• by February 22, 2006

In a unique example of old and new media technologies working together, a major newspaper has agreed to act as the distribution agent for an entertainment magazine that appears on a compact disk.

In a deal announced Tuesday, the Dallas Morning News said it would include CD-ROMs containing a new interactive video magazine entitled Hollywood Previews as an insert in the newspaper's Sunday editions of April 30. It will be included in more than 625,000 copies of the newspaper distributed to subscribers and available on newsstands throughout the greater Dallas/Fort Worth area.

The new magazine is published by iMedia International, Inc., a digital media company that produces DVDs and CD-ROMs for multimedia marketing and promotional campaigns. Each issue of the magazine contains movie trailers, contests, and video interviews with Hollywood celebrities, as well as segments on television shows, music videos, and video games.

Hollywood Previews also includes an interactive element that allows users to click on featured Web sites to purchase the movies, shows, games, and CDs covered in the magazine. It will also include video advertising that the newspaper's advertisers can buy in a package deal with their print ads.

A spokesman for iMedia International said the Dallas newspaper is the first to include the CD-ROM, but added that the company plans to extend the project to several other newspapers nationwide for future issues.

"The Dallas Morning News has been expanding our lifestyle-themed products and services to increase the paper's appeal in today's consumer-driven society, especially among younger audiences," Bernie Heller, the newspaper's vice president of advertising, said in a statement. "Including this innovative digital media magazine in our newspaper creates an engaging and entertaining experience for our readers, as well as additional marketing opportunities for advertisers."

Heller said the deal gives advertisers the opportunity to deliver multimedia commercial messages and provide direct access to Web sites where consumers can make purchases and participate in promotions and special offers.

Under the terms of the deal, the newspaper can offer space on the CD-ROM to its advertisers, and split the revenue with iMedia International. Both companies claim to have already secured advertising agreements from several national advertisers for the debut issue, but an iMedia spokesman declined to identify them.

The move is the latest example of how newspapers, faced with declining readership and advertising, are seeking new ways to connect with readers--many of whom have turned to new, Internet-based media outlets as their primary source of news and information.