• Men Want Their Pubs On Tablets Even More Than Women Do
    More men than women are interested in tablet editions of magazines -- 77% of men versus 68% of women respondents to Gfk MRI’s iPanel study reported such interest -- and almost a fifth have read back issues of pubs recently on such devices. These are among the most suprising results Steve Smith reports in his post on the survey.
  • Former 'Como Girl' Funds Institute For Media Innovation
    A $30 million gift from longtime Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown will be split between two schools -- The Columbia School of Journalism and the Stanford School of Engineering -- and fund an institute for media innovation, blending journalism and technology. "The Brown Institute will bring together creative innovators skilled in production and delivery of news and entertainment with the entrepreneurial researches at Stanford working in multimedia technology" is the quote here from Bernd Girod, the Stanford engineering professor set to head the institute.
  • Netflix, Movie Studios, Push Contradictory Agendas -- And Consumers Lose
    "Hollywood isn't ruining DVD rentals on its own -- Netflix is happy to help" -- but each entity has its own agenda in making rentals less convenient, according to ReadWriteWeb. When Warner Bros., for example, makes renters wait longer after a first release to even put a title into their Netflix queue, the goal is for customers to buy instead of rent DVDs. Netflix goes along because it wants to move from a rental to streaming model -- an agenda the studios aren't seconding. Confusing and confounding for consumers, who can "expect more weirdness ahead" if they're still renting DVDs …
  • 'Washington Post' Shuts Down Readers Insulting Other Readers
    The Washington Post is changing its online commenting platform to promote "smarter, livelier and more civil conversations," the company announced. With more political content than the average newspaper, the Post's comments section can get pretty heated, we imagine. Now content wranglers will delete "all comments that direct name-calling and insults at other commenters," and will "be more aggressive in banning users who don’t regularly post quality comments as well as those with a high percentage of deleted comments." And, in a bid to increase interaction with Post editorial team, the newspaper plans to "increase the number of Post staffers who …
  • USA Plans Beltway Drama -- More Serious Fare Than Usual
    NBC Universal's USA, "the most-watched cable network" known for lightweight fare like "Royal Pains," is casting against type this summer with a six-hour-long minseries, "Political Animals," writes Amy Chozick. The political drama from Greg Berlanti, "best known for his work on 'Everwood' and 'Brothers & Sisters'.... could be extended beyond six hours [and] follows the members of a turbulent former first family." Among the principals, according to Chozick: Ellen Barrish, "a divorced former First Lady who is currently serving as secretary of state. (Sound vaguely familiar?)"
  • Funny Ladies Cure Boring Awards Shows
    Last night's Screen Actors Guild Awards, heralded as an important precursor to who might win in the Oscars acting as well as best-picture categories, was pretty much a snoozefest until "The Bridesmaid'"s three major stars came out to introduce the film clip for their movie, nominated for best ensemble acting. Their discussion of the "on-set drinking game triggered by whenever someone says "Scorsese'...was a clear and hilarious reminder of just why there has been so much awards season love for 'Bridesmaids' in the first place," according to the HitFix staff (and we concur). It's also a reminder of …
  • CNN Digital Trumps Cable News Rivals Online
    CNN Digital's gaining the No. 1 spot in page views last year means it trumped its cable news network competitors, prevailing online and in mobile and social media despite becoming "a prime-time ratings afterthought," writes Daniel Frankel. "Fox News Channel, far and away the leading cable news outlet in prime time, averaged less than 30 million unique users across its channels, while No. 2 network MSNBC averaged just over 50 million," writes Frankel.
  • Bloomberg TV Names Exec Producer
    Bloomberg Television named ABC News' Dan Arnall executive producer of news, set to "oversee Bloomberg’s television newsgathering and editorial in the U.S.," writes Jerry Barmash. At ABC News, he handled many aspects of business news coverage and was most recently senior producer for domestic news at World News with Diane Sawyer.
  • Hulu Debuts Fashion Contest Web Series
    Hulu takes another shot at exclusive content with "The Fashion Fund," a six-part series launched yesterday featuring 10 fashion designers competing to win the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award. Is this Vogue's version of "Project Runway"? Editor Anna Wintour will be one of the judges, and we assume she'll be shown at some point in the proceedings.
  • Bloomberg Launches Lux Lifestyle Pub
    Bloomberg Pursuits, a luxury lifestyle pub sent free to Bloomberg terminal subscribers,  will debut next month with a 76-page issue that include three pieces on subscriber's pricey pursuits -- from collecting Ferraris to building a racing yacht. Another edition of the mag, a spin-off of monthly Bloomberg Markets,  is expected later this year, with plans to go quarterly in 2013.
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