PLEASANTVILLE, NY. – That private capital has been unsuccessful in a leveraged buyout of Reader’s Digest Association Inc. should be no surprise. Private capital like Ripplewood Holdings has failed in all manner of media plays. The reality is that during a downturn, a company can’t be expected to be paying borrowed capital. Simple as that. [...]

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Magazine Publishers Need to Encourage Keep-able Magazines As a magazine lover, I want to keep magazines. I hate to throw them away, even when reality hits and I realize that I can’t save them any longer. I cringe when I see libraries de-accession precious bound volumes of magazines, though I know that collectors love them, [...]

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With many newspaper flags are falling these days, there is a great opportunity for folks to pick up the pieces of the brands. We happened upon a great discussion on Metaprinter.com about saving newspapers; one central point of the discussion is that a newspaper brand, however struggling it is, gives credibility to online sites. These [...]

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Daily Goes Weekly, Like London Weekend Television SEATTLE – So, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is up for sale, and if no one buys it, the paper will turn into an Internet-only newspaper, or so says Hearst. Hearst has owned the paper since 1921, and made a lot of money off of it for years, though they [...]

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Here at BrandlandUSA, we love the brand extension. Not only does it provide exposure for old brands, it helps give the aging “legacy” brand a new chance at relevance. Sometimes, the old uses for brands disappear. Witness McCall’s, which disappeared as a magazine when it was renamed Rosie. But McCall’s dress patterns are still around. [...]

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Verizon missed the call when they renamed themselves. While the company is well run, and we like the new Fios, the brand is a bore. Furthermore, we liked all the regional Bell names. There is no reason why Verizon can’t be a corporate name, even a new business name, but just because a merged company [...]

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