May 1997

forgrabs-l@cdinet.com

F.T.C. Charges 'Joe Camel' Ad Illegally Takes Aim at Minors

When Tabloids Cross the Line

Radio spectrum sales seem a success. Why the attack?

Book Superstores Bring Hollywood-Like Risks to Publishing Business

Joe Camel Ads Illegally Target Kids, FTC Says

FTC Seeks to Ban "Joe Camel" in Ads

Privacy and the Cookie Pushers

Ad for News Media Museum Dismays Death Penalty Opponents

Curb on Tobacco Ads Proposed, but Would It Snuff Out Sales?

Software Firm Closed After Soaring Briefly

Telecommunications Deals Set Off Antitrust Alarms

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Title: F.T.C. Charges 'Joe Camel' Ad Illegally Takes Aim at Minors
Source: New York Times (A1)
Author: William Grimes
Issue: Advertising
Description: The Federal Trade Commission stated that R.J. Reynolds promotes
an addictive and deadly product to youths who can't legally purchase it.
The FTC says it can back up this charge with extensive, internal company
documents and aims to prove that Reynolds developed its cartoon based
advertising campaign in the 80s to increase its shrinking number of teen
smokers. It's estimated that more than 3,000 kids under 18 start smoking
every day.

Title: When Tabloids Cross the Line
Source: New York Times (A29)
Author: Steve Coz
Issue: Journalism
Description: This op-ed by Steve Coz, the senior vice president of the
National Enquirer, admits that scrambling for celebrity affairs and gossip
is what it's all about from a tabloid perspective, but that the Globe has
overstepped what's acceptable with its recent story on a supposed
extra-marital affair by Frank Gifford. The Globe hired a flight
attendant whom Gifford had spoken with, but only spoken with, to lure
Gifford into a hotel room and then secretly videotaped the rendez vouz.
Coz states that this is not covering a story, but creating a story that
wouldn't have existed otherwise. "What's
next? Is someone going to buy a case of vodka and deliver it to a celebrity
who is a recovering alcoholic and then report to readers that the star went
on a binge?"

Title: Radio spectrum sales seem a success. Why the attack?
Source: New York Times (D2)
Author: Peter Passell
Issue: Spectrum
Description: If the FCC's spectrum auctions are bringing in money, why is
this practice under attack? It is partly because lawmakers are thinking more
about the finances than about getting under used spectrum into use, and partly
because Wall Street and spectrum renters like cell phone companies want to
keep the spectrum scarce. Broadcasters also want to discredit auctions so
that they won't ever be asked to pay for their spectrum.

Title: Book Superstores Bring Hollywood-Like Risks to Publishing Business
Source: Wall Street Journal (A1)
Author: G. Bruce Knecht
Issue: Publishing
Description: The growing number of book superstores is hurting book sales.
Retail space is way ahead of sales -- adult hardcover sales dropped 4.4%
last year, and the number of paperbacks sold declined. Superstores have
lots of books, but prime shelf space is saved for only a few titles. If a
book doesn't become a blockbuster, it gets moved out. Publishers pay
celebrity authors big sums for book contracts, and then if the book doesn't
sell, publishers buy the books back from the stores and end up destroying a
lot of books. Last year bookstores sent back 35% of adult hardcovers.
Book superstores hurt independent book sellers, and independent book sellers
actually sell 80% of the books they order from publishers while superstores
sell less than 70% of what they order. Publishers are paying more and more
for publicity campaigns for fewer titles.

Title: Joe Camel Ads Illegally Target Kids, FTC Says
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1)
Author: Bruce Ingersoll
Issue: Advertising
Description: The FTC has filed an unfair advertising complaint against R.J.
Reynolds for its Joe Camel Advertising campaign for cigarettes. "The
campaign, the complaint says, has been so successful that Camel's market
share among kids exceeds its share among adults." Reynolds response
stated, in part, that "Joe Camel has become a scapegoat for issues our
society has been unable to resolve."

Title: FTC Seeks to Ban "Joe Camel" in Ads
Source: Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/) (A1)
Author: John Schwartz
Issue: Advertising
Description: The Federal Trade Commission has charged tobacco giant R.J.
Reynolds with trying to entice children to smoke with its "Joe Camel"
advertising campaign. The case will now go to administrative trial. The FTC
regulates advertising and has the power to restrict ads that are "unfair,"
a legal term which means "likely to cause injury that is not reasonably
unavoidable, and which is not offset by a compensating benefit." The FTC's
director said, "Joe Camel must grow up or go away."

Title: Privacy and the Cookie Pushers
Source: Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/) (A22)
Author: Washington Post Editorial
Issue: Privacy/Internet
Description: A group of Internet companies, led by Netscape, say they will
develop privacy standards on the Internet so surfers know when a Web site
is collecting information about them. In the future, they say, Internet
users will get to choose to accept "cookies," small programs that are
deposited on your hard drive so that a site operator can collect
information about your Web habits. "Any help, corporate or other, in
refusing unwanted cookies and junk e-mail is probably worth having. But it
shouldn't be mistaken for a solution to the large and urgent privacy
problems that press on the Net."

Title: Ad for News Media Museum Dismays Death Penalty Opponents
Source: Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/) (D1)
Author: Alice Reid
Issue: Advertising
Description: DC-area ads for the "Newseum," a journalism museum run by the
Freedom Forum, have upset death-penalty opponents. "Think A Museum About
News Is A Bore?" the ads ask with a picture of an electric chair. "You're
In For A Big Shock." Newseum operators defended the ad that portrays an
exhibit on sensationalism in journalism.

Title: Curb on Tobacco Ads Proposed, but Would It Snuff Out Sales?
Source: Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/) (E1)
Author: John Mintz
Issue: Advertising
Description: Proposed bans on tobacco ad campaigns -- as is done in Great
Britain -- have little effect as the companies just come up with new ad
campaigns that get around existing rules. The tobacco industry has $45
billion in sales last year; $7.7 billion in profits.

Title: Software Firm Closed After Soaring Briefly
Source: Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/) (E1)
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Internet Economy
Description: Freeloader Inc, once a hot Internet property, was shut down by
the company that bought it last year. Freeloader software would search out
websites and download them to an users computer when the user wasn't at
the keyboard. This "off-line" downloading ability is not being incorporated
into new versions of Web browsers.

Title: Telecommunications Deals Set Off Antitrust Alarms
Source: Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/) (E1)
Author: Steven Pearlstein & Mike Mills
Issue: Mergers
Description: Although the government has not challenged many mega-mergers
over the past few years -- AT&T and McCaw Cellular, Time Warner and Turner
Broadcasting, Disney and Capital Cities/ABC, Bell Atlantic and NYNEX to
name a few -- two recently proposed deals may not sail so smoothly. "We
know that some mergers are good for competition and some are bad," said FCC
Chairman Reed Hundt. "But I don't think government has yet drawn a clear
line between them." The rumored marriage of AT&T and SBC and the tentative
deal between Primestar and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp may help draw that
line though.

At the FCC (www.fcc.gov):

FCC RELEASES NEW TELEPHONE SUBSCRIBERSHIP REPORT. CCB Contact: Common
Carrier Bureau: Alexander Belinfante at (202) 418-0944.

WFUV-FM, BRONX, NY, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY. Initiated formal consultation with
New York Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Fordham
University and other commenting parties concerning effects of placing
WFUV-FM tower New York Botanical Gardens. Action by Chief, Audio Services
Division, Mass Media Bureau. Adopted: May 23, 1997. by Letter. (DA No.
97-1110). MMB

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forgrabs-l@cdinet.com

Local Monopolies Still Rule the Local Phone Markets

Study Sees Holes in Internet Security Plan

Broadcast TV's Viewership Fell In Latest Season

Cable Rates Not a Hit in Montgomery

In the Chips Now, But Maybe Not Later

ISPs Form Coalition to Make Internet More "Reliable"

David vs. Goliaths
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Title: Local Monopolies Still Rule the Local Phone Markets
Source: New York Times (D1)
Author: Mark Landler
Issue: Competition (or lack thereof)
Description: A study to be released today by the Yankee Group, a
telecommunications research firm in Boston, finds that less than .5% of
American receive local telephone service from any company other than the
local Bell. The most likely competitors in this market -- long distance
companies -- seem hesitant to enter this market and seem more concerned with
convincing Federal regulators not to let Bells provide long distance. AT&T
seems like the only long distance company planning to build their own
facilities to compete with local Bells. Resale of services, a traditional
avenue into a telecommunications market, seems too unprofitable to spark
competition. The local phone market is $100 billion/year.

Title: Study Sees Holes in Internet Security Plan
Source: New York Times
Author: Steve Lohr
Issue: Internet Security
Description: A study coordinated by the Center for Democracy and Technology
finds that Government plans for unlocking
data-scrambling software to pursue criminals on the Internet could actually
increase security risks and raise the costs of online commerce.

Title: Broadcast TV's Viewership Fell In Latest Season
Source: Wall Street Journal (B5)
Author: Kyle Pope
Issue: TV
Description: Last night the broadcast TV season ended, and broadcast TV
(NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox) viewership has dropped by 1.7 million homes since last
year. This drop is the biggest the broadcast industry has seen in awhile.
Cable viewership is, in general, on the rise.

Title: Cable Rates Not a Hit in Montgomery
Source: Washington Post (A1)
Author: Manuel Perez-Rivas
Issue: Cable Rates
Description: Montgomery County, MD residents are facing a possible 9.5
increase in cable rates that could raise cable bills about $3 a month.
"According to the Labor Department, cable rates outpaced the inflation rate
last year by 2 to 1." County officials are going to appeal with the FCC
about the rate increase.

Title: In the Chips Now, But Maybe Not Later
Source: Washington Post (E1)
Author: Peter Behr
Issue: Economy
Description: At a recent summit, Virginia business and education leaders
argued that unless the state increases its investment in technology
training, the current technology boom may be short lived because of a
shortage of skilled employees. The president of Landmark Communications
said, "We cannot expect technology businesses to locate in Virginia if we
cannot supply qualified workers." According to recent surveys, tech
companies in Northern Virginia have about a dozen job vacancies, and "only
four of every 10 job applicants have the skills employers need."

Title: ISPs Form Coalition to Make Internet More "Reliable"
Source: Telecommunications Reports Daily
Issue: Internet
Description: Nine major US Internet operators formed a coalition "dedicated
to making the commercial Internet more robust and reliable." For more
information se . Founding members are ANS
Communications, AT&T, BBN, Earthlink Network, GTE, MCI, NETCOM, PSINet, and
UUNET.

Title: David vs. Goliaths
Source: The Villi age Voice
Author: Vince Bielski
Issue: Internet
Description: Whole Earth Networks (Wenet) CEO David Holub was fired when
insisted on fighting the Big Five ISPs -- MCI, Sprint, BBN (part of GTE),
ANS (part of America Online), and UUNET -- over new peering policies. The
Big Five control 80% of the market in online traffic. Instead of freely
swapping Internet traffic, the companies are now starting to charge smaller
Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Holub -- and now his staff -- is
protesting not over the money, but because the company's have not made the
criteria for charging public. Holub claims that these companies could apply
peering charges unfairly by refusing to peer with competitors that it wanted
to eliminate -- even if they meet criteria.

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