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Benton media news digest – November 2009

Digital copyright
CHANGE IN COPYRIGHT LAW
[SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Evan Leatherwood]
Copyright law reform as one remedy for plummeting profits at traditional news organizations was proposed at a media affairs panel organized by the non-profit Center for Communication and hosted by Fordham University earlier this month. Dean Ringel, a partner at the New York law firm of Cahill Gordon & Reindel, advocated introducing compulsory licensing fees for Web-based agregators or re-distributors of news content. Under Ringel's system, sites like Google would be required to share profits with or pay a fee to any news organization whose content they post, in a system similar to the compulsory licensing system than currently manages rights for cable television and music. He noted that current copyright law protects the specific expression of information but does not protect the work necessary to obtain that information. Ringel argued that papers like the New York Times, which spend prodigious sums on reporter security in dangerous places around the globe, should get some of the revenue made by third-parties who distribute their content.
http://benton.org/node/30046

Fourth estate
WHY NONPROFITS NEED NEWSPAPERS
[SOURCE: Carnegie Foundation, AUTHOR: Pablo Eisenberg]
[Commentary] The potential demise of daily newspapers and investigative journalism is arguably the biggest threat to the future of our nonprofit sector. For the past twenty years, the media, notably print journalism, has assumed responsibility for keeping our nonprofit organizations publicly accountable and somewhat in balance, tempering their problems and excesses through the power and threat of information and exposure. No other institution has had a similar impact. To resuscitate the nation's daily newspapers and to kindle an intellectual bonfire in the nonprofit community would take a great deal of energy and effort. It also would take a lot of money. But there is plenty of money available, if only our very wealthy donors and foundations are willing to put it to good and vital purposes. For those who owe their wealth to the opportunities afforded them by our open society and democracy, could there be a more important priority than preserving the vibrant press that is an essential element of a democratic society? And for foundations committed to serve the public interest, what better purpose could there be than strengthening our most cherished civic institutions? Unless major donors wake up to the desperate needs of these endangered institutions, we may well see the end of quality journalism and the decline of the nonprofit sector due to lack of accountability. This would be a grim future indeed; a collective failure that no one would want as a legacy for our nation.
http://benton.org/node/30025

History
HOW DATA IS SHAPING HISTORY
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Jeff Hirsch]
[Commentary] Innovation and advances in technology have continuously created circumstances that significantly alter how people live their lives, make a living, thereby changing the course of history. The Computer Age arose in the 1980s and with it came a revolution around how people and organizations could harness information and, subsequently, make their lives more informed and efficient. We're seeing yet another iteration of that change right now; interestingly, it is not material or machine based -- the catalyst is data itself. Human behavior is now being qualified and quantified and the nature of digital interactions is driving massive scale and the potential for immediacy. Sophisticated algorithms and systems now exist to apply mathematical and statistical analysis to the extreme nuances of people's wants and needs. This ability to numerate, and therefore anticipate, the behavior of the individual is driving a wave of new business philosophies and practices that stretch across industries.
http://benton.org/node/30054

Digital copyright
GOOGLE'S REVISED BOOK SETTLEMENT
[SOURCE: C-Span, AUTHOR: ]
Interview with Cecilia Kang, Technology Reporter, Washington Post, provides a primer on Google's efforts to digitize books in libraries throughout the world. The Google Book Search project was started in 2004 and within less than a year a class action suit was levied against the company for copyright infringement by the Association of American Publishers and the Author's Guild. In October of 2008 the parties agreed to a class action settlement. However, there were several opponents to the settlement, including authors, publishers, Google's business competitors, and the Department of Justice who initiated an antitrust investigation. Kang presents details of the case and the current status of the settlement.
http://benton.org/node/30034

Convergence
YOUTUBE BLOCKS NON-PARTNER DEVICE
[SOURCE: Wired, AUTHOR: Eliot Van Buskirk]
YouTube is set to become a regular feature of televisions, but only through its partners' hardware. So far one company been blocked from accessing YouTube videos on its set-top box pursuant to a July 2008 change in YouTube's terms of service, with others soon to follow, according to sources close to the situation. Syabas, which has had about 16 months to sign a contract with Google's YouTube service since the new terms of service went into effect, will no longer be able to show YouTube videos on televisions through its set-top boxes. The reason there's no deal, according to Syabas COO Alex Limberis, is that YouTube demanded a multimillion-dollar advertising commitment in return for permission to display its videos on televisions through the Popcorn Hour A-110 and C-200 set-top boxes.
http://benton.org/node/30023

Paying for content
MURDOCH COURTS TROUBLE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Robert MacMillan]
Rupert Murdoch has spent months complaining that Google is ruining the newspaper business, and now he wants to do something about it. But, his proposal is a gamble, and one that could hurt News Corp instead of helping it. Murdoch is considering removing News Corp's news from Google's Web search results, and is talking to Microsoft Corp about listing the stories with its Bing search engine instead. Microsoft would pay for the privilege, sources have told Reuters, but it was not clear how much. If Murdoch pulled this off, he will likely be followed by other newspaper publishers looking for ways to make money when all the old ones are waning in the digital age.
http://benton.org/node/30049

Kids & media
FTC ASKED TO REDEFINE DEFINITION OF PROGRAMMING TARGETED TO KIDS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A consortium of kids activists and academics has asked the Federal Trade Commission to redefine its definition of programming targeted to kids and teens to be able to collect more information on the marketing by popular TV shows, and to collect it from program distributors as well as food marketers. "The Commission should inquire into industry expenditure and exposure data for marketing that reaches large numbers of children and adolescents even when they are a small percentage of the overall audience," said the Food Marketing To Children Workshop in comments filed at the FTC. Currently, the FTC defines ads targeted to kids as any program for which kids made up at least 30% of the audience, and teen-targeted is any program with at least a 20% adolescent audience. But the group, which was assembled by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and Berkeley Media Studies Group, points out that the FTC conceded that excludes the top five TV shows watched by adolescents in 2006. It wants the FTC to modify the definition to capture such shows, which include The Simpsons and American Idol. The group also wants the FTC to collect more data, including on targeted marketing, privacy, and to expand the collection to media companies who carry the ads as well as food marketers.
http://benton.org/node/30010

Future of internet
UN PONDERS 10 COMMANDMENTS
[SOURCE: ars technica, AUTHOR: Janna Quitney Anderson]
Write a new 10 Commandments of the Internet, Peter proposed, and draft them on a tablet PC on Mount Sinai. The "Peter" in question was Internet historian Ian Peter, and the place was the UN-backed Internet Governance Forum 2009 held last week in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, a few kilometers from Mount Sinai. Peter's model for his proposed commandments isn't Moses, but the engineers and computer science guys who dreamed up the Internet back in the 1960s, building it through an amazingly open and collaborative effort that continues functioning to this day. When he asked if anyone would be interested in formally documenting the principles of the Internet ethos, Internet ecosystem or whatever one might call it, hands shot up all around the room.
http://benton.org/node/29998

Future of internet
VOLUNTEERS LOG OFF WIKIPEDIA
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Julia Angwin, Geoffrey Fowler]
Wikipedia is the fifth-most-popular Web site in the world, with roughly 325 million monthly visitors. But unprecedented numbers of the millions of online volunteers who write, edit and police it are quitting. That could have significant implications for the brand of democratization that Wikipedia helped to unleash over the Internet -- the empowerment of the amateur. Executives at the Wikimedia Foundation, which finances and oversees the nonprofit venture, acknowledge the declines, but believe they can continue to build a useful encyclopedia with a smaller pool of contributors. Wikipedia contributors have been debating widely what is behind the declines in volunteers. One factor is that many topics already have been written about. Another is the plethora of rules Wikipedia has adopted to bring order to its unruly universe -- particularly to reduce infighting among contributors about write-ups of controversial subjects and polarizing figures.
http://benton.org/node/29971

Future of computing
SHARED SUPERCOMPUTING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ashlee Vance]
For decades, the world's supercomputers have been the tightly guarded property of universities and governments. But what would happen if regular folks could get their hands on one? The price of supercomputers is dropping quickly, in part because they are often built with the same off-the-shelf parts found in PCs, as a supercomputing conference here last week made clear. Just about any organization with a few million dollars can now buy or assemble a top-flight machine. Meanwhile, research groups and companies like IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Intel are finding ways to make vast stores of information available online through so-called cloud computing. These advances are pulling down the high walls around computing-intensive research. A result could be a democratization that gives ordinary people with a novel idea a chance to explore their curiosity with heavy computing firepower — and maybe find something unexpected. The trend has spurred some of the world's top computing experts and scientists to work toward freeing valuable stores of information. The goal is to fill big computers with scientific data and then let anyone in the world with a PC, including amateur scientists, tap into these systems.
http://benton.org/node/29974

Future of tv
AN UNSTEADY FUTURE FOR BROADCAST
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Tim Arango, Bill Carter]
Oprah Winfrey is fleeing broadcast television for cable. NBC, once arguably the biggest cultural tastemaker in the United States, is being shopped to Comcast, the country's largest cable company. Have we finally reached a tipping point that suggests a remarkable decline in the fortunes of broadcast television in America? Most analysts and many executives agree that the economic model of broadcast television — which relies much more heavily on advertising than cable — is severely fractured. What they are wondering now is if it is irreparably broken. The business model of the big three networks — which became four when Fox began prime-time programming in 1987 — has for decades relied on a simple formula: spend millions on original programming that will attract advertiser dollars and later live on as lucrative reruns in syndication. But ratings are going down. In the 1952-53 television season, more than 30 percent of American households that owned televisions tuned in to NBC during prime time, according to Nielsen. In the 2007-8 season, that figure was just 5.2 percent.
http://benton.org/node/29954

Net neutrality
MINORITY JOURNALISTS WANT STRONG NET NEUTRALITY RULES
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
A coalition of minority journalists is looking to drum up support for the Federal Communications Commission's proposed codification and expansion of FCC network neutrality guidelines. That comes against a backdrop of some difference of opinion in the minority community on whether that proposal could work for or against the interests of communities of color--nothing is yet set in stone and the FCC is seeking lots of comment. Unity: Journalists of Color comprises four groups: the National Association of Black Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association. According to a copy of a letter to a host of groups including the NAACP, National Council of La Raza,  and the National Disability Institute, the alliance says it wants others to join it in calling for strong network neutrality rules. They warn that without rules they say would prevent ISP's from discriminating against content online, access would go to the highest bidder, "erect[ing] additional barriers preventing journalists of color from providing our community with the news and information they need to participate in a democratic society."
http://benton.org/node/29956

Paying for content
WILL THEY PAY FOR IT?
[SOURCE: Editor&Publisher, AUTHOR: Mark Dolliver]
Are consumers willing to pay for news content online? A survey released this week by Boston Consulting Group suggests many of them would, as long as they're not obliged to pay much. Conducted online in October, the survey asked people how much per month they are "willing to spend to get online news on your PC or mobile." Among the U.S. respondents, the answers averaged out to $3 per month. The figure was higher -- though scarcely lavish -- at $6 per month among those who identified themselves as heavy consumers of print newspapers. In all, 48 percent of the U.S. respondents said they'd be willing to pay at least something to get news online. The survey also looked at the kinds of news people would be interested in accessing online. The highest votes went to "special coverage/breaking news/investigative reporting" (73 percent) and "local and community-specific news" (72 percent). Sixty-one percent expressed interest in a "continuous news-alert service (e.g., real-time delivery of breaking news)." The figures were somewhat lower for "news archives" (57 percent), "subject-specific in-depth editorial" (54 percent) or a "personalized online newspaper from different sources" (53 percent). There were fewer takers for "sports news" or "business/financial news" (43 percent each). When respondents were given a list of news providers and asked to pick the ones from which they'd be inclined to buy online content, "regional/local newspaper Web sites" scored best.
http://benton.org/node/29917

Internet future & Paying for content
THE WEB WAR
[SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: Paul McDougall]
The Web, which began life as an open community where information and tools were freely shared across geographic, political, and social boundaries, is in danger of becoming segmented into a federation of closed camps led by a handful of increasingly powerful vendors, said Internet pundit Tim O'Reilly. O'Reilly said efforts by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and other tech vendors -- as well as publishers like Rupert Murdoch's Dow Jones -- to create closed communities around their products and services are jeopardizing the freedom, and the spirit, of the Web. "It's no longer about the Internet as a platform," said O'Reilly. "It's Google as a platform, it's Amazon as a platform, it's Microsoft as a platform," he said
http://benton.org/node/29866

Internet future
DATA PORTABILITY AND BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission, AUTHOR: ]
As broadband access and adoption increase and the world becomes increasingly interconnected, the flow of data across these networks is important to study. Accordingly, the Federal Communications Commission seeks tailored comment on broadband and portability of data and their relation to cloud computing, transparency, identity, and privacy. Comments are due December 9, 2009.
http://benton.org/node/29873

Paying for content
ABOUT HALF IN US WOULD PAY FOR ONLINE NEWS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Richard Perez-Pena]
Americans, it turns out, are less willing than people in many other Western countries to pay for their online news, according to a new study by the Boston Consulting Group. Among regular Internet users in the United States, 48 percent said in the survey, conducted in October, that they would pay to read news online, including on mobile devices. That result tied with Britain for the lowest figure among nine countries where Boston Consulting commissioned surveys. In several Western European countries, more than 60 percent said they would pay. When asked how much they would pay, Americans averaged just $3 a month, tied with Australia for the lowest figure — and less than half the $7 average for Italians. The other countries included in the study were Germany, France, Spain, Norway and Finland.
http://benton.org/node/29756

Paying for content
THE PRICE OF FREE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nicholas Carr]
[Commentary] With broadband becoming the norm and connection speeds continuing to quicken, what has happened to music companies and newspapers is beginning to happen to broadcast networks and cable companies. People are using the Net to bypass the customary providers of television programming, along with the ads they show and the fees they collect. Blu-ray players are just the tip of the iceberg that the TV business is about to hit. Today you can watch snippets of shows on YouTube or entire episodes on sites like Hulu or Yahoo TV. You can view news reports at CNN.com, sports events at ESPN360.com and documentaries at PBS.org. You can download shows, sometimes without charge, from Apple's iTunes store and watch them on your iPod, iPhone or PC. Or you can stream them through your Xbox or Wii. Television is escaping the TV set and the cable box. We no longer watch the tube. We watch, to borrow ex-Senator Ted Stevens's memorable conceit, a series of tubes. As the technology of television changes, so, too, does the experience of watching it. In the past, TVs often served as the focal points of communal gatherings. Families or groups of friends would collect around the set to watch the prime-time shows or the weekend games. They would laugh at the sitcom slapstick, cheer for their local teams, chat through commercials and, during the duller stretches, keep one another from nodding off. TV may have been a vast wasteland, as Newton Minow, the F.C.C. chairman in the Kennedy administration, said in a speech in 1961, but at least it was a wasteland we shared. The communal mode of TV viewing isn't gone, but it's becoming less common. As screens proliferate and shrink, and as the Web allows us to view whatever we want whenever we want, we spend more time watching video alone. That's one funny thing about the Internet: it's an extraordinarily rich communications system, but as an information and entertainment medium, it encourages private consumption. The pictures and sounds served up through our PCs, iPods and smart phones a bsorb us deeply but in isolation. Even when we're together today, we're often apart, peering into our own screens.
benton.org/node/29758

Advertising design
TALKING BACK TO TV
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Suzanne Vranica]
Marketers are eager to bolster the performance of TV ads. In a 2008 study of big advertisers, more than 60% said TV advertising had become less effective over the past two years. Consumers are unhappy with the large amount of ad clutter that appears during commercial breaks, leading to the explosion of devices that allow viewers to circumvent TV ads altogether. Advertisers believe that the longer they can keep viewers engaged with an ad, the more likely they are to buy. So companies such as Unilever PLC, Johnson & Johnson and Kraft Foods Inc. are increasingly turning to technologies that add interactive capabilities—games, coupons and informational videos—to their TV pitches. Interactive features, which are available from cable and satellite services as well as from technology companies such as TiVo Inc., provide more proof that viewers are watching ads—an important issue for those on Madison Avenue—as opposed to leaving the room or fast-forwarding. They also allow marketers to know which ads viewers are responding to. This month,Burger King Holdings Inc. will roll out an interactive TV ad campaign that is part of the fast-food company's elaborate movie tie-in with "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," the second film in the popular vampire-werewolf series. Viewers of the ads, which will appear on the satellite DirecTV service, will be able to use their remote controls to take a quiz testing their knowledge of the film.
http://benton.org/node/29741

Digital copyright
GOOGLE NARROWS BOOK RIGHTS IN REVISED SETTLEMENT
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Google scaled back its ambitious digital book project in a revised legal settlement announced late Friday that would narrow its control over millions of online titles. The concessions come after heavy scrutiny by the Justice Department, Web competitors and some authors groups who said that the original $125 million agreement with authors and publishers would give Google too much control over pricing in the distribution of book titles and could edge out competitors. They also argued that the deal would allow Google to profit off of the scanning and distribution of books whose authors are unknown, violating copyright laws. The new settlement was submitted just before midnight to Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. District Court of Southern District of New York, who will ultimately decide whether to approve the deal. Among several changes, the parties agreed to hand over control of so-called orphan works -- books whose copyright holders are unknown or not found -- to an independent trustee who would administer the licensing of those titles. Previously, Google would have controlled rights to those books. Under the new agreement, the court must approve the appointed trustee, who would have authority to license those orphan works to other companies, including Google competitors Amazon and Microsoft. The trustee would also handle funds generated from those licenses. If unclaimed for 10 years, those funds would go to charities in the United States, Canada, Australia and Great Britain. After five years, a portion of those proceeds would also go to tracking down the holders of rights to orphan works.
http://benton.org/node/29727

Social media
THINK PEOPLE
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Charles Benton]
[Commentary] Speaking at the Federal Communications Commission on the release of a new report on broadband adoption and use, Benton Foundation Chairman and CEO Charles Benton said people are the "killer app." From e-mail, to digital pictures, to today's social media, connecting people to people has always been a motivating force for getting people on and keeping them on the Internet. And the value of the network grows and grows with each additional person on it. Deployment, of course, is a threshold issue for the National Broadband Plan - one cannot use a tool that is not available to them. But today we focus on what comes after the wires - and the wireless. What will prepare, what will motivate, what will sustain people's use of the tool we here today know is critical to our nation's success moving forward? Just as deployment has its many challenging questions about how to extend broadband's reach, adoption and use of broadband services and applications must also be addressed if we are to reach our full potential.
http://benton.org/node/29692

Net neutrality
NET NEUTRALITY'S IMPACT ON LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge, AUTHOR: Craig Settles]
When Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski calmly laid out the case for creating rules to ensure an open Internet an incredible storm of protest, hype, fear, uncertainty and doubt threaten to bury the value propositions presented by the Chairman. This is particularly true in low-income urban and rural communities. The threat by giant telecom companies that they will stop spending for networks in these communities, and increase prices where services currently exists, raises the fear level, stifles discussion and poisons community opinion towards the FCC's effort to preserve an open Internet. Low-income constituents are, in fact, among the primary beneficiaries of Network Neutrality rules that ensure those with the least continue to have equal footing on the Internet. This paper presents a case for open Internet rules in the context of their impact on low-income rural and urban communities. Though urban and rural are distinctly different constituencies, an open Internet offers both similar benefits and protections.
http://benton.org/node/29652

Paying for content
NEWS BEHIND PAY WALLS IS NO HELP TO DEMOCRACY
[SOURCE: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, AUTHOR: Jim Naureckas]
There have been various proposals to "save journalism" from the crisis brought on by digitalization. But by and large these ideas have less to do with meeting the information needs of a democratic society than with preserving the profit potential of existing media outlets. Take the various suggestions as to how to get news outlets to stop giving away their content for free. At root, the pay-wall proposal is an attempt to turn news into a commodity again, something that people are willing to pay for. Central to the idea of a commodity is scarcity: People pay for things that aren't available to everyone, that they won't benefit from unless they can afford them. The reason there are so many uninsured people in the U.S. is because healthcare is treated as a commodity here—which inevitably means that some people aren't going to get it.
http://benton.org/node/29589

Future of journalism
VIEWS ON ONLINE NEWS
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Jack Loechner]
American Press Institute, with ITZ Publishing and Belden Interactive, recently published initial results of a study designed to help Newspaper executives understand the current peer practices in generating revenue from digital content, the various pay models, success levels, and approaches to issues like site registration, electronic editions and tracking original content across the Web. Among the preliminary findings, nearly 60% of respondents are considering initiating paid access for currently open/free news and information online, and nearly 25% expect to implement a paid strategy in the next six months. This is a big change, says the report, considering that 90% of the responding newspapers currently do not charge for content, and only 3% currently have a paid-only site. Capturing new revenue and preserving print are likely the key drivers of any final decision to adopt a paid-content strategy. 34% of respondents think capturing new revenue opportunities is or will be the most important factor, while 28% think it is or will be preserving print circulation.
http://benton.org/node/29590

Future of journalism
CAN WALDMAN SAVE JOURNALISM?
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Kim McAvoy]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski has charged Steven Waldman with helping traditional journalism as now practiced by newspapers and TV stations find its place in the digital age. As a special adviser to Genachowski, a former Columbia classmate and business associate, Waldman says he will study the "the very worrisome and deep contraction of journalism" and then come up with some ideas for revitalizing it. "The future of news and the future of journalism and information cuts across all these different platforms — local broadcast news, cable, mobile, the Internet, newspapers and radio. They are all interconnected now. So you can't really assess policy in silos. The chairman is interested in making sure we're thinking creatively and in a coordinated way."
http://benton.org/node/29591

Future of Journalism
THE CASE FOR GOVERNMENT SUPPORT OF JOURNALISM
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] When in September President Obama said he would be "happy to look" at congressional proposals designed to help the beleaguered newspaper industry, the president's throwaway line provoked a flurry of articles about how government help for newspapers would compromise editorial integrity and stifle innovation and competition rising from the digital frontier—and wouldn't save the doomed newsrooms anyway. Even the Newspaper Association of America said it wasn't looking for "a specific handout, bailout, financial assistance, what have you." We are not in favor of a bailout for the newspaper business, and we certainly don't support subsidies that would simply prop up the status quo. But it seems increasingly clear that, at least in the short term, sustaining the kind of accountability journalism that our society needs—and that newspapers have been the chief producers of—will require some creative help from Uncle Sam. And not because newspapers failed to adapt to the digital age. Ultimately, this isn't about newspapers. Government has always subsidized the press in this country, starting with legislation in 1792 that established below-cost mail rates for newspapers. Over the years, some subsidies have worked well, others less so. But the idea that a purely commercial media alone can continue to deliver the journalism we need is becoming difficult to swallow. If we don't get beyond the rational but outdated fear of government help for accountability journalism—if we just let the market sort it out—this vital public good will continue to decline.
http://benton.org/node/29592

Software
IPHONE APPS COTTAGE INDUSTRY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Yukari Iwatani Kane, Ryan Knutson]
There is a hint of that old boomtown feeling again in the Bay Area -- this time in living rooms and garages and cubicles where a cottage industry is unfolding around the iPhone app. Despite the recession, hundreds of start-ups have sprung up in the area since Apple Inc. launched the iPhone two years ago and opened up the device so third-party developers could create games and other software applications for it. Apple, which has sold more than 30 million iPhones and 20 million iPod touches, boasts more than 100,000 apps on its App Store, through which people can download games, entertainment and utility applications. Most are free -- and make money from ads -- or cost less than a dollar. Developers get 70% of any revenue they make from app sales, with the remaining 30% going to Apple. That is a better proposition than app development for other mobile phones has been in the past. Rivals now offer similar revenue-share models. As a result, many Silicon Valley techies have been lured to the iPhone app start-up scene. According to Mobclix Inc., which operates the iPhone's largest ad-exchange network -- a marketplace to connect advertisers and app developers -- 41% of its 4,000 app developers are in Northern California. The region with the second-largest number of app developers is New York-New Jersey, with 14%.
http://benton.org/node/29631

Media ownership
FCC LIKELY TO KEEP MEDIA RULES STRICT
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Robert MacMillan, John Poirier]
Newspaper publishers and other struggling media companies want the US government to help them survive the toughest times they have ever known, mainly by easing rules on how big they can get.They will be lucky if they get any aid at all. The Federal Communications Commission held meetings this week with policy experts and consumer groups to see if it should change rules that define how many people newspapers, television and radio stations can reach and that limit their size to protect free speech and allow for healthy competition. But other more pressing concerns on Capitol Hill and in the Obama administration, and the threat of lawsuits to thwart any changes to the rules, are muffling enthusiasm. "Nobody cares," said Jonathan Knee, a media banker at investment firm Evercore Partners. "Nobody is willing to spend political capital over it."
http://benton.org/node/29554

Copyright
BROADCASTERS CHALLENGE SONGWRITERS
[SOURCE:  Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jon Healey]
Federal law gives copyright owners a legal monopoly over public performance of their works, among other uses. But their market power is supposed to be limited by the competition from other copyright owners. Consider the case of songwriters. Paul McCartney can make you pay for the privilege of including "Jet" in your movie, even if it's recorded by Shonen Knife instead of McCartney's Wings. But if you don't like what he charges, you can write your own material or go to another songwriter who demands less. Unless you can't go to someone else. That's the problem TV broadcasters face when they air syndicated programming. They're contractually bound to air the programs they buy with the music that's already in the soundtrack. As a result, they have zero leverage with songwriters when it comes to negotiating for the rights to broadcast those songs. A group of broadcasters has now gone to federal court in New York for help, filing a class-action antitrust lawsuit against SESAC, one of the three performing rights organizations representing songwriters and music publishers. The complaint was filed Wednesday afternoon by lawyers from Weil, Gotshal & Manges, and SESAC hasn't offered any comment yet. It singles out SESAC, the smallest of the performing rights groups (the others are ASCAP and BMI), for two reasons: SESAC's stable of composers includes many of the leading music writers for TV and commercials, and the other two rights groups' rates are already overseen by federal courts through longstanding consent decrees with the Justice Department.
http://benton.org/node/29486

Kids & media
ADD APPS TO GROWING LIST OF CONCERNS FOR PARENTS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Cecilia Kang]
Common Sense Media, a non-profit group focused on educating families about digital content, is pushing federal regulators to pay closer attention to cell phone applications and the possible risks posed by an explosion of mobile content. It's also in talks with Apple about signaling to parents and children what applications may be inappropriate for them. The group is also beginning to rate phone applications like it has done for video games, movies and Web sites. Common Sense Media sees "digital literacy" for children as a key regulatory concern that crosses several sections of the federal government. The group thinks the Federal Communications Commission has a responsibility to dive into questions of new technologies with its expansive inquiry into how digital media is impacting children. Education regulators should educate students and their families on digital content as part of school curriculum. Technology regulators should look at the impact of new technologies on children. The Obama administration's push for high-speed access to all Americans should also include education on how children and families can use the Web.
http://benton.org/node/29461

Shield law
WHITE HOUSE, SENATE STRIKE BALANCE ON REPORTER PROTECTIONS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Jim Abrams]
Senate supporters of a bill protecting a reporter's right to protect confidential sources in federal court said Friday they've reached a compromise with the Obama administration and media groups that gives the government authority to override those rights in certain national security cases. Sen Charles Schumer (D-NY) said the agreement "strikes the right balance between national security concerns and the public's right to know." He said it would preserve a strong protection for reporters trying to protect sources while making sure the government can do its job of protecting citizens. The original bill centered on the idea that a balancing test should be applied under which a federal judge would weigh the public's right to know versus national security claims made by the government. The administration wanted to eliminate that balancing test in many cases involving terrorism and other security cases. Under the compromise, the balancing test would be eliminated in classified leak cases where the government can show that disclosure of a source's identity is necessary to prevent or mitigate an act of terrorism or substantial harm to the national security. But the government would also have to provide specific facts: it could not make a national security claim and then withhold most of the details. The balancing test would be in order for cases not involving classified leaks, but in criminal cases the burden would be on the journalist to show clear and convincing evidence that guarding the anonymity of sources is in the public interest.
http://benton.org/node/29333

Internet future
WILL THE INTERNET SURVIVE ITS 40TH?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L. Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] The Internet recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of its founding, just in time to be welcomed in Washington by opposing political visions of its future. One is reflected in a proposal called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, which would empower regulators to micromanage the Web. The alternative, the Internet Freedom Act of 2009, would keep regulators away. One way to look at the battle over net neutrality is simply as one set of companies against another. There are the network owners and administrators, who want to continue to control access rules, pricing and traffic management on their networks. Then there are content companies and other users of the network, who want regulators to ensure easy access for them. In highly regulated industries, regulations become barriers to entry. It's costly for new competitors to comply with the rules, which are designed for incumbents. As the U.S. falls further behind in broadband, we need more innovation and more competition, not a cozy, regulated cartel. Technology may be changing faster than we can keep track, but we are well acquainted with the frailties and foibles of human institutions in Washington. Sometimes it's wiser for mortals to stand aside and leave technology to advance at its own pace. After its first 40 years delivering freedom and abundance, the Web has earned the benefit of the doubt.
http://benton.org/node/29340

Print advertising
MAGAZINE INDUSTRY HOOKED ON PHARMA?
[SOURCE: MediaWeek, AUTHOR: Lucia Moses]
Change is in the wind for the pharmaceutical industry and magazines, as a rash of potential curbs on pharma advertising spotlights one of the medium's most dependable categories. With healthcare issues on the front burner, lawmakers are taking aim at the tax deduction on ad expenses for prescription drugs, while TV ads for sex aids like Viagra are coming under scrutiny. Even before President Obama took office, buyers and publishers noticed a tempering in pharma spending, which some interpreted as an anticipation of a less-friendly attitude toward the industry. Some drug marketers—including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Merck—last year said they had voluntarily put a moratorium on advertising for new drugs. Direct-to-consumer drug advertising has long been politically sensitive, but since the Food & Drug Administration relaxed its rules for drug ads on TV in 1997, spending to reach healthcare consumers directly has ballooned. Magazines have shared in the wealth. From 2003-'08, drugs & remedies in consumer magazines soared 58 percent to $2.2 billion, ranking it No. 2 behind toiletries & cosmetics, according to Publishers Information Bureau. And with mainstay print categories like financial, auto and travel tanking, pharma is one category that's been a bright spot.
http://benton.org/node/29323

Internet regulation
STOP THE MADNESS: THE INTERNET HAS TO BE REGULATED
[SOURCE: App-Rising.com, AUTHOR: Geoff Daily]
[Commentary] To suggest that the Internet can't and shouldn't be regulated is dangerously wrong. We have to understand that the so-called "digital economy" is simply the next generation of our traditional economy. And just like our traditional economy, there are times when we need government to step in and correct market failures, protect consumers, and generally establish what the rules are for how business should be conducted.
http://benton.org/node/29376

Media spectrum
STATIONS NEED TO HANG ON TO SPECTRUM
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
A Q&A with Media Strategy Group president Steve Ridge. He  advises TV broadcasters to hang on to their spectrum, seize mobile and online opportunities, reorganize as 24-hour news operations, share retransmission revenue with networks and continue to build viewer loyalty with a strong anchor desk. That Ridge has advice to share is no surprise. For the past 26 years, he has worked at one media's preeminent research and consulting firms, Frank N. Magid Associates. Ridge says, "Local TV operators have the potential to amass a very powerful grassroots lobbying effort. TV operators have direct access to consumers in their markets and the ability to energize and motivate a huge base of opposition to a spectrum take-back. Sure, they can't outspend Google or other lobbies on Capitol Hill, but they can win the war in their own backyards where they have huge influence."
http://benton.org/node/29405

Digital divide
WILL THE DIGITAL DIVIDE CLOSE BY ITSELF?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stefanie Olsen]
Reed Hastings, the founder and chief executive of Netflix, argues that at the advent of any new technology — television, cars, even rockets — people get riled up and wring their hands over a growing gap between the haves and have-nots. He said that gaps narrow naturally as the market evolves and prices drop, enabling more people to bring new technology into the home and schools. One of Google's founders, Sergey Brin, says connecting to Internet will eventually be like electricity: easy and cheap.
http://benton.org/node/29391

Media measurement - radio
NIELSEN: RADIO REACHES 77% OF ADULTS DAILY
[SOURCE: MediaPost, AUTHOR: Erik Sass]
In Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Seattle in 2008, broadcast radio reached 77% of American adults every day, making it second only to television, which garnered 95% daily reach. The Nielsen data bolsters radio's audience claims at a critical time for the medium -- but it's unclear whether these kinds of findings can still sway advertisers. Within the audio category, radio's daily reach far exceeded the percentage of American adults who listen to CDs or tapes, at 37%, or listen to portable audio devices like iPods or MP3 players, at 12%. What's more, Nielsen found that the 12% who listen to iPods or MP3 players every day overlap a great deal with the 77% who listen to radio, with radio reaching 88% of the iPod/MP3 group. Compared to other media, on a daily basis radio also beat the Internet -- excluding email usage -- at 64%, newspapers at 35%, and magazines at 27%.  Radio scored even better in the coveted 18-34 age group, reaching about 80% of this cohort on a daily basis.
http://benton.org/node/29398

Shield laws
A BILL TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS' SOURCES GETS BETTER
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary]  After proposing a federal media shield law that did little to protect the relationship between journalists and their sources, the White House has agreed with the Senate Judiciary Committee on a revised -- and much improved -- version of the Free Flow of Information Act. Under the latest proposal, in both civil and criminal cases the government (or another party seeking disclosure) would have to demonstrate that the confidential information it seeks from a journalist is "essential" to resolving the case and that it has exhausted all reasonable alternative sources. Judges would weigh the public interest in thorough newsgathering against the interest in disclosing the source. The balancing tests are calibrated depending on the nature of the case. In civil cases, the information seeker must make the case for disclosure. In criminal cases, journalists would have to make the case against disclosure. The balancing test also covers cases involving leaks of classified information (with the journalist again bearing the burden of proof), unless the information sought would be needed to stop a terrorist attack or "significant and articulable harm to national security," in which case disclosure would be compelled. As in previous versions, the statute would not protect anyone who is affiliated with a terrorist organization or who has been designated a terrorist by the federal government.
http://benton.org/node/29447

Shield laws
SHIELD LAW MAKES IT HARDER TO FIGHT CRIME
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Rep Steve King (R-Iowa)]
[Commentary] Unlike doctors, lawyers, psychiatrists and clergy, all of whom have established professional standards, journalists do not operate under specific guidelines or licensing. Over the years, this lack of an operating standard has resulted in the disclosure of national security secrets and has cost American lives. Passing a shield law would place a heavy burden on the Justice Department to demonstrate a compelling need for a reporter's source. However, the personal whims of federal judges handling these cases can stall or halt Justice's investigations. A shield law would also make it more difficult for law enforcement agencies to fight crime and protect our national security. While the proposed bill contains a limited number of exceptions where the shield law does not apply — such as preventing death, kidnapping or bodily harm — there are not specific exceptions for other sorts of crimes, such as combating child pornography and alien smuggling. This bill goes beyond promoting a free press by conferring a privileged position on the media. Shielding a profession that provides a watchdog role over government excesses but cannot be trusted to guard national secrets should not be a higher priority than protecting our country or solving crimes that can help save lives.
http://benton.org/node/29446

Media ownership
MEDIA DEALS: WHY THEY FAIL
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Tom Lowry]
Jonathan Knee argues that media executives have essentially tried to merge their way to excellence by "convincing the world there is something special and magical about media." Former cable executive and now partner of investment firm InterMedia Partners, Leo Hindery Jr says today's media executives are "mushy" and have "no soul, no vision....Can anybody tell me what the vision at Viacom is today?" On the possibility of a merger between NBC Universal and Comcast, Hindery said "both guys really need it," referring to (NBCU parent) General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. "Brian has the carryover (from the failed attempt to buy the Walt Disney Co.) and he can't lose another one." That said, Hindrey wouldn't predict whether the deal would be a success. In a closing shot, Hindery told Knee that after writing this book "you are never going to have another investment banking client again." Asked what media company has done a good job, Susan Lyne, the former CEO of Martha Stewart Omnimedia and currently CEO of Gilt Groupe, cast her vote for ESPN, which she says has "stayed true to its mission." But she did note that its one mistake was getting into restaurant business.
http://benton.org/node/29422

censorship
INTERNET CENSORSHIP LIABLE TO WTO CHALLENGE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jonathan Lynn]
Censorship of the Internet is open to challenge at the World Trade Organization as it can restrict trade in services delivered online, a forthcoming study says. A censorship case at the WTO could raise sovereignty issues, given the clear right of member states to restrict trade on moral grounds -- for example, by blocking access to child pornography websites. But a WTO ruling could set limits on blanket censorship and compel states instead to use more selective filtering, according to the study, to be published on Thursday by think-tank ECIPE. "Censorship is the most important non-tariff barrier to the provision of online services, and a case might clarify the circumstances in which different forms of censorship are WTO-consistent," said the study by Brian Hindley and Hosuk Lee-Makiyama.
http://benton.org/node/29437

Internet future
NET REVOLUTION -- AND RERUN
[SOURCE: Boston Globe, AUTHOR: Peter Funt]
Thirty years ago the launch of CNN was keeping Ted Turner busy. ESPN was on the drawing board at Getty Oil. HBO was helping Time Inc. confirm that consumers would pay for television content. The emergence of cable and pay-TV programming marked an exciting and explosive stage in America's communications history. As we enter a similar period with digital technology, it's worth reviewing what was learned from the video revolution three decades ago. As cable reached critical mass, its situation was strikingly similar to that of the Internet. It was primarily a delivery system, capable of transmitting content to places where it had not been available, and in volume - "shelf space" as cable programmers termed it - that seemed almost limitless. Cable's early entrepreneurs faced the same fundamental challenge that Internet operators are struggling with today: how to get consumers to pay for content that historically had been free. The cable industry solved this problem in two clever ways - by chopping the content into small pieces and then by packaging many of those pieces together.
http://benton.org/node/29425

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(c) Benton Foundation 2003. Redistribution of this email publication -- both internally and externally -- is encouraged if it includes this message:
Communications-Related Headlines are compiled, summarized and edited by Rachel Anderson (rachel@benton.org), Andy Carvin (andy@benton.org) and Charles Meisch (charlie@benton.org) of the Benton Foundation -- we welcome your feedback. Based in Washington DC, the Benton Foundation's mission is to articulate a public interest vision for the digital age and demonstrate the value of communications for solving social problems. Other projects at Benton include:
Digital Divide Network (www.digitaldividenetwork.org)
Digital Opportunity Channel (www.digitalopportunity.org)
OneWorld US (www.oneworld.net/us)
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