• Launch Of French 'Vanity Fair' To Come
    Condé Nast just announced that it will launch a French version of Vanity Fair sometime next year “before the summer," according to the Condé Nast France president. Meanwhile, media execs in Paris "are asking why the company decided to disclose its intentions now, many months before the magazine is set to arrive and amid a stubborn economic crisis," writes Eric Pfanner.
  • Village Voice To Spin Off Controversial Adult Classified Site Backpage.com
    Following numerous reports and allegations that its adult classified advertising on its Backpage.com site contributes to sex traffiikcing, the Village Voice Media will spin the controversial website off and create a new company for its beleagured chain of alternative weekly newspapers and websites.
  • Bethenny Frankel's Talk Show Set For 2013 National Rollout
    "Bethenny," the syndicated talk show hosted by former reality TV star Bethenny Frankel, wil be rolled out next year on Fox stations "in the biggest U.S. markets" after a summer test run, according to Alex Ben Block. The show will be produced by Telepictures Productions and A Very Good Production, which is Ellen DeGeneres' production company.
  • Xbox Faces Challenge From Cable TV
    Tests of video games on the TV (or "cloud gaming") "are likely to start later this year," possibly from AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner Cable, according to anonymous sources cited by Ari Levy. "If successful, [cloud]-based games could accelerate a shift away from consoles, the industry’s main money maker for the past three decades."
  • 'Oopsie' From 'Vogue': State Dept. Official Called Interior Designer Instead
    This made us laugh out loud on the day before we're supposed to be fasting and atoning, so just had to include. Doesn't it sound like a typical error a fashion-conscious pub would make?
  • Possible First?: 'Economist' Sets Digital Rate Base
    The Economist has set a digital rate base of 50,000, set to take effect in January -- the first magazine to do so, it claims. The rate "will apply to the North American non-replica, subscription sales of The Economist that are read on the iPad, iPhone, Android devices and BlackBerry Playbook," writes Lucia Moses. As noted in this post, some media buyers are happy with the move to separate digital and print rate bases, while others are "demanding"  more "performance-based data."
  • Fox Partners With Social Analytics Company True Anthem
    Fox is partnering with analytics company True Anthem to get a bead on its social TV strategy, "tracking the social sharing of FOX’s digital television content and measuring its social influence,” according to a statement. The network thus joins "almost every major network [that] is already working with a social TV analytics company to figure out how to leverage buzz about their shows to drive viewers, engagement, content creation and of course ad sales," writes Natan Edeslburg.
  • Two E-Commerce Sites Experiment With TV Ads
    E-commerce design site Fab is testing TV ads in a three-week run on broadcast and cable in six markets that include Baltimore, San Diego and Austin, Tex. -- thus becoming the "second e-commerce firm in a week to start testing whether a traditional medium like television will help sell merchandise online," writes Stuart Elliott. That first company was discount eyeglass purveyor Warby Parker. "A major reason for new kinds of retailers experimenting with a tried-and-true medium like television is the so-called second-screen effect, which refers to how millions of people now watch TV with devices like cellphones and tablet computers …
  • NFL, Time Warner Make Deal
    Time Warner Cable Inc. customers can finally watch NFL games, thanks to a new deal between the NFL and the cable operator reached after "a nine-year impasse," writes Scott Soshnick. Time Warner "had been the only major cable provider without NFL Network." Financial terms weren't disclosed for the multiyear contract. "NFL Network will be placed on digital basic," while the RedZone Channel, which shows important plays on the day of the game, "will be placed on Sports Pass, which includes NHL Network and Tennis Channel," according to Soshnick.
  • Village Voice Media Sold -- To Its Own Execs
    Ownership of the Village Voice Media Holdings, which owns 13 alt-weeklies including the LA Weekly and the Village Voice, is changing hands -- but the hands are already familiar, since it's the company's execs who are buying it and changing the name to Voice Media Group. Financial terms were not disclosed -- and neither was "the identity of the backer," writes Jeff Bercovici in Forbes.Backpages.com, the classified ads site that drew controversy for, according to various critics, "enabling prostitution," according to Bercovici, has been spun off into its own company. The Village Voice paper has …
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