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P.O.V was a smart magazine with more promise than commitment, and yesterday its parent, Freedom Communications, decided to halt its losses and killed the magazine after almost five years. While P.O.V. won critiical respect, it faced increasing competition in the hotly contested men's category, where even such standard bearers as Conde Nast's GQ are feeling the heat from such upstarts as the wildly successful Maxim. Freedom dumped a reported $12 million into the title. Efforts to find a buyer for the title came to nothing but founder Drew Massey is out looking for venture capital. Also closing is Egg, a twice yearly supplement.
Idle rumor: latest Diller desire is Ovation
Ovation, a struggling high-brow arts cable
channel whose investors include The New York Times and Time Warner, has caught the eye of
USA Network chairman Barry Diller. Or so goes the latest in string of rumors
regarding Diller's ever-expanding ambitions. Diller reportedly is ready to pay the
estimated $80 million Ovation's investors are asking for. The four-year-old channel
recently hired high-powered media investment banker Herb Allen to find a strategic partner
or buyer to save the ailing Ovation. Allen, who has strong ties with Diller, has also
contacted various other possible takers, including Cablevisions Rainbow Programming, the
parent company of Bravo Networks, and Discovery Communications. Sources at Discovery say
the company is not interested in the cable network. Yet Rainbow remains a contender.
Diller has been vocal about his desire to control an arts channel to pair with his movie
studio, October Films. But he also let it be known he'd be willing to start his own
arts network. Stay tuned.
Uncle Mel names a web chief for CBS
CBS at last has a web tsar. He's Russ Pillar,
34, former head of Virgin Entertainment Group's music sales and internet operations
in North America. Pillar has been named president and CEO of CBS Internet Group,
a new division, where he will be in charge of managing and expanding CBS's portfolio of
equity stakes in independent internet companies, as well as creating an integrated online
presence for CBS. Pillar will report directly to Fred Reynolds, CBS's chief financial
officer, and work closely with chief executive Mel Karmazin. Especially over the last year
Karmazin has been on a buying spree of web properties, and his portfolio now includes
stakes in CBS MarketWatch, CBS SportsLine, CBS HealthWatch and iWon.com. But the network
has been slow to appoint anyone to run its web properties. Before joining Virgin, Pillar
was involved in the effort to rebuild Prodigy, the early internet service provider that
has been acquired by America Online.