• by May 24, 2004

TV GUIDE: WHAT'S NEW IS "NEW" AGAIN - TV Guide magazine has launched the second phase of a massive redesign of the magazine and its listing sections as part of an effort to keep the magazine vital in an expanding sea of TV programming content. The current phase focuses on TV Guide's so-called "back-of-the-book" section, which are the black-and-white listing pages that comprise most of the book. Among the big changes, is the addition of "First-Run This Week," a new feature that will provide an alphabetical listing of all series airing new episodes during the week. Ostensibly, TV Guide is doing this to differentiate the morass of TV reruns that now occupy so much of its listings.

YAMAHA PRESS KIT GIVES NEW MEANING TO "MICRO MEDIA" - While we're still a little uneasy about prospects for micro media, we do think the PR industries latest attempt to "micronize" the news business may be a welcome relief. In an effort to pare down the bulk of press materials they dole out to editors and writers, Yamaha Marine has developed a miniscule electronic storage device it's billing as the "world's smallest press kit." Or, as the company's press release says, "Imagine a press kit so light and compact that it can be carried on a key chain and weighs less than two quarters." Now, don't get us wrong, having had to tote voluminous and weighty copies of press kits around trade shows for eons, the Riff would welcome this new lightweight version any time. But what we want to know, is why Yamaha Marine, a company better known for lightweight outboard boat motors, getting into the public relations technology game?

"It's probably the smallest press kit ever," said Frank Wilhelm, Yamaha's advertising manager, "as far as we can tell, it's the first time a press kit like this has been made anywhere. In 1986, we were the first to put a press kit on a computer diskette and now this." Yamaha's latest innovation, in fact, isn't anything new - it's a mini USB storage device - just the use of it. By doling out 37 of the little gizmos to boating editors and writers attending its 2005 outboard motors press launch, Yamaha says it was able to claim authorship of the PR innovation.

But the Riff already knows of a lighter weight - make that a weightless - version of PR technology. It's called the Internet, the same place the Riff downloaded Yamaha's lightweight press release from.