.  In fact, just the opposite is true.”

Younger News Consumers Less Likely to Read Print Newspapers

Heavy print newspaper readers show a strong skew towards older age segments, while the non-newspaper reader segments skew younger. Those age 65 and older are nearly 3 times more likely (index of 296) than average to read the print edition of newspapers 6 times per week, while those age 18-24 are 38 percent more likely than average to not read a print newspaper at all during a typical week.

Non-Newspaper Readers are Heavy Online News Consumers

In order to better understand the news consumption habits of these heavy medium, light and non-print newspaper reader segments, comScore looked at their relative propensity to visit several key news sources online, using a selection of key print, TV, and Internet news brands.

Several key takeaways emerged from this study. First, it is clear that based on their heavier than average visitation across most key news sites, those who do not read print versions of newspapers are not necessarily light news consumers. In fact, they show a high propensity to visit the majority of sites studies, including print (e.g. LA Times), TV (e.g. FoxNews.com), and Internet (e.g. Topix.com) brands.

Secondly, both the heavy print newspaper readers and the non-readers show similarly heavy consumption of print news brands online, which suggests that print news sites are not merely an extension of their offline brands but have a stand-alone brand presence in the online world.  For example, the Web sites for three of the largest U.S. city newspapers – the New York Times, LA Times and Chicago Tribune – show above average visitation from both heavy newspaper readers and non-readers.

Finally, TV news brands are also heavily visited by non-print newspaper readers, underscoring the importance of sight, sound and motion to the digital news experience. Non-readers were 29 percent more likely than the average Internet user to visit FoxNews.com and 15 percent more likely to visit CBS News Digital.

“Non-newspaper readers are a particularly important segment to reach because they are heavier than average news consumers – they just prefer to consume it in a digital format,” continued Flanagan. “That they are receptive to print, TV, and Internet news brands indicates a broad opportunity online, but the brands that will ultimately win over these key news consumers are the ones that successfully integrate cutting edge digital content with high quality journalism.”

Print Newspaper Reader Segment Definitions

Segments were defined based on the number of days respondents said they read a print version of a newspaper in an average week, excluding the Sunday edition.

Heavy Newspaper Readers: 6 times per week

Medium Newspaper Readers: 3-5 times per week

Light Newspaper Readers: 1-2 times per week

Non Newspaper Readers: 0 times per week

About comScore Plan Metrix

comScore Plan Metrix is the only service to combine continuously observed Internet behavior measurement with comprehensive attitudinal, lifestyle and product usage data from the same representative consumer panel, providing agencies, advertisers and media sellers with access to comprehensive consumer information, including: technology ownership and usage, demographic, lifestyle, attitudinal, product purchase and offline media consumption data.

About comScore

comScore, Inc. is a global leader in measuring the digital world.

The Nielsen Company announced today its inaugural global brand awareness campaign, which will debut through a unique marketing collaboration with The New York Times Company, including the first exclusive advertising arrangement ever offered for any editorial issue of The New York Times. As the centerpiece of this campaign, Nielsen will be the sole advertiser for a special August issue of The New York Times sports magazine, PLAY, which will be dedicated to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The campaign will also include other high-impact placements across multiple platforms, including print, online, radio and mobile as well as targeted newsstands and mailings.The Nielsen Company, formerly VNU, was re-branded in 2007 as a reflection of its commitment to creating an integrated, streamlined global organization of marketing and media services. Today, the company is aligning the breadth of its resources to deliver the most complete understanding of global consumers and bring real clarity to today’s complex markets.

“We want to welcome the world to the new Nielsen,” said Karen Watson, senior vice president, communications for The Nielsen Company. ”Our alliance with The New York Times is a wonderful opportunity to showcase Nielsen as a global consumer insights company and commemorate the uniquely universal spirit of the Olympics. Through this collaboration, Nielsen will celebrate our global community as well as all the individual consumers across the world cheering their homeland teams.”

“This is an exciting pairing of two global organizations, with each one showcasing a powerful brand on one of the biggest stages in the world - the 2008 Olympics,” said Denise Warren, senior vice president and chief advertising officer, The New York Times Media Group. “PLAY delivers the high-quality sports journalism of The New York Times, and advertisers like Nielsen understand we are a great way to promote their brand to an international audience.”

The campaign is expected to launch this summer while the special, Nielsen-sponsored, Olympic issue of PLAY will be distributed in the Aug. 3 Sunday edition of The New York Times as well as the International Herald Tribune in Asia. The campaign also includes print ads in The New York Times and in the International Herald Tribune; online banner ads on NYTimes.com and IHT.com; radio spots; and ad support in the mobile PLAY newsletter. 

PLAY is distributed four times a year in the SundayNew York Times. It is also available online throughout the year at NYTimes.com/PLAY and in a weekly mobile newsletter sent out every Thursday. In addition to the Nielsen-sponsored Olympic edition, the PLAY distribution dates for 2008 are March 2, June 1, Sept.14 and Nov. 2. The Olympics issue will showcase all the rich profiles, drama, intrigue and extraordinary human achievements that make up the Olympics told with the same award-winning writing, photography, and design that readers have come to expect from PLAY.

About The Nielsen Company

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), online intelligence (Nielsen Online), mobile media (Nielsen Mobile), trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com.

About The New York Times Company

The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading media company with 2007 revenues of $3.2 billion, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 15 other daily newspapers, WQXR-FM and more than 50 Web sites, including NYTimes.com, Boston.com and About.com. The Company’s core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.

Yahoo! Inc. yesterday announced that it has expanded its growing network of newspaper partnerships with the addition of four publishers, including Shaw Newspapers and its 25 daily and weekly newspapers covering northern Illinois and Iowa, The Buffalo News and its paper that covers Buffalo, NY, the Times Publishing Company that produces The Erie Times News in Erie, PA, and the Columbian Publishing Company that publishes The Columbian in Vancouver, WA. With the addition of these publishers, the Newspaper Consortium now includes 634 participating newspapers, 425 of which are dailies - 30 percent of all U.S. daily newspapers and 37 percent of all U.S. Sunday circulation.(1)”Yahoo!’s continued momentum with the newspaper industry shows that current and new Consortium members value the opportunity to combine the newspapers’ own unmatched local news and deep local advertising relationships with Yahoo!’s leading technologies and extensive online audience,” said Lem Lloyd, vice president, Newspaper Consortium for Yahoo!, Inc. “We’ve already seen tremendous growth and have captured valuable local audience share across every major U.S. region through integration with Yahoo! HotJobs and the newspaper partners.”

Yahoo! has more than tripled the number of member companies in the Consortium since its inception in November 2006, significantly strengthening its Advertiser/Publisher Network and advancing its advertising strategy to be the “must buy” for the most advertisers.

“We’re in the infancy of a relationship between Yahoo! and our newspaper consortium that already exceeds our expectations,” said Jay Smith, President of Cox Newspapers, Inc. “Roughly one-third of the U.S.’s newspapers, including ours, believe a better day is here with this unique partnership of 634 newspapers and Yahoo!. We are seeing impressive results as our sales teams offer Yahoo! inventory to our local advertisers. As our consortium grows, so, too, will our success.”

Yahoo!’s partnership with the Newspaper Consortium spans multiple initiatives, including for many members, the adoption of Yahoo! HotJobs as their exclusive online recruitment solution, the distribution of headlines across Yahoo!, the adoption of Yahoo! Search on newspaper sites, cross-selling of advertising with newspapers’ local sales forces selling local advertisers’ inventory on Yahoo! and Yahoo!’s national sales force selling national advertising on newspapers’ sites. Many of the members also will be exclusively using the Yahoo! ad platform to sell display advertising on their sites.

To date, Yahoo! HotJobs has launched co-branded career sites serving more than 425 U.S. newspapers. By integrating with the newspaper partners and delivering better reach, relevance and performance, Yahoo! HotJobs has experienced 50 percent year-over-year traffic growth, becoming the fastest growing Web site among the leading job boards and surpassing Monster.com in the U.S.(2)

In addition to the Yahoo! HotJobs implementations, the first phase of advertising cross-sales has begun, with the sales staffs of several newspapers integrating Yahoo! inventory into sales packages for their local advertisers. The program will be expanded during the next several months, allowing Consortium members to target ads to specific audience segments. To date, 126 of the Consortium newspapers now also feature Yahoo! Search on their sites.

The newspaper publishers that have most recently joined the Newspaper Consortium are:

Shaw Newspapers, based in northern Illinois and publishing 25 daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Iowa, all of which will be implementing Yahoo! HotJobs on their sites. Of those newspapers, 13 of them will also participate in the Yahoo! Core Services components of the Newspaper Consortium-Yahoo! relationship, providing them with Yahoo! Search on their sites, as well as enabling their local sales forces to sell their local advertisers ads on Yahoo! and the Yahoo! sales force to sell national advertisers onto the newspaper Web sites. Additionally, these newspapers’ content will be distributed in key locations on Yahoo!, including Yahoo! Mail, My Yahoo! and Yahoo! News.

The Buffalo News, which serves the Buffalo/Niagara region of the state of New York, will participate in all aspects of the Yahoo!-Newspaper Consortium partnership, including Yahoo! HotJobs and all the Core Services components.

The Times Publishing Company, which produces The Erie Times News in Erie, Pennsylvania, also joins the Newspaper Consortium to co-brand its ErieCareers.com classified business with Yahoo! HotJobs. The Erie Times News serves Erie County and surrounding towns on the shore of Lake Erie, including eastern Ohio, western New York and northern Crawford County.

The Columbian Publishing Company of Vancouver, Washington, publishes The Columbian and will join the Newspaper Consortium to incorporate Yahoo! HotJobs into their site. The Columbian serves the Portland, OR / Vancouver, WA area.

With the addition of these newspapers to the Newspaper Consortium, it now includes 26 publishing companies and has a presence in 42 of the top 50 DMAs in the United States.

Other Yahoo! Newspaper Consortium members include: Belo Corp.; Calkins Media, Inc.; Columbus Dispatch; The Day Publishing Company; The E.W. Scripps Company; GateHouse Media, Inc.; Hearst Newspapers; Herald Media, Inc.; Journal Register Company; Lee Enterprises; McClatchy Company; Media General, Inc.; Morris Communications Company, LLC; MediaNews Group, Inc.; Paddock Publications, Inc; Paxton Media Group; Philadelphia Media Holdings, LLC; The New York Daily News; The New York Times Regional Group; Times-Shamrock Communications; and the Tribune Review Publishing Company.

The newspapers represented by the Newspaper Consortium include major market dailies such as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Boston Herald, The Commercial Appeal (Memphis), The Dallas Morning News, The Denver Post, The Florida Times-Union, Houston Chronicle, The Miami Herald, New Haven Register, The Philadelphia Daily News and The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Rocky Mountain News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News and The Tampa Tribune.

(1) Editor and Publisher, 2006

(2) comScore Media Metrix Career Resources, 2008 vs. 2007

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.