Allen Zwerdling, the colorful co-founder and co-publisher of trade paper Back Stage–which started as a resource for actors, and diversified to become the leading publication chronicling TV commercial production (eventually spawning SHOOT)–died of natural causes on Jan. 12 at his home in Rosendale. He was 86.
In 1960, Zwerdling and Ira Eaker, who passed away in 2002, created Back Stage. Zwerdling served as editor and Eaker as advertising director. Enduring some growing pains, the paper evolved into being and continues to this day as a pre-eminent source for news and casting info serving the working performer in America,
As an actor in the Players Guild of Manhattan from 1936 to 1941, director of the CCNY Theatre Workshop while attending college, editor of a U.S. Army newspaper, and founder of the American Players of Switzerland, Zwerdling found the perfect fit for his talents in Back Stage.
Then when the TV commercial production industry began to expand in the 1960s, he and Eaker broadened Back Stage‘s coverage into that arena, giving it two prime entertainment market news beats. Back Stage opened a West Coast office in 1975 and eventually expanded its coverage to Chicago, New England, and Florida as TV commercial production began to grow in these areas.
In the early ’80s, with the understanding that Back Stage was now serving two distinctly different creative readerships, Zwerdling and Eaker decided to provide two papers in one, creating a theatre section that was inserted upside down in the center of the paper. In November of 1985, the co-publishers celebrated the paper’s silver anniversary with a black-tie gala in N.Y. attended by 1,400 business leaders and celebrities from all sectors of the entertainment industry. The event was a milestone in Zwerdling and Eaker’s careers.
A year later, in 1986, the publishing team sold Back Stage to Billboard Publications, thus ending a 26-year partnership. Zwerdling retired with his wife Shirley to their farm in upstate N.Y.
Later the commercial production component of Back Stage broke out on its own, establishing its standalone identity as SHOOT and is now published by entrepreneurial DCA Business Media. Roberta Griefer, publisher of SHOOT since September 1990 and DCA co-owner, recalled meeting Zwerdling in late 1990. “He gave me a hug and asked that I take good care of his baby,” said Griefer. “With eyes always pointed towards the future, with a respect for the past, this is something all of us at SHOOT work hard at every day.”
Zwerdling is survived by a daughter Sherry Zwerdling, of Key West, Fla., a daughter Jan Heyes of Topanga Canyon, Calif., a son Gary Zwerdling, also of Rosendale, NY, and a grandson Adam Heyes. Shirley, Allen’s wife of 62 years, passed away just four weeks prior to his death.
Because Allen Zwerdling was an avid tennis player as well as president of the New Paltz Tennis Club, the Zwerdling family suggests that donations for a bench to honor him at the club be sent to Camy Fischer, 173 Route 208, New Paltz, NY 12561.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More