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Sep 19, 2013

Vice Media has come a long way. First launched as an indie political magazine out of Montreal Canada, Vice is now a $1.4 billion media company that generates over $100 million in annual revenue from videos and other sources. It was a $70 million investment from Rupert Murdoch that pushed the company to its current valuation and gave CEO Shane Smith a net worth he claims to not care about.

“At this point, I don’t give a shit about money,” he said. “I’m worth more money than I can ever spend. The best piece of advice I ever got from anyone was when Spike Jonze said take money out of the equation. And that’s actually when Vice started making lots of money. That’s when I stopped worrying about money and started worrying about what I wanted to do.”

source›› Forbes 


Sep 18, 2013

Spin Media CEO Steve Hansen who controls two of the most recognized brands in music/pop culture in both Vibe and Spin, is planning to revive the print editions for both. The company said it would only produce 4 issues a year for both titles making them quarterlies. Hansen says they will produce the magazines in print as long as it makes economic sense, or cent$ depending on how you want to look at it.

"I have absolutely not made the decision to shut down print at Vibe," said Steve Hansen, CEO at SpinMedia. "We'll continue the print side of the business as long as it makes economic sense and if you look at this issue, it makes sense for us."

Vibe's quarterly print cycle begins with its 20th anniversary issue, on newsstands Tuesday at a cover price of $4.99. The issue -- which will contain ads from marketers including Bacardi, Colgate Palmolive, McDonald's and Nissan -- is also being mailed to the magazine's approximately 200,000 existing subscribers.

source›› Adage

Sep 16, 2013

Google says it has acquired file sharing app, Bump. The app allows users to easily send files from their smart phones to their laptop/desktops and vice versa. Google is said to have dropped around $40 million on the app and will Google-rize it. This is seen as a play by Google to give Apple constant competition. Last week Apple announced that its new software on the latest iPhones uses a file-sharing tool called AirDrop.

source›› Bits

David Levin, who sat atop United Kingdom based United Business Media (UBM) for 8 years, is stepping down by summer of next year.  The announcement comes as growth at the company has entered a stunted phase. Under Levin, some UBM divisions struggled to focus leading to numerous overhauls and consolidation. However he did enjoy some success in the company's events offerings. Now the company seems to be looking for fresh ideas and direction and is in the process of finding his replacement.

Said Levin:
"I have really enjoyed leading the transformation of UBM's business over the past eight years, together with a great group of colleagues," he says in a statement. "UBM's two main businesses, Events and PR Newswire, offer significant opportunities for growth, both organic and by acquisition. UBM has built its businesses in the emerging markets of China, India, Brazil, Turkey and the ASEAN region while strengthening its largest position in the USA."

source›› Folio

Sep 13, 2013

NBC-Universal has created a new position and seduced Univision President Cesar Conde to fill it. Conde will be an EVP overseeing NBC-Universal's international group, and will focus on "business development, strategic priorities and special projects across the NBC-Universal portfolio of assets. He will report directly to NBC Universal topper Steve Burke. With this defection, Univision CEO Randy Falco who spent 31 years at NBC has made some changes to the reporting structure at the leading Latin media company having the three business heads that reported to Conde, now reporting directly to him, signaling that Conde's old position of President and COO has been eliminated.

source›› Reuters

Sep 12, 2013


So the deal is basically done. Time Inc and American Express Publishing have both agreed for Time Inc to swallow American Express Publishing (did we lose you?). The deal calls for Amex Pub to become a wholly owned unit of Time Inc. No word on who goes and who stays with Amex Pub when the deal closes around October 1st, but who ever stays, will now call Time Inc's Evelyn Webster, "Boss lady" as she has been tapped by Time Inc's new white fox (his hair) Joe Ripp to oversee the business. As the President of the Lifestyle Group, Ms. Webster is in charge of some of the company's more homie titles like All You, Coastal Living, Cooking Light, Real Simple and This Old House to name a few. Webster also oversees Time Inc's UK division, IPC Media. How she will slide Amex Pub titles like Departures, Travel & Leisure and Food & Wine into the unit, is a wait and see. One thing's for sure, there will be layoffs and/or exits down the road. Our money is on current Amex Pub CEO Ed Kelly who gets a demotion with the acquisition. The transition should be a smooth one being that both companies have been in a long term business operations partnership for many years. In the meantime Ms. Webster is probably doing some yoga as you read this.

Since her gig at the now shuttered Conde Nast Portfolio magazine came to an end, Joanne Lipman has been staying busy. She's been serving as an adviser to to both CNN and Yahoo and she is also the co-author of a new book titled "Strings Attached". The book is about a man named Jerry Kupchynsky who apparently is responsible for giving us the Joanne Lipman we now know today. Jerry Kupchynsky or Mr. K as he was known to his students, was Joanne Lipman's music teacher and according to the book, he was a  yeller and foot stomper who pushed his kids to be "better than they had any right to be". Ms Lipman realized many years later that she actually loved him for it.
Strings Attached tells the inspiring, poignant and powerful story of this remarkable man, whose life seemed to conspire against him at every turn and yet who was able to transform his own heartache into triumph for his students. This critically acclaimed book was called a "must-read" by Kirkus Reviews in a starred review, and will be published simultaneously in both Europe and Asia.

source›› stringsattachedbook.com

Sep 11, 2013

Notorious magazine Editrix Tina Brown always seems to be leaving something. The events leading up to all her exits over the years from publications/companies she started or helped to start or ran, also seem to mirror each other. Her latest exit comes this time from IAC/DailyBeast.com the news website she founded with Barry Diller's money and merged with Newsweek until that crashed and burned. Rumor has it that she was notorious for burning through Diller's cash with no conscience. She allegedly once had 82 covers designed for one issue of Newsweek so she could have a wide selection of cover choices. It brings us back to the TALK days when she launched and ran the magazine on Miramax and Hearst's dime where she also burned through cash due to outlandish spending habits.  Tongues have been wagging about her future since Diller publicly said purchasing the dead Newsweek brand was a mistake. The latter was sold off to a company no one has ever heard of and now Tina is out the door. No one knows what Barry Diller will do with the Daily Beast website but there are tons of talented people who can take over as EIC. Tina Brown herself could end up with the site as a parting gift, who knows! What is known now is that Ms. Brown is turning her focus to launching a new media company (we don't know with whose money) to be called Tina Brown Live Media (TBLM), which will focus on building up the Women in the World conferences she has been organizing and running for several years. So basically Tina Brown has finally soured on an Industry that may have soured on her some time ago.  Come the end of this year, Ms. Brown will exit the building and allegedly turn her back on her true love.


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