Targeting

HSN has announced that it will dedicate 72 hours of programming to selling products themed around the Julia Roberts movie Eat, Pray, Love. Just as the book is divided into three countries, so will be the programming block: Aug. 6 is Italy, Aug. 7 is India, and Aug. 8 is Bali.

Foursquare and other moso networks' popularity relies on the overinflated sense of self importance many people possess in the age Facebook and Twitter. People want to know where I am, people want to know what I'm doing. In other words, it's a tool for feeding ego, or perhaps a receptacle for the excess.

For the magazine industry, the Internet has been a challenge from the beginning. When Time Inc. launched its doomed Pathfinder collection of online magazine brands back in the mid 1990s the hope was that this World Wide Web thingie could be just another publishing platform.

(Media-Newswire.com) - Espoo, Finland - "Heroes" creator Tim Kring and Nokia today unveiled Conspiracy For Good ( CFG, www.ConspiracyForGood.com ), an inaugural movement that blends online and real-world tasks to effect social change through audience participation. CFG combines Kring's original storytelling ( www.ConspiracyForGood.com/about ) and Nokia's Ovi platform ( www.ovi.com ) to create a dramatic, fictional experience using interactive theatre, mobile and alternate reality gaming ( ARG ), music and physical participation to do good in the world.

Hispanic viewers of interactive television are early adopters and more likely to engage with advertisers than the general population, according to a report released today by interactive advertising innovator Brightline iTV.

A number of newspaper and broadcast TV news Web sites have come together to create Boocoo, a national online listing and auction site with a local focus. It is intended to compete with Craigslist and EBay.

As nearly every person on the planet knows, the World Cup kicks off tomorrow. Given that the world of online video has a tendency to reflect our global society's collective consciousness, it is no surprise that there has already been plenty pre-game excitement across the web's video destinations.

As blogs take their place alongside traditional media, their writers must grapple with how to take advantage of moneymaking opportunities, steer clear of federal regulations — and remain their ornery independent selves. The promise of a blog lies in its unfiltered voice. Yet the lure of profit is no less powerful for the Web-only writer than for the print reporter.

One of the big unanswered questions during the recent media frenzy surrounding the release of Apple's iPad was how much publishers will be able to charge advertisers for access to consumers using the coveted new device.

Coupons and special deals are spreading fast across cell phones as businesses from coffee shops to national retailers like Target and the Gap try to lure customers with incentives delivered to their handsets. But special offers, whether in print, online or mobile, are almost by definition time-limited to help ensure a strong response.