Conde Nast has named Connie Anne Phillips, the publisher of Time Inc.'s InStyle until last month, as VP-publisher of Glamour, one of the company's biggest brands. The move marks a return to Conde for Ms. Phillips, who had spent 14 years at Vogue before joining InStyle four years ago. She left Time Inc. in May, provoking rumors that she was on her way back to Conde.

"This is a homecoming for me -- I'm elated to reconnect with my friends and talented colleagues at Conde Nast, one of the most influential media companies in the world," Ms. Phillips said in a statement released by Conde Nast.

Ms. Phillips is taking over Glamour from Bill Wackermann, the exec VP-publishing director responsible for the title and previously Glamour's publisher since 2004. Conde Nast named Mr. Wackermann exec VP and publishing director at Conde Nast Traveler. That fills the opening created last week when Conde shifted Carolyn Kremins, who was VP-publisher at Traveler, to its Epicurious food site.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

For the better part of season six, Bob Benson was an ingratiating hollow man, a handsome, eager-to-please cipher whose mysteriousness enabled any number of Internet conspiracy theories -- like the particularly ludicrous one placed him as a secret agent sent by the government to spy on Don Draper. Now we find that Bob Benson is Don Draper. Ish.

There are a few  differences. Bob is ambiguously gay and over-obliging, while Don is all-too straight and a real pain in the ass. What unites them is that they’re both frauds that have concocted their backgrounds out of the ether. The connection was there all along if you saw the Easter egg in their names, both alliterative and with the same number of letters in both the first and last names. Bob, like Don, isn’t who we thought him to be. His blue blood is more like West Virginia moonshine, his education faked. And his corporate experience is limited to being a man-servant for a Brown Brothers Harriman executive who takes him to Europe in what, after Bob’s recent pass at Pete, sounds like a coded gay tryst.

This knowledge comes to Pete Campbell through the most delicious of conduits: the detective work of Duck Phillips, who Pete has enlisted to remove Bob from the agency. Bob is an impediment to Pete’s desperate search for relevance, now that he’s insinuated himself into a Chevy account-management role that’s up for grabs after Ken Cosgrove is wounded on a hunting trip with those boorish General Motors executives.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Netflix, the dominant subscription video-streaming service, has agreed to a multi-year deal with DreamWorks Animation SKG to obtain original programming to lure subscribers.

It is the largest contract for original content in the history of Netflix, the company said in a statement. The deal covers more than 300 hours of new programming, including shows inspired by characters from DreamWorks Animation’s franchises, new feature films and its Classic Media library. DreamWorks Animation movies include "Shrek," Madagascar," "Kung Fu Panda" and "How to Train Your Dragon."

The first series are expected to be streamed in 2014 and will be available in all of Netflix’s territories, according to the statement.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Mitsubishi's ad campaign to launch its redesigned 2014 Outlander crossover -- built around the tag line “Find your own lane” -- also will have to help the brand find a route back to relevance in the U.S.

Backed by a marketing budget that's been doubled for the current fiscal year, the campaign includes national cable TV, a return to network prime time for the first time since 2005, and the brand's largest digital ad outlay, said Francine Harsini, director-advertising, Mitsubishi Motors North America.

She wouldn't reveal this year's budget. But based on comments from a person close to the company about last year's figure, Mitsubishi will spend about $170 million in the fiscal year that ends next March.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

One day a kid named Eddie comes up to you on the playground and says, "Don't ask me how I know this, but your mom and dad have been reading your diary." You don't believe him at first, but he quickly convinces you he knows what he's talking about.

You are soooooo mad. How could they do this to you?

You decide to confront them about it. But -- and this is weird -- when you do, they're really nonchalant about it.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Bauer Publishing, the owner of magazines including In Touch and Woman's World, plans to introduce Closer, a weekly celebrity magazine aimed at women in their mid-30s to late 40s, the company said.

The rollout, reported Friday in The New York Post, is a surprising move amid a years-long slump in newsstand sales. Magazines' single-copy sales in the second half of last year fell 8% from the second half a year earlier,  according to the Alliance for Audited Media, with double-digit declines at In Touch, sibling Life & Style, Time Inc.'s People and Wenner Media's Us Weekly.

But Bauer, which has always emphasized newsstands over the subscription business that comprises the focus at most U.S. publishers, remains committed to newsstands.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

It's hard to believe it's been just a little bit more than a week since we all first learned about the National Security Agency's Prism program. While Britain's The Guardian and The Washington Post have gotten plenty of credit for breaking and teasing out the unfolding scandal, I think a third news organization also deserves to be singled out for its coverage. I'm talking about The Onion, America's Finest News Source, whose reporting has deepened our collective understanding of our new lives as obedient, patriotic subjects of the surveillance state.

Two Onion dispatches this week have been must-reads. The first, "Area Man Outraged His Private Information Being Collected By Someone Other Than Advertisers," really captures why learning of the existence of Prism has been so upsetting for consumers:

"I can't express how infuriated I am that my credit history, phone activity, and online browsing habits are being systematically collected and archived without my knowledge by undisclosed organizations that aren't trying to sell me products," said the visibly disturbed man....

Continue reading at AdAge.com

TV upfront negotiations are trudging along as advertisers continue to push back against price increases. But one thing seems clear: Somewhere between $800 million and $1 billion will disappear from broadcast prime-time's take this year.

It's an astounding shift, caused in part by a weak broadcast season, leaving the big networks with smaller audiences to promise advertisers in their upfront talks.

CBS, the strongest broadcaster heading into negotiations, wrapped its sales in early June, securing price hikes but still taking in $2.5 billion to $2.75 billion -- in line with last year. If the No. 1 network among 18-to-49-year-olds came out flat, the other big nets will likely see the total value of their deals decline.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

In Warner Bros.’ “Man of Steel,” Superman tries to save the world from powerful villains. His real-life task is no cakewalk either: Turning the studio’s DC Comics into a hit factory like Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel.

Warner spent an estimated $225 million making the film in a bet that “Man of Steel,” starring British actor Henry Cavill, can make a profit and be the start of a new Superman franchise. That could pave the way to movies based on the “Justice League” comics that bring DC heroes like Batman and Wonder Woman together to fight a common enemy.

Marvel used the “Iron Man” films, starring Robert Downey Jr., to introduce “The Avengers,” which became the third-highest grossing movie of all time. In “Man of Steel,” Time Warner’s studio is taking a chance with the lesser-known Cavill and a brooding take on Superman -- who projected an earnest, wholesome image in earlier films -- from producer Christopher Nolan and director Zack Snyder.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire chairman of News Corp., filed for divorce from his third wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch, who famously defended him from a pie-hurling assailant.

A News Corp. spokesman confirmed that Mr. Murdoch, 82, initiated the divorce proceedings, without elaborating. His wife couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. Ira Garr, an attorney with Garr Silpe representing Murdoch, didn’t immediately return requests for comment on the filing.

Wendi Deng Murdoch, 37 years younger than her husband, made headlines in 2011 for physically defending him when he gave testimony at a Parliament hearing over a hacking scandal at his U.K. newspapers. She leapt up and lunged at a man who had tried to throw a pie in Murdoch’s face.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Conde Nast has promoted Carolyn Kremins from VP-publisher at Conde Nast Traveler to senior VP-general manager at food website Epicurious, the company said today. Conde said it will name a successor to Ms. Kremins at a later date.  

At Epicurious, Ms. Kremins succeeds Beth-Ann Eason, who is taking a new role as senior VP-digital development as well as general manager at ZipList, the website and app for shopping lists and recipes that was acquired by the company last year.

Ms. Eason's role presiding over ZipList, where co-founder and CEO Geoff Allen will report to her, comes as the company tries to expand ZipList's list-building technology to other areas Conde Nast covers, such as beauty and fashion. She joined Conde Nast two years ago to oversee Epicurious, Brides.com and the Gourmet Live app, but responsibility for Brides.com was shifted to the publisher of Brides magazine soon after, and Gourmet Live stopped publishing updates earlier this year.  

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Gannett, the publisher of USA Today, has agreed to buy Belo Corp. for about $1.5 billion, gaining TV stations to reduce its dependence on newspapers.

Belo Corp. spun off its newspapers, including the Dallas Morning News and the Providence Journal, into a separate company back in 2008, leaving it "one of the largest pure-play television companies in the country," as an executive bragged at the time. That undoubtedly ultimately made the deal announced today more attractive to Gannett, which is striving to diversify beyond print.

The acquisition will make Gannett the fourth-largest owner of major network affiliates, almost doubling the number of stations to 43 from 23. While media conglomerates such as News Corp. and Time Warner this year are following the example Belo set in 2008 and spinning off their publishing divisions, the broadcast-TV business is seeing mergers accelerate. Last week, Media General agreed to buy New Young Broadcasting Holding Co., while Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. has spent more than $1.84 billion on broadcasters in the past two years.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

USA Network has tapped Birchbox to send its subscribers boxes filled with products chosen to help promote the series "Suits."

The men's boxes will include GO247 shampoo and conditioner, Balla Powder and Lucky Tiger Lip Balm, among other products. There will also be partially-themed "Suits" boxes for women.

The boxes will arrive in July in connection with return of the show, about a lawyer and a college dropout pretending to be a lawyer, for a third season.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

MTV is starting a digital content lab called MTV Other to produce short-form programming that will live on its new iPhone and iPad app as well as MTVOther.com.

The network described the studio as it introduced the app, which will also let viewers stream full episodes of shows like “Catfish” and “Teen Wolf” and interact with programming as it progresses. But the shorts will be available to anyone, while the series from TV will be restricted to users who also subscribe to cable or satellite TV.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

MySpace is making its relaunch as a social discovery service for musicians, artists and creative types "official" with a new iPhone app, the removal of the "beta" label from its revamped website and its first TV commercials.

The 30-second spots -- edits of the 90-second clip you see here -- will begin airing tonight on Comedy Central, MTV, MTV2, Fuse, BET, Adult Swim and ESPN as part of a seven-week broadcast and cable campaign, a Myspace spokeswoman said. They will also appear Thursday during Game 4 of the NBA Finals.

The TV buy is part of a broader $20 million campaign that includes radio and digital media as well, a spokesman said. MySpace owner Specific Media, which developed the spot in-house, is also having the celebrities who appear in it distribute the original 90-second cut in their social feeds.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

ESPN is shuttering its 3-D cable channel by the end of the year, yet another sign that 3-D TV is not catching on among consumers.

The cable sports network, which is owned by Walt Disney, said on Wednesday that it is giving up on the channel due to the low adoption of 3-D services in the home.

ESPN introduced the channel in June 2010, airing live 3-D coverage of sporting events like the World Cup and The Masters. It secured distribution through pay-TV companies including Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, Cablevision, Verizon and Charter. Google's Fiber project also included ESPN 3D.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Fox has essentially completed its upfront negotiations for ad time in the upcoming TV season, with the volume of dollars committed down about 10% from last year's talks, according to a person familiar with the network.

Fox secured about $1.8 billion in upfront commitments, compared to as much as $1.99 billion in 2012, according to Ad Age estimates. Fox sold about 80% of its available inventory for the upcoming season, on par with years prior, but had fewer ratings points to sell this year, ending the season with a 22% decline in the key 18-to-49 demographic.

Fox was able to secure increases in the cost of reaching 1,000 viewers of 5% to 7%, down from the 7% to 9% range it was able to secure last year. 

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Time Warner Cable and other pay-TV companies are offering incentives to media companies that agree to withhold content from web-based entertainment services such as those pursued by Intel and Apple, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The incentives can take the form of higher payments, or they can include threats to drop programming, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.

Cable companies are seeking to keep customers by ensuring access to exclusive content while fending off competition from upstart Web providers. Favoring programming that's exclusive may not be a surprising business tactic, but could cross lines if taken too far.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Michael Wiese

Branded content and entertainment should be simple: produce a content property inspired by a brand, and delight an audience with its entertainment value or usefulness. It works for brands like Red Bull and Unilever, just as it works for Netflix or ESPN.   

Continue reading at AdAge.com

The percentage of daily print newspaper readers in the U.S. has fallen nearly 20% since 2001, according to research firm Scarborough. But that drop has not been spread evenly, with print readership remaining strong in some metropolitan areas.

In several cities rimming the Great Lakes and Northeast, the percentage of adults who claim to read a print newspaper daily hovered around 50% in 2012, compared with 35.7% nationwide, Scarborough found. The number is as low as 23% in locales across the South and Southwest. 

HIGHEST READERSHIP

Continue reading at AdAge.com