McLean, Va. – USA Today publisher Gannett (NYSE: GCI) on Wednesday named
former CNN executive David Payne as its senior vice president and chief digital
officer. Payne most recently served as the president and CEO of video ad
technology start-up ShortTail Media, and before that was the senior vice
president and general manager of CNN.com. Gannett said its digital business has
grown 44% over the past two years and, now sporting annual revenue of nearly $1
billion — about 18% of its total revenue.

 
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/45lr7by

San Francisco – Twitter has added the ability for users to
utilize HTTPS secure connections when accessing Twitter.com, following similar
steps taken by Facebook and other sites. "This will improve the security
of your account and better protect your information if you’re using Twitter
over an unsecured Internet connection, like a public WiFi network, where
someone may be able to eavesdrop on your site activity," Twitter said. The
company hopes in the future to make HTTPS the default setting for all.

Related Links:
http://blog.twitter.com/2011/03/making-twitter-more-secure-https.html

Austin, Texas – In a bid to return to its musical roots,
Viacom’s MTV is launching The Hive, a new website that will offer music news,
reviews, opinion writing and multimedia features. The site will also serve as a
database of 30 years of music videos, and as a portal for other music-related
MTV projects like the Music Meter and Live in NYC.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4zfqzed
(PaidContent)

http://www.mtvhive.com

New York – Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) said on Wednesday that, due to
"overwhelming" demand for the ‘TV Everywhere’ app it released
yesterday that lets subscribers watch live programming online, the company has
temporarily reduced the number of channels available on the iPad app to 15
channels. The company said the move will "ease strain on the
authentication process," adding the full 30 channel line-up will be
restored as quickly as possible.

Related Links:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110316006269/en

Santa Monica, Calif. – Film studio Lionsgate said it has
launched the first move ticket deal with social shopping service Groupon.
During a two-day promotion, Groupon will offer tickets to Lionsgate’s and
Lakeshore Entertainment’s "The Lincoln Lawyer" for $6, through online
ticketing service Fandango.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4n9sbdk

http://www.groupon.com

Seoul, Korea – Electronics firm Samsung has launched a 3D
video-on-demand service in its home country of South Korea, CNET reports. At
launch, the service includes 3D features from DreamWorks, and will also offer
trailers, children’s content and music videos. The new service is being made
available via the company’s Samsung Apps marketplace.

Related Links:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20043702-17.html

http://www.samsung.com

I’m
happy to bring my list of the hottest buzz acts of SXSW Music Festival back to DMW again for 2011 (this year it takes place March 15-20). I took a sampling mainly exposing the newer artists, rather than highlight the tried and true. Combing through the several hundreds of bands at this year’s SXSW was a real challenge. I say that just because the selection of official shows is incredible. No wonder being ‘official’ this year was a difficult task – Celebrating 25 years they picked the creme! With that said – here’s my "Sick 65"!

In no particular order.

Alpha Consumer
The Just Desserts
The Lytics
Rebel Diaz
Pink Nasty
Tiger! Shit! Tiger! Tiger!
Acrylics
The Airborne Toxic Event
Alcholic Faith Mission
Apollo 18
Araab Muzik
Azealia Banks
Baths
Bikini
Black Cherry
Black Top Demon
Bliss N Eso
The Boat People
Bombay Bicycle Club
Bosco Del Rey
Brodinski
I got you on tape
De JuePuchas
Chico Mann
Casio Kids
Calvin Harris
Chikita Violenta
Class Actress
Cubic Zirconia
Da Punto Beat
Dinosaur Pile- up
Dirty Ghosts
Gold Panda
Hadag Nahash
The Funeral Suits
Flip Ron
Xene Cervenka
Gustavo Galindo
Electra
Dominique Young Unique
Injured Ninja
Human Eye
The Honeymoon Thrillers
Jackie Chain
Homeboy Sandman
J*Davey
King Kapisi
Lamin Fofana
Trouble Andrew
Marz Lovejoy
Naki
Telephunken
Theophilus London
Voxhaul Broadcast
Rebel Diaz
Outtasight
Pink Shot Riot
Queens of the Stone Age
Ruby Jane
Scars on 45
Sex w/ Strangers
The White Eyes
Starfucker
The Sway Machinery
Valerie June
Zoroaster

Had to end it with a metal act from Atlanta.

Also- wanted to highlight 2 films during the music fest.

Punk in Africa- Documentary
The Furious Force of Rhymes-  first film about Hip Hop both in and outside
the U.S.

Fiona Bloom

With over 15+ years in the entertainment industry, The Bloom Effect is
a unique one stop shop for artists, labels, and lifestyle marketers.
Created by music industry maven Fiona Bloom, The Bloom Effect brings a
huge rolodex of global contacts from around the world to its clients
providing a wealth of insight/knowledge and consultation for getting
your project seen and heard. For frequent updates from Fiona on music and lifestyle, check out The Bloom Effect Blog here.

http://www.twitter.com/fionabloom
http://www.thebloomeffect.com/blog
http://www.thebloomeffect.com
http://www.youtube.com/fionab12
http://www.linkedin.com/fionabloom

New York – The Orchard, a digital distributor of independent
music and video, on Wednesday launched Artist Builder, a software dashboard
that helps labels and artists update multiple social profiles simultaneously
from one location. Tour dates, news, links, video and photos may be uploaded
through Artist Builder, and then published to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and
artist sites. The artist and release information captured will also be
available to developers via the The Orachard API.

Related Links:
http://www.theorchard.com/artistbuilder

San Francisco – U.S. newspaper advertising across both print
and digital totaled $25.8 billion in 2010, marking a 25-year low for the
industry, the Associated Press reported, citing figures from the Newspaper
Association of America.

Print ads generated $22.8 billion in 2010, an 8% drop from the
previous year, while online ad spending grew 11%, to $3 billion.

During the
fourth quarter of 2010, newspaper advertising totaled $7.3 billion, down 5%
from 2009, while online ad spending rose 14% to $878 million.

Online
advertising now accounts for some 12% of total ad revenues at U.S. newspapers,
compared with 4% back in 2005.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4cllmbh
(AP)

http://www.naa.org

Palo Alto, Calif. – Facebook has partnered with Major League
Baseball to offer users free live streaming video of one preseason game each
day from MLB’s Facebook page, All Things D reported.

Users can watch the game
directly on Facebook in a smaller player, or click through to MLB.TV and sign
up for a free account to watch the game in full-screen mode.

MLB.com CEO Bob
Bowman told All Things D the free daily game will continue until the start of
the regular season at the end of March.

Bowman added that MLB does not plan to sell
individual games on Facebook, or give MLB.TV subscribers access to all games
via the social network.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/49zt5wb
(All Things D)

http://www.facebook.com/mlb?sk=wall