GenDigital

CW Entering Music Talent Search

CW, the recently formed union of UPN and The WB has plans for a new music talent contest show for next season. As a little twist to try and put a different spin on the genre of programming, the CW series will be searching for the next great all-female rock group. To help find the next great girl group, the show will feature some 80s retro greats including the Go-Go's and the Bangles. I wonder if the Gen Y target audience even knows who the Go-Go's or Bangles are?

How Free is Free Speech on Campus?

An editorial in USA Today talks about several instances of the free speech and freedom of expression long enjoyed by college students and faculty being "adjusted" on campuses around the country. Most of the examples stem from those controversial cartoons published in the Danish newspaper a couple of months ago and most recently the brouhaha with South Park. To me, the college campus is the epitome of self expression and self discovery. To take away these "liberties" from passionate, energetic and most importantly young students, could have negative outcome for the college campus environment of the future.

Get Ready To Get "Shocked"

In a year where we've seen only a handful of magazine launches targeting Gen Y, here is one that could you take your breath away or at the very least, make you queasy. On May 30, "Shock," published by Hachette Filipacchi, will hit newsstands. The content will range from shockingly bizarre to erotic, however, only the corresponding Shock web site will contain nude pictures. This is a pretty big shift in thought for the same company who just shut down ELLEgirl magazine a couple of weeks ago. As I read about the upcoming launch, what I found most shocking, pun definitely intended, was that Hachette doesn't expect to generate a lot of ad dollars due to the extreme edgy content, so basically, they are relying on newsstand and subscription revenues to drive the business. Unless you are a People magazine or Better Homes and Gardens, I don't think subscription revenues are driving the bus these days. Of course, I could be wrong and this magazine will turn into the Myspace of the print world, but if it was me, I would have put a portion of the money earmarked for Shock and given it to ELLEgirl so they could keep building their business and made Shock a Web only exclusive like Office Pirates from Time, Inc.

Early Student Feedback About Universal's 9/11 Movie

I picked this commentary up from Florida State's student newspaper, the FSView, concerning student perceptions about feelings about Universal's upcoming 9/11 movie. A little bit to my surprise, most students interviewed for the story were interested in seeing the film. I thought some of the quotes were pretty thoughtful and sincere. Hopefully, my friends at Universal will see this.

Pro Video Gaming To Air on USA Network

Yesterday, Major League Gaming, the world's largest organized video gaming league announced a programming deal with USA Network, the sixth-favorite cable network among college students, to air one-hour episodes of the circuit this fall. Although gaming fans have been able to follow the action of MLG via the Internet over the past few years, this will mark the first time the pro gaming league will get the chance to show its stuff in front of regular old television viewers. My favorite league personality is Bonnie Burton, aka "Xena," a 15 year old girl from Pennsylvania and known as one of the best Halo2 players in the world, yes the world.

Filling Up The Tank While Watching Television

The NBC Universal Television Group is partnering with VST Media Network to bring customized local news, weather, sports and entertainment content to gas stations in NBC-owned and operated station markets across the country. A program loop of three minutes will begin as soon as the user lifts the fuel nozzle to begin fueling. Research shows it takes an average of three minutes to fill your tank, unless you live in New Jersey like me, where self-serve is not an option and you rarely can get in and out in three minutes time.

Virgin Mobile Introduces Handset With a Catch

A friend emailed me this press release as well as the follow up story published on cnet. The news isn't so much that Virgin Mobile is introducing a new handset from Kyocera as much as the fact that the handset comes pre-loaded with a strip poker game called "Sexy Poker." Could be a little much for a teen targeted audience. Beyond that one little missive, cnet gives the handset a great review and in the press release Virgin Mobile highlighted all of the features the handset comes packed with including a qwerty keyboard, integrated speakerphone, digital zoom camera, an Internet browser and of course, messaging capabilities. The handset will retail for $149.99.

Burger King and Microsoft Partner For Shoot 'Em Up Game

Burger King's mascot, known as "The King" will soon be integrated within a new video game created by Microsoft that is being referred to as a cross between "Halo" and "Destroy All Humans." The partnership marks the first time a major consumer marketing brand has had a video game built from the ground up around its advertising icon. The game will be created for play on Microsoft's Xbox game system and will be distributed through Burger King restaurants during a five-week promotion in December. The game will sell for only $3.99, which seems like an awfully good deal considering most good "shoot 'em up games" sell for $50 or $60, which may explain why Burger King intends to sell about 7.0 million of them. If this is successful, there will be many more consumer brands knocking on Microsoft's door for similar deals.

Job Market Opportunities For '06 Grads is Robust

In its annual nationwide survey of of employers, college students and recent graduates, number-one career site Monster and its college student-specific site MonsterTRAK sees a strengthening job market for this year's graduating class. Nearly three in four (72%) of employers surveyed plan to hire 2006 graduates either this spring or summer, up from 64% last year, that's a 13% increase. One interesting tid bit of info found in the survey was although the job market looks promising for this year's crop of grads (and only getting stronger for that matter), actual wages are not increasing along with he number of job opportunities. I am sure though, it employers have a hard time with securing all of their planned hires later this year, the only thing they can do is raise wages in order to best position their respective opportunities.