Business Publisher Penton Media Files for Bankruptcy

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York
– Penton Media, a publisher of business magazines, announced on Tuesday that it
has filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protections, hoping to restructure its $270
million of debt.

Penton added that certain shareholders have agreed to make a
"significant new investment" in the company — which is expected to
continue normal print and digital publishing operations during the bankruptcy
proceedings.

Penton maintains that there will be no management changes or
change in control of the company, which publishes titles including Broadcast Engineering,
Remix, Modern Baking and Air Transport World.

"This restructuring will
allow us to achieve a debt level that is more sustainable in the current
economic environment," said Penton CEO Sharon Rowlands.

"With a
strengthened capital structure, we will be better positioned to fully leverage
our operations, which have been and continue to be profitable."

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ubig1

http://www.penton.com/restructuring

Yale Gets $4 Million to Develop HIV Prevention Video Game

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New Haven, Conn.
– Yale University has received a $3.9 million
grant to develop a video game designed to teach young people how to avoid being
infected with HIV, GamePolitics reported.

The research grant was provided by
the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development, and will be paid out over five years to fund work by Yale School
of Medicine assistant professor Dr. Lynn Fiellin.

The
"Retro-Warriors" game will be developed with input from adolescents
as well as experts in "positive youth development, social cognitive
therapy, artificial intelligence development and commercial game design."

The game’s efficacy will also be tested in an actual clinical trial.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ubic4
(GamePolitics)

http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=6913

http://www.nichd.nih.gov

Fotomoto Raises Funding for Self-service Photo Monetization

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Francisco
– Fotomoto, a service that lets photographers monetize their photos through
contacts with Web publishers, has raised $623,000 in funding.

Investors in the company include Amidzad Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, BookRenter CEO
Mehdi Maghsoodnia and SGN founder Shervin Pishevar, TechCrunch reported.

Launched
in May 2009, San Francisco-based Fotomoto now counts 2,800 website publishing
partners, including Mirror.co.uk, and features over 610,000 photos.

 

Related Links:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/09/fotomoto

http://www.fotomoto.com

iFollo.com Gets $1 Million for User-Submitted Celebrity Sightings

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Park City,
Utah – iFollo.com, a site that
lets users share stories of encounters with celebrities and public figures,
announced on Tuesday that it has raised $1 million from investor Robert S.
Trump.

Launched in late 2009, Park City, Utah-based iFollo.com relies on
user-generated content to populate its site.

Users can post photos of their
brushes with celebrity, as well as rate the subjects of their encounter on
qualities such as "friendly," "hot," "smart,"
"grounded," or "arrogant."

The site is somewhat similar in
scope to Gawker Media’s "Stalker" feature, though iFollo.com allows
users to elaborate more and create a narrative around their encounters.

Trump’s
other ventures include game development studio ZeniMax Media.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ubhaf

http://www.ifollo.com

MySpace Music Testing Audio Ads

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
1

Los Angeles
– MySpace Music, the joint venture between the News Corp.-owned (NYSE: NWS) social network
and the major record labels, is testing 30-second audio ads that users must
listen to before they can access free song streams, the Associated Press
reported. The ads "are timed so that a user can listen to up to 100 songs
on a playlist or to a full album with just a single interruption after the
first song," AP reports. The company is working with TargetSpot to sell
the audio ads.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ub4ht
(AP)

EA to Release Version of "Madden NFL" on Facebook

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York
– Video game publisher Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS) plans to bring a version of its popular
"Madden NFL" football game franchise to Facebook, Bloomberg reports.
"We have to make ‘Madden’ more accessible," EA Sports president Peter
Moore told Bloomberg. "You’ll see us on Facebook going forward." Moore called the Facebook
version of the game, which does not yet have a release date, a "simpler
experience" than playing on a console.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ub2yw
(Bloomberg)

http://maddennfl.easports.com

Barnes & Noble Replenishes Nook E-book Reader Supply

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York
– Bookseller Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) announced on Monday that its Nook e-book
reader device is now in stock at its online store, and will be rolling out in
the majority of its retail stores later this week. The company, which ran out
of Nook inventory for the year before Thanksgiving last year, noted that it
"quickly sold out of nook stock online over the holidays due to
unprecedented customer demand," but has since "ramped up
production."


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ub48x

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook

Sony's "Free Realms" Online Game Hits 8 Million Users

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Diego
– Sony (NYSE: SNE) Online Entertainment said on Monday that its free, family-friendly
online game "Free Realms" now counts over 8 million unique registered
users. The Sims-like online game features social networking elements and also
an offline physical trading card game.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ub4d1

http://www.freerealms.com

Italian Court Reinstates ISP Block on The Pirate Bay

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Los Angeles – An Italian
court has ruled that ISPs in the country must block access to file-sharing hub
The Pirate Bay, reinstating a ban that had been previously overruled, then
reaffirmed by Italy’s
Supreme Court, TorrentFreak reported.

The Court of Bergamo ruled in 2008 that
ISPs must block The Pirate Bay, but this ruling was later overturned at the
Supreme Court.

Last month, the Supreme Court reviewed the case, and reversed
itself — finding that sites that offer torrent files which link to copyrighted
content are illegal.

A recent hearing at the Court of Bergamo reiterated that
The Pirate Bay must be blocked by Italian ISPs.

TorrentFreak quoted Pirate Bay
attorneys as saying they were considering an appeal both to the Italian Supreme
Court, and to the European Court of Justice.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ub3db
(TorrentFreak)

http://snipurl.com/ub3ig
(DMW previous coverage)

http://snipurl.com/ub3i8
(DMW previous coverage)

Google to Add 'Status Updates', Other Social Features to Gmail

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Mountain View,
Calif. – Google (NASD:  GOOG) plans to add new
social features to its Gmail service that include the ability to share
"status updates" and recent activity on third-party services with
contacts, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the
matter.

Expected to be introduced as soon as this week, Google hopes to bring
Gmail’s 176 million users some of the same features they are accustomed to
seeing on sites like Facebook, which recently passed 400 million users.

"It
might look like a minor feature advance, but this is another blow in the war
against Facebook," Jeremiah Owyang, a partner at technology consultancy Altimeter
Group, told The New York Times.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ub31m
(WSJ)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/technology/companies/09social.html

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