archives

o Middlehoff Ousted As Bertelsmann CEO; Reportedly Considering AOL Offer
o Online Magazine Salon.com Gets $715,000 Bridge Financing
o Aussie Court Rules Sony PlayStation "Mod" Chips Not Illegal
o Video Archives of Digital Entertainment Network (DEN) Sold for $105,000
o Briefly Noted: Sony PS2 - Japan, Intertainer - Sesame Workshop,
Activision - Jamdat Mobile, Disney Online - ABC fall line-up, Starz Encore
Group - N2 Broadband, Walt Disney Internet Group - KG Telecom, Zona -
Gamania Digital Entertainment, Legend Mobile - NASCAR, MeasureCast, New
York Times - digital archives
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> Jobs: Manager, Internet Development, Client Strategy Mgr., VP Sales,
Financial Services, Dir. of Public Relations

> Events: "Wine Seminar Series," Free Event Listings

> Marketplace: Event Me!, Directory of Homeland Security, Bender/Helper
Impact, AlleyEvent

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o Middlehoff Ousted As Bertelsmann CEO; Reportedly Considering AOL Offer

Gutersloh, Germany -- In a surprise management shake-up, German media
conglomerate Bertelsmann announced that it has ousted its chairman and CEO
Thomas Middlehoff, replacing him with longtime Bertelsmann executive
Gunter Thielen. Bertelsmann owns publisher Random House, record label
group BMG Entertainment and a number of other media firms. Bertelsmann
said the outgoing CEO disagreed with the company's board with regard to
the strategy of the company. Middlehoff was hailed as an executive with
grand visions of the company distributing all of its various music,
publishing and other content assets over the Internet, and spearheaded the
company's investment in and pending acquisition of Napster. Reuters
reported sources close to the matter as saying that Middlehoff may be
considering an offer from AOL Time Warner, which last week announced the
departure of its chief operating officer, Robert Pittman.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/3758092.htm
http://www.bertelsmann.com
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o Online Magazine Salon.com Gets $715,000 Bridge Financing

San Francisco -- Salon Media Group, which operates the struggling online
magazine Salon.com, announced on Monday that it has secured new bridge
loan financing totaling approximately $715,000, from a group of 11
undisclosed investors. The company also announced that it is in advanced
discussions for a new line of credit with a commercial bank. San
Francisco-based Salon, whose shares have traded below $0.20 on the Nasdaq
since October 2001, said its three subscription services -- Salon Premium,
The Well and Table Talk -- have amassed over 44,000 active paid
subscribers. "We're well positioned to capture an increasing amount of
advertising dollars as the ad market recovers and more Fortune-1000 type
brands transition their spending to the Web," said Salon president and CEO
Michael O'Donnell.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020729/290314_1.html
http://www.salon.com
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o Aussie Court Rules Sony PlayStation "Mod" Chips Not Illegal

Sydney -- An Australian court ruled on Friday that "mod" chips designed to
let pirated software play in Sony's PlayStation video game consoles do not
violate Australian copyright laws, CNET News.com reported. The judge said
that in addition to the illegal activity they facilitate, the mod chips
also prevent legal activity, like playing imported games or personal
backup copies of games. "There is nothing in the evidence to suggest that
the major purpose or objective of the protective device, from the
applicants' perspective, was to ensure that the PlayStation consoles could
only play PlayStation games lawfully acquired in Australia or Europe,"
Federal Court of Australia Judge Ronald Sackville wrote in his ruling.
Last week, a Canadian court found a manufacturer and distributor of "mod"
chips guilty of the sale of illegal circumvention devices.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-946640.html?tag=cd_mh
http://www.scea.com/news/press_example.asp?ReleaseID=9719
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o Video Archives of Digital Entertainment Network (DEN) Sold for $105,000

Los Angeles -- The 6,500 hours of video content created by now-defunct
entertainment site Digital Entertainment Network (DEN) were sold at
auction last week for $105,000, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The
video content, which was acquired by Jeff Aikman of Jef Films
International, reportedly originally cost upwards of $30 million to
produce. The $105,000 fee will do little to pay off the controversial
company's millions in debt; DEN has continued to make headlines
posthumously through lawsuits against several of its founders, including
allegations of sexual molestation of teenage employees. Aikman told THR
that he plans to re-launch the Den.net website shortly, and will also look
to distribute the content on TV, VHS and DVD.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hollywoodreporter/convergence/
article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1548719
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Briefly Noted:

(Tokyo) Sony Computer Entertainment announced that it has shipped ten
million PlayStation 2 video game consoles in Japan since the device was
launched there in March 2000. The company said it is shipping 1.4 times
greater volume of units than the original PlayStation during the same
period after launch, and reached the 10 million mark seven months sooner
with PlayStation 2.
http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/020725e.pdf

(Culver City, Calif.) Intertainer, a provider of Internet-based
video-on-demand programming and delivery technology, announced on Monday a
licensing agreement with Sesame Workshop. Under the terms, twenty-one
episodes of "Sesame Street" will be available for distribution as
video-on-demand programming to Culver City, Calif.-based Intertainer's and
its distribution partners' subscribers.
http://www.intertainer.tv
http://www.sesameworkshop.com

(Santa Monica, Calif.) Game developer Activision announced on Monday that
it has partnered with Los Angeles-based wireless entertainment developer
Jamdat Mobile to jointly publish wireless versions of Activision O2 action
sports titles. Among the games that will be published for wireless
platforms including Sun Microsystems' J2ME and Qualcomm's BREW are "Tony
Hawk's Pro Skater 4," "Matt Hoffman's Pro BMX 2" and "Shaun Palmer's Pro
Snowboarder 2."
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020729/lam042a_1.html
http://www.activision.com
http://www.jamdatmobile.com

(North Hollywood, Calif.) Disney Online has launched an online advertising
program designed to increase viewership of TV network ABC's fall
television programming lineup. The promotion features behind-the-scenes
footage and other content focused on the new shows, and will be delivered
online by Mushu, a character from Disney's animated film "Mulan." Disney
hopes to generate 90 million impressions on ABC through the promotion.
http://psc.disney.go.com/corporate/press/wdig/wdig/2001/2002_0729_disney.html
http://www.disney.com/abc

(Englewood, Colo.) Cable TV network Starz Encore Group said on Monday that
it will use Atlanta-based N2 Broadband's MediaPath technology to deliver
Starz On Demand movies to cable television operators across the United
States. The technology will be used to deliver both Englewood, Colo.-based
Starz' video-on-demand and subscription video-on-demand service offerings.
Starz Encore operates 15 domestic movie channels with approximately 121
million pay units.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020729/nymv001_1.html
http://www.starzondemand.com
http://www.n2bb.com

(North Hollywood, Calif.) Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) announced on
Monday that it has reached an agreement with Taiwanese wireless network
operator KG Telecom to distribute Disney Mobile wireless content to KG
Telecom wireless subscribers. Content will include ringtones and phone
screensaver graphics based on Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and
Donald Duck; WDIG launched a similar wireless content initiative with NTT
DoCoMo in Japan last summer.
http://psc.disney.go.com/corporate/press/wdig/wdig/2001/2002_0729_wdig.html
http://www.kgt.com.tw/English

(Redwood City, Calif.) Zona, a provider of game development support for
massively multiplayer online game developers, announced on Monday that it
has partnered with Gamania Digital Entertainment to develop a number of
new online games. Based in Taiwan, Gamania is responsible for operating
"Lineage," a massively multiplayer online game that counts 4 million
active subscribers. Redwood City, Calif.-based Zona provides support to
firms throughout the entire product development cycle of a game -- from
conception, all the way through the full life of a game.
http://www.zona.net
http://www.gamania.com/introduction/english/index.html

(Ann Arbor, Mich.) Legend Mobile, a developer of branded handheld digital
devices, said on Monday it has entered into an agreement with magazine
publisher Street and Smith's Sports Group to advertise its Winston Cup
driver-licensed mobile phone offerings in the company's NASCAR Winston Cup
Scene magazine. As part of the agreement, Michigan-based Legend Mobile
gets the right to distribute daily news culled by Street and Smith
concerning drivers, upcoming races, sponsors, and other NASCAR-related
information.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020729/292080_1.html
http://www.sceneplus.com

(Portland, Ore.) MeasureCast, a provider of streaming media audience
measurement data, announced on Monday that it has expanded its coverage to
include several new metrics, including Average Concurrent Connections,
Total Time Spent Streaming, Weekly Average Time Spent Streaming, Average
Connection Length, and Total Connections. Portland-based MeasureCast also
said it has dropped its "five-minute minimum listening" rule, which
required a person to listen to a Web radio station for at least five
continuous minutes before being counted as a listener.
http://www.measurecast.com

(San Francisco) Wired News reported on Monday on the efforts of The New
York Times to digitize its entire archive of published editions back to
1851. Ann Arbor, Mich.-based ProQuest has completed archiving the
editions' 3 million pages exactly as they appeared in print, cartoons ads
and all -- representing 4 terabytes of fully searchable data.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,54030,00.html
http://www.proquestcompany.com
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===================
CLASSIFIEDS - JOBS
===================
To Post Jobs: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobpostingpage.htm
Special Summer Discount: 5-day ad: $75; 10-day ad: $125

Manager, Internet Development - Network Telephone Services -
Woodland Hills, CA

Leading Telephony/Entertainment company is seeking a Manager of Internet
Development to coordinate, manage and implement the design, development
and completion of Internet projects and ensure they are completed with
minimum time and cost. Provide project management and coordination for the
full lifecycle of applications and projects. A min. of 5 years experience
in Internet related applications development within a client server
environment is required. Should have superior understanding of MS SQL
relational database systems. Submit resumes to: sjarett@nts.net
_____________________________________________

Client Strategy Manager - Sharpe Partners - New York, NY

Sharpe Partners is profitable and growing digital marketing services
company. We are looking for a Client Strategy Manager to develop marketing
plans, budgets and presentations for clients. Proactively identify and
pursue opportunities to expand client relationships. Oversee budgets,
billing and cost issues to clients. Manage and exceed clients'
expectations. 5 yrs. experience in advertising/marketing and 2 yrs.
account management at interactive agency or Internet professional services
co. working with a wide variety of clients including the Fortune 500.
Resume, cover letter and salary requirements to:
partners@sharpe-partners.com (reference: CS Manager). No phone calls.
_____________________________________________

VP Sales, Financial Services - Drumbeat Digital - New York, NY

Drumbeat Digital is a profitable, privately-owned Silicon Alley internet
services firm with blue chip clients, including Merck, Travelers and
MetLife. We need a top-flight sales person to expand existing
relationships and identify new business opportunities in financial
services. Create sales strategy and develop entry and penetration
strategies. Spend majority of time bringing in credible sales leads. Drive
rapid sales growth and meet aggressive revenue targets ($1.5 - $2
million/yr). 4+ yrs. sales for an e-business solutions company with
experience selling to Financial Services/Insurance industries. Resume as
MS Word attachment only to: jobs@drumbeatdigital.com.
_____________________________________________

Director of Public Relations - Salary: $130k + DOE - San Francisco, CA

One of my top consumer tech clients has created a big name for themselves.
The PR team has done a great job getting them into major publications, but
I'm looking for a very senior PR leader, who is both a strategic thinker
and excellent mentor - "The Master of Consumer Publicity"; someone who
loves media relations, but truly gets it when it comes to making these
happen in the world of building a BRAND. 16+ yrs PR experience (agency &
client) with major consumer brand/consumer tech. Proven track record of
consistently & proactively securing positive press coverage (print &
media). Resume to: heidij@ebizpeople.com
_____________________________________________

====================
CLASSIFIEDS - EVENTS
====================
To Post Events: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/eventpostingpage.htm
Special Summer Discount: 5-day ad: $75; 10-day ad: $125

Do you know your Reds vs. Whites? - Wine Seminar Series - Wash DC

The Washington Wine Academy is offering a special two-class seminar
series, the "ABC's of Wine" and our "Beyond the ABC's of Wine" presented
by Washington Post Wine Columnist - Michael Franz. Tasting series takes
place on July 25th and August 14th at the Grand Hyatt, Washington DC 7:00
PM, $65 for the series. Register and find event details online at
http://www.WashingtonWineAcademy.org
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FREE Listing - Events Calendar

Digital Media Wire has launched a Digital Media Events Calendar at
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value-added service, event listings are free, however limited cyberspace
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listings are available. For further information, contact David Peebler at:
david@digitalmediawire.com
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CLASSIFIEDS - MARKETPLACE
==========================
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Event Invitation Service - Event Me!

Get invited to the hottest professional and fun events in town:
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More info: http://www.EventMe.com
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Directory of Homeland Security

The Directory of Homeland Security is the most complete resource of
Homeland Security contacts available. A 160-page book that lists all
federal & state agencies involved in homeland security. The directory
includes names of over 1,500 homeland security officials, profiles of 500
agencies and a detailed list of technology companies in the sector. To
purchase the Directory with optional database CD, go to:
http://www.tech-directories.com/dmw.htm
_____________________________________________

Bender/Helper Impact - Public Relations Agency

Bender/Helper Impact is a full-service, mid-sized public relations agency
with offices in Los Angeles and New York. The agency, which was founded in
1986, offers strong expertise in the areas of digital entertainment and
convergence, new media, electronic gaming, technology and consumer
electronics. Current clients include: Dolby, 20th Century Fox, Konami,
DreamWorks, Marvel Enterprises, MGM and Warner Bros., among many others.
To find out how Bender/Helper can impact your business, contact Steve
Honig at: 310-473-4147 or steve_honig@bhimpact.com
_____________________________________________

AlleyEvent: The Source for Local Business Events

Want to find opportunities for local networking and professional
development? Digital Media Wire readers get a free subscription to
AlleyEvent's customized weekly newsletter at
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shows or conferences? Subscribe to AlleyEvent's Speaker Alert, a Speaking
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