September 26, 2011 (Net Neutrality)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011
See this week's agenda http://benton.org/calendar/2011-09-25--P1W/
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Government Power In Cyberspace Is Big And Growing
Mexico Turns to Social Media for Information and Survival
Deterring attackers in cyberspace - op-ed
INTERNET/BROADBAND
Net neutrality rules are coming. Here's why they matter. - analysis
A Quick Guide For The Upcoming Net Neutrality Rules Challenge - analysis [links to web]
September 17-23: Network Neutrality -- Let the Litigation Begin - analysis
Sen Hutchison slams FCC’s net neutrality rules
Sen Rockefeller Disappointed by Efforts to Undercut Open Internet Rules - speech [links to web]
How Not To Make Friends In Washington - analysis
Gov. Jerry Brown signs Amazon sales tax collection law
Working Together to Improve the Internet - BITAG Starts to Make Good on Its Promise [links to web]
Cisco: Is the Internet as important as food, water, air, shelter?
Congress' piece of the cloud: Supporting open standards, flexible acquisition [links to web]
The Government Model
TELEVISION
Buckle up: Traditional TV is in for a heck of a ride - op-ed
TV and Severe Weather: Stations Save Lives - op-ed [links to web]
Vigilance is Vital to Hanging on to Retransmission - editorial [links to web]
Time Warner Cable and DirecTV team up to lobby FCC
Reality TV Grabs Most Viewers, Sports Nabs 20%
'X Factor' hit with FCC complaint over nude contestant [links to web]
WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
After Solyndra, GOP turns on LightSquared
Hill Lights Up With LightSquared
The SunGard Meme - analysis
Dish ‘Could’ Buy, Partner With Wireless Company, CEO Says [links to web]
Amazon Kindle Tablet Could Shake Up Tablet Wars: Here's How [links to web]
CONTENT
Google News Algorithm Tweaked To Feature 'Standout' Stories
Amazon wins "one-click" purchasing patent appeal [links to web]
The Fight Over the Future of Digital Books - analysis [links to web]
Social Media March on Wall Street - editorial [links to web]
Amazon Kindle Tablet Could Shake Up Tablet Wars: Here's How [links to web]
JOURNALISM
How People Learn About Their Local Communities - research
Press Widely Criticized, But Trusted More than Other Information Sources
UK Phone Hacking Lawyer Pursues News Corp. Suit in US
Enhancing Public Media’s Digital Journalism Capacity - press release
Magazines Begin to Sell the Fashion They Review
MORE ONLINE
USPS May Raise Rates, After All [links to web]
A Campaign Finance Ruling Turned to Labor’s Advantage [links to web]
Tangled, Too: Why A Wireless World Will Never Exist [links to web]
GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
POWER IN CYBERSPACE
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Josh Smith]
Months after the revolutions started to sweep through countries in the Middle East and North Africa, debate continues over the role social media played in toppling governments. A new study by the University of Washington has concluded Twitter did, in fact, play a major role in the revolutions of the Arab Spring. "Until now, most of what we have known about the role of social media in the Arab Spring has been anecdotal," the report said. But after analyzing more than 3 million tweets, "for the first time we have evidence confirming social media's critical role in the Arab Spring." The report, conducted by the university's Project on Information Technology and Political Islam, noted that the number of tweets from Egypt went from 2,300 to 230,000 in the week before Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, resigned.
benton.org/node/91185 | National Journal
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MEXICO TURNS TO SOCIAL MEDIA
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Damien Cave]
Social media-relayed witness accounts have become common in Mexico over the past year, especially in violent cities where the news media have been compromised by corruption or killings. But Veracruz’s State Assembly has made it a crime to use Twitter and other social networks to undermine public order. It is the first law of its kind in Mexico, but most likely not the last. At least one other state, Tabasco, is considering a similar measure, and all across Mexico, public officials are now complaining about new technologies that can help spread rumors. Panic is the fear: Two people in Veracruz were charged last month with terrorism and sabotage after their Twitter messages — spreading a false rumor that schools were under attack — seemed to cause traffic accidents as parents flooded the roads. And yet, according to scholars and many Mexicans, social media has become a necessity in Mexico, with a mission far different from what has emerged in the Arab revolutions, or in China. In those countries, social networks have been used to route around identifiable sources of repression and to unify groups dispersed over large areas. In Mexico, Twitter, Facebook and other tools are instead deployed for local survival.
benton.org/node/91198 | New York Times
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CYBER COLD WAR
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Retired Lt. Gen. Harry Raduege]
[Commentary] Is America at war in cyberspace? In the face of increasingly brazen cyber attacks against our country, the Obama administration established the first military command devoted to cyberspace, U.S. Cyber Command, in 2010. And the Pentagon has issued a new declaratory policy in which the United States announced that it reserves the right to respond to cyberattacks with conventional weapons. It sounds a lot like war. But is it? Today, America is most certainly engaged in what amounts to a cyber “cold war.” We face a daily barrage of low-level “tactical” strikes in which foreign adversaries attack our computer networks, often using proxies in cyberspace — much as the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in low-level combat using proxies in Africa and Latin America during the Cold War of the 20th century. In some cases, these attacks escalate into what our military calls operational-level engagements — decisive attacks or incidents that gain front-page attention in the news (such as the Stuxnet virus that attacked Iran’s nuclear program) but do not significantly alter the daily lives of Americans.
benton.org/node/91116 | Hill, The
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INTERNET/BROADBAND
WHY NET NEUTRALITY MATTERS
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Jeff Ward-Bailey]
The Federal Communications Commission's new network neutrality/Open Internet rules set to take effect in November strike a balance. They generally allow providers to ration access to their networks, but prevent them from blocking or discriminating against content that competes with their own services. The FCC would be able to fine Internet companies that slow down service for “heavy use” customers. The rules are slightly different for fixed and mobile networks. Providers of fixed broadband can't block lawful content or services, or discriminate any network traffic. That means they can't deliberately slow down traffic for heavy Internet users. Mobile networks can still discriminate against certain apps, but can't block lawful websites or block applications that compete with their own services. And the new rules call for greater transparency from both fixed and mobile providers: the FCC says all broadband providers have to “disclose the network management practices, performance characteristics, and commercial terms of their broadband services.” Once the new rules were made public, however they became vulnerable to legal action. Verizon and MetroPCS have each already tried a lawsuit: they sued the FCC shortly after the rules were passed in late December, arguing that the government had overstepped its bounds in setting these regulations. Those lawsuits were put on hold, but once the rules are public they can resume again, along with additional challenges. It may fall to a federal judge to determine the legality of net neutrality.
benton.org/node/91214 | Christian Science Monitor, The
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NET NEUTRALITY -- LET THE LITIGATION BEGIN
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Kevin Taglang]
As the summer began, we noted that the Federal Communications Commission's Open Internet/network neutrality rules were headed to the Office of Management Budget for Paperwork Reduction Act vetting. Today, as Autumn begins, the FCC published its Final Rule on Preserving the Open Internet in the Federal Register. The Order establishes protections for broadband service to preserve and reinforce Internet freedom and openness. The FCC adopted three basic protections that are grounded in broadly accepted Internet norms, as well as the FCC's own prior decisions.
http://benton.org/node/91066
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HUTCHINSON SLAMS NET NEUTRALITY RULES
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Gautham Nagesh]
Sen Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) criticized the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality rules again after they were published in the Federal Register. “I'm very disappointed that the FCC has decided to move forward with its misguided net neutrality order,” Sen Hutchison said. “Companies and industries that use broadband communications have flourished over the last decade without government intervention, yet the FCC has chosen to ‘fix’ a problem that does not exist.” “Rather than imposing new, unnecessary regulations on one of the few thriving sectors of our economy, government should get out of the way, and allow new jobs and investment in broadband technologies,” Sen Hutchison said. “In order to turn back the FCC’s onerous net neutrality restrictions, I will push for a Senate vote this fall on my resolution of disapproval.”
benton.org/node/91102 | Hill, The
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HOW NOT TO MAKE FRIENDS
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Art Brodsky]
[Commentary] There were heaps of irony, and not a little schadenfreude, when Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt got himself a bi-partisan grilling before the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, just two days before the Federal Communications Commission formally released its rules governing an Open Internet. The connection, of course, is that in the summer of 2010, Schmidt and then-Verizon Chairman Ivan Seidenberg came up with a grand compromise for an Open Internet that that just happened to exclude wireless communications. Our feckless FCC then adopted that outline because, after all, Google had been for an Open Internet, Verizon had been opposed to it, and they agreed on this. No matter that the deal gave away the fastest growing means of access and, coincidentally, the first access to the Internet for many people of color. And AT&T piled on, with their chief lobbyist logging lots of time at the FCC as the Open Internet rules were in their final stages. So it was amusing to some to see Schmidt, under attack for his company’s alleged dominance of the search market, take refuge from the slings and arrows aimed at him by saying, “The Open Internet is the ultimate playing field.” It would have been delicious had some staffer slipped his/her senatorial boss a question which read: “Does that apply to wireless also?” and we could have seen where Schmidt would have to say it was OK for Google to dominate search in the wireless environment.
benton.org/node/91180 | Public Knowledge
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CAL ONLINE SALES TAX COLLECTION LAW
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Marc Lifsher]
Saying it would save existing jobs and create new ones, Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) signed into law legislation to require Amazon and many other out-of-state Internet retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases by California customers. The new law will "create tens of thousands of jobs and inject hundreds of millions of dollars back into critical services like education and public safety in future years," Gov Brown said at a ceremony held at the San Francisco headquarters of clothier Gap. The event was attended by the lawmakers, who sponsored the bill, and retail industry executives. Experts predicted that the new law would help bricks-and-mortar stores that have sales staffs compete with e-commerce companies that need fewer people to fill orders. They also predicted that new jobs would flow into the state if Amazon, as expected, opens some large distribution centers to better serve California, which is estimated to represent as much as 20% of the company's market. Although the bill, AB 155 by Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-Whittier), takes effect immediately, it doesn't require that sales taxes be collected from Californians until Sept. 15 of next year. The delay was part of a compromise put together by Amazon with representatives of national retailing chains, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp., as well as local, independent store owners.
Amazon plans to spend $500 million to open large distribution centers and other facilities in California that would create 10,000 full-time jobs — ones that carry such benefits as health insurance.
benton.org/node/91193 | Los Angeles Times
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CISCO SURVEY
[SOURCE: NetworkWorld, AUTHOR: Tim Greene]
The Internet is just as important as water, food, air and shelter to a third of people with Internet access, according to an international poll by Cisco. Roughly another half say they don't consider it that important, but it's close, according to the Cisco Connected World Technology Report. Cisco surveyed 2,853 people split roughly equally between college students and recently employed college graduates ages 21 to 29 in 14 countries. The groups were also evenly split between men and women. The survey put a slightly different spin on the question, offering three choices and told to choose the one that describes their attitude the best: I could live without the Internet; I could live without the Internet but it would be a struggle; I could not live without the Internet. Among college students, 55 percent say they could not live without the Internet compared to 62 percent of those recent graduates with jobs. Another 30 percent-plus in both categories say they could survive, but it would be a struggle. More students (40 percent) rank the Internet as most important when stacked against partying (25 percent), dating (13 percent) and music (10 percent). They'd rather have Internet access than a car, 64 percent to 36 percent.
benton.org/node/91095 | NetworkWorld
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THE GOVERNMENT MODEL
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Siobhan Gorman]
The State Department has pioneered an approach to network security that makes it easier for managers in large organizations to identify trouble spots, prioritize them and get them fixed fast. The program's effectiveness, in fact, has made it an unexpected model for big firms looking to bolster computer security. Responsible for protecting computer networks for 400 U.S. embassies and offices across 24 time zones, State faces a cybersecurity challenge that in many ways mirrors that of a multinational company. Its program scans computers throughout the department every three to four days to detect security vulnerabilities, compiles the data in one place and provides grades to each office. The program differs from commercially available network-monitoring programs in that it uses a market-based approach to create incentives to fix security gaps. It quantifies a range of security risks and "monetizes" them into a "common currency" that assigns the most points to the highest-priority security gaps to be fixed, says John Streufert, State's chief information-security officer and one of the program's four creators. Those points are factored into a site's grade daily, so the security officials can repair the biggest gaps first, he says.
benton.org/node/91205 | Wall Street Journal
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TELEVISION
TV IN FOR A RIDE
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Habib Kairouz]
It is now widely accepted by the major industry stakeholders, content owners, cable operators, consumer electronics manufacturers and new startups that the following trends are unavoidable:
Consumers will demand linear and on demand, short-form and user generated videos, to be viewed anytime, anywhere and on multiple devices. I believe that companies that build models to meet that demand will win. Those that deny it will go on life support.
TV rooms in homes will have multiple screens running simultaneously, presenting a much better form factor to interface with the TV set than the traditional remote control. Most new TV-viewing devices will be Internet connected in 10 years.
A substantial percentage of programming will have on demand, time shifted and interactive capabilities. New formats of programming with embedded interactive applications will emerge, and social TV will take off.
Advertising will be targeted and personalized, at the individual and household levels, using legacy data from the settop box as well as ongoing rich data being generated every day, unless regulators step in to over restrict that. Smart marketers are already challenging the convention of TV time buying by demanding the same accountability that they are getting in their online buys.
This is going to be a much tougher fight than the last round of disruption, and here’s why:
The stakes are enormous.
Content owners are positioned to benefit.
Cable operators are frienemies.
TV Manufacturers See Opportunity with Embedded Software.
New Entrants Ignition for the Entire Disruption.
[Kairouz is a managing partner of Rho Capital Partners and Rho Ventures]
benton.org/node/91184 | GigaOm
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TIME WARNER, DIRECTV LOBBY FCC
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Joe Flint]
Rival distributors Time Warner Cable and satellite broadcaster DirecTV teamed up to make their case to the Federal Communications Commission for an overhaul the agency's retransmission consent rules. DirecTV Chief Executive Mike White and Time Warner Cable head Glenn Britt met with FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Robert McDowell to discuss the tensions that have arisen over the last few years between broadcasters and multichannel video program distributor over fees broadcasters want in return for carriage of their programming. "We explained that the retransmission consent fees demanded by broadcast stations continue to skyrocket and that the outdated regulatory regime, which prevents true marketplace negotiations, results in harm to consumers," wrote Cristina Pauze, Time Warner Cable's vice president of regulatory affairs in a disclosure letter. There have been several examples of heated negotiations between broadcasters and cable operators over distribution deals. The FCC has already launched a review of its rules regarding retransmission consent to see if they need updating to limit the possibility of signals going off the air because the two sides are unable to reach an agreement. Time Warner and DirecTV also said they told the commission it should require "the unbundling of broadcast and cable programming channels." That refers to companies that own broadcast and cable networks packaging said channels together rather than selling them on an individual basis. News Corp., parent of the Fox network as well as several cable networks, typically tries to bundle its channels together when negotiating with a cable or satellite operator. The advantage to bundling is that a weaker channel can get distribution it might not otherwise get because it is packaged with a stronger one.
benton.org/node/91117 | Los Angeles Times
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WHAT PEOPLE WATCH
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Wayne Friedman]
Over the past five years, sports programming has climbed sharply among U.S. viewers -- with reality TV programming maintaining its position at the most dominant TV genre. A report from The Nielsen Company says in the 2010-2011 season, sports programming commanded 20% of the 187 million U.S. viewers ages 2 years and older. This is up from 19.4% the year before, and 9.4% and 8.1% in the two preceding years. Reality television still commands the biggest share of U.S. TV viewing -- now at 56.4% for the 2010-2011 season. This is up from 47.9% the year before. The high spot for reality came in the 2007-2008 season, where it had a 77.3% share of all U.S. TV viewing. The year before it had a 68.3% share. Scripted drama TV shows are in second place behind reality, accounting for 23.6% of U.S. TV viewing in 2010-2011 -- down from 32.7% in 2009-2010 and 32.8% in 2008-2009 season. During the last decade, scripted dramas were at their lowest point in the 2007-2008 season (14.6%) and the 2002-2003 season (11.0%). Their highest was in the 2005-2006 season, accounting for 42.8% of the total audience.
At the beginning of the decade, in the 2001-2002 season, things were very different. Reality accounted for 22.4% share -- with the highest viewing going to sitcom TV viewing at around 38.9%. Dramas were next at 29.5%.
benton.org/node/91110 | MediaPost
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WIRELESS/SPECTRUM
GOP TURNS ATTENTION TO LIGHTSQUARED
[SOURCE: Politico, AUTHOR: Eliza Krigman]
After hitting political pay dirt with the Solyndra scandal, Republicans now have a new target for charges of White House cronyism: wireless upstart LightSquared. Despite key differences between the companies — LightSquared has not received a loan from the government, nor has it filed for bankruptcy — chairmen of two House committees this week used LightSquared’s name interchangeably with scandal-plagued Solyndra. Republicans on the House Science and Technology Committee, meanwhile, demanded the White House turn over documents chronicling interactions with LightSquared and other lawmakers joined the chorus slinging charges.
benton.org/node/91182 | Politico
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HILL PRESSURE ON LIGHTSQUARED
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
LightSquared's waiver has become the topic du jour in DC, what with Michele Bachmann (R-MN) taking aim at the President and the Federal Communications Commission and the company claiming to have found a tech fix to the GPS interference problem. Interest on Capitol Hill continues to be high, with House Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner (R-OH), joined by five other House colleagues, now calling for a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee investigation into how the FCC granted the company use of satellite spectrum for terrestrial wireless broadband, or as Chairman Turner put it in a release: "investigation in the role of the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the White House, and the Harbinger Capital Partners hedge fund, in a short-circuited rule making process which threatens to jeopardize national security." In the letter Chairman Turner and the others, all Republican members of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, claimed that witnesses at a recent LightSquared hearing were asked by the White House during testimony prep to include language they did not agree with, saying they feared that was an example of bias toward LightSquared.
benton.org/node/91112 | Broadcasting&Cable
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THE SUNGARD MEME
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: John Bergmayer]
[Commentary] One of the annoying little memes that’s been going around regarding the AT&T/T-Mobile antitrust suit is that Judge Ellen Huvelle, because of her past ruling against the government’s antitrust action in US v. SunGard Data Systems, is somehow predisposed to find against the government in antitrust cases generally. This makes as much sense as saying that because the government didn't prove its case against one burglar that all future burglars are going to go free. Not only is it preposterous to draw broad conclusions from a sample set of one (no other antitrust action before Judge Huvelle went to trial), there are specific reasons why SunGard is not a useful predictor of what will happen this time around.
benton.org/node/91107 | Public Knowledge
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CONTENT
GOOGLE NEWS TWEAKS ALGORITHM
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Eric Carvin]
Google News, which has long relied on automation to deliver news content from countless providers, has announced a twist in its algorithm: It will now recognize "featured" content among the tens of thousands of stories it delivers every day. Google announced that news organizations can now add "standout" metadata tags to stories they're proudest of -- like exclusives, scoops and investigative projects -- and the U.S. edition of Google News will consider including a "featured" label with the story on its news homepage and in search results. There's no guarantee a story tagged this way will be featured, but Google's algorithm will factor the tag into its decisions, the company said. "We can showcase that standout piece of journalism in Google News by putting a `featured' label in front of it," said Google News product specialist David Smydra. "And that featured label will help that article persist while other news organizations are following and developing their coverage on that story."
benton.org/node/91196 | Associated Press
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JOURNALISM
HOW PEOPLE LEARN ABOUT THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITY
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Tom Rosenstiel]
Contrary to much of the conventional understanding of how people learn about their communities, Americans turn to a wide range of platforms to get local news and information, and where they turn varies considerably depending and the subject matter and their age, according to a survey by the Pew. Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project, produced in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation that asks about local information in a new way. Most Americans, including more tech-savvy adults under age 40, also use a blend of both new and traditional sources to get their information. Overall, the picture revealed by the data is that of a richer and more nuanced ecosystem of community news and information than researchers have previously identified.
Notable themes that emerge from the survey:
The most popular local topics are weather (89% of people get it), breaking news (80%); local politics (67%) and crime (66%). The least popular on our list of topics are zoning and development information (30%), local social services (35%), job openings (39%) and local government activities (42%).
Nearly half of adults (47%) use mobile devices to get local news and information. Not surprisingly, mobile is particularly popular for “out and about” categories of information, such as restaurants. And 41% of all adults can be considered “local news participators” because they contribute their own information via social media and other sources, add to online conversations, and directly contribute articles about the community. Both these groups are substantially more likely than others to use the Internet to get local news and information on almost all topics.
Social media is becoming a factor in how people learn about their local community, but it is not as popular as other digital forms. In all, 17% of adults say they get local information on social networking sites like Facebook at least monthly.
Mobile phone applications, or “apps,” have yet to emerge for most local topic areas. Even now, though, 5% of Americans say they rely on a mobile app for weather information.
Old-fashioned word of mouth is still a factor in sharing local news and information, especially at the neighborhood level for information about local businesses, restaurants and schools. In all 55% of all adults get local news and information via word of mouth at least once a week. Word of mouth is particularly likely to be cited by younger residents as one of their top platforms for community events. Adults age 40 and older are more likely to prefer word of mouth as a source for local politics, local government activity, housing and real estate, zoning, and social services.
The websites of newspapers and TV stations do not score highly as a relied-upon information source on any topics. They have gained modest footholds as sources that users rely upon for a variety of topics, including weather information, crime, politics, and breaking news, but overall they consistently score in the low single digits when it comes to being the source that people rely upon on any of the topics we queried.
benton.org/node/91213 | Project for Excellence in Journalism | New York Times | The Hill
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PRESS CRITICIZED
[SOURCE: Pew Research Center, AUTHOR: ]
Negative opinions about the performance of news organizations now equal or surpass all-time highs on nine of 12 core measures the Pew Research Center has been tracking since 1985. However, these bleak findings are put into some perspective by the fact that news organizations are more trusted sources of information than are many other institutions, including government and business. Further, people rate the performance of the news organizations they rely on much more positively than they rate the performance of news organizations generally. And the public’s impressions of the national media may be influenced more by their opinions of cable news outlets than their views of other news sources, such as network or local TV news, newspapers or Internet news outlets. When asked what first comes to mind when they think of “news organizations,” most name a cable news outlet, with CNN and Fox News receiving the most mentions by far.
benton.org/node/91097 | Pew Research Center
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HACKING SUIT COMING TO US
[SOURCE: The Wrap, AUTHOR: Lucas Shaw]
Mark Lewis, a UK lawyer who represents the family of hacking victim Milly Dowler, has consulted with U.S. lawyers about bringing a case against the News Corp. board within the next couple weeks. Lewis told various news outlets that he instructed New York-based lawyer Norman Siegel to get statements from News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, his son James, who oversees the company's international subsidiaries, and other members of the board of directors. He advised Siegel to pursue depositions even before filing papers, which should happen next week. Lewis is already in the process of negotiating the biggest settlement in the hacking scandal, on behalf of Dowler's family.
benton.org/node/91177 | Wrap, The
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DIGITAL JOURNALISM
[SOURCE: Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AUTHOR: Press release]
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting awarded a $1.25 million grant to the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) to launch Localore, an initiative that will increase public media’s capacity for local news and public affairs journalism. CPB’s investment will help AIR identify multi-media producers and public radio and television stations to form 10 teams that will develop innovative ways to produce and distribute local news and features. The teams will focus on sharing new and untold stories from their communities. Each project will include elements for on-air radio or television broadcast, as well as online and social media components – such as online streaming, mobile applications or games – all designed to help stations establish new ways to reach and better serve their communities. AIR will serve as executive producer of Localore and will help the station/producer teams conceptualize their topics and approaches, provide on-going editorial guidance, and coordinate collaboration and content sharing. The project will begin with a diverse group of approximately 20 stations from coast-to-coast, with others expected during the six weeks of open call for stations. AIR will share the models created as part of this initiative with other public media producers, stations, and those invested in strengthening public media. In addition, AIR will provide training, create a "bluebook" that documents best practices of the project, and showcase the material generated by the local teams on-line and on-air. AIR is working with Independent Television Service (ITVS), the National Black Programming Consortium and the public media minority consortia to implement Localore. Additional funders of Localore include the Wyncote Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
benton.org/node/91187 | Corporation for Public Broadcasting
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SELLING ITEMS REVIEWED BY MAGAZINES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Wilson]
Fashion magazines are suddenly getting into the retailing business. While the glossies have long had a reputation for accommodating the designers they cover, sometimes guaranteeing coverage to those who advertise in their pages, a wave of new ventures and partnerships suggests they are willing to go even further by selling the designers’ clothes. It is a move that is raising some eyebrows in the industry, as magazines like Vogue, GQ and Esquire, struggling to survive in an online world, could potentially become competitors to stores like Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Barneys New York.
benton.org/node/91208 | New York Times
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