Blog

NBC is in talks to acquire Quarterlife, the “TV-quality” series that debuts this Sunday on MySpace. The pending deal has been spurred by the Writers Guild strike and may bring the show to NBC as early as February. Quarterlife is currently scheduled to run for 36 eight-minute episodes online. Show creator Marshall Herskovitz recently expressed Continue Reading →

AOL has purchased advertising network QUIGO for around $350 million. Quigo sells ads for the sites of ESPN, Forbes, Time Inc. magazines and more. It will become part of the newly formed Platform A division. Time Warner announced its 3Q earnings yesterday, and AOL revenue was down 38% to $1.2 billion. Almost half of that Continue Reading →

FACEBOOK officially unveiled a multi-faceted ad system that taps into user referrals and exploits the site’s “social graph.” The system allows brands to establish company profiles on the network. When a user interacts with a company page, the activity (and a display ad) will be reported virally to that user’s network via news feeds. Beacon Continue Reading →

JEFF BEWKES will replace Richard Parsons as the CEO of Time Warner, effective January 1st. The move comes after months of speculation about Parsons’ future at the company and pressure from Wall Street due to a sagging stock price. Parsons will remain Chairman of Time Warner and said that Bewkes has his “full support” as Continue Reading →

THE WGA began its strike at midnight after Sunday’s 10-hour marathon negotiation broke down. Writers are expected to begin picketing at 9 AM this morning outside high-profile locations, including major studios on the West Coast and Rockefeller Center in New York. The Guild issued a memo telling its writers to spend at least 20 hours Continue Reading →

One of my seriously Mac-addicted staff members stood in the rain last Friday night to get us a five-pack of the Apple’s new Leopard operating system. Being only slightly less addicted, I set aside 40 minutes circa 8:30am Saturday morning to do the install. I stopped for the day about 11:30pm — this is my Continue Reading →

THE WRITERS GUILD negotiating committee has announced a unanimous recommendation to go on strike, perhaps as early as this Monday. The committee announced its decision Thursday night and drew an enthusiastic response from the meeting of 3,000 Guild members. The final decision is expected to be made at a meeting of the East and West Continue Reading →

THE WRITERS GUILD contract expired this morning and no new agreement has been signed. A strike could be ordered at anytime. Last night, in last-minute meetings, the companies and producers told the WGA to withdraw its demand for higher residuals from DVD sales. WGA negotiators rejected the order and halted the negotiations. The Guild has Continue Reading →

SHAWN GOLD has resigned as SVP of Marketing and Content Development at MYSPACE to form consulting firm SOCIAL APPROACH. In an interview with Shelly Palmer at Digital Hollywood in LA, Shawn confirmed a rumor that was posted to paidcontent.org last week and said the new company plans to “help brands take advantage of social media Continue Reading →

GOOGLE will announce plans for Google-powered phones within the next two weeks according to The Wall Street Journal. The company has been approaching handset makers and aims to bring the phones to market by mid-2008. Google will offer an open operating system that encourages developers to create innovative new applications for phones and aims to Continue Reading →