November 2006

TELECOM
AT&T's Campaign for Compromise
Supreme Court Hears Views In Telecom Competition Case

MEDIA OWNERSHIP
Judge Issues Restraining Order in Bay Area Newspaper Sale
Tribune Extends Sale Decision Deadline
NBC 2.0 Cuts and Washington Newscast

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
Report: Students struggle with information literacy
E-Rate Review Proceedings

QUICKLY -- Republican Congressional Leaders Seek Ban Delay; 1 in 5
Parents Say Kids Online Too Much; Violent video game effects linger in brain

TELECOM

AT&T'S CAMPAIGN FOR COMPROMISE
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek 11/27, AUTHOR: Steve Rosenbush]
Discussions have reached a critical stage between merger partners
AT&T and BellSouth and the Democrats in Washington who have held up
approval of the companies' $79.3 billion deal. AT&T and BellSouth are
willing to make concessions in a bid to assuage government concerns
over the elimination of a potential competitor in the lucrative
market for business telecommunications services. Analysts say there's
a good chance the companies will know by the end of the week whether
they can reach a compromise. Lawmakers such as Representative John
Dingell (D-MI) have become more vocal about their reservations since
the Democrats took control of the House and Senate in the Nov. 7
general election. If a compromise is reached, the deal could be
approved at the Dec. 20 meeting of the Federal Communications
Commission or at an FCC meeting in January. "We will know more this
week," says former FCC official Blair Levin, now a regulatory analyst
with researcher Stifel Nicolaus. "The odds still favor the deal being
done in December, although there's a decent chance that it slips into
January." Industry analysts say there are three issues at stake:
Network Neutrality, the rates that AT&T charges rivals to connect to
its networks, and whether it should be forced to sell off some of its
wireless spectrum.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2006/tc20061127_092741...

SUPREME COURT HEARS VIEWS IN TELECOM COMPETITION CASE
[SOURCE: Technology Daily 11/27, AUTHOR: Andrew Noyes]
The practice of price-fixing without a verbal agreement between
competitors was the focus of a case heard by the Supreme Court. The
dispute involves dominant telephone companies accused of not helping
to facilitate competition in local markets. Such "conscious
parallelism," several justices agreed, is commonplace in highly
competitive sectors in the U.S. economy. Under such an arrangement,
one firm takes the lead in hiking prices and others follow suit with
the shared belief that greater profits will benefit them all. At
issue in the case, Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, is how much evidence
plaintiffs must present in conspiracy allegations to pursue
litigation. The 2002 consumer class action suit claimed that
BellSouth, Qwest Communications, SBC and Verizon Communications
conspired to violate antitrust law by divvying up service areas. An
American Bar Association synopsis characterizes the case as the most
important antitrust matter to reach the Supreme Court since a 1986
dispute that pitted Japanese television makers against U.S.-based competitors.
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-OEKS1164736361113.html

MEDIA OWNERSHIP

JUDGE ISSUES RESTRAINING ORDER IN BAY AREA NEWSPAPER SALE
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
On Tuesday U.S. District Judge Susan Illston temporarily blocked the
consolidation of advertising and distribution operations of Bay Area
newspapers owned by Denver-based MediaNews. The Northern California
newspapers in the McClatchy and MediaNews deal include the Monterey
County Herald, San Jose Mercury News and Contra Costa Times.
MediaNews, which owns the Denver Post and dozens of other newspapers,
also got the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota under a complex deal
that involves financing from Hearst Corp., owner of the San Francisco
Chronicle. San Francisco real estate magnate Clint Reilly filed an
antitrust lawsuit to block McClatchy's sale of the Bay Area papers to
MediaNews, claiming it would create a monopoly on readership and
advertising in the Bay Area. Judge Illston ruled Hearst had an
undisclosed motive for investing in the deal -- to consolidate
advertising and distribution operations with competitors of the
Chronicle -- a possible antitrust violation. "Though defendants
offered no explanation why Hearst was willing to help finance an
acquisition that would only make its competition stronger, the court
did not understand that Hearst expected, or would later receive, any
quid pro quo," Judge Illston wrote.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_con...
* Judge wary of Hearst-MediaNews collaboration
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/29/BUGJEMLGLG1.DTL

TRIBUNE EXTENDS SALE DECISION DEADLINE
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
Tribune Co. said Tuesday that it would extend its deadline for
deciding whether to sell the company from the end of the year until
the first quarter of 2007. The company has been under pressure from
shareholders disappointed with its sagging stock, and has said it
will decide whether to sell all or parts of the business. Tribune
runs 11 newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles
Times. It also owns 25 television stations, as well as the Chicago
Cubs. Tribune Chairman Dennis FitzSimons said response to the
company's proposed sale has been "strong" and the timeline was being
extended so the company could thoroughly consider all the proposals.
The company also announced that it had received FCC approval to sell
WCWN-TV in Albany, N.Y., and WLVI-TV in Boston and expects to close
both deals in December. Both sales were part of a performance
improvement plan Tribune put into place prior to the strategic review
process. To date, Tribune has sold or agreed to sell about $450
million of non-core assets.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061128/tribune.html?.v=1
* Tribune Extends Strategic Review Policy Into 1st Qtr. '07
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=10034...
* Why Tribune wants more time to review buyout proposals
James Rainey hears that lukewarm bids had increased the chances that
the company would be sold in parts or that it would be reduced in
size and taken private by current management. "Clearly bids are not
coming in as high as expected, so Tribune needs more time to figure
out what to do," says one person involved in the auction.
http://www.latimes.com/business/investing/la-fi-tribune29nov29,1,5905498...
* Gannett may be interested in Trib because of CareerBuilder
If Gannett were to take over Tribune, its CareerBuilder stake would
give Gannett 85% ownership of the asset, which would allow it to
carry CareerBuilder on its income statement instead of treating it as
an unconsolidated minority position. "But a Gannett bid would also
amount to betting big on newspapers, and bidders all along have said
that the falloff in newspaper industry performance has made it
difficult to predict what papers like the Los Angeles Times and the
Chicago Tribune are really worth."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0611290131nov29,0,6091136.sto...

WRC CUTS CHANGE FACE OF LOCAL NEWS
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Paul Farhi]
A look at cost-cutting measures at NBC's Washington (DC) affiliate
WRC (Channel four). The station is a highly profitable operation
that has long enjoyed a market-leading position. The station
nevertheless has been swept up by the "NBC 2.0" program, a broad
initiative by NBC Universal to cut more than $750 million in expenses
from its news and entertainment operations and trim about 700
positions (roughly 5 percent of its employees). Since TV
news-watching is often the product of habit, local stations make even
small changes to their newscasts -- their most profitable programs --
at their peril. A rival news executive said the cutbacks could
provide WRC with a double economic benefit. The station can pare its
payroll substantially by replacing older, higher-salaried veterans
with younger, less expensive on-air personalities who theoretically
will help WRC attract the younger viewers that advertisers seek. The
news executive noted that the largest share of viewers for WRC's
early-evening newscasts are older than 55, an audience that
advertisers devalue.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR200611...
(requires registration)

EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY

REPORT: STUDENTS STRUGGLE WITH INFORMATION LITERACY
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: Justin Appel]
Despite the assumption that today's students are tech-savvy, many
fall short in demonstrating the information literacy skills necessary
for success in college and the workforce, a new report says. The
report comes from an evaluation of responses from students nationwide
to an information-literacy assessment tool developed by the nonprofit
ETS. The report comes from an evaluation of the responses of 6,300
students from 63 institutions around the country to ETS's new ICT
(Information and Communications Technology) Literacy Assessment.
Students were given scenario-based items that were presented to them
in 75-minute test environments. These information literacy tests
included extracting information from a database, developing a
spreadsheet, or composing eMail summaries of research findings. The
tests are meant to measure students' abilities to overcome three
challenges they typically have: 1) The ability to identify
trustworthy and useful information; 2) The ability to manage
overabundant information; and 3) The ability to communicate
information effectively. The study found that 52 percent of those
tested could correctly judge the objectivity of a web site, and 65
percent could correctly judge that web site's authoritativeness. But
only 40 percent of students entered multiple search terms when
researching a topic, and only 44 percent properly identified a
statement that captured the demands of the assignment.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=6725

E-RATE REVIEW PROCEEDINGS
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
The FCC set January 8, 2007 as the deadline for public comment in two
proceedings concerning the E-rate discount program for schools and
libraries. In one proceeding, E-Rate Central filed a petition for
clarification of the Commission's rules concerning the disposal of
equipment purchased under the E-rate program. Specifically, E-Rate
Central seeks guidance from the Commission on the proper method for
disposing of equipment when its value or usefulness precludes the
possibility of transferring the equipment to another eligible
facility. E-Rate Central notes that the Commission's rules for the
disposal of equipment funded under the E-rate program, which prohibit
eligible services and equipment components from being sold or
transferred in consideration of anything of value, may conflict with
New York's state regulations mandating that obsolete equipment shall
be sold through bid procedures, if possible, for the highest possible
price. In the second proceeding, the State E-Rate Coordinators'
Alliance (SECA) is seeking clarification of the Commission's rules as
they apply to state replacement contracts. Currently, USAC's
procedure for funding requests for services covered by state master
contracts that are scheduled to expire, but expected to be renewed,
during the funding year requires an applicant to file two separate
funding requests. SECA asks the Commission to clarify its contract
extension rules to permit an applicant to extend the contract
expiration date of a renewed state master contract. Alternatively, if
the rules do not permit such extensions, SECA asks for a modification
and/or permanent waiver of the Commission's rules to allow them.
* E-rate Central petition
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-2371A1.doc
* State E-Rate Coordinators' Alliance petition
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-2369A1.doc

QUICKLY

CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS SEEK BAN DELAY
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Todd Spangler]
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), House
Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Rep. Fred Upton
(R-Mich.), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications
and the Internet, sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission
Chairman Kevin Martin Tuesday asking the agency to extend the July 1,
2007 deadline that would bar cable operators from deploying set-top
boxes with integrated security features. FCC rules currently would
require any new set-top boxes deployed by cable operators as of July
1 to provide separable conditional-access features. Several operators
have filed petitions with the FCC requesting at least partial waivers
to the regulation. In the letter to Martin, the congressional leaders
noted that the FCC has already pushed back the deadline twice to
allow the industry to develop downloadable security technology, which
would be less expensive than requiring physical security cards for
set-top boxes. They said the industry still needs more time to
develop downloadable security.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6395340.html?display=Breaking+News

1 IN 5 PARENTS SAY KIDS ONLINE TOO MUCH
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Anick Jesdanun]
One in five American parents believe their kids are spending too much
time on the Internet, though most say the online activities haven't
affected grades either way. In a study to be released Wednesday by
the University of Southern California, 21 percent of adult Internet
users with children believe the kids are online too long, compared
with 11 percent in 2000. Still, that's less than the 49 percent who
complain their kids watch too much TV. About 80 percent of the
children say the Internet is important for schoolwork.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/INTERNET_USE?SITE=MIHOL&SECTION=H...

VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES EFFECTS LINGER IN BRAIN
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Susan Kelly]
Teens who play violent video games show increased activity in areas
of the brain linked to emotional arousal and decreased responses in
regions that govern self-control, a study released on Tuesday found.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&story...
--------------------------------------------------------------
Communications-related Headlines is a free online news summary
service provided by the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org). Posted
Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important
industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events.
While the summaries are factually accurate, their often informal tone
does not always represent the tone of the original articles.
Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang headlines( at )benton.org -- we
welcome your comments.
--------------------------------------------------------------