Mediaboss Marketing

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwire -02/14/12)- nFluence Media, a Seattle and London based technology startup, today announced the closing of its first external funding round as well as the launch of a range of consumer and white-labeled applications that help consumers create anonymous profiles of themselves to be able to control their digital presence and attract only the deals, ads, messages and media content that they are interested in at that moment.

nFluence's technology is built on the philosophy that consumers should be able to retake control of their digital presence. To accomplish this, nFluence steers clear of the collection of any personal data in favor of an anonymous self-profiling system that protects the consumer from intrusive or unwanted marketing.

"As the four tech giants, Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon fight over who owns the customer, nFluence is built around a simple idea -- the customer owns the customer!" says Brian Roundtree, CTO and founder of nFluence. "Our business partners are blown away when we ask them not to tell us the names, zip codes, phone numbers and email addresses of their clients. We help them build wider, deeper relationships without any personal data. It's good for them because it's what consumers want."

The first showcase of nFluence's technology will be the iPhone app 'dealBoard,' launching later this February. Using nFluence's proprietary and fun "brand sorter," dealBoard users will receive a custom, aggregated selection of daily deals that appeal to their tastes and interests. dealBoard is a free app that aggregates from nearly all daily deal sources to provide a personalized selection to its users, without sending any emails or collecting any personal data.

"People don't like most email and mobile marketing and rightfully so, they are inundated with unwanted, mistargeted or stalker-like ads, offers and messages," said Henry Lawson, CEO, nFluence Media. "With our technology, we're able to return control of a consumer's profile to the person it belongs to, the consumer, not some technology black box. The critical difference in our offering is that we allow the consumer to remain anonymous as they get what they want. The idea that digital marketing requires data exhaust sniffing is wrong. Consumers want control."

Chairman Tom Huseby added: "We have been working in stealth mode for two years on the tide of change around consumer privacy. As we began to show what we are doing to our business partners it became obvious now was the time to break cover and enable consumers to own their own data rather than allow a black box to exploit their clickstream. The team Brian and Henry have assembled have made a fantastic start in changing the way consumers will receive marketing."

The Series A investment in nFluence Media was led by the Alliance of Angels with investments from Voyager Capital and two other VCs as well as the AoA Seed Fund. nFluence Media's first application, dealBoard, will launch on the iTunes App Store later this month.

Dan Rosen, Chairman of the Alliance of Angels (AoA), added: "The AoA is delighted that nFluence is the latest company in our portfolio. They are a phenomenal team. After a great experience with Brian and Tom at SNAPin, it was clear that they would create a great next venture. Adding Henry's unique media and advertising systems background, nFluence has the opportunity to create a new market in the digital marketing space. The nFluence team and plan generated huge excitement at the AoA which responded with a large number of Angels investing quickly."

For more information visit: http://www.nfluence.com

About nFluence Media
Headquartered in both Seattle, Washington and London, England, nFluence Media is a technology startup that allows consumers to create anonymous self-profiles that allow for more relevant targeting of deals, offers, ads and messages. Founded by Henry Lawson, CEO and Brian Roundtree, CTO in 2010, nFluence Media puts power back into consumers' hands when it comes to controlling their digital presence. nFluence Media is venture-backed and will soon launch their first mobile app, dealBoard. Henry Lawson previously spent 20 years running marketing technology companies including Interep and Donovan Data Systems. Brian Roundtree is a successful startup entrepreneur, having previously founded SNAPin Software, which was sold to Nuance Communications for $224m in 2008.

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nFluence Media Closes $3M Series A Funding Round, Reveals First Product -- dealBoard App

In light of Egypt’s upcoming November parliamentary elections, Egyptian officials have imposed new media restrictions that will effectively put all live broadcasts, including independent television talk shows and news bulletins, under the control of state television. Additionally, state regulators set new rules for companies that send out text message news alerts to mobile phones. Activists say the restrictions will stifle efforts to mobilize voters for November’s parliamentary elections… particularly the efforts of Egyptian youth who have become accustomed to using mobile new media technology (SMS, Facebook, Twitter, etc).

Egyptian Youth Are The Winds of Change

The  resurgent political role of youth directly intertwines with each Egyptian election cycle.  In 2006, Egyptian youth held demonstrations that accompanied judges’ protests. Judges, who had exposed instances of election fraud during the 2005 parliamentary elections, were referred to a disciplinary committee by the High Council of the Judiciary. In response, the Judges Club of Egypt held a sit-in, and various parties and movements staged demonstrations in solidarity with the judges’ sit-in. Youth from movements such as Kifaya and the Muslim Brotherhood were highly visible during these protests. The regime reacted strongly to such activism. Hundreds of activists from the Brotherhood and from Kifaya were arrested and detained for several months.

Another manifestation of youth activism during that period was the emergence of a small but outspoken bloggers movement in Egypt. According to a recent report issued by the Egyptian Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center, by April 2008 there were approximately 160,000 blogs in Egypt. And while only 20% of these blogs were political in nature, they succeeded nonetheless in causing a stir and in attracting popular and official attention.

What’s The Big Deal, You Ask?

Egypt has a large young population that is suffering from various forms of exclusion and a decaying political system that is increasingly unable to meet the demands of this population.  El-Gweini (adviser to Egypt’s Telecommunications Minister) said the recent media restriction decision was not supposed to curb political activity, but rather to protect people from “random” text messages about sensitive issues.  ”We are not making life difficult. We are making life organised, that is all.”

However, most instances of youth activism occurred largely outside pre-existing political structures and both the ruling party and opposition parties and movements failed to appeal to youth who preferred to join some of the newer parties and movements. The regime, with the tacit support of some of the older parties and movements, has successfully eliminated these newer groups and has thus left youth with no one to lead them or represent them. Kifaya is now largely defunct and Ayman Nour the leader of Al Ghad party is serving a five year prison sentence.

The Future: Unnecessary Radicalization

The continued exclusion of Egyptian youth, coupled with the insistence of the regime to bloc all avenues of youth participation, threatens to radicalize youth activism. Thus far, youth activism has been moderate and reformist in tone and has relied exclusively on non-violent tactics. However, continued exclusion might lead to the emergence of more radical and militant groups among youth. The challenge during the coming period for both the ruling party, and for opposition parties and movements is to make room for the emergence of new groups that are better able to represent youth and to articulate their needs. Absent such a development, youth in Egypt, as in much of the Arab world, will remain a ticking time bomb.

[Some information in this story was provided by Al-Masry Al-Youm, Al-Jazeera, AP, ArabReform.net, and Chosun Ilbo.]

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Egypt Seeks Full Control of Media Before Elections, Youth Won't Have It

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 13, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Empire Post Media Inc. (OTCQB:EMPM.PK - News) is pleased to announce that its common stock has been upgraded to the OTCQB tier of the over-the-counter market. OTCQB was created in 2010 to help investors identify small and emerging companies that are current in their regulatory reporting obligations and to facilitate electronic trading through a broad spectrum of broker-dealers.

"We believe that this is a significant improvement for our company and represents where we are in our growth cycle," Empire CEO Peter Dunn stated. "We expect to announce several new projects and relationships in the coming weeks," he added.

Further information about Empire can be obtained from the company's website, http://www.empirepostmedia.com. Information about the company's common stock can also be found at http://www.otcmarkets.com.

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Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts.

The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "forecast," "project," "plan," "potential," "will," "may," "should," "expect," "pending" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our management's examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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Empire Post Media Now Trading on the OTCQB Tier of the Over-the-Counter Market

The Vatican's timing was ironic. While Roman Catholic bishops in the U.S. were trying to revive their moral and political clout last week by battling President Obama over contraception coverage and religious liberty, a papally endorsed symposium was underway in Rome on how the Church has to change if it wants to prevent sexual abuse crises, the very tragedy that has shriveled the stature of Catholic prelates worldwide over the past decade, especially in the U.S. One monsignor at the Vatican gathering even suggested the hierarchy had been guilty of "omertà," the Mafia code of silence, by protecting abusive priests.

The Roman forum was a reminder -- and the birth control clash is turning out to be one as well -- of just how much influence the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has lost in the 10 years since the abuse crisis erupted in America. It hopes that its protest of a new federal rule requiring religiously affiliated institutions like Catholic hospitals and universities to provide no-cost contraception in their health insurance coverage, even if church doctrine forbids birth control, will help restore the bishops' relevance. They did win a partial victory last Friday when Obama, acknowledging the uproar, said those institutions would no longer have to pay for the contraception coverage themselves. But the President did not fully genuflect: The compromise will still oblige religious-based employers to offer the coverage, while their insurance providers foot the bill. (MORE: Mired in the Sticky Politics of Health and Faith, Obama Shifts on Contraception)

Although major Catholic groups like Catholic Charities and Catholic Health Services accepted that revision, the bishops are holding out for more. But their crusade to be exempted from the mandate is likely to fall short of its grail. If so, it's because Obama read the Catholic flock better than its shepherds did.

Granted, the bishops, led by New York Archbishop and Cardinal-elect Timothy Dolan, did get the White House to acknowledge how high-handedly and ham-handedly it had managed the contraception debate -- confirming along the way the public's wariness of the so-called liberal elite -- and convinced it to craft a deal that should have been policy in the first place. Yet in his refusal to cave completely to the religious liberty campaign, Obama has illustrated the reality that the bishops no longer speak for most U.S. Catholics -- the nation's largest religious denomination and a critical swing-voter group -- on a host of moral issues, according to polls.

Not on abortion or the death penalty (a majority of Catholics believe those should remain legal); on divorce or homosexuality (most say those are acceptable); on women being ordained as priests and priests getting married (ditto); or on masturbation and pre-marital sex (ditto again, Your Excellencies). (MORE: Conflict Over Obama's Contraception Rule Intensifies)

And especially not on contraception. Ever since Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the Church's senseless ban on birth control in 1968, few doctrines have been as vilified, ridiculed and outright ignored by Catholics – evidenced by a recent study showing that 98% of American Catholic women have used some form of contraception. It's hard to believe, as the bishops would have it, that those women simply succumbed to society's pressure to do the secular thing. They've decided, in keeping with their faith's precept of exercising personal conscience, that family planning is the moral and societally responsible thing to do -- for example, preventing unwanted pregnancies and therefore abortions. And it explains why a recent Public Religion Research Institute poll found most Catholics support the contraception coverage mandate even for Catholic-affiliated organizations. Presumably most endorse Friday's compromise.

Far more Evangelical Protestants, according to the PRRI survey, back the bishops than Catholics do. But that hardly makes the bishops, when it comes to the more independent Catholic vote, the same force to be reckoned with that they were in the 20th century. That is, before 2002 and the horror stories of how prelates like Cardinal Bernard Law, then Boston's archbishop, had serially shielded alleged pedophile priests. It's true that some bishops, like Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl, confronted rather than coddled accused priests. But when it became clear that so many of the men in miters cared more about safeguarding the clerical corporation than about protecting kids, episcopal "authority" vanished like so much incense smoke -- and Catholics increasingly abandoned the 2,000-year-old notion that their church and their religion are the same thing. (MORE: Obama vs. the Church)

That's essentially what Catholics like me are asking for, especially from my colleagues in the media, during episodes like the contraception and religious liberty fracas: Stop equating what the bishops say with what we think, because we're not the obedient, monolithic bloc that newspapers and cable news networks so tiresomely insist is in "jeopardy" for this or that party whenever they smell church-state friction. When a hardline U.S. bishop calls for withholding communion from a Catholic politician who supports legalized abortion, stop assuming all Catholics have the prelate's back rather than the pol's. When Catholic politicians draft legislation like the religious liberty bills popping up on Capitol Hill right now, stop accepting their assertion that the birth-control ban is "a major tenet" of Catholic faith, as Florida Senator Marco Rubio called it this month. For the vast majority of Catholics, it isn't.

And for that matter, stop forgetting that in the 2008 election, 54% of Catholic voters ignored their bishops and backed a pro-choice presidential candidate like Obama. I certainly don't point that out as some kind of endorsement of Obama in 2012. I'm simply noting that pundits and politicians need smarter criteria for gauging the Catholic vote -- just as advisers in Obama's White House shouldn't have been so clueless about religious issues when they first decreed the contraception mandate. If the tragedy of the 2002 abuse crisis reminds us of anything, it's that religion does matter in politics. Just ask the church leaders who are still paying a political price for their religious code of silence.

MORE: Obama Administration's Contraception Ruling Fits with Re-Election Needs

MORE: Is the Obama Administration 'At War' with Catholics?

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Birth Control Debate: Why Catholic Bishops Have Lost Their Grip on U.S. Politics -- and Their Flock

The Obama administration called it an “accommodation,” but the media had a slew of other ways to describe President Barack Obama’s change on Friday to a rule requiring faith-affiliated employers to provide free contraception. Here’s a look at 14 different ways the media characterized the announcement:

1. “Obama backtracks on contraception mandate” - Washington Times

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2. “Obama shifts course on birth control rule to calm Catholic leaders’ outrage” - Washington Post

3. “Obama retreats on contraception” - Wall Street Journal

4. “Obama announces contraception compromise” - CNN.com

5. “Obama amends contraception rule amid backlash” - New York Post

6. “Obama blinks on contraception rule” - ABC News

7. “Obama, seeking to quell birth control furor, shifts cost to insurers” - Christian Science Monitor

8. “Obama adjusts a rule covering contraception” - New York Times

9. “Obama tweaks birth control rule” - USA Today

10. “Obama bends on birth control mandate” - Boston Globe

11. “Obama: Contraception rule change a ‘solution that works for everyone’” - Real Clear Politics

12. “White House announces ‘accommodation’ on birth-control issue” - The Atlantic

13. “W.H. caves: Obama to announce ‘accommodation’ on contraception rule - Drudge

14. “Obama tries to quell birth-control furor” - POLITICO

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Media: 14 ways to say 'accommodation'