September 1, 2010 (Network Neutrality Update)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2010
We're catching up on last week's Headlines. For top stories from Aug 20-23, see http://bit.ly/ceNFpB
AGENDA
Legislation gap grows
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Why the FCC can't do its job on broadband access
ITIC: 'Significant Progress' on Net Neutrality Talks
AT&T Defends Paid Prioritization Of Web Traffic
AT&T Misleads FCC about 'Paid Prioritization' on the Internet
Google's 'Huge Hoof' Riles Washington Allies Opposed to Verizon Web Accord
Google's Earth
NASUCA Talks Broadband, Universal Service Reform at FCC
AT&T Says No Dark Fiber for E-rate
Emerging economies find own way of using web
OWNERSHIP
FCC Releases Details From Comcast, NBCU Meeting
The Department of Justice and Comcast/NBCU
Comcast and NBC - No Merger, No Way
Obama administration: "Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft"
Sprint Faces 4G Dilemma
Why Zell should have seen the Trib debacle coming
TELEPHONY
Verizon ends bid for price-control exemption
96% of US Households Have Telephone Service
HEALTH
CCHIT, Drummond as Named Electronic Health Record certifiers
TELEVISION
TV News for Early Risers or Late-to-Bedders
ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Aspiring Politician to Sue 2 Florida Papers
COMMUNITY MEDIA
Amazon Kindles Connect Rural Libraries to Digital World
Newspaper Consolidating News Staff with TV and Radio Operations
STORIES FROM ABROAD
UK to launch 'comprehensive' policing of online advertising
MORE ONLINE
Hurricane Earl may test telecommuting workers
District uses Twitter to keep voters informed
AGENDA
LEGISLATION GAP GROWS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Russell Berman]
When the Senate returns from its summer break in September, lawmakers will have quite a full plate of legislation to address: 372 bills, to be exact. That's the number of bills passed by the House that are awaiting action in the Senate. And with the midterm elections in high gear and partisan rancor already poisoning a potential lame-duck session after November, it's likely most of the House-passed bills will stay on the shelf. A large legislation gap between the House and Senate is not unusual; the Senate was designed, in the famous description by George Washington, as a cooling saucer. But food left out to cool too long will spoil, and so will federal legislation: By law, if a bill is not passed by both chambers in the same Congress, it must be re-introduced in January.
benton.org/node/41248 | Hill, The
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
WHY THE FCC CAN'T DO ITS JOB
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Michael Copps]
In a letter to the editor, Commissioner Copps says an Aug. 26 editorial "An open, innovative Internet" wrongly stated that a court decided the Federal Communications Commission has no authority over Internet service providers. What the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said was that the section (Title I) of the communications statute cited by agency lawyers did not support the FCC ruling against Comcast's blocking of BitTorrent. This was a predictable outcome of FCC actions during the Bush administration that consciously moved broadband Internet access from Title II, which would have supported the commission's authority, to a murky place that invited court challenge. This was a major flip-flop from the historic -- and successful -- approach of forbidding discrimination on our communications networks. Now is the time to put broadband back under Title II, where it belongs -- and under which many smaller companies continue to offer Internet access to the public. Nor is this debate about regulating the Internet. It's about whether consumers or a few huge Internet service providers will control consumers' online experiences. The Verizon-Google plan that The Post endorsed creates a two-tiered Internet at the expense of the open Internet we now have, almost completely excludes wireless and transforms the FCC from what is supposed to be a consumer protection agency into an agent of big business. I thought we'd had enough of that. To expect big telecom and cable duopolies to protect consumers while a toothless agency stands quietly by is to expect what never was nor will be.
benton.org/node/41240 | Washington Post
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PROGRESS IN NET NEUTRALITY TALKS
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
Information Technology Industry Council President and CEO Dean Garfield put out a progress report August 31 on his group's efforts to find some middle ground among the stakeholders battling over the issue of network neutrality, saying there has been "significant progress" while declining to provide any details. "As we work to reach final consensus, we're focused on solidifying what unites us, incorporating new ideas and viewpoints, and, above all, delivering a series of constructive, pro-consumer and innovation-based principles that will only strengthen the Internet as we know it today," Garfield said in a statement. "Past precedent shows that when we work together and integrate the best ideas in a coordinated fashion, the stronger the outcome." Garfield's group represents major tech firms such as Apple, IBM, Intel and Microsoft.
benton.org/node/41265 | CongressDaily | The Hill
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AT&T DEFENDS PAID PRIORITIZATION
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
In a filing this week to the Federal Communications Commission, AT&T defended the idea of allowing businesses and others to pay to ensure faster access to their Web content, saying the Internet's key standard setting organization has supported the idea of paid prioritization and that it is being used today by businesses of all sizes. AT&T Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Robert Quinn aimed to dispute claims from Free Press and other supporters of network neutrality, the idea of barring broadband providers from discriminating against content, that paid prioritization "is not taking place today, and, if permitted, would be a viable option only for a few select 'content giants that have deep enough pockets' to pay for it, to the exclusion of smaller and minority-owned businesses and non-profits," he wrote. He added that "paid prioritization is expressly contemplated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet standard-setting organization; it is widely available from multiple providers today; and, no less important, it is used by many businesses of all sizes." Quinn argued that banning paid prioritization would be a "colossal mistake that would harm countless businesses and their customers."
benton.org/node/41241 | CongressDaily | The Hill | AT&T
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FREE PRESS RESPONDS TO AT&T
[SOURCE: Free Press, AUTHOR: Press release]
AT&T has filed a confusing and misleading letter with the FCC in an attempt to justify charging content companies for priority access to its Internet subscribers. In the letter, AT&T conflates "paid prioritization" the anti-consumer practice of speeding up and slowing down Internet traffic according to which service provider pays more with far more accepted business network management practices. Free Press and other Net Neutrality proponents oppose discriminatory "paid prioritization," not these other arrangements. Despite high-pitched rhetoric and name-calling by an industry fighting to avoid any government oversight, Free Press and other Net Neutrality advocates have consistently argued for open Internet rules that reflect those agreed to by AT&T in 2006 as a condition of its merger with Bell South. Those conditions required AT&T not to "provide or to sell to Internet content, application, or service providers ... any service that privileges, degrades or prioritizes any packet ... based on its source, ownership or destination." During the two years that AT&T lived under this merger condition, the company accelerated its deployment of advanced DSL services and increased its capital expenditures by $1.8 billion, more than any other ISP in America.
S. Derek Turner, research director of Free Press, said: "With this letter to the FCC, AT&T deliberately tries to confuse anyone who will listen about the facts of Net Neutrality. AT&T is trying to move the goal posts on what is acceptable network management behavior. They think they can take advantage of the vacuum created by inaction at the FCC to redefine the terms of the debate. AT&T incorrectly implies that the ban on paid prioritization proposed by the FCC last year would prohibit practices that are commonplace today, by constructing bogus interpretations of 'paid prioritization' that reflect no arguments or statements made by the FCC or any proponents of Net Neutrality. AT&T then suggests that the company is engaging in rampant discrimination, which is either an illusion or an admission that the company has abandoned the commitment it made in 2006 not to prioritize any packet over its Internet access services. The practice AT&T describes in its letter involves businesses purchasing dedicated access lines in the enterprise broadband market. This is a far cry from the harmful practice of paid prioritization that the FCC proposal would bar. The FCC's proposal would permit standard enterprise service-level agreements, but would prohibit ISPs from limiting consumer choice and stifling competition and innovation by charging third-party content, application or service providers for prioritized access to the ISP's subscribers."
benton.org/node/41264 | Free Press
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GOOGLE RILES ALLIES
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: Todd Shields]
Google CEO Eric Schmidt once called Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA) "almost the perfect example of a congressperson." She "understands what we need," he said. More than two years after that comment to workers at Google headquarters in Eshoo's district, the California Democrat isn't returning the compliment. She opposes Google's agreement with Verizon on proposed rules for Internet traffic, saying it could let companies play favorites on Web content and limit consumer choice. "The whole issue is about maintaining the open Internet that allowed Google to achieve and thrive," Rep Eshoo said. "You can't just grow up and have a huge hoof and then be able to squash anyone that's coming up." With old friends in Washington such as Eshoo in opposition, Google will have to decide how aggressively to lobby alongside Verizon before Congress and the Federal Communications Commission for adoption of the accord the companies proposed.
benton.org/node/41284 | Bloomberg
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GOOGLE'S EARTH
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: William Gibson]
[Commentary] Do we really desire Google to tell us what we should be doing next? I believe that we do, though with some rather complicated qualifiers. Science fiction never imagined Google, but it certainly imagined computers that would advise us what to do. Google is a distributed entity, a two-way membrane, a game-changing tool on the order of the equally handy flint hand ax, with which we chop our way through the very densest thickets of information. Google is all of those things, and a very large and powerful corporation to boot. We have yet to take Google's measure. We've seen nothing like it before, and we already perceive much of our world through it. We would all very much like to be sagely and reliably advised by our own private genie; we would like the genie to make the world more transparent, more easily navigable. Google does that for us: it makes everything in the world accessible to everyone, and everyone accessible to the world. But we see everyone looking in, and blame Google.
benton.org/node/41281 | New York Times
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NASUCA TALKS BROADBAND
[SOURCE: National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, AUTHOR: David Bergmann]
NASUCA spoke with Federal Communications Commission staff to discuss universal service and broadband issues. NASUCA discussed whether it is necessary to continue to support traditional voice services for rural and non-rural carriers, the need for a rate census for rural carriers, whether there are amounts in the high-cost fund that are not necessary, and the need to ensure rates for broadband services in rural areas are reasonably comparable to those in urban areas. NASUCA also discussed the USF contribution mechanism, stressing its opposition to a numbers- or connections-based mechanism.
benton.org/node/41243 | National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates
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AT&T ON DARK FIBER
[SOURCE: AT&T, AUTHOR: Mary Henze]
AT&T met with Federal Communications Commission staff to discuss the FCC's proposal to make dark fiber eligible for E-rate support. AT&T said Section 254 does not support making dark fiber eligible for E-rate funding because dark fiber is not a "service" and is merely a physical facility that can only be used to provide a service if electronics are attached to it. AT&T said Section 254 calls for making "services" available to schools and libraries. AT&T said if the FCC decides to make dark fiber eligible for support, it should do so in a manner that furthers the goal of increasing broadband deployment in un-served areas.
benton.org/node/41242 | AT&T
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EMERGING ECONOMIES AND THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Kathrin Hille]
Consumers in the world's largest emerging markets are developing widely diverging habits and preferences in their use of the Internet, posing challenges to multinationals' marketing strategies, a report has found. China's Internet population uses the web mainly for instant messaging and online music, videos and games. But Internet users in Brazil and Russia focus on search and e-mail, much like their peers in mature markets, according to a study by the Boston Consulting Group. The report, to be published on September 1, offers the first comprehensive comparison of Internet usage patterns in China, India, Russia, Brazil and Indonesia, that account for one-third of the world's Internet population.
benton.org/node/41282 | Financial Times
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OWNERSHIP
COMCAST-NBC MEETING AT FCC
[SOURCE: CongressDaily, AUTHOR: Juliana Gruenwald]
On august 30, the Federal Communications Commission released some details -- though not much -- of a private meeting held on August 27 to discuss economic issues related to Comcast's merger with NBC Universal. Among the few details included in the disclosure document filed with FCC Secretary Marlene Dortch was who attended the meeting. The meeting was divided up into two panels with the first focused on multichannel video programming distributors.
The first panel included economists representing Comcast and NBCU: Michael L. Katz, director of the University of California at Berkeley's Center for Telecommunications and Digital Convergence, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research Deputy Director Gregory L. Rosston and Mark Israel, senior vice president of the economics consulting firm Compass Lexecon. Critics of the deal also attended including Northwestern University economics professor William P. Rogerson, who represented the American Cable Association, and Bloomberg representative Leslie M. Marx, a Duke University economics professor.
The second panel focused on online issues and included other critics of the deal, according to the disclosure filed by William D. Freedman, associate chief of the FCC's Media Bureau. Among those on the second panel were Consumer Federation of America Research Director Mark Cooper, Navigant Economics Managing Director Hal Singer, who represented the Communications Workers of America, and University of Southern California economic professor Simon Wilkie, who attended on behalf of Internet service provider Earthlink and the satellite programming provider DISH Network.
benton.org/node/41267 | CongressDaily
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DOJ AND COMCAST/NBC
[SOURCE: Susan Crawford blog, AUTHOR: Susan Crawford]
[Commentary] Comcast can potentially maintain its regional-monopoly power over video-to-the-home by making online video distributors' subscription products unattractive to consumers. It's called monopoly maintenance, and it's just like what Microsoft did more than ten years ago -- there, the DC Circuit agreed, MSN sought to leverage its market power into the nascent browser market in order to hang onto its operating system dominance. This time, the nascent market is online video aggregation and distribution - so-called "over the top" video. Comcast knows that viewers may want to cut the cord. (Pew and comScore and other people say the cord-cutting numbers are growing.) They'd like to hang onto their pricing power in the face of this phenomenon. The cable programmers have every interest in playing along so that they can reap fees from guaranteed subscription distribution. And they have to do what Comcast wants because Comcast controls distribution access to 25% of US households. Comcast would like cable programmers to put everything behind a TV Everywhere wall. So, if you're a DirecTV subscriber with a AT&T DSL connection, you won't be able to purchase access to Comcast's TV Everywhere online portal (currently weirdly branded Fancast Xfinity TV) a la carte. And if you're a competing online video distributor, with a new goofy name that we haven't yet taken to heart, you won't necessarily be able to buy access to programming that your subscribers love at a reasonable price. Not only that, but because Comcast is effectively pricing online video subscriptions at zero - by tying access to their cable subscription - consumers will be unhappy paying separately for anything substantial online. The cable companies may be succeeding in holding off the threat to their cable video franchises. This delay is good for Comcast and other cable companies, because it maintains their monopoly in regional video-distribution. It's good for traditional programmers. But it's bad for consumers -- who will inevitably be paying higher prices.
benton.org/node/41246 | Susan Crawford blog
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COMCAST AND NBC -- NO MERGER, NO WAY
[SOURCE: NetworkWorld, AUTHOR: Craig Mathias]
[Commentary] There's no way the Comcast-NBC merger should be allowed by federal regulators. The fundamental objection to this merger is that businesses that provide the transport of media should not be allowed to own the content that travels over their channels. This is in keeping with fundamental beliefs that network neutrality (requiring carriers to in fact carry any legal traffic without any right of censorship) and open access (requiring any technologically-compatible subscriber unit to be used on any given network) are both central to a functioning democracy and in getting the consumer the best deal, a fundamental tenet and objective of capitalism. Say what you will about what passes for capitalism today, but this albeit imperfect system offers the widest variety of goods and services possible, with the best quality and price, thanks to the competition absent in competing economic disciplines. Someone has to be the big, dumb pipe. Perhaps, dare I say it, the time has come for (gulp) the government to assume responsibility for basic services where competitive returns for investors can only be achieved by screwing customers -- telecommunications, banking, healthcare, utilities, and a few more. It's sad to see honest value disappearing for those who pay the bills, and the ethos of customer as prey essentially codified in practice.
benton.org/node/41247 | NetworkWorld
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PIRACY IS THEFT
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke went to Nashville on August 30 to address a symposium on intellectual property enforcement, and he threw down the gauntlet: the Obama administration will find, board, and scuttle digital pirate ships, and the SS Copyright is going to get a new coat of armored plating. "I think it's important to lay down a marker about how the Obama administration views this issue," he said of online copyright infringement. "As Vice President Biden has said on more than one occasion, 'Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft,' and it should be dealt with accordingly." Sec Locke then lamented the fate of songwriters. "Recently, I've had a chance to read letters from award winning writers and artists whose livelihoods have been destroyed by music piracy. One letter that stuck out for me was a guy who said the songwriting royalties he had depended on to 'be a golden parachute to fund his retirement had turned out to be a lead balloon.' This just isn't right." To make it right, Sec Locke pledged to work for global IP norms, enforcement of those norms, and a "strengthening" of the international copyright system.
benton.org/node/41268 | Ars Technica | Sec Locke
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SPRINT'S DILEMMA
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Joann Lublin, Spencer Ante]
Sprint Nextel Corp. has bet its future on offering speedy data services to mobile devices over a new high-speed, "4G" network and has joined with upstart Clearwire Corp. to build it. But Clearwire has a problem: It needs billions of dollars to finish building its nationwide network. And now Sprint, which owns 54% of Clearwire, must decide whether to fund the project itself or turn to a competitor for help. Sprint's board of directors is debating whether to let rival cellphone operator T-Mobile USA invest in Clearwire. Such a decision would consolidate the U.S. telecom landscape by enabling the country's third- and fourth-largest wireless operators to use the same next-generation network.
benton.org/node/41277 | Wall Street Journal
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ZELL AND THE TRIB DEAL
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Holman Jenkins Jr]
[Commentary] Fortunately Sam Zell has such reserves of reputation that his image is likely to survive his debacle in the newspaper business. And debacle is a charitable word. Zell is the celebrated real-estate investor who, in 2007, led a buyout of the Tribune Co., owner of such papers as the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun, along with 23 TV stations and (at the time) the Chicago Cubs. Less than a year later, the company was in Chapter 11. Now a special bankruptcy examiner has found a plausible suspicion of fraud on the part of Trib management in the original transaction. Boom. Blown up is management's latest plan to bring the company out of bankruptcy, partly thanks to a provision that would have indemnified Zell and Trib management from legal blowback from the original LBO deal. Zell, after four decades in business, deserves his stellar reputation based on his proven financial acumen, his healthy libertarian leanings and his discerning eye for Italian motorcycles. But the Trib deal was a mistake he walked right into.
benton.org/node/41278 | Wall Street Journal
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TELEPHONY
VERIZON BID FAILS
[SOURCE: Bloomberg, AUTHOR: ]
Verizon Communications has dropped a four-year campaign to escape price controls in selling competitors access to its residential phone lines in New York, Boston and four other markets. The Federal Communications Commission, in response to Verizon's Aug. 23 decision, ended a review of procedures for freeing telephone companies from rate regulation. The FCC concluded in 2007 that Verizon didn't prove that competition warranted exemptions from price controls in New York; Boston; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Providence (RI); and Virginia Beach. Sprint Nextel and Herndon-based XO Holdings said exemptions would let Verizon avoid laws that promote competition. A federal court last year ruled the FCC was incorrect in its Verizon decision, but let the agency's ruling stand as the FCC provided a better explanation for its action.
benton.org/node/41283 | Bloomberg
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FCC RELEASES NEW TELEPHONE SUBSCRIBERSHIP REPORT
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
The Federal Communications Commission released its latest report on telephone subscribership levels in the United States. The report presents subscribership statistics based on the Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted by the Census Bureau in March 2010. The report also shows subscribership levels by state, income level, race, age, household size, and employment status. In March 2010:
The telephone subscribership penetration rate in the U.S. was 96.0%, an increase of 0.4% over the rate from March 2009. This is the highest reported rate since the CPS began collecting this data in November 1983.
The telephone penetration rate for households in income categories below $15,000 was at or below 92.8%, while the rate for households in income categories over $50,000 was at least 98.0%.
Among the states, the penetration rates ranged from a low of 91.0% to a high of 98.8%.
Penetration rates ranged from 93.8% for households headed by a person under 25 to at least 96.1% for households headed by a person over 55.
Households with one person had a penetration rate of 94.2%, compared to a rate of 96.8% for households with four or five persons.
The penetration rate for unemployed adults was 95.4%, while the rate for employed adults was 96.9%.
benton.org/node/41269 | Federal Communications Commission | read the report
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HEALTH
EHR CERTIFIERS
[SOURCE: GovernemntHealthIT, AUTHOR: Mary Mosquera]
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) named the Drummond Group, of Austin, Texas, and the Certification Commission for Health IT (CCHIT), of Chicago, to be the first organizations authorized to test and certify electronic health records under ONC's temporary certification program. Announcement of the certifying organizations means that EHR vendors can begin to get their products certified as capable of the functions necessary to support meaningful use of health IT, said Dr. David Blumenthal, the national health IT coordinator, Aug. 30. The temporary program, which will expire in December 2011, is designed to enable health IT vendors to have their products and services certified in time for providers to meet 2011 deadlines for qualifying for first stage meaningful use requirements.
benton.org/node/41245 | GovernemntHealthIT
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TELEVISION
EARLY AND LATE TV
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
Last season, the big battle in television was fought over late night. This season, the battleground is shaping up to be the early morning. Very early. The television business, it seems, is learning what the predawn buyers at the fish market already know: starting the day earlier can be a competitive advantage. Stations in Boston, New York, Washington and other cities are adding 4:30 a.m. newscasts this month, joining a backward march that started in earnest a few years ago. And those are not even the earliest. One station in New York, WPIX, will move up its start time to 4 a.m. on Sept. 20. In catering to the earliest of the early risers, stations are reacting to the behavior patterns that are evident in the Nielsen ratings. Simply put, Americans are either staying awake later or waking up earlier -- and either way, they are keeping the television on.
benton.org/node/41280 | New York Times
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
Aspiring Politician to Sue 2 Florida Papers
POL SUES NEWSPAPERS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jeremy Peters]
Jeff Greene, a Florida real estate developer who lost one of the year's most bitter and closely watched primary elections, is preparing to sue The St. Petersburg Times and The Miami Herald for libel, claiming that articles they published cost him his bid for the United States Senate. A libel suit is a rare step for a political figure. While many candidates complain about unfair news coverage, few go as far as making their complaints a legal case. But Greene, who has deep pockets and apparently the wherewithal to pursue the case all the way to trial, has proved he is no ordinary politician. Dogged by rumors about wild parties aboard his 145-foot yacht and about fraudulent real estate deals, Greene will seek at least $500 million in damages in part, he said, to teach the news media a lesson. "I want to send a message to every newspaper in the country: Do your homework," he said. "I deserve to have the record corrected, and they deserve to be punished." At issue are two news articles written by St. Petersburg Times reporters that were printed in both The Times and The Herald, and a Times editorial urging a federal investigation into Greene's business activities.
benton.org/node/41279 | New York Times
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COMMUNITY MEDIA
AMAZON CONNECTS RURAL LIBRARIES
[SOURCE: Government Technology, AUTHOR: Russell Nichols]
Georgetown County (SC) isn't known as a bustling hub of innovation. But as the county's library system adopts new technology, residents can connect to a world beyond their rural community. The Amazon Kindle, the popular e-book reader, is the latest tool made available at Georgetown County Library, thanks to a national Library Services and Technology Act grant. With the $25,000 grant, matched by the libraries, the county acquired 25 Kindles for onsite use and about $2,500 worth of e-books. "A library's mission is to preserve information and make that information available to the public," said Dwight McInvaill, director of the Georgetown County Library. "We started out with stone tablets and now we have Kindles." Across the country in the past decade, the marriage between technology and libraries has matured with the rise of interactive gaming and hands-on digital tools. Providing these types of virtual resources to the public has been one component of making the case that Americans still need libraries in the digital age.
benton.org/node/41266 | Government Technology
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CONSOLIDATING NEWS STAFFS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Jennifer Dobner, Paul Foy]
The Deseret News, Utah's longest-publishing daily newspaper says it will cut nearly half of its staff and consolidate breaking news operations with affiliated television and radio operations. It said 85 newsroom positions are being eliminated, although some staffers will be enlisted for a transition period. Deseret News CEO and President Clark Gilbert said the newspaper is combining operations with KSL-TV and KSL Radio and will move to the broadcast networks' building about five blocks away. He said the layoffs include 57 full-time and 28 part-time employees. The newspaper will continue to publish seven days a week with contributions from readers, community figures and TV and radio reporters.
benton.org/node/41270 | Associated Press
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STORIES FROM ABROAD
ONLINE ADVERTISING POLICY FOR UK
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Tim Bradshaw]
The UK is to introduce one of the world's most ambitious attempts to police online marketing next year, when the Advertising Standards Authority extends its regime to corporate websites, social networks and mobile applications. Regulating the web is notoriously tricky, given its international and anonymous nature, but the British self-regulatory body will go further than those in most other large advertising markets. The rules will capture marketing through Twitter and Facebook pages and could even include user-generated content, such as YouTube videos, if members of the public are asked by companies to aid their marketing efforts. New sanctions to shame offenders will include a "rogues' gallery" on the ASA website and warnings appearing in search results alongside listings of products and brands of companies that refuse to comply with the code.
benton.org/node/41276 | Financial Times
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