Joe Kissack -- the syndie-sales veteran and former Columbia Tri-Star executive vice president who sold Seinfeld in syndication, not to mention (OK, we will) Just Shoot Me, Mad About You, Walker, Texas Ranger and Ricki Lake, among others -- has become a partner and executive VP, sales and distribution of Marsh Cove Productions in Atlanta.
The company has bought August House Publishers with an eye toward turning its children's stories and folktale collections into multimedia properties, including TV.
The FCC has instructed stations to boost their educational kids TV offerings in the digital age, so there could be a ready market for quality educational TV fare.
August House pitches storytelling as a way "to develop early literacy, address cultural diversity, and reinforce language patterns," and assures teachers who want to make the case for including storytelling in their curricula that there is research to back up those claims.
The literacy element of that pitch would dovetail with the current administration's policy of seeking research-tested literacy education in government-backed kids TV shows.
