November 2014

Amazon, Unclear on Diversity

Amazon, like most tech companies, is staffed and run mostly by white males.

Its global work force is 63 percent male and 37 percent female. Its managers are 75 percent male and 25 percent female. global work force is 63 percent male and 37 percent female. Its managers are 75 percent male and 25 percent female. Rainbow PUSH said Amazon’s numbers were not as good as they appeared, and criticized the company for a lack of candor. “Their general work force data released by Amazon seems intentionally deceptive, as the company did not include the race or gender breakout of their technical work force. The broad assumption is that a high percentage of their black and Latino employees work in their warehouses.” Rainbow PUSH said it was seeking meetings with Amazon to pursue the matter. It noted that the retailer, like many tech companies, had “an all-male management” and no blacks or Latinos on its board.

Pianist asks The Washington Post to remove a concert review under the EU’s ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling

The pianist Dejan Lazic, like many artists and performers, is occasionally the subject of bad reviews. Also like other artists, he reads those reviews. And disagrees with them. And gripes over them, sometimes. But because Lazic lives in Europe, where in May the European Union ruled that individuals have a “right to be forgotten” online, he decided to take the griping one step further: On Oct. 30, he sent The Washington Post a request to remove a 2010 review by Post classical music critic Anne Midgette that -- he claims -- has marred the first page of his Google results for years. It’s the first request The Post has received under the EU ruling. It’s also a truly fascinating, troubling demonstration of how the ruling could work.

MVPD Status for OVDs Could Benefit TV Stations

[Commentary] A close look at Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposal to make online video distributors (OVDs) the regulatory and legal equal of cable and satellite with all the same rights and obligations means such services, including Aereo, would be subject to retransmission consent. This is a big deal and television broadcasters at all levels will need to be fully engaged in the rulemaking to make sure it doesn't go bad for broadcasters.

American Enterprise Institute’s Aron Nominated for Broadcasting Board of Governors

President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Dr Leon Aron to be a member of Broadcasting Board of Governors.

Aron is Resident Scholar and Director of Russian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a position he has held since 1993. He was a weekly Contributor at the Voice of America’s Russian language radio and television show Gliadya iz Ameriki (Looking from America) from 1990 to 2004. Dr. Aron was previously an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University from 1994 to 1996 and a Senior Policy Analyst at the Heritage Foundation from 1987 to 1992. He was awarded the Peace Fellowship from the US Institute of Peace from 1992 to 1993. Dr. Aron received a B.A. from Moscow State Pedagogical Institute and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Chicago Tribune buys 38 Chicago Sun-Times suburban papers

Tribune Publishing Co. is purchasing the Sun-Times suburban newspaper chain, cementing its dominance in the Chicago metro region and giving it new muscle with advertisers. The company announced it is buying six daily and 32 weekly Sun-Times Media papers from Chicago-based Wrapports LLC, adding a group that has a collective daily circulation of 72,000, with 87,000 on Sundays and 52,000 weekly. While the Chicago Tribune has long dominated the metro newspaper market against the No. 2 Chicago Sun-Times and its suburban chain, the additional papers will let the Chicago Tribune penetrate the suburbs to an extent that it never was able to achieve with its TribLocal suburban coverage.

Analyst Blames SVOD For Falling TV Ratings

In a new report, analyst Todd Juenger of Sanford C. Bernstein, says the big third quarter drop in C3 ratings for ad-supported TV is largely the fault of subscription video on demand players like Netflix and Amazon. And that the erosion is likely to increase. Checking data from both Nielsen and Rentrak, Juenger believes the decline is real and not just a measurement error.

Five Predictions for How Data Will Change TV This Season

TV advertisers need to prepare for five major shifts in the year ahead: 1) Third-party data will become the new currency; 2) Data will be crucial for media-mix decisions; 3) Closed-loop analytics will be the standard; 4) Privacy will be a key conversation; and 5) TV will no longer just be "TV".
[Wright is VP-global product management for Experian Marketing Services]

The Internet Archive, Trying to Encompass All Creation

In the mid-1990s, when many saw the nascent World Wide Web as a place to sell things, Brewster Kahle saw it as data that cried out to be preserved and cataloged. Later, he widened his scope to include material -- film, books, music -- that was not native to the web but could be digitally gathered there. By most standards, Kahle has been pretty successful.

The Internet Archive serves from two to three million visitors a day with such tools as the Wayback Machine, which provides snapshots of 435 billion Web pages saved over time. The archive has seven million texts (you could call them books), 2.1 million audio recordings, and 1.8 million videos. It is an immense library. Kahle has even bigger dreams, however. With a limited staff, the archive can conserve only so much. But if anyone can become a curator, the archive may one day resemble one of those Borgesian fantasies of the Total Library, a place that not only collects the world but becomes it.

Facebook Wants You to Vote on Tuesday. Here's How It Messed With Your Feed in 2012.

[Commentary] The social network tries to promote voting, but it also has conducted tests that affect users' voting behavior -- without telling them.

[Sifry is the co-founder of Personal Democracy Media]

In China, Internet Czar Is Taking a Blunt Tone

Lu Wei, the head of the Cyberspace Administration of China and a key member of the newly formed Cybersecurity and Informatization Leading Group, explained the Chinese government’s position on Facebook. ‘‘China has always been hospitable, and we welcome anyone to come to China,’’ Lu said, according an official transcript of a news conference with foreign media, adding, ‘‘We cannot change others, but we have the right to choose our friends. I hope anyone who comes to China will be our real friends.’’ Just to be clear on what it means to be friends with China, Lu added: ‘‘I didn’t say Facebook could not enter China, but nor did I say that it could. Foreign Internet companies can come to China if they abide by the law. We could not allow any companies to enter China’s market and make money while hurting the country.’’ The rather blunt expression of economic nationalism might seem a gaffe, but it is characteristic of a new swagger that the Chinese government, and Lu in particular, have brought to discussing how China polices the Internet.

Benton

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