Former Maxim editor turned former VP of entertainment at heavy.com Jimmy Jellinek is on his way to being the former SVP, Digital Content,at Playboy

SDH Wow! And we thought Heavy.com was paying him the big bucks. It was less than a year ago that former Maxim Editor Jimmy Jellinek landed at Heavy.com to serve as vice president of entertainment with much fan fare. Both he and fellow former Dennis Publishing employee Stuff publisher John Lumpkin bragged about the good pay they were getting at Heavy.com saying their take home pay was better than what they were hauling in when they toiled for Dennis. "I don't want to ruffle anyone's feathers, but it's more," said Jellinek. Now Jellinek has bailed on Lumpkin to go tackle Playboy Enterprises effort to become a serious digital media player on the crowded digital field. In his new roll Jellinek will work under the title of Senior Vice President, Digital content, digital media, and of course the pay is way better than the way better pay he was getting at Heavy.com. When Jellinek joined Heavy.com back in late December 2007, he said “For him, it's just going where the zeitgeist is,". But clearly, in 2008 it’s just going where the money is and rightfully so. Jellinek will now spend his days looking at naked women online and coming up with ways to get more men to visit playboy.com and all its planned and/or existing digital offerings. That shouldn’t be too hard right? Also, it’s not impossible for his pal John Lumpkin to join him at his new gig. Playboy could make a play for Heavy.com one day. It wouldn’t be a bad fit.

If Tribune was still a public company, Sam “Crazy Sam” Zell’s little antics probably wouldn’t fly on Wall Street at all

By SDH Is new Tribune CEO Sam Zell trying too hard to be different? Is he trying too hard not to be the typical media suit? Since taking over Tribune Zell has told employees that the company’s internet policy is out the door and they are free to surf the web and look at anything they want, he also fooled fools when he ordered up an April fools joke sending out a fake press release stating that the company changed its name to Zelcomediaenterprises. Zell even had the company’s website changed to reflect the fake name as well. Now Sam Zell’s Tribune is back in the news again with the craziest press release ever. It’s as if they got a gossip blogger to pen the release. It was about the appointment of Marc Chase as President of Tribune Interactive. Never mind that Chase is a former radio exec. However, this may be exactly why the release was written in this manner to take away from the fact that Zell’s new Interactive Prexy probably doesn’t know what the hell his new roll means. With antics like these, is Sam Zell painting a funny face and putting a red nose on Tribune? Or will he inspire other media CEO to loosen their ties and take the stick out of their asses?

The Tina and Barry Show: Tina Brown the former editor of everything you can think of got into Barry Diller's pockets for a new online project

By SDH Like almost everyone who once worked on the print media side at some point or another, Tina Brown is taking her next act to the web and got Barry Diller to come out of his pockets to back it. Brown will launch a new un-named aggregated news site which seems to be the norm now because there is a need for more destinations as to read the same aggregated shit. Diller seems to be the go to person if you have a half way decent idea for a website. One of his most recent backings is the Huffington Post spin off, 236.com. Brown's new venture is already being compared to other sites like Huffpost and the Drudge Report and may even have an editor already. We're sure Brown won't be throwing a huge bash to celebrate the launch of her latest effort. Diller is really rolling them out huh? IAC is set to roll out their website for brown people next week. While some have speculated that the site is an attempt by Diller to rejuvenate IAC, such analysis is surely hyperbole. IAC, after all, still is a $6.1 billion company even after its shares have been nearly halved in the past year. Additionally, IAC's online content efforts of late -- including financial site FiLife.com, a joint effort with News Corp.'s Dow Jones, and political comedy site 23/6 -- are of negligible value compared with such IAC assets as Ticketmaster, Ask.com and

Ross's cousin Peter Levinsohn is about to move things around at Fox Interactive Media

"I am confident that we are moving in the right direction to secure our long-term success, and I am certain that we have the right leadership team in place to take us there" - Peter Levinsohn, President, Fox Interactive Media By SDH Fox Interactive Prexy Peter Levinsohn, cousin of Ross, came into his roll by default when Ross upped and left, or got canned, depending on who you ask. Since taking over News Corp's Internet business, he basically left things the way they were. But we think with FIM reportedly missing their $1 billion revenue target by $100 million, Peter is moving the team around to take some attention of the missed target and to show his bosses at News Corp that he is already making what he thinks are the necessary changes to make sure the company meets the target next time around.

Businessweek got game

By SDH Get bored during the afternoons at work, tired of reading about the fall of Bear Stearns, tired of reading about the economy, tired of reading about Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke? Well Businessweek can help you get past it all. Businessweek.com has launched Businessweek Arcade, a compilation of 20 free, independently developed Web-based games which reflect the best in indie game design. Helen Waters, editor for Businessweek.com’s innovation and design channel explains it all: We explore how the gaming landscape is changing. A new generation of game designers that grew up immersed in the medium has come of age and is now working to make its mark, altering what is played and how it is played (and where). We report from the cutting edge where designers, influenced by a wide range of new technologies from the social Web to motion-sensing, are altering the gaming industry's contours, bending and breaking old rules, and transforming a once-solitary activity into a model of rich, social interaction.

Has Barry Diller been faking it all along?

“He has a vision, and he’s not quite sure what it is, you know. And then he kind of fakes it until he makes it.” -Diane von Furstenberg, Barry Diller’s wife and IAC board member By SDH The battle is in full swing between IAC/Interactive Corp CEO Barry Diller and majority shareholder John Malone. The latest back and forth may have tipped in Diller's favor, but things from the past may come back to bite him where the sun doesn't shine. Diller's fashion designer wife and IAC board member,” Diane von Furstenberg during a "60 Minutes" interview sort of painted her husband as a winger and/or a pretender by saying he “Fakes it till he makes it". Statements like these can probably serve up a huge blow to Diller who is fighting for dear life to hold on to the maze of companies known as IAC/Interactive Corp. So has Barry been faking it? According to many analysts he isn’t an effective CEO. Diller’s decision to split up the company in 5 stand alone companies is seen by some as the result of something that was built up so fast, it got out of hand. One of Diller’s biggest acquisitions Ask.com which originally had delusional episodes of taking on search giant Google, recently announced that it is changing its focus from Google and will transform itself into a search engine locked in on married Southern and Mid Western women. Is this the result of another fake it till you make it approach that failed? The coming weeks will decide Barry Diller’s legacy. Will he be remembered as a builder of businesses for other media CEOs or will he be remembered as that, and a builder and ruler of his own empire? If John Malone wins, he (Barry Diller) will be remembered as the man who built a major internet company only to find out he wasn’t the boss all along.

Hulu is the 62 inch HD LCD to Youtube’s 32 inch Plasma

BY SDH First off, make no mistake about it. Youtube is where you go for that raw in your face taking no shorts video clip to make you say Wow!, Holy Shit!, Damn! etc. It has set the blue print that many imitators are now trying to follow and some of them have failed, and more will fail. But we have to take our hats off to the guys at Hulu.com. If you haven't heard of Hulu, its because no major effort was really made for you to know about it, but we have no doubt that you will. Hulu.com is not another Youtube copy cat, where anyone with a digital recorder can upload clips whenever they want. You won't see clips removed from Hulu.com because it was uploaded illegally. You won’t see clips of Pilipino prisoners doing the thriller. What you get at Hulu are past episodes of your favorite shows that you may have missed like, "The Office" "24", belly busting SNL clips and full length movies delivered with crystal clear pictures and sound. We do admit that we doubted Hulu and even suggested that had no shot against Youtube. But the truth is Hulu is nothing like Youtube, at least not in our opinion. Once you visit Hulu.com, you're automatically forced to stay because it looks so damn appetizing. Now imagine if and when other networks join in with their content. Hulu will be unstoppable. Wow we can't believe we're saying all this nice stuff about NBC Universal and News Corp's joint venture. We usually give them shit but we know when to give credit when and where credit is due. We are officially putting on our "I'm a Hulu fan" hats and rooting for CEO Jason Kilar and his troops to knock one out the park. Wonder how long until Hulu rolls to it's real business model and start charging a monthly fee? *NBC Universal or News Corp or any of their subsidiaries did not pay us to say these nice things.

You will share Hearst's content and love it

BY SDH Hearst Magazines Digital Media which lately has been announcing about two deals per week, joined forces with widget syndication leader Clearspring to create widgets for viewsers to share on social networking sites and blogs. The deal which was announced back on February 25 apparently went over our heads. Hearst has been on a none stop deal making spree, some smart, some not so smart but then again the not so smart ones could turn out to be smart in the long run. It's as if Hearst Magazines Digital Media head Chuck "Chuck Digital" Cordray has to meet a quota set by Hearst Magazines queen Cathie "No web regrets" Black.

NBC Universal splits Beth Comstock in three

BY SDH Following the announcement that NBC Universal’s President of integrated media Beth Comstock will head back to parent company GE to take on a broader marketing and digital media roll, or so it is designed to look, NBC Universal has decided to split her duties among three execs that are probably lacking even more than Comstock in the digital media arena. Salil Mehta, president, business operations, strategy and development, hover over the Digital Media team. Mike Pilot, president, sales and marketing, watch the company's research department, and Jeff Gaspin, president of the Universal Television Group, will take on interim responsibility for iVillage, the Web site, and oversight of a newly created virtual women's network. So what’s the deal with this new arrangement? Why didn’t NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker put the word out for a new digital head to come in and get the ball rolling in the right direction? Is because Zucker never saw the need for a Beth Comstock? Zucker may be making a mistake splitting these duties among three execs. With digital being the trend among traditional media companies, any and all things digital should fall under one head. This can be taken as NBC Universal not being sure about how to approach the digital door. With Jeff Gaspin only having temporary oversight of iVillage, is NBC Uni planning to break iVillage away from the pack it was a part of under Comstock? Why not just throw all of the above under Gaspin and put Mark Hoffman over cable?

Beth Comstock heads back to GE while NBC Universal still struggles to get its digital footing

BY SDH Ask many inside NBC Universal to rate Beth Comstock, currently the President of integrated media and they will probably rate her between 1 and 5. Since taking on the roll as head of NBC Universal's digital media offerings Comstock has had some duds, with the iVillage acquisition at the top of the list. Since convincing NBC Universal brass to cut a check for $600 million to take over iVillage.com, NBC Universal still has nothing significant to show for it. Many are still waiting to see how it will serve as the foundation for NBC Universal's digital strategy. Comstock seems to have only one successful project under her belt and that’s the recently launched Hulu.com a joint venture with News Corp's Fox Interactive, but it is a little premature to refer to the project as a success. Now Comstock is being called back to parent company General Electric to take on the same roll she had before going to NBC Universal but with a bigger spin. At GE she will oversee marketing and digital media. Regardless of what Comstock's doubters may think, she is in GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt’s protective custody which means she can do no wrong. Is this Immelt’s way of allowing NBC Universal’s little big man Jeff Zucker to bring in a new chief of digital who actually carry’s the digital media DNA?

Don't call it a come back because Mike Eisner didn't go anywhere except to the bank

“Just because Eisner is behind something, it doesn’t mean it is going to be a success.” -Darren Aftahi, media analyst BY SDH Former Disney CEO turned Internet player Michael Eisner has been slowly putting together his new digital media empire piece by piece. Some would call it a comeback but the truth is Mike Eisner really didn't go anywhere. Right after he left Disney he was hosting his own show on CNBC called "Conversations with Michael Eisner" which we are happy is no longer airing because to be honest it sucked. When the show wrapped, Eisner turned his focus fully on what he saw was an opportunity to build a digital media empire via acquisitions and launches. With his acquisition of companies like Team Baby Entertainment, Topps, and the launch of a digital studio called Vuguru, Eisner has the ingredients to take on Hollywood where they are weak. But will he execute it well? There are plenty of people in Hollywood who are rooting for him to fail. Jealousy over the success of “Prom Queen” — and Mr. Eisner’s occasional boasting about it — is one reason. He also retains his share of detractors from the Disney days. And while Internet types have overwhelmingly welcomed him, others remain skeptical. The Very Model of a Modern Media Mogul [NYT]

Hearst Magazines to pimp retail chain Sears

BY SDH Hearst Magazines has entered yet another deal this month. Probably the first of its kind, we don't know but the magazine giant has entered a deal with luggy retail chain Sears to help the chain get back on its feet because the only sales they are probably getting are from Midwesterners for who going to Sears, is a planned Saturday event. Hearst Magazines will create a new print and internet promotional campaign which will include ads that you are sure to see in some Hearst titles. Sears will make a "significant digital buy" on Hearst owned web sites like O Magazine, Redbookmag.com, Popular Mechanics and others. Promo booklets produced by Hearst will be distributed in some Sunday editions of Hearst newspapers. So basically Hearst will splatter their print and internet offerings with Sears related verbiage in an effort to ramp up awareness that Sears still exists. Will this work, some think it will others don't. The only thing that is clear is that Hearst will come out the winner whether or not this "Save Sears" campaign sails or sinks.

Hearst Magazines enters popularity contest, Kills some websites to tighten the focus, Featured on last night’s The Apprentice

BY SDH Hearst Magazines digital chief Chuck "Chuck Digital" Cordray is really pushing the company's content out there. Over the past months, deal after deal has been announced. The latest push is with Yahoo Buzz. Yahoo Buzz allows readers to vote on the popularity of online stories. Yahoo then posts the winners on its homepage. Hearst has signed on ten of its titles, including Esquire, Cosmopolitan and Redbook, as Buzz content partners. Chuck is working hard to get those page views growing isn't he! In other Hearst Magazines Digital Media (HMDM) news, the company says it is killing the stand alone websites of 13 titles including Good Housekeeping and Country Living and will roll up their content into one huge frigging portal called Allaboutyou.com. Speaking of Hearst did you see The Apprentice last night? The task was for the teams to create a Dial Soap ad for Redbook.

Time Out's web expansion plan

BY SDH Time Out New York is about to expand across more big cities via the web, kinda taking on the same formula as the popular Gothamist.com which has websites targeting major cities here in the US and overseas. Time Out’s Tony Elliot wants to stretch his brand to the following U.S. cities: Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and Miami. He is looking to sell a small piece of his empire in an effort to raise $40-$60 million to get the job done. But will the web only expansion work for the Time Out brand? Sure why not? With the rising cost of ink and paper, this could be Tony Elliot’s way around those expenses. However it sounds like at some point, print editions will be launched. What will help the folks at Time Out decide when the time is right to launch print editions? If the websites end up generating respectable traffic and ad revenue would print versions still be part of the plan? One thing is certain, the new Time Out websites will have company from Gothamist LLC's websites like Laist.com, Miamist.com, Austinist.com, Sfist.com, Bostonist.com, Houstonist.com and others. Wonder how many new bodies Tony Elliot plans to hire?

Is The New York Times Company slowly on its way to being taken over? The Ochs-Sulzberger family could be in for the fight of their media lives

BY SDH I am sure many have thought about it, many have even put word out, but at the end of the day, none have made a serious run at it. What am I talking about? Well the tightly held New York Times Co of course. If the majority owners aren't even willing to think about a sale, then any attempt to make an offer may be useless, unless you can go deep down in your pockets and the pockets of friends and come back up with a sum, the controlling Ochs-Sulzberger family can't refuse. See the key to break kung fu grips like these, is to make an offer that will spark in-fighting and somewhat destabilize the formation. Rupert Murdoch did this and won Dow Jones. Microsoft is trying the same thing with Yahoo! I love families like the Ochs-Sulzberger family, the Bancrofts and the Mohns who control German media giant Bertelsmann. They put out this image that says, "we cannot be bought". Well we all know the Bancrofts can be bought, but what about these other controlling families who keep their hands in the day to day of their companies? Some shareholders have been fighting the Ochs-Sulzberger family to loosen their grip on the company but the family never budges. Now hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners has upped its stake in the company from 12 percent to about 19 percent and is fighting to get four board seats. The investment firm says it isn’t pleased with what they basically call ass dragging on the digital front by New York Times brass. Is this the prelude to an even bolder move? With four board seats, Harbinger will have a loud voice next to the Ochs-Sulzberger’s. Maybe it is time for a new time at the New York Times but what will it take for this to happen? My guess on what the Sulzberger family's anwswer would be.... "A Cold Day In Hell"

Barron's : Disney is a well oiled machine

BY SDH Other media companies are looking to cut jobs, and chop up assets to create value and drive revenue. Others are dumping cash into deals to give the impression that they know how to digitize their content but sometimes the deal makes no sense. Others are just there, slugging along. But over at Disney, all joints are well lubricated and moving in unison thanks to the leadership of the Iger Administration. The business weekly Barron's owned by News Corp, says that Disney stands out for its management stability and financial discipline, two things some of its competitors lack. Barron's credits Bob Iger who was hand picked by Former Disney CEO Mike Eisner, for focusing on creating brands and deploying them across the company like the very annoying Hannah Montana, which if you have kids, invades your living room every weekend. Iger does seem to be focused on taking the organic route over dropping tons of cash to grow Disney and its brands like his competitors. However the organic route may be working well for Disney due to its content. Disney can monetize its content in ways that its competitors can't. For example the Hannah Montana brand. This went from cable, to music releases to more recently a stage show and a movie. All this in addition to a slew of branded merchandise allows Disney to build and expand from within. Iger doesn’t necessarily have to go looking outside for the next big thing. He can create it from within using Disney’s tween targeted content as a foundation. The Disney.com web portal is a perfect example of this. The properties Rupert Murdoch now owns through it's Down Jones acquisition seem to be big fans of Iger. It was Dow Jones' Marketwatch.com that named Iger 2006's CEO of The Year.

Jeff Zucker, Thomas Jefferson fan?

"The Writers Guild of America strike was like a great forest fire. "Fires fertilise the soil with new ash and clear the ground, often setting the stage for robust growth." - Jeff Zucker BY SDH NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, like his fellow media execs, is happy that the long slog that was the WGA strike is now over and all energy is now trained on getting everything back to normal, or as close to it as possible. Jeff Zucker speaking last month in Las Vegas to the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) played up the WGA strike as a positive, saying the strike could spark robust growth. But is Zucker, naive to suggest this or is he on the money? Is Zucker suggesting that, due to the 3 month long strike, writers are over flowing with content and fresh ideas? This is probably the case, but It will cost some networks millions to promote the return of hit shows that were put on hold during the strike. Andrew Keen on New Media [The Independent]

Hearst's Chuck "Chuck Digital" Cordray is at it again

BY SDH A while back Hearst Magazines CEO Cathie Black insisted she had no web regrets. But based on the deal after deal announcements from Hearst Magazines Digital Media (HMDM), one can only assume that she is playing a fast game of catch up. Under the leadership of the desired Chuck Cordray, Hearst's digital business has been joining forces with the who is who on the web. Chuck's latest join up is with AOL and Youtube. The Youtube deal calls for HMDM to do what the majority of Youtube deals calls for. HMDM will create branded channels with video content being syndicated from 15 print and online publications. In addition to providing lifestyle content, such as the latest on fashion and beauty from the Harper’s Bazaar editorial team or how-to cooking videos from Good Housekeeping, participating publications will develop contests asking readers to upload personalized videos in response to an editorial feature or other awareness programs. The AOL deal calls for HMDM to provide content for AOL's new domestic hub AOL Home. Working in partnership with Hearst Magazines Digital Media, CondeNet web sites and publications, This Old House and Real Simple, AOL Home will offer a comprehensive array of features on a monthly basis. Other content partners will be added in the coming months. Chuck is making sure HMDM has at least a pinky finger in any and everything that will allow them to spread Hearst’s content via the web.

Magazine Publisher's of America gives publishers false hope

BY SDH Earlier this week the Magazine Publishers of America told us that more brown people are reading magazines. Now the MPA shares with us the news that traffic has seen a spike on some consumer magazine websites. According to the MPA the spike happened in the 4th quarter of 2007 and it was an 8.1% spike at that. But what the MPA failed to mention is that, if the report were to be broken out individually for all the 320 magazine websites they collected information on, the traffic increases would be pretty much next to nothing. Guess it all just sounds and looks better combined. The MPA commissioned Nielsen Online to analyze the data of 320 magazinebrands with Web sites according to MPA president and CEO Nina Link. TheMPA only included Web sites “branded with the name of a consumermagazine or a former hard copy consumer magazine” or aggregate sitesrepresenting a number of titles, such as Epicurious.com andCNNMoney.com. Report: Traffic to Magazine Web Sites Grows 8.1 Percent in Fourth Quarter [FOLIO]

Hearst Magazines Digital Media enters deal that will allow advertisers to spam you more effectively

BY SDH Hearst Magazines Digital Media (HMDM) hot boy Chuck "Chuck Digital" Cordray is squeezing any and everything he can out of any corner to grow HMDM and to keep the boss lady (Cathy "No Web Regrets" Black) happy. Cordray's latest join up is with Nokia in a deal that will increase HMDM's mobile advertising share. The deal calls for HMDM giving it's advertisers a whole new vehicle to spam you via your Nokia phone by way of Nokia's global Media Network, a premium advertising network with people who love to buy shit. While putting the deal together Cordray and the folks at Nokia made sure to eliminate any and all hassles for users. This means no downloads or any other pain in the butt enablers. All you have to do is browse. "We are pleased to have top-quality anchor publishers like Hearst as part of the Nokia Media Network," said Vice President and Head of Nokia Interactive Mike Baker. "The addition of the many well-known Hearst properties, including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, and Good Housekeeping, will provide advertisers with a valuable opportunity to reach their target audience on the Nokia Media Network." Hearst Magazines Digital Media Teams Up With Nokia to Offer Mobile Advertising Solutions Through the Nokia Media Network [MW]

The Spin Magazine, Myspace deal happened quietly because It’s all a bunch of nothing

BY SDH So Spin Magazine is spinning the hell out of the fact that they launched a digital edition and is playing it up like its some groundbreaking deal they got into with Myspace. To be honest we don’t even know if it’s even a deal. We took it up on ourselves to browse, Spin’s new digital edition and it’s just your typical digital edition of a print magazine, just an interactive replica of the print version, complete with links etc. All Spin did was launched a digital version and linked it from their Myspace page making it available to their friend’s list and other potential visitors who may visit their page. So what’s with all the hype? Any music magazine publisher could’ve linked their digital version from their Myspace page in hopes of landing more views right? The, magazine is offering its digital edition free for 12 months to land some attention from all the youngins who hang out on Myspace Music. Is the ultimate goal to land new subscribers for the digital or print edition of Spin? Maybe Spin isn’t even doing this to land subscribers. This is just one big stage for advertisers, and record labels to pimp their products and artists on. If this is the case, then kudos to Spin because the ad revenue from this should be sweet.

In addition to being a resource for a weekend lay and being infested with outed and closeted pedophiles, social networking sites are just one big ad

BY SDH Are you one of those who hardly visit your page on Myspace or Facebook, not because you don't have the time, but you don't have the patience to deal with all the ads being thrown at you? Well join the club of thousands of social networkians who feel that they are being pimped. Chris Heritage a 27 year old from Florida had no interest in being part of any social networking site, (at least not as himself), but his buddies who are members of Facebook.com persuaded him to set up a page so they can contact each other online. We really don't know why anyone would sign up on a social networking site to network with people they see everyday but anyway. To his surprise, Chris found that Facebook was just one big advertising cesspool. Chris was so traumatized by all the ads, he quit that bitch back in November and now shares his experience and thoughts via blog which he pays $6 a month for on an "AD FREE" website. OK Chris, not for nothing, you could have launched a blog for free without the pain in the ass ads.

Glam Media hires Yahoo! Exec and gives him a looong title

-SDH Former Yahoo!-an Dr. Kiumarse Zamanian wanted to glam up his career so where better to do this than at Glam Media. The media company geared towards women said that the good Dr. will join their team as vice president of Glam Evolution Advertising Platform. Zamanian isn't fully disconnected from Yahoo! though. He is co-holder of three U.S. Yahoo! patents which could mean big bucks for him if Yahoo! decides to sell itself. Dr. Zamanian's significant contributions at Yahoo!, driving key innovations in advertising media platforms and smart display ads, make him the ideal hire as Glam revolutionizes display advertising by better managing brand engagement online," said Fernando Ruarte, co-founder and CTO, Glam Media. "The expansion of Glam's technology team will help strengthen the Glam Evolution premium display advertising platform across highly-targeted audiences and vertical channels." Glam Media Hires Yahoo! Veteran Dr. Kiumarse Zamanian as Vice President of Glam Evolution Advertising Platform [PRNW]

Mike Eisner wants to get us all reading again

"This is a whole new way to get an audience that's not reading as much as they did in the past to get to know the characters in a novel" - MIKE EISNER BY SDH Dethroned Disney CEO Michael Eisner is still working at cementing his post Disney act. Fresh off a win for bubble gum, baseball card maker Topps, Mike's Internet production studio, Vuguru is teaming up with book publisher G.P. Putnam's Sons to turn "Foreign Body," a book by Robin Cook into a digital movie, the first of its kind. The book is about a series of unexplained deaths in foreign hospitals. Hmmm sounds interesting, but it would be nice to watch the movie right through without having to go through 50 separate 2 minute webisodes. Set to debut on May 27, a new Webisode will air every Monday through Friday for 10 weeks, with the finale premiering on August 4 and the book hitting store shelves the next day. Advertising will be sold against the Webisodes. DIGITAL DREAMERS [NYP]

Businessweek.com getting all Aggregaty and Videowy, Editor John Byrne and his hair tells us how

-SDH OK first things first. What's up with Businessweek Editor John Byrne's shag? We hope he falls on a clipper real soon. Anyway, with a new design in print, Businessweek.com is stepping up it's game as well. In an interview with PBS/Mediashift Byrne tells us the whats, whens, whys and hows. Did we mention John Byrne's hair? Byrne believes that if Rupert Murdoch opens up the Wall Street Journal Online and makes the content free of charge, it will be “checkmate” against Yahoo Finance, the current leader in traffic for financial sites. But Byrne is more mysterious about BusinessWeek’s chances of catching the portals, telling me BusinessWeek has “a strategy to significantly scale and we’ll soon be able to talk about exactly how that will happen.”

Men’s Health Living still doesn't have blogs and/or videos on their website but they can help you nail her

-SDH From time to time we shoot on over to the website of Rodale's latest venture, Mens Health Living to check out how things are going and to check out new offerings if any. In this case the site is still where we left it about a month or two ago. We hope there are blogs and videos in the works because come on, whats a website geared towards men that doesn't have a blog with at the minute man news and pictures and/or videos of hot chicks? What we did find though, is a step by step break down of how your semi messy apartment can get you in bed with that hot chick. I’m coming back to your place, so I’ve already decided I want to make out with you. Or, at the very least, I maybe want to make out with you. What’s absolutely clear is this: I definitely don’t not want to make out with you. Why else would I have accepted your invitation to watch kung fu movies back at your apartment? I hate kung fu.So here I am, at your front door, at least a little into you. But that may change as soon as I step inside. That’s the moment I start seriously considering, Is this a man I want to get naked with? I can tell more about a guy and what kind of boyfriend he’d be in * minutes at his place than I could in three dates. Whether I ultimately decide to stay the night, stay forever, or somewhere in between has a lot to do with your stuff. The balance may hang in your towel selection. SEDUCE HER WITH YOUR SPACE [MHL]

So this is what Yahoo! plans to do with the money they will save when they shit-can staffers

-SDH Yahoo! which already has an online service that caters to record labels, is rumored to be launching another one catering to record labels. We have no idea why these major Internet companies insist on getting into this business, but apparently it's a money maker and they want their cut. Yahoo's new music service will of course be ad driven. However we're kind of confused because Yahoo already has Yahoo! Juke Box Unlimited where you can buy singles or entire albums for download to your digital music player, burn it to a CD or just keep it on your desk top. So how will this new rumored service be different? The report, dated late Wednesday, quoted two unnamed record company executives and said details are still being negotiated and that Yahoo could offer the MP3 files either for sale or for free as part of an ad-supported service Yahoo discussing online music deals: report [Reuters]

LesFM: CBS alerted the media of a major announcement regarding Lastfm.com but the announcement lacked major majorness

BY SDH When CBS acquired social networking music website LastFM.com many were confused and wondered what in the world CBS planned to do with their new trophy web property. On January 22nd CBS alerted the media that they would be making an announcement regarding the site. Yesterday, CBS announced that LastFM will now be a free on-demand music streaming portal, much like Yahoo! Music in many ways but with an annoying catch. See CBS Corp CEO Les Moonves and CBS Interactive head Quincy Smith play up the new LastFM.com as an anytime anywhere kind of music portal, but how can they say users can listen to any song on their computers whenever they wanted, but up to 3 times? Doesn't the last part of that statement contradict the first part? Well, until they launch their new subscription based access, that's the annoying limitations potential takers will have to deal with due to the fact that CBS is now in bed with the major labels and has agreed to pay artists whose songs get played, so this is clearly a tactic to control pay outs. Continue... There is nothing ground breaking about the new direction of LastFM.com. It’s now an ad soon to be subscription driven business that in no way helps to spread CBS's content. It will not "give a lift to the idea that music through the Internet can be similar to radio — free and supported by advertising — yet give users a choice of what they want to listen to" Because Yahoo! Music is, and has been doing something like this for years. If CBS really wanted to make a mark they should have probably transformed LastFM.com into a one stop portal where people can go and listen to any CBS Radio station on the web by simply clicking to tune in or making this new free music model a mobile only service. If you're content driven media company and you're looking to make acquisitions on the web, it's smart to grab something that can be used to spread your content even more to the masses. We think LastFM was an impulse buy and may (and we use the word “May” very loosely) end up doing well for CBS, but the fact still remains that you won't be able to stream episodes of "Big Brother" "Kid Nation" or “CSI" on it. We’re still waiting to see what happens with what we think was another impulse buy, Wallstrip.com. If you ask us, CBS is pimping themselves out to the record labels only to give them (the record labels) yet another platform to spread their content. CBS already made the dumb move of re-entering the very frail music business when it re-launched CBS Records. Now they're greasing the already slimy palms of record execs. On another note, is Les Moonves rocking a vicious comb-over in the image above?

TheAtlantic.com to knock down its paid wall in hopes of hitting the ad lottery

BY SDH The folks at The Atlantic are really showing their internet balls. Come this Tuesday, the paid wall will be demolished on their website, courtesy of Goldman Sachs, which is buying all the ad space for this week, to make sure that the current surge in traffic sticks around and grows. Executives have been slowly but surely seeing the light. First they finally had the website brought into the current swing of things by adding blogs and online only content, and now they are ready to turn it into an ad revenue machine. It makes us wonder how many dudes it took sitting in a conference room being all excited about the online possibilities to come up with the grand plan we all see being rolled out for an old bloke like the Atlantic? They were all there with pen and pads shooting ideas at one another and talking about what their competitors are doing and how great this internet thing is. It must have been a real experience. Innovative ideas spat back and forth over coffee and pastry. It took them a while, and yes they are late bloomers but it’s a beautiful thing to see people try new things.