Technology

• Yelp , a cross between a social networking site and a city guide, is composed of restaurant, bar, and shopping reviews written by its registered users.  You can check out the profiles of registered users to read what else they like and see if their taste is in line with yours.

• MTV Networks is making its biggest move into the "social networking" area with plans for a television channel devoted to content created by its users.  The channel, MTV Flux, will feature video clips sent in by the audience, let them vote on what programs they will see next, and allow them to chat with each other live on national television. The channel, which will launch September 6 in the UK, will have no traditional schedule — the all user-generated content will be monitored by MTV.

Retail

• Wal-Mart Stores is kicking off a multimillion-dollar campaign focused on its new organic food offerings.  The TV, radio, online, print and in-store ads showcase the first-ever "organics" Wal-Mart logo and the taglines "What will you bring to the table?" and “Introducing Organics at the Wal-Mart price.”  As Wal-Mart continues to try and win over more affluent shoppers, the focus on organic food comes in the one category where it consistently beats rival Target Stores.

• Jellyfish, a new online, comparison shopping site, is hoping to revolutionize web retail by sharing its advertising revenue with its consumers.  Called “e-bay in reverse,” retailers do the bidding as consumers sit back and collect extra savings.  Product listings move higher when retailers pay more in advertising, and Jellyfish then lowers their product price.  The more a retailer wants consumer attention, the more they pay to get to the top of the rankings and the lower the end price goes.

• Lucky will introduce a mobile marketing program titled “Live Buy It” in its September issue, as well as online.  Readers will be able to instantly purchase products via PayPal from 18 different marketers and retailers simply by texting in the product’s code word.  Expect to see other media companies adding similar programs as a value added service for their advertisers, allowing marketers to create a campaign that can be tracked in terms of sales.

Advertising

• CBS will use “On-Egg Messaging” for its new advertising campaign set to begin in September, with the start of the fall TV season.  The CBS logo and slogans promoting the network’s series will appear along with coded expiration dates on eggs sold in grocery stores.  More than 35 million eggs will be marked, using laser technology, with phrases such as "CSI: Crack the Case on CBS" and "The Class, New Grade-A CBS Comedy" as part of a deal between the CBS Marketing Group and EggFusion, an egg-coding company.

Media Tidbits

• Meredith Corporation has named Denise Brodey Editor-in-Chief of Fitness.  She joins Fitness from More, where she had served as Special Projects Editor since May 2006. Prior to joining Meredith, Brodey was Executive Editor of Shape.

• Fox Television Stations has announced the launch of a new, live, national morning show featuring entertainment and general interest programming.  Scheduled to debut in January 2007, the as yet unnamed, hour-long show will air from 9 to 10 a.m. and is designed to extend morning programming on Fox stations.  Originating from New York, the new show will be hosted by Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy, currently of Fox News Channel’s “DaySide.”

• Time, Inc. has just announced that it will cease publication of Teen People —effective with the September 2006 issue — but plans to continue to invest in the brand through TeenPeople.com.  The move is part of an overall effort at Time Inc. to reduce the number of magazines it publishes.

• The market for celebrity gossip is going strong and Life & Style, in an effort to increase its online presence and compete with sites like perezhilton.com and pinkisthenewblog.com, announced plans to launch a blog.