20° January | Pearson | MegaUpload | Google Maps | Foursquare | Kindle Lending

20 January 2012

New Initiatives

This week, the Lovefilm-Netflix war continues as ABC signs with Lovefilm. Big disruptions occurred on the web across the world when websites ‘blackedout’ to protest against SOPA & PIPA , whilst Mark Zuckerberg blogged about his outrage, leaving Facebook un-disrupted.

The Huffington Post has announced it is developing a 24-hour live news network sometime this year. Whilst Cocosa, the private online retailer, will be launching a full price site next year, in another move away from the business model in only 6 months.

Apple’s revealed iBooks Author, so you can create a book with drag-and-drop movements to add multimedia content and iBooks 2 which it hopes to use to ‘reinvent’ the textbook. Pearson’s, the publishing company that owns Penguin and FT, has also openly backed Apple’s iBooks textbooks. Dorling Kindersley, the Penguin children, travel and reference division,  has spoken about its flat content model  which has numerous output options and the importance of adopting digital. Coliloquy, an ebook start up, has taken ebooks one step further making them interactive, which means whilst reading, choices are presented to choose what happens next.

Company Structure

To continue the publishing theme, The Bookseller has reported that a number of Children’s publishers and authors have predicted that the Young Adult market will see a boost in digital growth over the year. Bloomsbury has announced that its ebook sales have seen a boost of nearly 40% in Q4 of 2011.

Megaupload have been in major trouble this week as the US authorities shut down the site over copyright infringement, then arrested founder Kim Dotcom & three other executives in Auckland, NZ using US warrants.

Google Maps has added train travel to their road and walking options for route planning, in order to encourage olympics visitors to visit the whole country. They have worked with TheTrainline.com to incorporate information and ticket purchase through one place.

In acquistions, Publicis Groupe have bought French digital agency Mediagong. Whilst WPP has bought a third of digital marketing agency DTDigital. Zynga has also confirmed this week that it has acquired four mobile gaming companies, HipLogic, Astro Ape, Page44 and most recently Gamedoctors last month.

Industry Moves

(There has been so many this week that it deserved its own heading.)

Mike Hemmings, CBS Outdoor’s Head of Marketing, has been poached by Amscreen to become their International Marketing Director.

Steve Wing, Head of Digital Marketing at Guardian News & Media, has been promoted to Mobile Business Director.

Simon Calvert, formerly Global Chief Planning Officer at Draftfcb, has become Worldwide Head of Strategic Planning at Digitas.

Anne Sinclair, wife of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has been announced as the Editorial Director of Huffington Post’s French edition, ‘Le Huffington Post’.

Barnaby Dawe, News International’s Marketing Communications Director, is moving to Harper Collins to become their new CMO.

Katherine Gershon, Thomas Cook’s former executive, has been appointed Abercrombie & Kent’s new Marketing Director.

Angela Wilkinson, MD at Media Sales Network, has been appointed Head of Agency Sales by Bauer Radio.

Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s Chief, has left in a shock resignation. This follows Carol Bartz, CEO at Yahoo for 2 years, being fired over the phone in September.

Justine Roberts, Mumsnet co-founder, has joined energy provide E.ON in an attempt to rebuild its image. She will sit on an advisory board alongside a former Asda boss and a former Labour MP.

Russell Stopford, TV and Online Executive, has been announced as the Head of Digital for Manchester City football club. He replaces ex-Trinity Mirror and Tiscali director, Richard Ayers.

Clive West has been named Halfords first Group Digital Director. He joins from an Operations Director for New Business role at Asda.

Social Media

Paul LaFontaine CEO of Habbo Hotel, the social gaming and online community site has spoken about itsnew mobile gaming app ‘Niko’. Read about it here.

Foursquare is partnering with start-up SinglePlatform to bring restaurant menus to you through your phone.

The Times newspaper has announced that it might be opening its paywall to social media apps, after seeing the success of other newspapers such as The Guardian and it’s journalists who recently topped a list of the top 50 most influential news tweeters .

YouTube the online video community, is launching an online short film festival, following its user-generated movie ‘Life in a Day’. They will send 10 winners to the Venice film festival where they will compete for a film making grant of $500k.

Reuters the press agency, has launched a YouTube channel with commentary and analysis programs that indicates its entry into online video programming.