Aug 18, 2009 (Broadband Stimulus Battle; More FCC Workshops)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY AUGUST 18, 2009
For a list of topics covered in Headlines (an individual RSS feeds for each of them) see http://www.benton.org/topics
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Broadband Stimulus Battle: The Backdoor Clause and Competing with Incumbents
FCC's Broadband Agenda This Week Begins with International Experience
Why Aren't We Talking More About Price Per Mbps?
Level 3 eyeing stimulus funding
Facebook Faces Privacy Lawsuit
HEALTH & MEDIA
PR Pros: Obama Has Lost Control of the Health-Care Message
HHS Takes On Health Records
Nine Lessons Learned From E-Medical Record Veterans
Technology helps doctors, patients communicate
FTC Issues Health IT Breach Rule
Web offering more gauges about happiness
WIRELESS/TELECOM
So What's Up With That FCC Investigating Apple and AT&T Blocking Google Voice — Oh Wait, They Aren't
Telecom operators hurt selling iPhones
As more people ditch landline phones for mobiles, America's regulators need to respond
Cellphones problematic for 911
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
US tests censorship circumvention tool; Chinese shrug
Issa wants answers from White House on e-mails
RADIO/TELEVISION
Is radio suppressing pro-Performance Rights Act artists?
Sen Grassley Seeks Fairness Doctrine Clarification
Television -- As We Know It -- Is Finished
Television's killer app: New HD TVs equipped with Internet connection
Stations Should Join Cable In 2-Way Play
FCC Continues Working On DTV-Related Reception Issues
In Obama Era, Fox News Finds Its Stride
JOURNALISM
FTC Changes Date for Journalism Workshop
Anger and Rancor Fuel Cable's Health Care Coverage
Can Anyone Tap the $100 Billion Potential of Hyperlocal News?
MEDIA OWNERSHIP
Zell may give up claim to buy Tribune stake
Newsday Rejects Ad Criticizing Cablevision
Is Comcast poised to do another Disney?
MORE ONLINE
Funding advice for online learning
Content-driven websites gain more traffic than etailers
BetOnSports founder pleads guilty in US court
INTERNET/BROADBAND
BROADBAND STIMULUS BATTLE: THE BACKDOOR CLAUSE AND COMPETING WITH INCUMBENTS
[SOURCE: 4GWirelessEvolution, AUTHOR: Craig Settles]
[Commentary] Broadband stimulus funding rules allow existing service providers 30 days to review and challenge applications, saying they already provide adequate service in the areas an applicant's network would cover. Incumbents don't have to provide data down to the address level, they can pawn off smoke-and-mirror maps with relatively useless data. Incumbents only have to "reveal" advertised speeds. They can hide other data behind non-disclosure agreements. All this plays in their favor. The net of it all: incumbents could challenge the hard work applicants have done and what the applicants know to be a lack of meaningful broadband access and win. At this moment, there are no means in writing for applicants to defend their proposals. The access to adequate broadband applicants aim to offer can be torpedoed by telcos gaming the system. What are you going to do to protect your turf? What can we collectively do to fight against the rule?
http://benton.org/node/27196
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FCC'S BROADBAND AGENDA BEGINS WITH INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
The Federal Communications Commission is gearing up for another full week of National Broadband Plan workshops. On Tuesday the discussion begins with an overview of the international experience with broadband, highlighting select national broadband strategies, with a particular focus on the deployment of broadband infrastructure, increase in adoption, and successful regulatory approaches. The workshop will discuss whether and in which areas the United States is behind relative to other countries; and of these, which areas the United States is on a path to catch up as well as which areas the United States is likely to stay behind in the absence of a policy intervention. On Monday the FCC released a list of participants including Cisco's Robert Pepper; Robert Atkinson of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation; and Tim Kelly, the Lead ICT Policy Specialist at the World Bank. Tuesday's second workshop will focus on opportunities for disadvantaged businesses. The workshop will explore whether small and disadvantaged businesses (SDBs) are poised to take advantage of broadband technology and its antecedent benefits to help these businesses grow and reach new markets. It will explore whether communities where such small businesses reside are equipped with broadband, understand the value broadband brings to the business equation, and what, if any, role government, educational institutions and the private sector should undertake to assist SDBs to incorporate and harness the power of broadband. This workshop will divided into three panels covering: 1) Institutional and Governmental Views, 2) A View from Small and Disadvantage Business Broadband Entrepreneurs, and 3) A View from Traditional Old-Line Businesses in the Age of Broadband. Thomas A. Reed, Director of the FCC's Office of Communications Business Opportunities will guide the discussion. Wednesday will see a long discussion on broadband adoption and use. This week's agenda ends with discussions on broadband potential and impact on people with disabilities and education on Thursday. The workshops are open to the public -- attend live or register to watch online.
http://benton.org/node/27197
For more on the National broadband Plan workshops
http://www.benton.org/node/26834
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WHY AREN'T WE TALKING MORE ABOUT PRICE PER MBPS?
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] Bridging the gap between the hot topics of broadband availability and adoption is that of affordability. Advocates across the spectrum of opinions point to the need to not just have broadband that's available but also that's affordable, and that a key factor to driving adoption is cost. But unfortunately, most of the conversations surrounding affordability only deal with the overall cost of service, which skews this discussion in a couple of ways. It is impossible to identify consumer motivations about what's affordable by only looking at price. We also need to be taking into account what they're getting for what they're paying as consumers are often driven as much by value, perceived or actual, as the overall dollar amount.
http://benton.org/node/27195
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LEVEL 3 EYEING STIMULUS FUNDING
[SOURCE: TelephonyOnline, AUTHOR: Carol Wilson]
Level 3 will apply for broadband stimulus funding in the first round. Edward Morche, senior vice president of the Federal Markets Group for Level 3 Communications, said last week that his company would partner with cable companies, LECs, wireless providers or state and local governments in seeking to offer broadband access in unserved and underserved areas, building off its national network. From Level 3's position, Morche said, it would make more sense for stimulus funding to go to create a facilities-based competitor to existing service providers, not only to provide more choices for end users but also to create more route diversity for network survivability.
http://benton.org/node/27194
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FACEBOOK FACES PRIVACY LAWSUIT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Jessica Vascellaro]
Five Facebook Inc. users Monday sued the social-networking site in California's Orange County Superior Court, alleging that the social networking site violates several state laws aimed at protecting consumers' privacy. The complaint accuses Facebook, of Palo Alto, of failing to compensate its users for harvesting their personal data and for violating laws that protect consumers from having information they upload to the site shared with third parties, such as advertisers. "Plaintiffs and the general public desire and expect a level of privacy, which Facebook has failed to satisfy under its current policies, procedures, practices, and technology," the complaint states. The plaintiffs, which include a photographer, an actress, and some middle school and college students, are demanding damages and attorney's fees and requesting a jury trial. In a statement, Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said the company sees "no merit to this suit and we plan to fight it."
http://benton.org/node/27205
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HEALTH & MEDIA
PR PROS: OBAMA HAS LOST CONTROL OF THE HEALTH-CARE MESSAGE
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Michael Bush]
For a president and an administration that seemed to play the public relations (PR) and communications game better than almost any that preceded them, President Barack Obama and his staff appear to have lost control of the messaging in the health-care reform debate, the first big policy test of his administration. And according to a number of communications professionals, the irony in all of this is that the president's opponents have managed to define the issue and take control of the conversation with tools -- such as grassroots marketing and e-mail communications -- that he used to near perfection during the election. Lesson learned for the Republicans.
http://benton.org/node/27193
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HHS TAKES ON HEALTH RECORDS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Robert O'Harrow Jr]
The Department of Health and Human Services is almost certain to take on responsibility for creating the criteria used to decide what health records technologies qualify for billions of dollars in reimbursements to medical offices under a new stimulus program, officials said Friday. The decision represents a significant restriction of the role played by a private certification group, begun several years ago by the technology industry, which until recently had served as the government's gatekeeper for endorsing systems designed to improve the sharing of medical records. The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, or CCHIT, came under sharp criticism in May after a Washington Post story showed that it has close ties to a trade group whose members stand to receive billions as a result of the stimulus legislation. The trade group, called the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, was a key force behind the Obama administration's decision to include $36.5 billion in the stimulus package for development of electronic health records networks.
http://benton.org/node/27192
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NINE LESSONS LEARNING FROM E-MEDICAL RECORD VETERANS
[SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: Marianne Kolbasuk McGee]
Rolling out electronic medical record systems is more than a complicated information technology (IT) deployment, with all the challenges of any major business process reengineering effort. It's also a public policy issue, with the federal government preparing to spend more than $20 billion in stimulus funds to reimburse providers for EMR deployments. But deploying these systems is neither cheap nor easy, and plenty of problems could keep the U.S. from getting its $20 billion worth. Here are nine lessons learned the hard way during real-world implementations of EMRs. 1) Be ready for sticker shock. 2) Get doctors and nurses on board. 3) Get expert help. 4) Bend EMR to your needs. 5) Start small. 6) Doctors need IT training. 7) Expect productivity to dip before rebounding. 8) Think about future needs, not just today's. 9) Manage expectations.
http://benton.org/node/27191
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TECHNOLOGY HELPS DOCTORS, PATIENTS COMMUNICATE
[SOURCE: Baltimore Sun, AUTHOR: Tammy Worth]
Computerized record-keeping and communication has the potential to change hospital care and procedures dramatically. Private-practice physicians who use comprehensive technology systems reported seeing positive effects on delivery of care and communication with other providers and patients, according to a New England Journal of Medicine survey published last summer. Here's a primer on the issues including a look at costs, barriers, and a look at the future.
http://benton.org/node/27190
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FTC ISSUES HEALTH IT BREACH RULE
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
On Monday the Federal Trade Commission issued a final rule requiring certain Web-based businesses to notify consumers when the security of their electronic health information is breached. Congress directed the consumer protection agency to issue the rule as part of the economic stimulus package and it applies to both vendors of personal health records - which provide online repositories that people can use to keep track of their health information - and entities that offer third-party applications for personal health records. Such applications include devices such as blood pressure cuffs or pedometers whose readings consumers can upload into their personal health records.
http://benton.org/node/27202
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WEB OFFERING MORE GAUGES ABOUT HAPPINESS
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera]
On a happiness scale of 1 to 10, the world scored a 6.16 Monday, according to Emotionr, a Web site that invites users to "store and keep track of your feelings" and "discover what makes people happy." Meanwhile, TweetFeel, which analyzes Twitter posts based on emoticons, words and phrases, showed that on the same day, 101 members used positive language when writing about President Obama, compared with 71 negative comments. With such intangibles as the "nation's mood" increasingly being included among economic indicators, online tools created with the simple purpose of recording Web surfers' feelings are becoming repositories for valuable information of interest to policymakers and marketers alike. Already, services like Google Insights for Search offer marketers the ability to sift through the search titan's vast data to learn how consumers talk about their products, competitors and related searches.
http://benton.org/node/27198
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WIRELESS/TELECOM
SO WHAT'S UP WITH FCC APPLE/GOOGLE/AT&T INVESTIGATION?
[SOURCE: Tales from the Sausage Factory, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission isn't really investigating the spat between Google, Apple and AT&T -- at least not officially. The FCC invited three companies involved in a very high-level fight on an issue pending before the FCC in two proceedings to provide them with useful information on how the market actually works. The fact is that the FCC is very carefully not exercising authority over anyone. The companies don't even need to respond. However, if they fail to respond, they invite the FCC to assume the worst. Because allowing industry folks to foreclose needed agency action by simply refusing to provide necessary information is a crappy outcome we've lived with for the last 8 years. Far smarter to invite industry folks to respond to questions, but decide that at some point you need to move with the information you have. Heck, if the FCC pulls that trick only once, I bet we'll see lots more folks with relevant information willing to come forward.
http://benton.org/node/27189
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TELECOM OPERATORS HURT SELLING IPHONES
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Tarmo Virki]
Heavy subsidies shelled out by telecom operators around the world to lure consumers to buy an Apple iPhone have done nothing to increase profits, and have even dented them in some cases, a research report showed on Monday. Operators have heavily subsidized iPhones, hoping to reap benefits later, but as Apple moves away from exclusive deals operators are seeing their window of opportunity close. Other handset makers are starting to catch Apple, whose latest model is very similar to original 2007 iPhone, and noted several small operators have started to successfully court iPhone customers of other operators.
http://benton.org/node/27188
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AS MORE PEOPLE DITCH LANDLINE FOR MOBILES, AMERICA'S REGULATORS NEED TO RESPOND
[SOURCE: Economist, AUTHOR: ]
Copper landlines are now an obsolete technology. In these difficult times ever more Americans are heeding this advice and dropping their telephone landlines in favor of mobile phones. Despite some of the flakiest mobile-network coverage in the developed world, one in four households has now gone mobile-only. At current rates the last landline in America will be disconnected sometime in 2025. Rather than trying to keep a 19th-century technology alive, America's telecoms rules must be updated to foster the roll-out of this new, 21st-century infrastructure. Alas, attempts to reform the notoriously bureaucratic Universal Service Fund, the main source of subsidies to make landlines affordable, have gone nowhere. Everyone agrees on the importance of expanding access to broadband—until it is time to hammer out the specific details. Now Barack Obama wants a national strategy. He would do well to concentrate on two things his country needs in the future, not the past: better and more reliable wireless coverage; and more broadband connections, through fibre-optic cables and high-speed wireless links (for both voice and data).
http://benton.org/node/27187
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CELLPHONES PROBLEMATIC FOR 911
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Becky Vevea]
For the millions of Americans giving up their land lines in favor of cellphones, dialing 911 may no longer mean a quick response. It can lead to misrouted calls, delayed information about the location of the caller and, most important, a slower emergency response. "Lots of people are dying each year," says David Aylward, director of Comcare Emergency Response Alliance, a non-profit advocacy group. "We're sending in responders where they don't know information about the person they are responding to. We're sending them in looking for someone when they should know where they are exactly." The nation's 911 emergency response system, built in 1967, was based on the expectation that calls for help would come from land-line telephones, says Paul Linnee, a consultant for emergency communications. Now, with more people using cellphones exclusively, calls that bounce from tower to tower pose significant challenges. Cellphone users "almost assume that they are going to be located -- and that's not a fair assumption," says Brian Fontes, CEO of the National Emergency Number Association (NENA), which focuses on 911 communications. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 20.2% of U.S. households had only wireless phones in 2008, up almost 3 percentage points from 2007. Today, the Federal Communications Commission estimates a third of 911 calls are from cellphones.
http://benton.org/node/27204
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
US TESTS CENSORSHIP CIRCUMVENTION TOOL; CHINESE SHRUG
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Jacqui Cheng]
Citizens living in China, Vietnam, Iran, and other countries may soon have another option for bypassing Internet filters, courtesy of a US-based agency. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) announced on Friday that it was working on a new system that would use e-mail to carry encrypted data to and from the recipient, including information that would otherwise be blocked. The system, called "feed over e-mail" (FOE), is not yet ready for primetime, but BBG IT head Ken Berman said that it will be tested in China and Iran when it goes into beta. "China is the benchmark, the gold standard, of Internet censorship," Berman told the AFP. "We try things. The idea is to extend freedom of the Internet, freedom of the press, freedom of inquiry to those that want to know more." Because the BBG would like to avoid tipping off the two governments before the software even gets to be tested, there are few details on how FOE currently works. It does, however, appear to be taking a different approach to filter circumvention by using e-mail instead of the traditional Web proxies used by some of the more prominent systems. Berman said that FOE uses encryption that comes with most e-mail systems, including Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and even Hotmail, to transmit news. One individual who helped develop FOE, Sho Ho, told Reuters that it could easily be tweaked to work with mobile phones, as well.
http://benton.org/node/27185
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ISSA WANTS ANSWERS FROM WHITE HOUSE ON E-MAILS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Eric Zimmermann]
Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wants more answers from the White House about its e-mail policies. In a letter to White House counsel Greg Craig, Rep Issa on Monday raised questions about the White House's request for supporters to forward "fishy claims" about healthcare. He says such a request could have a "chilling" effect on free speech and asked the president to ensure that the e-mails will be stored properly but not used for political purposes. "To help ease these concerns, please tell us what actions take place or have been discussed in regard to e-mails deemed 'fishy' and what safeguards the White House has put in place to insure [sic] no retributive steps are taken against those who express dissent," Rep Issa wrote.
http://benton.org/node/27182
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RADIO/TELEVISION
IS RADIO SUPPRESSING PRO-PERFORMANCE RIGHT ACT ARTISTS?
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
There's a new battle developing in the bitter war over the Performance Rights Act—proposed legislation that would require terrestrial radio stations to pay royalties to the artists whose songs they broadcast. The Federal Communications Commission has agreed to hear comments on reports that radio station owners are "targeting and threatening artists who have spoken out in favor of the PRA," with some going so far as refusing to play their music. The FCC is responding to a Petition for Declaratory Relief submitted by the MusicFIRST coalition, a group backed by the Recording Industry Association of America, SoundExchange, and various musicians' groups. In addition to accusing radio stations of "engaging in a pattern of threats and intimidation against artists to chill their speech," MusicFIRST says they are refusing to run the coalition's ads. All this is part of a coordinated campaign "designed to spread malicious and untruthful information—all in an effort to avoid royalty payment to artists," the group warns.
http://benton.org/node/27186
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SEN GRASSLEY SEEKS FAIRNESS DOCTRINE CLARIFICATION
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Sen Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has written Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski a letter, asking Chairman Genachowski to reaffirm his opposition to re-imposition of the Fairness Doctrine. Chairman Genachowski has been clear during and after his confirmation process that he has no intention of resuscitating the long dead policy, by Sen Grassley is concerned because the chairman recently appointed Mark Lloyd to be the FCC's chief diversity officer. As a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, Lloyd co-authored a June 2007 paper, "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio," which suggests ways to balance conservative talk radio, including station ownership caps, more licensing oversight and allowing stations who do not want to meet public interest benchmarks to pay a fee to support public broadcasters.
http://benton.org/node/27184
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TELEVISION -- AS WE KNOW IT -- IS FINISHED
[SOURCE: TheWrap, AUTHOR: Josef Adalian]
Network TV may be a cyclical business -- but for bruised and battered broadcasters battling the worst economy in a generation, there's little evidence to suggest a bounce back is in the cards anytime soon. If anything, things could get a lot worse before they get better. Some observers are even beginning to question whether there will ever be a turnaround, predicting that the business model which has sustained broadcasters for close to 60 years has begun an irreversible decline. The latest blow: A disastrous upfront advertising market that saw revenues plunge an estimated 15 percent from last year, dropping from $9.2 billion in 2008 to around $7.8 billion, according to estimates by several publications.
http://benton.org/node/27181
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TELEVISION'S KILLER APP: NEW HDTVS EQUIPPED WITH INTERNET CONNECTION
[SOURCE: Variety, AUTHOR: Chris Morris]
Cable and broadcast networks are already facing eroding viewership, partly due to audiences surfing the web on their laptops and netbooks. Now the World Wide Web is extending its tendrils into the networks' home turf: The TV screen itself. A new wave of HD TVs -- some already in stores -- let the viewer connect the Internet directly to the TV set. Beyond serving as normal TVs, these sets are built to stream a host of Internet sites, including YouTube and Picasa, as well as video-on-demand services from Netflix, Blockbuster and Amazon. So new is this feature that some electronics stores aren't even aware of it yet. Yet Internet-enabled HDTVs are expected to quickly add an Internet wave for couch-based channel surfers. Market researcher the Yankee Group predicts 50 million people will have such sets by 2013. Another 30 million, it says, will have Web-connected Blu Ray players -- and 11 million will have purchased media adaptors, giving nearly 100 million people Web video on their TVs without hooking up a PC.
http://benton.org/node/27180
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STATIONS SHOULD JOIN CABLE IN 2-WAY PLAY
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Michael Kokernak]
[Commentary] The cable guys have quietly been getting ready to introduce interactive technologies. Interactive TV is long overdue and non-believers are once again believers. And the good news is that TV stations will be able to participate in the new two-way services (and revenue streams), albeit in partnership with cable. The key is the interactive TV standard developed under the aegis of Cable Labs. EBIF, as it is called, permits multiple programmers to offer interactive features to consumers through EBIF-enabled, set-top boxes. Canoe Ventures and Verizon's Developers Program, two platforms leveraging EBIF, are talking about deployments in millions of homes by the end of 2009. Broadcasters, perhaps unknowingly, have been installing gear that will allow them to create interactive content. They should not miss the opportunity.
http://benton.org/node/27179
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FCC CONTINUES WORKING ON DTV-RELATED RECEPTION ISSUES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission continues to work through what it characterizes as a "limited number" of digital television-related reception issues. Solutions include moving stations from VHF to UHF channel positions, boosting power, and in at least one case moving from one VHF channel position to another to gain viewers in mostly rural areas. The FCC's willingness to boost power and move stations suggest to some tacit acknowledgement that the FCC lowballed the DTV power limits and is having to play catch-up.
http://benton.org/node/27201
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IN OBAMA ERA, FOX NEWS FINDS ITS STRIDE
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: ]
Fox News is a hero to many people who are not buying the Age of Obama. The network was already on pace for its best ratings year even before the health care debate sent viewership jumping during a traditionally slow month for news. Fox's viewership is up 11% over last year, per Nielsen. CNN and MSNBC, which benefited from interest in the campaign last year, are down. Leading the way for Fox are Bill O'Reilly, who already had cable news' most popular show, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.
http://benton.org/node/27199
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JOURNALISM
FTC CHANGES DATE FOR JOURNALISM WORKSHOP
[SOURCE: Federal Trade Commission, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Federal Trade Commission announced that a planned Sept 15 workshop on journalism has been delayed to December 1 and 2, 2009. "From Town Criers to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?" will bring competition, consumer protection, and First Amendment perspectives to bear on the financial, technological, and other challenges facing the news industry as consumers increasingly turn to the Internet for free news and information, advertisers increasingly move their ads onto online sites and reduce advertising buys as a result of the recession, and news organizations struggle with large debt that was taken on when times were better. The workshops will consider a wide range of issues, including: the economics of journalism and how those economics are playing out on the Internet and in print; the wide variety of new business and non-profit models for journalism online; factors relevant to the new economic realities for news organizations, such as behavioral and other targeted online advertising, online news aggregators, and bloggers; and the variety of governmental policies including antitrust, copyright, and tax policy that have been raised as possible means of finding new ways for journalism to thrive. Witnesses will include journalists and other representatives of news organizations, privacy experts, direct marketers, online advertisers, academics, new media representatives (such as bloggers and local news Web sites), and consumer advocates. An agenda for the December 1 and 2, 2009, workshops will be circulated at a later time.
http://benton.org/node/27173
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ANGER AND RANCOR FUEL CABLE'S HEALTH CARE COVERAGE
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
Last week, Barack Obama tried his hand at media criticism. At a town hall meeting in Montana, the President accused TV news of focusing on town hall meetings when "tempers flare" because television "loves a ruckus." Whether that critique was accurate or not, there were enough flaring tempers and raucous ruckuses last week to generate the biggest single week of health care coverage so far this year. And that coverage was virtually non-stop on conflict-driven cable news, which became ground zero for town hall confrontations across the country. From August 10-16, the debate over health care reform dominated the news agenda, accounting for 32% of the newshole, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. That doubled the amount of coverage the subject received the previous week, according to PEJ's weekly News Coverage Index, and easily tops what had been the highest level of weekly coverage this year, (25% the week of July 20-26). While the topic was the No. 1 story in three of the five media sectors, it was clearly driven by massive coverage on cable (62%) and radio (44%).
http://benton.org/node/27200
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CAN ANYONE TAP THE $100 BILLION POTENTIAL HYPERLOCAL NEWS?
[SOURCE: Fast Company, AUTHOR: Michael Gluckstadt]
Community-driven news services have been the next big thing online for years. Hyperlocal sites -- covering cities, towns, or just a neighborhood -- can deliver precision-targeted advertising to local and global businesses. As the once-exponential growth rate for most Internet advertising in the United States grinds to a halt, the online local-advertising market is projected to grow 5.4% in 2009 to $13.3 billion, according to media research firm Borrell Associates. Can The New York Times or AOL find the $100 billion local-advertising pot of gold?
http://benton.org/node/27178
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP
ZELL MAY GIVE UP CLAIM TO BUY TRIBUNE STAKE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: ]
The New York Post reports that Tribune CEO Sam Zell is close to giving up his claims to buy a 40 percent stake in the company. Zell looks ready to give up a warrant, which he negotiated as part of his $8.2 billion deal to take the company private in 2007. The warrant gives Zell the right to buy about 40 percent of the company for $500 million and is the basis of his control over Tribune.
http://benton.org/node/27203
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NEWSDAY REJECTS AD CRITICIZING CABLEVISION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Richard Sandomir]
Newsday last week rejected an advertisement from the Tennis Channel that sharply criticizes the newspaper's parent company, Cablevision, for not carrying the network. Newsday's decision not to carry the ad raises questions about the paper's independence from Cablevision and whether it would have accepted the ad under its previous owner, the Tribune Company. Bob Steele, an ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, said, "There are times when a newspaper says no to an ad because they find it objectionable on taste grounds, or find it filled with hatred for a particular group of people. But this one doesn't measure up in terms of protection because they're protecting themselves." In a statement, Cablevision wrote: "The Tennis Channel ads are nasty, unfair and intentionally misleading, and we don't think anyone should carry them."
http://benton.org/node/27176
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IS COMCAST POISED TO DO ANOTHER DISNEY?
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Yinka Adegoke]
Comcast has been hoarding cash to better manage its balance sheet but investors worry that it could be building a war chest for a splashy acquisition similar to its failed 2004 bid for Walt Disney. Investors value shares of Comcast at close to historical lows, as the top US cable service provider's conservative balance sheet strategy has rekindled speculation that it wants to be a major player in the media content market. Investors worry that Comcast might use growing cash reserves to go after names such as Viacom Inc, owner of MTV Networks and Paramount film studio, or Time Warner Inc, which owns CNN, HBO and Warner Bros despite little evidence of such a move, said analysts. Disney is no longer seen as a target. They say such concerns are behind the 11 percent drop in Comcast's stock this year because not many big media deals have a history of boosting shareholder value. In comparison, the S&P 500 Index has risen 12 percent in the year to date.
http://benton.org/node/27175
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