No Grammy for Gaga

After a successful first year of #1 hits such as “Just Dance”, “PokerFace”, and newly released “Bad Romance”, it is beyond a surprise that musical genius and $15M album sold singer Lady Gaga is not being nominated for this years Grammy Awards. The 23 year-old singer is technically snubbed from nominations while her counterparts received multiple nominations.

According to People.com, Amy Winehouse and Kanye West enjoyed a measure of good news Thursday, as they earned a total of 14 Grammy nominations between them.

$15M to Launch NYC Specific Version of the WSJ

“Good journalism is an expensive commodity,” said Rupert Murdoch at a Federal Trade Commission conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Dec. 1 reports The Observer.

Mr. Murdoch is ready to roll out a budget of $15 million for his new New York edition of The Wall Street Journal. The Journal is creating a section that will cover local politics, culture, news and sports. For the time being, the section’s launch is set for April. It is expected to run six days a week. It is not clear yet if the metro report will be a discrete section, or if an entirely different edition of the paper will be sold here.

NewsCorps vs HuffPo: Paid Content Media

The Wall Street Journal has reported the head of the Federal Trade Commission will study whether government should aid struggling news organizations, which are suffering from a collapse in advertising revenues as the internet upends their centuries-old business model.

News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch said at the FTC workshop that media companies need to do a better job of convincing consumers that high-quality journalism isn’t free. Mr. Murdoch created a buzz last month by saying that News Corp. may block Google Inc. from searching its news sites. He didn’t mention the company by name Tuesday, but criticized Internet sites that profit from reusing news articles published by others without bearing the costs.

Unfortunately for him, Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, followed Mr. Murdoch and blasted his criticism of Internet sites like hers that collect and link to news content from other providers. Ms. Huffington said her popular Web site drives a great deal of online traffic to The Wall Street Journal.

Federal and state officials this year have explored how the government might play a role in helping ease the financial travails of news organizations. Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D., Md.) this spring proposed a bill that would allow newspapers to operate as tax-exempt institutions. Congress has held several hearings about the financial challenges facing the industry.

Bicycle Thief Theatrical Run in NYC

The New York Times has so eloquently compared the modern day unemployment rate exceeding 10 percent to the struggles in the timeless Vittorio De Sica film “Bicycle Thief”. The comparison of the hard times in the work force and modern day society gelled perfectly and the timing of the 60th Anniversary re-launch.

The New York Times says ” ‘The Bicycle Thief’ is one of the exceptions. Admirable, durable, it resonates in the latest bout of tough times.”

The Bicycle Thief has also received a 5-Star film rating in TimeOutNY. The film will be featured at the Cinema Village Downtown located on 22 E. 12th Street New York, NY from December 11,2009 through December 26th, 2009. Press tickets are available via Courtney Lukitsch courtney@gothampr.com tel 2123522147.

Giant Magazine folds, switches to Digital

According to Mediabistro’s FISHBOWLNY, Multimedia company Radio One announced today that it is suspending publication of its bi-monthly magazine Giant, while launching the Web site GIANTLife.com in order to “super-serve a highly underserved audience” of affluent African Americans ages 21 to 34. Radio One acquired Giant three years ago, the company said.

Giant Magazine’s website has posted the launch of GIANTLife.com and it will begin with an exclusive video series, “Cover Stories”, hosted by Interactive One’s chief content officer Smokey D. Fontaine. The debut episode will feature Giant magazine cover subject’s Alicia Keys.

David Carr: Fall and Rise of Media

David Carr reviewed in his NYTimes column his feelings and points on the Fall and Rise of the Media. Carr compares the downward spiral of media “Pages are down, spending is down, revenues are down, and the biggest feature of this holiday season in the media kingdom has been layoffs and buyouts at Condé Nast, Time Inc., The Associated Press, and yes, The New York Times.” to the hope that still lives within the minds of the next generation of media industry enthusiast.

Carr explains, “For every kid that I bump into who is wandering the media industry looking for an entrance that closed some time ago, I come across another who is a bundle of ideas, energy and technological mastery. The next wave is not just knocking on doors, but seeking to knock them down….They are jaded in the way youth requires, but have the confidence that is a gift of their age as well.”

Carr closes “For them, New York is not an island sinking, but one that is rising on a fresh, ferocious wave.”
For more on the inspiring piece, visit NYTimes.com.

E-Newsstands

With an online newsstand for magazines supposedly just weeks away, magazine publishers are rushing to create new, electronic versions of their titles. Rival publishers Time Inc., Condé Nast, Hearst and Meredith are said to be backing the planned company, which would sell e-reader versions of their titles according to MediaWeek.

Prior to the holiday, Condé Nast showed off what an imagined e-reader version of its glossies would look like, starting with Wired. Time Inc. is developing e-reader versions of such titles as Time and Sports Illustrated. Time Inc. is also expected to introduce those iterations early next year.

The transition could slowly be a rebirth for the relationship between publishers and advertisers. Buyers applauded magazines for exploring new digital translations of print but they also cautioned that audience sizes will be slow to grow.

Adam Lambert’s AMA Experience

Adam Lambert had his first national performance of his debut single, “For Your Entertainment”. Unfortunately, not everyone appreciated his rendition of art. According to ADAge, an ABC spokesman said the Walt Disney network “did receive a number of complaints” about the show, but did not elaborate. ABC said it received approximately 1,500 complaints.

Despite the controversy, or perhaps because of it, this year’s broadcast of the “American Music Awards” generated big ratings numbers. Citing preliminary ratings reports, ABC said about 14.2 million people watched the program, two million more than last year. The network said the Awards “attracted its largest audience since 2002 and its highest adult 18-49 number since 2004.”

AOL’s New Brand Identity

AOL will launch a new brand identity next month when the brand will become a separate entity from Time Warner. The NYTimes has stated, AOL has ditched the odd-looking triangle that has long served as the brand symbol and replaces the letters AOL with “Aol.” — complete with a period.

“To re-establish AOL as relevant today requires a massive shift in what it stands for to be effective,” Mr. Allen Adamson, managing director of the New York office of Landor Associates said, “Being around a long time in technology is already one strike against you.”

Bloomberg LP Expands Branding

Mediaweek is reporting, as it sets its sights on becoming a much bigger, influential news organization, Bloomberg LP has reached out to creative agencies to develop its biggest-scale marketing campaign to date for its portfolio of brands.

Bloomberg is looking to change with BusinessWeek. By adding the newsweekly to its portfolio, the company hopes to give its journalists better access to corporate and political newsmakers, thus strengthening its audience reach and credibility across its media platforms.