April 1997

forgrabs-l@cdinet.com

Foundation To Announce New Structure And Grants

FCC Auction of Airwaves Draws Weak Bidding

Network Solutions Dropped as Registrar of Internet Domains
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Title: Foundation To Announce New Structure And Grants
Source: New York Times (A28)
Author: Judith Miller
Issue: Philanthropy
Description: After a yearlong reorganization, the Ford Foundation will
announce $50 million in new grants today including $20 million to fight
poverty. Ford is the nation's largest private grant-making institution.
Ford plans to give away more than $407 million in grants this year in three
program divisions: asset-building and community development; peace and
social justice; and education, media, arts, and culture.

Title: FCC Auction of Airwaves Draws Weak Bidding
Source: Wall Street Journal (http://www.wsj.com/) (A2)
Author: Bryan Gruley
Issue: Spectrum
Description: Television broadcasters are thrilled because the FCC's latest
round of spectrum auctions is not going all that well. Broadcasters want
the auctions to be unsuccessfully because that increases their chances of
being able to hold on to their analog channels longer. FCC Chairman Hundt
says he's not that surprised by the subpar bidding because the FCC didn't
give the industry enough advanced notice about this auction.

Title: Network Solutions Dropped as Registrar of Internet Domains
Source: Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/) (E1)
Author: David S. Hilzenrath
Issue: Internet
Description: The National Science Foundation announced that it will not
renew Network Solutions' contract to register Internet domain names.
Network Solutions, however, declared that it would not give up its
exclusive hold of .com and other established addresses. A coalition of
groups led by the Internet Society is trying to start a movement where many
companies can register addresses not just Network Solutions. Allowing for
competing firms to register domains, users could see lower prices and
better services. Domain names act as the Zip-code of the Internet, enabling
users to address email and locate pages on the World Wide Web.
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LICY@periplum.cdinet.com

AT&T Seeks Global Reach and Partners

New Guidelines on Net Ads for Children

Who uses the Internet and how?

Software Lets Marketers Target Web Ads

BT, MCI Detail Pact with Telefonica

Two German Cases Show How Europe Still is Struggling to Regulate Internet

Libraries Urged to Nip Internet in the Buff

ANSER to the Call for Help

Got a Minute?

Scrap Program Ratings, Diller Says

Commerce Committee to look at 'safe harbor'

McCain wants to lock-in channel to give-back in 2006

Hard-Liquor ads: A mere drop in the keg

Sky's Modest Proposal

TV debate moving beyond ratings

We've heard this song before

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Title: AT&T Seeks Global Reach and Partners
Source: New York Times (D1)
Author: Seth Schiesel
Issue: International
Description: AT&T's plans to control the global telecommunications market
received a set back last week when Telefonica de Espansa chose to split
from AT&T's international affiliation and make a deal with British Telecom
and MCI.

Title: New Guidelines on Net Ads for Children
Source: New York Times (D5)
Author: Lawrie Mifflin
Issue: Internet Regulation/Children
Description: Last year the FTC challenged advertisers to come up with a set
of voluntary guidelines for Internet ads aimed at children. The Children's
Advertising Review Unit, an Industry group, has expanded the guidelines for
TV ads for kids to include Internet ads. The Consumer Federation of
America and the Center for Media Education have also developed an
alternative set of guidelines for the FTC. The industry guidelines urge
advertisers to make a reasonable effort to see that children get their
parents' permission before ordering products or supplying advertisers with
personal information. CME's guidelines believe that no information should
be solicited from children.

Title: Who uses the Internet and how? We'll get back to you on that if
someone figures it out
Source: New York Times (D5)
Author: Laurence Zuckerman
Issue: Internet Sales/Services
Description: Advertisers may be staying away from the web until there is a
more effective way to study who is on the Internet and when. As a result,
"dozens of companies are now competing to become to the web what A.C.
Nielson and its ratings are to television (Nielson itself, of course, is
one of them)." In the industry, gathering information about web visitors
and web visitors' habits is called "usage analysis."

Title: BT, MCI Detail Pact with Telefonica
Source: Wall Street Journal (A19)
Author: Gautam Naik, Carlta Vitzhum
Issue: International
Description: Friday's deal between Spain's Telefonica SA and British
Telecommunications-MCI will "give the trio an enviable position in three of
the world's richest markets -- North America, Europe, and Latin America."
Right now the Latin American market is worth about $35 billion. In the
next three years, it is expected to be worth $60 billion.

Title: France Telecom's Privatization Spurs Service Makeover
Source: Wall Street Journal (A19)
Author: Douglas Lavin
Issue: International
Description: France Telecom SA is suddenly teaching its customer-service
agents to be nice and making other public-relations investments because, as
France's phone market becomes privatized, France Telecom is going to have
to compete for customers.

Title: Software Lets Marketers Target Web Ads
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1)
Author: Thomas E. Weber
Issue: Internet Sales/Services
Description: New software is available to tap into consumer databases and
gather information so that web advertisers can target their ads as
specifically as junk mail is targeted. A user would come to a site, enter a
small amount of personal info to enter the site, the little rabbit inside
the site would run over and use this personal info to pull up a full
profile from a consumer database, then the little site-master cyberrabbit
would run back and display an ad on the site for the peanut butter-olive
cookies that the user has an insatiable addiction to as known from past
credit records.

Title: Two German Cases Show How Europe Still is Struggling to Regulate
Internet
Source: Wall Street Journal (B9B)
Author: Silvia Ascarelli and Kimberley A. Strassel
Issue: Internet Regulation/International
Description: After a couple of not very successful attempts to penalize
Internet service providers for the content of some of the sites they
support, European governments are beginning to view Internet service
providers like phone companies in that they shouldn't be held liable for
"criminal conversations conducted over telephone lines."

Title: Libraries Urged to Nip Internet in the Buff
Source: Washington Post (B1)
Author: Amy Argetsinger
Issue: Libraries/Internet Regulation
Description: Anne Arundel County Library is debating whether to "restrict
patron's access to the more lurid offerings of the unregulated Internet."
The president of the libraries board of trustees stated that, "We can't
really pull the plug on something because we don't appreciate the subject
matter. We have to respect people's rights to access what they want to
access." But he went on to say that, "when you have people going into the
library and seeing objectionable pictures on the screen, I can understand
why they're upset." Greater than half of the nations libraries expect to
offer Internet service by the end of this year.

Title: ANSER to the Call for Help
Source: Washington Post (p.17 in Wash Etch)
Author: Paul Farhi
Issue: Info-Etch
Description: ANSER, a nonprofit Arlington-based research organization, has
developed a computer software called HART (humanitarian assistance
requirement tool) which helps relief workers assess the damage of natural
disasters or civil disruption and keep track of who needs aid and what
supplies have gone where. The program can categorize data on demographics
like pre-war population or prison population and estimate supply needs like
how much maize, salts, fat/oil is available. Relief workers say that this
type of program that can keep tracks of lots of fragments of information is
much needed.

Title: Got a Minute?
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.4)
Author: Chris McConnell
Issue: Digital TV/Public Service Announcements
Description: In a speech to the National Association of Advertisers, FCC
Chairman Reed Hundt stated that TV networks should dedicate 60 seconds of
prime time per night for public service announcements in exchange for their
spectrum to transition to digital TV.

Title: Scrap Program Ratings, Diller Says
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.4)
Author: BC Staff
Issue: V Chip
Description: Barry Diller, the chief of Silver King station group,
commented in a speech that content-based ratings for TV shows would be
"loony" because they would be plagued with inconsistencies and the amount of
TV programming would make them impossible to implement. Diller also asked
broadcasters to support free-time for candidates.

Title: Commerce Committee to look at 'safe harbor'
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.7)
Author: Heather Fleming
Issue: V Chip
Description: Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz) has
agreed to let the committee evaluate the 'safe harbor' bill which would let
broadcasters choose between content-rating shows with sex, violence, and
objectionable language or moving shows with high scores in these categories
to times when kids are less likely to watch them.

Title: McCain wants to lock-in channel to give-back in 2006
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.6)
Author: BC Staff
Issue: Digital TV
Description: Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz) is
contemplating legislation which would require that broadcasters give back
their old spectrum after the transition to digital television by 2006.

Title: Hard-Liquor ads: A mere drop in the keg
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.14)
Author: Heather Fleming
Issue: Advertising
Description: In 1996 hard liquor television ads, which the liquor industry
started producing after a very long voluntary ban, only equalled about .1%
of what's spent on beer and wine advertising. The alcoholic beverage
industry spent $664,745,000 on TV ads last year. Distilled spirits spent
$678,000. House Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La) would like beer,
wine and spirits industries to organize a voluntary code of conduct for TV
alcohol advertising. The article has chart with a break down of
different companies' advertising expenditures.

Title: Sky's Modest Proposal
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.22)
Author: Heather Fleming
Issue: Satellite
Description: Executives of Sky, Rupert Murdoch's satellite TV project, are
circulating draft legislation on Capitol Hill which proposes that satellite
carriers transmit local broadcasting signals in designated markets, but does
not require carriers to retransmit all local broadcasters.

Title: TV debate moving beyond ratings
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.22)
Author: Heather Fleming
Issue: V-Chip
Description: For the past three months lawmakers have argued and listened
to arguments about the television ratings system. In a debate last week,
several lawmakers wanted to refocus the debate away from the type of
ratings system to the content of the programming. Senator Mike
DeWine (R-Ohio) stated that "TV holds up certain things as the norm in
society. The reality or norm that TV portrays is a different America than I
accept, I see . . and I know." Former Senator Paul Simon created
legislation which gave broadcasters an anti-trust exemption from 1990-1993
to evaluate TV content. According to the President of the PTA, the
broadcasters never produced a national code for content.

Title: We've heard this song before
Source: Broadcasting&Cable (p.90)
Author: Editorial Staff of Broadcasting and Cable
Issue: Digital TV
Description: Broadcasting and Cable comes out against Hundt's suggestion
of 60 public service announcements in prime time. The article warns that
"there's no end to this list" of requirements.

At the FCC

REMARKS OF CHAIRMAN REED HUNDT BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION OF NATIONAL
ADVERTISERS, WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 17, 1997.

"COMMUNICATIONS AND THE HEALTH CARE OF TOMORROW" - REMARKS OF CHAIRMAN REED
HUNDT BEFORE THE FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE/PARTNERSHIPS
FOR NETWORKED CONSUMER HEALTH INFORMATION 1997 JOINT SESSION, WASHINGTON,
DC, APRIL 15, 1997.

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LICY@periplum.cdinet.com

Web Site Offers Details On Taxes' Destination

New Jersey Telephone Plan Neglects the Poor, Critics Say

Bell Atlantic Says Approval Near for Merger With Nynex

For WNET, A New Fund And New Security

Major Newspapers Try to Adapt Personas To New Web Format

Bell Atlantic, Nynex Brace for Rejection

Seeking Online Privacy For a Nine-Digit Number

D.C. Library's Miscues Have a Net Effect

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Title: Web Site Offers Details On Taxes' Destination
Source: New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/) (A30)
Author: David W. Chen
Issue: Access to Government Information
Description: The New York City Independent Budget Office has opened a new
website called Tax Receipt which lets users input their tax information and
see "how much they contribute to city, state, and federal programs." The
site uses the motto "No taxation without explanation." People who don't
live in NYC can use the program to calculate their state and federal
contributions. The site is at www.ibo.nyc.ny.us

Title: New Jersey Telephone Plan Neglects the Poor, Critics Say
Source: New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/) (A31)
Author: Melody Petersen
Issue: Universal Service/Low-Income
Description: New Jersey's ratepayer advocate filed a complaint with the
state utility board that Bell Atlantic, which promised to wire every home
and business with fiber optic cable, has so far only done the suburban
areas and has bypassed the poorer urban enterprise zones. Bell Atlantic
says it is wiring the areas with the most demand first and that the whole
state will be done by 2010. "While the poor are assured access to low
rates for basic phone service through a Federal policy known as universal
access, so far there is not a clear policy to help low-income people into
the Information Age."

Title: Bell Atlantic Says Approval Near for Merger With Nynex
Source: New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/) (D1)
Author: Mark Landler
Issue: Phone Regulation/Media Mergers
Description: The federal Justice Department yesterday told Bell Atlantic
that it is unlikely to block Bell Atlantic's $22 billion merger with Nynex.
The government could always decide to sue later if it felt that the merger
stifled competition.

Title: For WNET, A New Fund And New Security
Source: New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/) (B1)
Author: Lawrie Mifflin
Issue: Public Television
Description: New York's WNET's capital campaign has raised more than $70
million, "far more than has ever been raised by a public television station
before, with nearly two-thirds of it going into the station's first
endowment." The money will primarily be spent on development for Internet
educational services and programming and research.

Title: Major Newspapers Try to Adapt Personas To New Web Format
Source: Wall Street Journal (http://www.wsj.com/) (B1)
Author: Walter S. Mossberg
Issue: Journalism/Old vs New Media
Description: How are three of the biggest papers doing on the web? The
Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times are
performing an online balancing act: "They must offer all of their
high-impact print content in a design that somehow conveys the authority of
their famous personas, while still finding a way to offer extra features
and benefits on the Web, with some of the design flair possible on a
computer." The article has a nice compare and contrast of the three
papers' sites.

Title: Bell Atlantic, Nynex Brace for Rejection
Source: Wall Street Journal (http://www.wsj.com/) (B8)
Author: Leslie Cauley
Issue: Phone Regulation/Media Mergers
Description: Bell Atlantic and Nynex are gearing up to have their merger
rejected by the Justice Department's anti-trust division. "Some observers
believe, in fact, there is a better than 50% chance that anti-trust
enforcers will sue to block the transaction." A decision is expected within
a week. To stop the merger, the Justice Dept. must have proof that the
merger stifles competition. Proof, in other words, that Bell Atlantic was
planning to compete with Nynex in New York, but now will not because of the
merger.

Title: Seeking Online Privacy For a Nine-Digit Number
Source: Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/) (A21)
Author: Barbara J. Saffir
Issue: Privacy/Access to Government Information
Description: Senators Feinstein (D-Calif) and Grassley (R-Iowa) have
introduced legislation which would make it illegal "for credit bureaus to
disseminate Social Security numbers, unlisted telephone numbers, birth
dates, mothers' maiden names," and game fowl in fruit trees. The proposal
would also make it illegal to use social security numbers commercially.
Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski has proposed legislation to "ban Social Security or
Internal Revenue Service records from being posted on the Internet without
an individual's written permission."

Title: D.C. Library's Miscues Have a Net Effect
Source: Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/) (D1)
Author: Steve Twomey
Issue: Libraries
Description: In his column Twomey describes the saga on the DC public
library's financial crisis. Yesterday was National Library Log-On Day, but
visitors to the DC Public Library site were greeted with the message "This
Web Site has been taken off-line due to non-payment." Apparently, this
unpaid bill is just the tip of the iceberg, and the library is plagued with
missing accounts.

At the FCC

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