After working at the paper for over a decade and filling in as interim editor on three separate occasions, the veteran Admissions Committee member is named to replace John Yewell. There are two Ben Fultons, says Publisher John Saltas: The one who "has a special rapport with budding writers and the respect of veteran wordsmiths," and the "worry-wort" who "is consumed with the curse of being only nearly perfect."
The Bay Guardian's Camille T. Taiara compiles and digests the top 10 censored or underreported stories from this year's Project Censored! The neocons' plan for global domination tops the list of big stories the mainstream news media downplayed or ignored in 2002. "The neoconservative blueprint for U.S. military domination is hardly a secret. A group called the Project for a New American Century -- a think tank founded by hawks who now hold prominent jobs in the White House -- released a version of it three years ago. The document is shocking in its candor: it asserts that the United States should be moving unilaterally to assert military control around the globe and that all that’s necessary to jump-start the effort is a 'new Pearl Harbor,'” Taiara writes.
Council of the U.S. and the Beer Institute announced they will only buy advertising in media that has an audience that is 70% adult, up from the current 51%. The new figure could mean some TV shows and magazines might have fewer beer ads and could make attracting a teen audience less desirable to media programmers, but both alcohol groups said the ad changes would be very limited.
NAA's Display Federation announced it will develop a brand statement targeting advertisers in the hopes of reinforcing the value of newspapers.
In a 3700-word article about the blogging phenomenon, Matt Welch uses his first 660 words to castigate AAN members, calling them "conformist," politically correct and "politically monochromatic." According to Welch, he attended AAN West in February and learned that alternative newspapers and the people who work for them are all "the same," which led him to question whether they still deserve to be called "alternative."
Diageo said on Monday that it will relaunch Smirnoff vodka and brand extensions such as Smirnoff Twist, Ice and Ice Triple black with new bottle and logo designs and national advertising and marketing programs for which the company will spend in excess of $150 million.
The Internet industry has long given up on the debate of whether the Web is a branding or a direct response medium and settled on the mutual understanding that it can serve both purposes rather successfully. Up until now, however, that success has not been truly quantified, but the 2003 American Interactive Consumer Survey conducted by The Dieringer Research Group says the magic number is 50%.
