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Benton media news digest – August 2009

ACCESS AND THE INTERNET
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] On the Internet today, a Web site run by a solo blogger can load as quickly as any corporate home page. Internet service providers, including leading cable and phone companies, want to be able to change that so they can give priority to businesses that pay, or make deals with, them. A good bill that would guarantee so-called Network Neutrality has been introduced in the House. Congress should pass it, and the Obama administration should use its considerable power to make net neutrality the law. If Internet service providers are allowed to choose among content, it would be bad for everyone but the service providers. Businesses could slow down or block their competitors' Web content. A cable company whose leaders disapprove of a particular political or social cause could block sites supporting that cause.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/opinion/29sat3.html

NIELSEN: NUMBER OF TV HOUSEHOLDS UP BY 400,000
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Nielsen says the number of TV households has increased by 400,000 to 114.9 million, the smallest increase in the last decade. Nielsen announced the bump as it prepares to start rating the new TV season for 2090-2010.
http://benton.org/outgoingframe/27472

SUPREME COURT TO REVISIT 'HILLARY' DOCUMENTARY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Adam Liptak]
The Supreme Court will cut short its summer break in early September to hear a new argument in a momentous case that could transform the way political campaigns are conducted. The case, which arises from a minor political documentary called "Hillary: The Movie," seemed an oddity when it was first argued in March. Just six months later, it has turned into a juggernaut with the potential to shatter a century-long understanding about the government's ability to bar corporations from spending money to support political candidates. The case has also deepened a profound split among liberals, dividing those who view government regulation of political speech as an affront to the First Amendment from those who believe that unlimited corporate campaign spending is a threat to democracy. At issue is whether the court should overrule a 1990 decision, Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, which upheld restrictions on corporate spending to support or oppose political candidates.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/us/30scotus.html

ARMY USED PROFILES TO REJECT REPORTERS
[SOURCE: Stars and Stripes, AUTHOR: Leo Shane III]
The secret profiles commissioned by the Pentagon to rate the work of journalists reporting from Afghanistan were used by military officials to deny disfavored reporters access to American fighting units or otherwise influence their coverage as recently as 2008, an Army official acknowledged Friday. What's more, the official said, Army public affairs officers used the analyses of reporters' work to decide how to steer them away from potentially negative stories. "If a reporter has been focused on nothing but negative topics, you're not going to send him into a unit that's not your best," Maj. Patrick Seiber, spokesman for the Army's 101st Airborne Division, told Stars and Stripes. "There's no win-win there for us. We're not trying to control what they report, but we are trying to put our best foot forward."
http://benton.org/outgoingframe/27470

E-BOOKS COULD SPELL THE END FOR HARDBACKS
[SOURCE:  Financial Times, AUTHOR: Ben Hall]
Hardback books could be killed off if Amazon's e-books and Google's digital library force publishers to slash prices, Arnaud Nourry, chief executive of French publishing group Hachette, has warned. Nourry said unilateral pricing by Google, Amazon and other e-book retailers such as Barnes & Noble could destroy publishers' profits. He said publishers were "very hostile" to Amazon's pricing strategy - over which the online retailer failed to consult publishers - to charge $9.99 for all its e-books in the US. He also pointed to plans by Google to put millions of out-of-copyright books online for public use.
http://benton.org/outgoingframe/27481

BOOKS: CONSOLIDATION IS THE BIG STORY
[SOURCE:  Financial Times, AUTHOR: Ben Hall]
The book publishing industry will have to consolidate if it is to stand up to Amazon, Google and a few other dominant retailers of electronic books, according to the chief executive of Hachette Livre, the world's second- largest publisher by sales. Arnaud Nourry said publishers needed to be big to maintain their pricing power in "brutal" talks with the handful of booksellers that would dominate the digital age. "We are at the beginning of the process of transformation where size and the capacity to impose viable business models will be essential," he said.
http://benton.org/outgoingframe/27480

STORY NOT ALL BLEAK FOR NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY'S OUTLOOK
[SOURCE:  Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Martin Zimmerman]
Advertising sales firmed a bit in June at major newspaper chains such as Gannett Co. and New York Times Co., enabling those companies to post unexpectedly strong second-quarter profits. Newspaper stocks rallied sharply -- Gannett shares have rocketed 156% since the end of June -- as some investors bet that aggressive cost cutting has positioned the companies for higher profit once the economy rebounds. Publishers are finally talking seriously about charging for the online content they now offer for free. And small-town daily and weekly papers are holding their own even as many of their big-city brethren struggle. Read between the lines, though, and the news isn't so upbeat. At most papers, profit growth was driven mostly by cost cutting, not higher revenue from selling more ads or increasing circulation. Reaching into the wallets of the 70 million people who visited newspaper websites in June sounds lucrative, but publishers are still debating how to do that without alienating readers. And that stock rally? Despite the recent run, Gannett shares are worth half what they were a year ago, and the U.S. economy is flashing conflicting signals about the prospects for a robust recovery. Failures continue to loom. Freedom Communications Inc., operator of the Orange County Register, is expected to declare bankruptcy this week.
http://benton.org/outgoingframe/27482

YOU'RE GONE. BUY HEY, YOU CAN REAPPLY.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: David Carr]
The curious approach to cutbacks at The Journal News, a Westchester daily owned by Gannett, a daily paper, which covers Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties in New York. Oddly, the suburban newspaper is at the vanguard of the industry: reporters at The Journal News don't work in a newsroom, they are part of an "Information Center"; they don't cover beats, they cover "topics"; and in a new wrinkle to an old story, the staff was not being laid off, but becoming part of a "comprehensive restructuring plan." Specifically, the 288 news and advertising employees at The Journal News were told that jobs were being redefined and that they all would need to reapply for the new positions and that by the time the re-org music stopped, 70 of them would be without jobs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/business/media/31carr.html

EU'S REDING BACKS GOOGLE IN ONLINE BOOKS ROW
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: John O'Donnell]
The European Union's Commissioner for Information Society and Media Viviane Reding has thrown her weight behind Internet search group Google in the row over whether it should be allowed to publish millions of scanned books online. On Thursday she added her voice to the debate welcoming "private-sector initiatives" such as Google's. "Google Books is a commercial project developed by an important player," Commissioner Reding said. "It is good to see that new business models are evolving which could allow bringing more content to an increasing number of consumers." Reding's opinion is significant as the former journalist is optimistic she will keep her position as commissioner in charge of telecoms and media when the European Union's new cabinet of commissioners is chosen later this year.
http://benton.org/node/27460

WHAT PARENTS DON'T KNOW
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Jack Loechner]
According to a recent Common Sense Media survey, fielded by The Benenson Strategy Group, to examine how social networks are affecting kids and families, parents have a lot to learn when it comes to their children's behaviors online, writes Marketing Charts in summary. 49% of parents say their child was age 13 or older before starting unsupervised surfing, but just 14% of teens say they actually waited this long. The results of the poll illustrate a continuing disconnect between parents and kids when it comes to kids' digital lives. The survey of both teens and parents found that many teens use the Internet as a forum for gossip, sharing and blowing off steam, but others, unbeknownst to their parents, are also engaging in bullying and risqué behavior online.
http://benton.org/node/27440

FACEBOOK KNOWS TOO MUCH, ACLU SAYS IN WARNING OF QUIZZES
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Scott Duke Harris]
Privacy advocates have long warned that users of Facebook and other social networks who seek amusement from quizzes like "What Simpsons Character Are You?" might be mortified by the way creators of such applications can access and potentially "scrape" personal information — not just about the quiz-takers, but their friends as well. Now, engaging in some online jujitsu, the ACLU of Northern California is employing a cautionary Facebook quiz of its own to illustrate how quizzes that may seem "perfectly harmless" can release an array of data to the wider world — including users' "religion, sexual orientation, political affiliation, photos, events, notes, wall posts, and groups." The app, titled "What Do Facebook Quizzes Know About You?" delivers its answer by opening a window that scrolls biographical data, attributed comments and photos. More than 8,000 participants have taken the ACLU's quiz since it was quietly released a few days ago, the ACLU said Wednesday. The group hopes to prompt Facebook to upgrade its privacy default settings for its users, now numbering more than 250 million.
http://benton.org/node/27461

TIME TO BE AFRAID OF THE WEB?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eduardo Porter]
[Commentary] Internet users used to comfort themselves by thinking that to become victims of the pirates of the Web, they had to frequent the online porn circuit or respond to an e-mail from the widowed wife of the former central bank governor of Nigeria. The idea was that one had to do something naughty to get caught in the wrongdoers' net, or at least go for a late-night stroll in the rough end of town. But the conceit has become untenable. Perhaps cybercops will respond more aggressively to Internet threats as they spread to the more wholesome parts of the Web, like police forces that leave crime alone in the poor parts of town but snap into action when it seeps into middle-class neighborhoods.
http://benton.org/node/27462

WIFI ON STEROIDS? FIRST "WHITEFI" PROTOTYPES HIT TESTING STAGE
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Nate Anderson]
When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made the momentous decision late in 2008 to allow unlicensed broadcasting devices access to "white spaces" in the television spectrum, backers hailed the move as a major step forward for US wireless networking. "WiFi on steroids," was how one engineer put it during the debate. But for white space devices to move from laboratory concept to store shelves, they would need more than steroids; they would need some sophisticated engineering. That's because the FCC imposed two critical conditions: whitespace devices must sense local transmissions from televisions and wireless microphones in order to avoid transmitting on those frequencies, and the devices must also access a geolocation database of known transmitters as a backup solution in case spectrum sensing failed. Google, Microsoft, and others promptly got to work on the database, and spectrum sensing technology has already existed commercially for years. But how would a white space device—say, one located in the kitchen next to the family computer—actually communicate with the access point providing a connection to the Internet?
http://benton.org/node/27442

FILES PROVE PENTAGON IS PROFILING REPORTERS
[SOURCE: Stars and Stripes, AUTHOR: Charlie Reed, Kevin Baron, Leo Shane]
Contrary to the insistence of Pentagon officials this week that they are not rating the work of reporters covering US forces in Afghanistan, Stars and Stripes has obtained documents that prove that reporters' coverage is being graded as "positive," "neutral" or "negative." Moreover, the documents — recent confidential profiles of the work of individual reporters prepared by a Pentagon contractor — indicate that the ratings are intended to help Pentagon image-makers manipulate the types of stories that reporters produce while they are embedded with U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The new revelations of the Pentagon's attempts to shape war coverage come as senior Defense Department officials are acknowledging increasing concern over recent opinion polls showing declining popular American support for the Afghan war. The American Federation of Radio & Television Artists Wednesday joined the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and other groups to condemn the US military's actions.
http://benton.org/node/27415

HOW WEB CHANGES PATIENT-DOCTOR RELATIONSHIP
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Gavin O'Malley]
Immediately following a doctor's diagnosis, nearly half of consumers report using a search engine to further research their alleged conditions, according to a new study conducted by About.com. What is driving this behavior? Disconcertingly, only 35% of consumers say they completely trust their doctor's diagnoses. For better or worse, "the patient-doctor visits are no longer just one way conversations but rather on-going dialogues," the study concludes. "People are going online to educate themselves and confirm doctors' diagnosis."
http://benton.org/node/27408

MOST PEOPLE DON'T UNDERSTAND BROADBAND
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
Daily has a mother-in-law moment and realizes that, for most people, broadband's just a faster way to get onto the Internet than dialup. And because the public doesn't understand bandwidth and why they'd need/want more, it makes it that much more difficult to spark a nationwide movement demanding networks be built with greater capacity. So a key cornerstone of any effort to change America's broadband future, must be recognizing how much work needs to be done educating the public about broadband and committing ourselves to overcoming these challenges.
http://benton.org/node/27383ß

NIELSEN DECIDES NOT TO CONTROL FOR PCs IN RATINGS
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Joe Mandese]
TV ratings giant Nielsen has decided not to adjust its national TV ratings sample to ensure that it properly represents households equipped with personal computers or Internet access. The decision follows an annual review of the process Nielsen uses to determine what types of households and individuals to mathematically "weight" to ensure that they represent the population at large. Nielsen historically has used the weighting process to adjust for an under-representation of certain kinds of households, especially harder-to-recruit ones such as minorities, to ensure that their viewing habits are properly represented in its national TV ratings. But after conducting some testing, Nielsen executives concluded that adding weights for the presence of a personal computer or Internet access in under-represented households would provide "no significant change or enhancement" to its national TV ratings sample.
http://benton.org/node/27377

MEDIA HELPED ELECT OBAMA?
[SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Greg Mitchell]
[Commentary] It was exactly one year ago this week that there was a true turning point in the 2008 race for the White House. And it had little to do with Barack Obama. One might even say that it boiled down to the media helping to elect him -- but not by supporting him, in the way conservatives often charge. Instead, it involved coverage that very well could have hurt him, but that ended up rebounding in his favor, big time. It was the electronic media's overblown coverage of the allegedly widespread threat by female Hillary delegates, and other Clinton fans, to bolt Obama in favor of McCain. John McCain and his people bought it, hook, line and sinker. They saw an opening, which really wasn't there, and went completely overboard. Not only did a female VP suddenly look like a great idea, but she would have extra appeal to the particular type of Hillary primary voters so hyped by the media.
http://benton.org/node/27378

DISSOCIATED PRESS
[SOURCE:  Financial Times, AUTHOR: James Boyle]
[Commentary] The Associated Press can't make enough out of legal uses of its content under the business models it has in place. One nice side effect of introducing the new service is to shift discussion away from the fact that its business model is failing and towards proposed technical and -- I would predict -- legal changes to safeguard that model. These may or may not be good ideas. But whichever way one comes out on that issue, one shouldn't be fooled by the meme that the newspaper industry in general and the AP in particular is in trouble mainly because of uses of its content that are illicit under current law. Universities may make news gathering a larger part of their mission. Subscription services may spring up to support a particular journalist or coverage of a particular issue. Newspapers may indeed start charging more aggressively for their news. Rupert Murdoch certainly plans to. Maybe the AP's tracking beacons will even have a role, though I doubt it. What we need is radically imaginative experimentation; public and private. And that is something we are unlikely to get if we succumb to either digital complacency or tales of piratical alarm.
http://benton.org/node/27368

YOUTUBE TO SHARE AD MONEY WITH MORE VIDEO MAKERS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Yinka Adegoke]
YouTube, the world's most popular video sharing site, said on Tuesday it will start sharing advertising cash with users who upload the most popular clips of everything from skateboarding dogs to dancing babies. The video site, which is owned by Web search giant Google, said it will extend its YouTube partnership program to allow individuals to make money when their videos are deemed eligible based on the number of views and how widely they are shared with other users. YouTube has been criticized by some Google investors, who complain that the site has failed to capitalize financially on its immense popularity.
http://benton.org/node/27381

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE WEB
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The Obama administration is considering new rules to make it easier for government Web sites to use "cookies" and other technology to track visitors. There are valid reasons for using such tools, but the government has to build in robust privacy protections. The Office of Management and Budget is developing the new rules. Officials say they recognize that people must be told that their use of Web sites is being tracked — and be given a chance to opt out. More is needed. The government should commit to displaying such notices prominently on all Web pages — and to making it easy for users to choose not to be tracked. It must promise that tracking data will be used only for the purpose it was collected for: if someone orders a pamphlet on living with cancer, it should not end up in a general database. Information should be purged regularly and as quickly as possible. These rules must apply to third parties that operate on government sites. The Obama administration is working to better harness the power of the Internet to deliver government services. That is good. But it needs to be mindful that people should be able to get help and be assured that their privacy is being vigilantly protected.
http://benton.org/node/27360

ADVOCATES BLAMED FOR WHITEHOUSE.GOV GOOF
[SOURCE: National Journal, AUTHOR: Beth Sussman]
After individuals went on Fox News and took to the Internet last week complaining they'd received unsolicited e-mails from the White House, the administration said it would change how it collects addresses. That's a good idea, e-mail experts say, because the White House has plenty of room for improvement. "I would grade their e-mail collection process as an F," said Marco Marini, CEO of ClickMail Marketing, citing privacy and e-mail campaign effectiveness concerns. The box at the top of WhiteHouse.gov allows anyone to subscribe by simply typing in an e-mail address and ZIP code. What's stopping my friend, or political opponent, from signing me up, Marini wondered? Adding an e-mail confirmation step would be "very easy to implement and would save a lot of headaches," he said.
http://benton.org/node/27344

UK PROPOSES CUTTING WEB ACCESS TO FILE SHARERS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Kate Holton]
Repeat offenders who persist in illegally downloading music from file-sharing sites such as Limewire could be blocked from accessing the Web under British government proposals issued on Tuesday. The government said it was publishing new ideas to speed up the process of tackling unlawful peer-to-peer file sharing to prevent damage to the content industries. Proposals include requiring Internet Service Providers to take action against individual repeat infringers, including blocking access to download sites, reducing broadband speeds or by temporarily suspending an individual's Internet account.
http://benton.org/node/27350
 
AMERICANS NEED THE MEDIA TO GIVE US THE TRUTH IN THE HEALTHCARE DEBATE
[SOURCE:  Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Neal Gabler]
[Commentary] As we head toward next month's congressional face-off on a national healthcare bill, the news media are infatuated with town hall meetings. Over and over, we see angry citizens screaming about a Big Government takeover of the healthcare system, shouting that they will lose their insurance or be forced to give up their doctors and denouncing "death panels" that will euthanize old people. Of course, none of this is even remotely true. These are all canards peddled by insurance companies terrified of losing their power and profits, by right-wing militants terrified of a victory for the president they hate and by the Republican Party, which has been commandeered by the insurance industry and the militants. But the lies have obviously had their effect. One can't expect Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin or the Republican Party or even the Democrats to provide serious, truthful assessments of a complex health plan. Truth has to come from somewhere else -- from a reliable, objective, trustworthy source. That source should be the media, and there has been, in fact, some excellent coverage of healthcare, especially by our better newspapers and especially lately when the untruths have become a torrent, rousing reporters to provide a corrective. But overall, the coverage has not been exactly edifying.
http://benton.org/node/27356

BRINGING DIVERSITY TO THE NEWSROOM IS NOT THE SAME AS BRINGING DIVERSITY TO THE COVERAGE
[SOURCE: Nieman Watchdog, AUTHOR: Neil Reisner]
[Commentary] Let's stipulate that newsrooms should resemble the communities they serve and that after at least three decades of effort, according to surveys by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, they don't. So, maybe it's time to change the subject. Maybe it's time to acknowledge that "one from Column A and two from column B" efforts to make newsrooms diverse are really just tokenism in drag and won't inherently change how we cover minority or ethnic communities. Maybe it's time to put as much effort into the latter as we do the former.
http://benton.org/node/27337

WHAT'S KEEPING NEWS ORGANIZATIONS FROM TRYING THE "LOW-PROFIT" MODEL?
[SOURCE: Nieman Journalism Lab, AUTHOR: Jim Barnett]
[Commentary] With so many journalism luminaries focused this week on new business models at Aspen Institute's FOCAS09 conference, I was a little surprised not to hear more about the potential for the low-profit limited liability corporation, or L3C. The L3C is a hybrid corporation that straddles the line between for-profit and nonprofit enterprise. Vermont last year was the first state to pass a law allowing formation of L3Cs, and Illinois this month became the most recent. Several other states are considering similar legislation, as is Congress. Some have looked to the L3C model as a solution for newspapers because it allows a corporation to take on investors who are willing to accept varying rates of return ­ or possibly none at all. Foundations would be assured that their investment would qualify as a program-related investment ­ a crucial distinction under tax law ­ while socially responsible investors might be willing to settle for, say, a 3 percent return. So where is the grand experiment in L3C newspaper journalism? We're still waiting to find out. One of the big problems is that nobody really wants to go first, says Jay Hamilton, director of the DeWitt Center at Duke University. The concept remains fraught with uncertainties, not the least of which is whether newspapers can return to profitability after the recession.
http://benton.org/node/27336

POST-NEWSPAPER JOURNALISM?
[SOURCE: On the Media, AUTHOR: Jeff Jarvis]
What would happen if a major U.S. city was suddenly without a daily newspaper? It seems increasingly possible these days and so the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism set out to find an answer. They hired business analysts to create economic models for the news organizations that spring up. CUNY Professor Jeff Jarvis says journalism could thrive without a daily newspaper.
http://benton.org/node/27335

AFTER GOING TO WASHINGTON, NOW WHAT?
[SOURCE: Fighting the Next Good Fight, AUTHOR: Craig Settles]
[Commentary] Let's talk about the upside of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan workshop series. Our national broadband policy could put us on track to transform millions of lives and businesses in hundreds of communities. Or it could be great mental gymnastics that many look back on one day and wistfully ponder what could have been. Settles leans toward the former with a couple of cautions. In the past, lobbyists descend upon Congressional and agency's policy makers to conduct backroom meetings and create directives that benefit the few more than the many. Though the workshops created some grumbling early on about being weighted heavily toward technologists, the panel Settles was on and the ones following have become more representative of the constituencies that broadband - and the lack thereof  - impacts the most. Here are two things that will elevate these workshops from being good public policy stepping stones to becoming great cornerstones of an effective national strategy that pulls the country from its sad broadband standing in the world. First, the workshops need a big dose of participation by the people who actually own the problem, who feel the pain. The value of the workshops to date will be doubled or tripled if the FCC brings the people with the pain into the needs analysis process. But you have to go to them. Second, don't let the workshops be co-opted by the typical DC lobbyist machine. At some key points in the development of effective national broadband, the best interests of the those who need better broadband will not align with incumbents' perceptions of their best interests.
http://benton.org/node/27323

MINING THE WEB FOR FEELINGS, NOT FACTS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Alex Wright]
Computers may be good at crunching numbers, but can they crunch feelings? The rise of blogs and social networks has fueled a bull market in personal opinion: reviews, ratings, recommendations and other forms of online expression. For computer scientists, this fast-growing mountain of data is opening a tantalizing window onto the collective consciousness of Internet users. An emerging field known as sentiment analysis is taking shape around one of the computer world's unexplored frontiers: translating the vagaries of human emotion into hard data. This is more than just an interesting programming exercise. For many businesses, online opinion has turned into a kind of virtual currency that can make or break a product in the marketplace.
http://benton.org/node/27322

CABLE ACCOUNTS FOR 95% OF ALCOHOL ADS ON TV
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Between 2001 and 2006, alcohol ads on cable increased with the percentage of teens in the audience, according to a study by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) and UCLA to be published in the American Journal of Public Health. Cable accounts for about 95% of alcohol advertising on TV, according to the group. The study does not assert advertisers on cable were targeting youth, but it says self-regulations don't appear to be working. Advertisers strongly disagree.
http://benton.org/node/27305

FEW AMERICANS SEEM TO HEAR HEALTH CARE FACTS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Howard Kurtz]
[Commentary] The crackling, often angry debate over health-care reform has severely tested the media's ability to untangle a story of immense complexity. In many ways, news organizations have risen to the occasion; in others they have become agents of distortion. But even when they report the facts, they have had trouble influencing public opinion.
http://benton.org/node/27321

FTC TO ASSESS BUSINESS OF NEWS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Pradnya Joshi]
The Federal trade Commission is planning two days of workshops in December — titled "From Town Criers to Bloggers: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?" — to examine the state of the news industry. A report will be issued after the workshops that may make recommendations to lawmakers on changes in policies on anything ranging from taxation of news organizations to copyright issues, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said. He said no specific issues had been chosen. Though some may be uncomfortable with government oversight of any aspect of journalism, the FTC seems to be "attempting to play a facilitating and public educational role in gathering together various disciplines and perspectives to talk about the crisis in mainstream journalism," said Neil Henry, a professor and dean at the graduate school of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. "The government's willingness to raise the profile of this issue, and to help explain why it is important for a national conversation, I think in general is welcome."
http://benton.org/node/27320

SLATE REPLACES NEWSPAPER ROUNDUP WITH NEWS UPDATES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
Is no one reading the papers anymore? Slate is retiring "Today's Papers," one of the original aggregators of the Web, 12 years after it started its beloved once-a-day summary of the nation's news pages. In its place comes a new recap of the news, one that acknowledges that the news cycle has, well, sped up quite considerably since "Today's Papers" started in 1997. That is why the "Slatest," the name of the new feature that comes online Monday morning, will collect the world's news three times a day. Jack Shafer, the media columnist for Slate, observed that the news cycle had three distinct parts: an overnight shift led by newspapers, a daytime phase when other news media entities react to the overnight news, and an afternoon phase when "the day's news events break and are digested."
http://benton.org/node/27319

MILESTONE: LOCAL ONLINE TOPS TRADITIONAL
[SOURCE: Inside radio, AUTHOR: ]
For the first time, digital media use exceeds that of radio, newspaper, television and other traditional media among small and medium-sized businesses.  BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor study shows 77% of local businesses are doing some form of digital marketing.  At the same time, traditional media usage slips to 69%.
http://benton.org/node/27314

GOOGLE HELPS ADVERTISERS PREDICT HOT SEARCH TOPICS
[SOURCE: Agence France-Presse, AUTHOR: ]
Google has developed a formula to predict hot online search topics in what promises to be a boon for businesses eager to target ads that accompany Internet search results. Engineers in Google's lab in Israel came up with a forecasting model while studying whether past and current search patterns hold reliable clues to what people will seek online in months to come. More than half of the most popular search queries at Google are predictable as far as a year ahead, with a margin of error of about 12 percent, according to the Israel lab engineers.
http://benton.org/node/27303

TELECOMS CHASE AFTER GOOGLE VOICE'S INNOVATIVE CALLING FEATURES
[SOURCE:  Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Mark Milian]
Google's pickup of Grand Central, a little Web startup with big ideas for revolutionizing phone use, is starting to look pretty smart two years later. The recently revamped version called Google Voice is beginning to spread to curious consumers in a similar fashion as Gmail's closed beta helped to conquer a sector of the Web-based e-mail sector. As more people get hip to Google Voice's perks of getting free voice mail transcription and e-mail alerts, having one number ring all of your phones and scoring free calls and text messages, some telecoms are quickly working behind the scenes to catch up.
http://benton.org/node/27297

JUSTICE REVIEWING MICROSOFT-YAHOO DEAL
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Kim Hart]
The Justice Department is formally reviewing Microsoft's proposed online search and advertising agreement with Yahoo, according to sources familiar with the situation, in the first wave of opposition the deal will likely face from antitrust regulators and lawmakers. The review will also be a litmus test for how aggressive the newly appointed antitrust officials will be in regulating the online advertising industry, one of President Obama's biggest supporters. The Obama Administration has said it will increase scrutiny of anti-competitive practices in the technology sector. Consumer groups say the proposed pact could reduce competition and choice for consumers while increasing the data collected about their online behavior. Microsoft and Yahoo both process enormous amounts of information about users, and consolidating that data could lead to more in-depth tracking of online activities, privacy advocates say. "This will be a test to see whether the new Obama antitrust team has real teeth when it comes to regulating this industry," said Jeffrey Chester, founder of the Center for Digital Democracy. "If Yahoo is turning over its search business to Microsoft, it will no longer have an independent search arm," he said. "It will be a company that's incapable of competing. This is nothing more than a takeover by Microsoft." Privacy advocates have also raised questions about the deal with the European Union. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm that reviews joint ventures and mergers, has not yet said whether it will examine the deal.
http://benton.org/node/27273

GOOGLE RIVALS WILL OPPOSE BOOK SETTLEMENT
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Miguel Helft]
Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo are planning to join a coalition of nonprofit groups, individuals and library associations to oppose a proposed class-action settlement giving Google the rights to commercialize digital copies of millions of books. Gary L. Reback, an antitrust lawyer in Silicon Valley, who is acting as counsel to the coalition, said that Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo had all agreed to join the group, which is tentatively called the Open Book Alliance. The group, led by Mr. Reback and the Internet Archive, a nonprofit group that has been critical of the settlement, plans to make a case to the Justice Department that the arrangement is anticompetitive. Some library associations and groups representing authors are also planning to join the coalition, he said. Members of the alliance will most likely file objections with the court independently.
http://benton.org/node/27295

PAPER CUTS: DEEP ENOUGH TO SUSTAIN A RECOVERY?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Martin Peers]
Investors can suddenly feel a pulse in newspaper companies. But the prognosis remains troubled. Badly beaten-down newspaper stocks have doubled or tripled in recent weeks after surprisingly upbeat earnings for the quarter ended in June. A bull case has emerged: Newspaper managements have cut costs so heavily that as long as advertising stops declining, fewer publishers will print red ink. Any moderate upturn could produce significant profits. Well, maybe. Certainly, costs have been cut. In the latest quarter, for instance, most of the publicly traded publishers reported expense cuts of about 20%, close to the 20% to 25% revenue drops they also experienced. A major area for expense reduction has been employee compensation, which can account for 50% of total costs, estimates John Morton of Morton Research. Savings from layoffs should continue. But those from pay freezes or even cuts will be tougher to maintain. Then there is another area of big expense reduction: newsprint. Together with ink it can account for 15% of expenses, although significantly less in the most recent quarter.
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