Mediaboss Marketing

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Alphabird, a vertically integrated audience development company that guarantees targeted, engaged audiences for online video,today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Ventures in Digital Media (ViDM), a leading digital media and advertising technology services company in Australia. Alphabird expects the deal to be immediately accretive to earnings and expand operating margins. The transaction is effective immediately.

Focused on providing cutting-edge digital advertising, data and content optimization technologies from around the world, ViDM will continue to help top-shelf publishers and advertisers gain control of their audience data and advertising inventory, and enable access to innovative advertising technology products under the Alphabird Australia brand.

"ViDM's services, including Australia's only independent data and audience management platform for premium publishers, will now be available to customers everywhere," said Chase Norlin, CEO, Alphabird. "This transaction marks a very important addition to Alphabird's IP and audience development offerings worldwide."

"Alphabird is moving aggressively to offer global brands, publishers and agencies a full range of unique data and metrics-led advertising solutions," said Willie Pang, CEO and Managing Director, ViDM Group. "This new position with Alphabird projects our global reach, along with maintaining and expanding our presence in Australia and our Asia-Pacific customers."

The new entity will be headed up by ViDM Co-Founder and former CEO, Willie Pang who now becomes Managing Director of Alphabird Australia Pty Ltd based in Australia, overseeing a team looking after each individual company in the portfolio.

Josh Edis, Chief Strategy Officer, ViDM, becomes Senior Vice President Global Business Development based at Alphabird in San Francisco, joined by Neil Wilkinson, Group CTO of ViDM, who moves into the role of Senior Vice President, Product and Engineering.

ViDM's subsidiary companies will also operate under the Alphabird Australia brand. They include Amplify, one of Australia's foremost advertising technology integration and marketing services company, and Emerge Digital, a leading audience-driven advertising SaaS provider to premium publishers in the Australian and Asian markets.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. More information on this announcement can be found at http://www.alphabird.com.

About Alphabird

Alphabird is a vertically integrated audience development company that guarantees targeted, engaged audiences for online video on a performance basis. With global offices in San Francisco, Beverly Hills, New York and Sydney, Alphabird was an early pioneer in the distribution of Click-To-Play video content and has delivered tens of millions of engaged viewers for major studios, agencies and Fortune 1000 brands.

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Alphabird, Inc. Acquires Ventures in Digital Media

LONDON, Oct. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Online publishing pioneer YUDU Media today announced the launch of its new YUDU Education, the first digital textbook publishing platform that enables educational publishers to seamlessly digitize, optimize and deliver multimedia textbooks for ubiquitous access on tablet, laptop and desktop computer.

With YUDU Education, publishers can quickly and easily create rich, engaging digital textbooks that students can access on iPad, Android and Windows tablets, or any Mac or Windows PC, inside and outside the classroom. In addition, YUDU Education also allows students and instructors to annotate, bookmark and take clippings of content, and even integrate supplemental materials, all of which are instantly synchronized to the YUDU cloud for access on any device.

"YUDU Education solves the biggest challenge of the Bring-Your-Own-Device era for both publishers and studentscross-platform access," said YUDU CEO Richard Stephenson. "Students may need to read and take notes on a Windows PC in the classroom, but then want to pick up where they left off on their iPad at home. Or, perhaps the school provides iPads for classroom use, but the student has an Android tablet, or maybe a laptop, at home. With most publishing platforms, this is impossible. YUDU makes it possible."

YUDU Puts Publishers in ControlYUDU is the first system that puts the needs of publishers and students first, providing access to content from anywhere on any device and enabling publishers to sell directly to a broader audience.

Amazon, iBooks and other platform-specific systems lock publishers into a singular OS, forcing them to recreate content in order to offer it on multiple devices. Plus, these systems put the platform operator in control of the customer relationship, preventing publishers from accessing valuable consumer data.

In addition to providing ubiquitous access, YUDU Education puts publishers in control of their own content without having to build their own high-end digital publishing platform. And, unlike other digital textbook platforms, YUDU allows publishers to maintain a direct relationship with the customer.

"In Ireland, around 10% of all new middle school students are using a device to read textbooks," Conor O'Sullivan, Education Technology Manager at Folens, said. "While a majority of students are using iPads, there are a number of Android devices and there are also schools running with Windows netbooks. YUDU has been able to provide us with a system, which caters for all three. As a mainstream publisher, it is important that we can provideour educational content on every type of devicefor all students, it would cost us a fortune to build this type of platform ourselves."

Digital Publishing Made Easy, AffordableYUDU's self-service web-based portal makes it easy for publishers to publish rich interactive books in a matter of minutes. First, simply upload an existing textbook in PDF format. Once YUDU digitizes the content, publishers can add animations, videos, hyperlinks and more. Once complete, just click "Publish" and the digital textbook immediately appears in the publishers' YUDU digital store. Edits, revisions and updates can be made at any time and published immediatelyno more waiting for the platform provider to make the changes and published the revised edition.

"YUDU Education makes it easy and affordable for publishers, school districts and students to keep up with the rapid pace of technology and protect their investment with a future-proof solution," Stephenson said. "With YUDU, you don't have to worry about committing to a specific device or operating system that might be gone tomorrow."

Rather than a per-book sales fee that penalizes publishers for being successful, YUDU Education pricing is based upon the number of pages published, making administration simple and maximizing revenue. An annual maintenance fee ensures continuously updated technology to accommodate the latest OS upgrades on every platform.

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YUDU Media Launches YUDU Education: The First OS-Agnostic Digital Textbook Publishing Platform

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is issuing its full support for the Digital Advertising Alliances (DAA) position against machine-driven do-not-track (DNT) browser standards, because they restrict consumer control and freedom of choice. The announcement comes on the heels of a just-released DAA statement opposing the DNT settings automatically imposed on consumers by the Microsoft Internet Explorer version 10 (IE10) browser.

The DAAs statement addresses publishers concerns about what will happen if they do not honor IE10-imposed DNT flags. DAA, the digital advertising industrys self-regulatory body, does not require companies to honor DNT signals fixed by browser manufacturers and set by them in browsers. Specifically, it is not a DAA principle or in any way a requirement under the DAA standards to honor a DNT signal that is automatically set in IE10 or any other browser. The Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) will not sanction or penalize companies that ignore the default settings on IE10 or other browsers and intermediaries. In contrast, the DAA and CBBB will continue to impose disciplinary measures on companies that violate legitimate consumer choices under the AdChoices self-regulation program.

In a report issued last week, researchers from the Harvard Business School determined that the ad-supported internet ecosystem was responsible for 5.1 million jobs and contributed $530 billion to the U.S. economy in 2011 alone.

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies that are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactives share of total marketing spend, and of its members share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit http://www.iab.net.

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IAB Supports Consumer Control Over Internet Ad Experiences, Says Machine-Driven ‘Do-Not-Track’ Systems Limit Users ...

TAMPA A Los Angeles-based private equity investment group has bought the Tampa Tribune from longtime parent Media General for $9.5 million, promising to improve the daily newspaper as it took control Monday morning.

Revolution Capital Group, a 3-year-old firm, is making its first foray into newspapers. The move marks a new chapter in the long-standing newspaper war between the Tribune and its larger rival, the Tampa Bay Times.

The acquisition, meanwhile, ends Media General's 150-plus-year involvement in the newspaper business.

"It's a bittersweet day for Media General to complete the sale of its last remaining newspaper group," Marshall N. Morton, company president and chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement. "The Tampa Tribune was our largest and second oldest newspaper. Many Tribune employees have decades of service.''

Revolution Capital Group works with corporate sellers to buy their smaller, noncore assets that often have not been able to attract buyers, according to the company's website. So far, it has bought businesses in telecommunications, manufacturing and software.

Under the deal, the Tribune, its affiliated newspapers and website, tbo.com, will be operated by the Tampa Media Group, a locally based company created by Revolution Capital.

Revolution did not directly address whether there would be layoffs among the 618 employees of the new Tampa Media Group.

"Today is a big day; it's a celebration. We have new owners," Tribune publisher William Barker said in introducing top Revolution Capital executives to Tribune staffers Monday morning. Video of the announcement quickly surfaced on YouTube.

Revolution founder and managing partner Robert Loring and co-founding partner Cyrus Nikou said they wanted to grow the business and promised to support the staff. "You guys are really the experts and know the business better than anyone else," Nikou said.

Asked by a staffer whether they would add employees, Revolution managing director Aman Bajaj said: "It's not always that hiring more people is the best way to grow a newspaper. We are in the process of analyzing that."

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Tampa Tribune sold to Revolution Capital Group

China Labor Watch is reporting that another Foxconn strike broke out on Friday at the Zhengzhou factory in China. The report says 3,000 to 4,000 Foxconn(2038) are complaining about Apples (AAPL) demanding quality standards for the iPhone 5. China Labor Watch further reports that workers are under immense pressure to deliver iPhone 5s without receiving adequate training on how to improve yield rates.

It was reported that factory management and Apple, despite design defects, raised strict quality demands on workers, including indentations standards of 0.02mm and demands related to scratches on frames and back covers, notes China Labor Watch. With such demands, employees could not even turn out iPhones that met the standard.

iPhone 5 production lines are currently in a state of paralysis for the entire day. A brawl between production line workers and quality control inspectors also resulted in the latter getting beaten up. Factory management is reportedly turning their back on the issue.China Labor Watchs press release follows below.

Large-scale Strike of iPhone 5 Production Lines at Foxconns Zhengzhou Factory

China Labor Watch

October 5, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

(New York) China Labor Watch (CLW) announced that at 1:00PM on October 5 (Beijing time), a strike occurred at Foxconns Zhengzhou factory that, according to workers, involved three to four thousand production workers. In addition to demanding that workers work during the holiday, Foxconn raised overly strict demands on product quality without providing worker training for the corresponding skills. This led to workers turning out products that did not meet standards and ultimately put a tremendous amount of pressure on workers. Additionally, quality control inspectors fell into to conflicts with workers and were beat up multiple times by workers. Factory management turned a deaf ear to complaints about these conflicts and took no corrective measures. The result of both of these circumstances was a widespread work stoppage on the factory floor among workers and inspectors.

The majority of workers who participated in this strike were workers from the OQC (onsite quality control) line. According to workers, multiple iPhone 5 production lines from various factory buildings were in a state of paralysis for the entire day. It was reported that factory management and Apple, despite design defects, raised strict quality demands on workers, including indentations standards of 0.02mm and demands related to scratches on frames and back covers. With such demands, employees could not even turn out iPhones that met the standard. This led to a tremendous amount of pressure on workers. On top of this, they were not permitted to have a vacation during the holiday. This combination of factors led to the strike.

That quality control inspectors would also strike is of no surprise. According to workers, there was a fight between workers and quality control inspectors in area K that led to the damage in inspection room CA, the injury of some people, and the hospitalization of others. After this, another similar incident occurred in area K, once again leading to quality control inspectors getting beat up. Yesterday, inspectors in area L received physical threats. When inspectors reported these issues to factory management, the management simply ignored and turned their back on the issue. For these reasons, all day and night shift inspectors carried out a work stoppage today that paralyzed the production lines.

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4,000 Foxconn workers on strike over iPhone 5 quality control measures, inadequate training