exits
College classifieds site Uloop, the subject of
a labor complaint filed by fired employees, previously had to settle a wrongful termination suit, according to a tipster. A marketer and founding member of the team was fired last fall, and filed suit arguing that it was discriminatory. Unlike the rest of the team, veterans of the dot-bomb who were churchgoing Christians, he was young and Jewish. Uloop settled the case, paying $50,000. As for any hints that company management may like unions even less than Jews, notoriously anti-union newspaper publisher Gannett made
invested an undisclosed amount in December.
Update: Turns out
the marketer in question is "Silicon Valley Publicist" Denis Hiller, who can thank his lucky stars he won't have to spin Uloop's latest possible transgression.
Gannett, Hearst, the
New York Times Co. and Tribune, in the grand tradition of doomed online-newspaper joint ventures, is creating an ad network, QuadrantOne. The new partners said QuardrantOne will reach more than 50 million monthly visitors through more than 120 papers. But not the
New York Times or
USA Today, which already have national sales operations. Yahoo launched a similar newspaper consortium last year, to no visible effect. [
WSJ]
online advertising
Yahoo's
online advertising partnership with newspapers is facing a new threat — from the newspapers themselves. Five of the nation's largest newspaper companies — Gannett, Tribune, Hearst, MediaNews, and
Cox Newspapers — are teaming to create
a one-stop shop for online advertising. A single sales force will be able to sell ads across all major markets. Hearst, MediaNews, and Cox remain members of the Yahoo consortium, but the new partnership is foreboding, especially for Yahoo president
Sue Decker, who helped engineer the deal and keeps holding it up as a totem of Yahoo's new partnership strategy.
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