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  2. July 2008

July 2008

Schools prepare for switch to digital TV

As consumers and cable companies prepare for the February 17, 2009, switch from analog to digital television broadcasting, some educators are wondering how their schools' televisions will be affected. As long as older analog TV sets are connected to a cable service, they will continue to display local broadcast stations after the transition, according to a digital TV transition guide from Cable in the Classroom (CIC). If a school receives television service through a cable company or other multi-channel provider, its technology staff might not have to do anything to prepare for the transition, because most cable companies already have technology in place to handle the new digital formats of local TV stations. For the most part, as long as the TV sets in a school building are connected to cable TV service, they will display local stations. But schools might need to examine their internal networks and distribution systems to see if their broadcasting might be affected. A school or district technology coordinator should have information on that.

Appeals Court Stops Leased Access Case

The US Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati has stopped the cable industry's legal attack on new leased access rules to accommodate the Federal Communications Commission in the agency's ongoing dispute with the Bush administration's Office of Management and Budget. Last Friday, the court agreed to hold the case "in abeyance." It also ordered the FCC to update the court every 60 days on the status of its problems with OMB. The cable industry is appealing FCC rules to regulate the rates that third-party commercial programmers pay to access cable systems. Large cable operators have to set aside 15 percent or channels for leased access programmers. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association claims on behalf of cable operators that the FCC had imposed a rate structure that produced an illegally low amount of revenue. A few weeks ago, OMB refused to approve the FCC implementing regulations, saying the information collection burdens placed on cable operators violated the Paperwork Reduction Act.

Cablevision completes acquisition of Newsday

On Tuesday, Cablevision completed its $650 million acquisition of Newsday in a deal that creates a new, big regional player in online and print news and advertising. Cablevision acquired 97 percent of Newsday Media Group through the formation of a new partnership with Tribune Co., first announced in May. Cablevision said the deal "adds a complementary print and online media group with diverse, quality local content in the New York area." Newsday Publisher Tim Knight will continue to oversee Newsday and will report to Cablevision chief operating officer Thomas Rutledge. Cablevision and Newsday will begin exploring ways to grow their advertising-based and subscription-based businesses. Cablevision is expected to begin using its cable systems across the New York area to run Newsday advertisements that highlight the strength of the paper's news, content and advertising. The deal puts Cablevision in control of the largest block of advertising and news resources in the region. Its digital cable empire reaches more than 3 million households in the tri-state area, and it owns News 12 Networks operating a 24-hour news programming through the region. Newsday's paid weekday circulation is just under 380,000 copies.

Phones Without Homes

The rise of the Internet and the telecommunications revolution of the 1990s was a boon to the wired-phone industry. In the mid-to-late-1990s, even as the number of wireless subscribers exploded, the number of access lines provided by incumbent local exchange carriers rose at a rate greater than that of the overall economy, with the number of lines rising nearly 24 percent from 142.4 million in 1992 to 186.6 million in 1999. Growth was driven in part by millions of people hooking up faxes and adding dedicated lines so that they could dial up to AOL. Since 2000, however, it's been a different story. Wireless has continued to boom, up from 109.5 million subscribers in December 2000 to 233 million in December 2006, but the number of land lines has fallen somewhere between 4 and 6 percent in every year since 2000. The result: The number of incumbent local exchange carriers' access lines in 2006 was back down to 140 million, about the same level as in 1991 and off about one-quarter from the 2000 peak. The growth and convenience of wireless have played a role, and so, too, have the rise in broadband Internet access and the availability of phone service from cable companies and outfits such as Vonage and Skype. But in the past year, a new and unexpected woe has been crushing the land-line business: the economy. In the past, a few quarters of slow growth wouldn't have meant really bad news for basic telephony subscribers. The telephone at home has long been a utility, not a discretionary item. But in this first real slowdown of the wireless age, consumers seem to be saying that home-based telephones are expendable luxuries, like Starbucks lattes or Coach handbags. And it makes sense. Confronted with high inflation, soaring energy costs, and stagnant wages, millions of households are facing choices about which monthly bills to pay and which commitments to maintain. And if it comes down to one or the other, the mobile or the home-based land line, it's clear which is a necessity and which is an option. One lets you make telephone calls only from your house. The other lets you make telephone calls from anywhere, send e-mails, surf the Internet, play music, and take photographs. At this rate of decline, within a few years the push-button wired telephone with service provided by a Bell company could be as rare and obsolete as a rotary phone is today.

Sprint Early Termination Fees are Unlawful

Sprint Nextel was dealt a major blow in its early-termination-fee case when a California judge ruled it would have to pay $ 73 million. The decision could bode poorly for the various trials that are taking place throughout the country, as well as the Federal Communications Commission's attempts to make wireless carriers exempt from these state court cases. This ruling sounds the death knell for the industry's petition seeking a preemption ruling from the FCC - a ruling the industry has never been able to win in court," said Scott Bursor, an attorney representing the plaintiffs. Early termination fees are incurred when a customer breaks their wireless contract before it ends, and is an issue debated in state courts and with the FCC. Consumer advocacy groups argue that it unfairly restricts consumers from switching service. Carriers argue that the fees are a necessary because they subsidize a part of the cellphone and need to recoup those expenses. But most carriers have already changed their early termination fees to be more flexible.

7-Count Corruption Indictment for Sen Ted Stevens

Sen Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), the Vice Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Washington (DC) on seven counts of filing false financial disclosures. Sen Stevens became an Internet celebrity a couple of summers ago after an audio of his "The Internet is a series of tubes" speech to the Senate Commerce Committee wended its way round the Web. He made the comment during a debate on Net neutrality when he was still the chairman of the Senate Commerce committee. Stevens had been a critic of extensive Net neutrality mandates. At the time, he accused proponents of a Congressional bill of "imposing a heavy-handed regulation before there's a demonstrated need." Sen Stevens becomes by far the most powerful politician charged in a broad investigation into corruption of Alaska public officials that began more than four years ago that has so far led to convictions of three state legislators and charges against two others. The seven-count indictment charges Stevens with making false statements by failing to disclose things of value he received from Veco Corp., an Alaska-based oil services company, and from its chairman, Bill Allen, over an eight-year period. The indictment charges that those included substantial improvements to Stevens' home in Girdwood; automobile exchanges in which he received new vehicles worth far more than the old ones; and household goods. At the same time, according to the indictment, Stevens received solicitations for official actions from Allen and other Veco employees, and used his office on behalf of Veco. The federal Ethics in Government Act requires all senators to file financial disclosures statements detailing their transactions during the previous calendar year, including the disclosure of gifts above a specified value and all liabilities greater than $10,000. The case involves false disclosures, not bribery, and no specific actions by Stevens in return for the gifts were alleged. But the indictments also says that Veco had requests for Stevens, and that Stevens and his staff responded. Stevens could and did use his official position and his office on behalf of Veco during that same time period, the indictment charges. Some of the solicitations were made directly to Stevens and included requests for help on international projects in Pakistan and Russia; requests for federal grants and contracts, including National Science Foundation grants to a subsidiary called Veco Polar; and assistance with the effort to construction a natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope. Stevens, 84, is the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate. From 2003 to 2007, he was president pro tem.

July 29, 2008 (McCain Defends Tech Smarts)

BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for TUESDAY JULY 29, 2008

For upcoming media policy events, see http://benton.org/calendar

FCC REFORM
   FCC Chairman Complies With House Investigation

ELECTIONS AND MEDIA
   FEC: Short Ads Must Still Contain Disclaimer
   Obama Overseas and the Media
   In study, evidence of liberal-bias bias
   Black Radio on Obama Is Left's Answer to Limbaugh
   President Bush, the media's forgotten man
   The Techie in Chief
   McCain Defends his Tech Smarts
   Citizen journalists make new inroads into political reporting

INTERNET/BROADBAND
   FCC probably can't police Comcast's BitTorrent throttling
   AT&T Bans Wireless P2P

MEDIA OWNERSHIP
   FCC Releases XM-Sirius Details
   Tribune trimming beyond newsroom

BROADCASTING
   NTIA Will Not Seek Additional DTV Coupon Money
   MAP Proposes New Station License Category
   MGM links with Weigel Broadcasting for digital subchannel offering
   Indecency Fight Likely to Linger Past Election

DIGITAL CONTENT
   Online, R U Really Reading?
   Online Display Market Is Being Overhyped

TELECOM
   Waxman wants to know how much AT&T, Verizon, others receive from Universal Service Fund
   TV Service Stalls for Verizon, but Increase in Wireless Customers Keeps Earnings Strong

QUICKLY -- a href="#node-15606">FTC: Kids Target of $1.6B in Food Ads; The Changing Newsroom;Broadband Regulation Could Crimp Cablers, ACA Says

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FCC REFORM

FCC CHAIRMAN COMPLIES WITH HOUSE INVESTIGATION
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has complied with a House Commerce Committee request for information on his management of the FCC by delivering the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations 40 boxes of files. The subcommittee, chaired by Rep Bart Stupak (D-MI), was originally expected to hold a hearing on the results of its investigation in the spring, now is expected to hold one this fall. Congressmen previously have been critical of Chairman Martin, with some of them upset about the FCC's media-ownership rules changes and others unhappy with Martin's efforts to get cable operators to offer channels a la carte. The latest probe goes deeper, however.
http://benton.org/node/15597
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ELECTIONS AND MEDIA

FEC: SHORT ADS MUST STILL CONTAIN DISCLAIMER
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
In its first substantive opinion since seating a full complement of commissioners, the Federal Election Commission unanimously concluded that even 10- and 15-second TV and radio ads for or against federal candidates must include the spoken disclaimer at the end identifying the group responsible for the ad. The Club for Growth PAC sought an exemption from the spoken-disclaimer requirement last fall for the ads, or at least the ability to truncate the so-called stand-by-your-ad disclaimers, but the commissioners said there was no wiggle room in the law. The order was originally drafted last January, but it had to wait for a vote because up until a few weeks ago, the FEC had only two commissioners, while four are needed for a vote. The Campaign Legal Center praised the decision.
http://benton.org/node/15596
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OBAMA OVERSEAS AND THE MEDIA
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
Sen Barack Obama's trip overseas consumed 51% of the campaign newshole for the week of July 21-27, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism's Campaign Coverage Index. That was enough to make it the second-biggest campaign story line since PEJ began tracking them in mid-March. (Only coverage of the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, during the week of April 21-27, generated more attention.) The trip also helped Obama, for the seventh consecutive week, dominate John McCain in the contest for media exposure. The Democrat was a significant or dominant factor in 81% of the campaign stories studied compared with 53% for McCain. Interestingly, even with all the attention to Obama's trip, those numbers dovetail closely with the weekly coverage averages since the general election campaign began in June. In that period, Obama has factored in 79% of the coverage with McCain at 52%. One reason Obama's advantage might not have been greater last week was that McCain managed to inject himself into the media narrative by challenging his opponent over Iraq policy and with some counter-programming—including a visit to a German restaurant in Columbus Ohio while Obama was in Germany. But if you combine the top three story lines of the week—Obama's trip (51% of the newshole), the debate over Iraq that was largely triggered by Obama's visit there (7%), and press examination of its treatment of Obama (7%)—those three threads account for two-thirds of the week's campaign coverage.
http://benton.org/node/15609
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IN STUDY, EVIDENCE OF LIBERAL-BIAS BIAS
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: James Rainey]
(7/27) The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) than on Sen John McCain (R-AZ) during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign. You read it right: tougher on the Democrat. Although Obama is receiving more than twice as much television network air time as McCain in the last month and a half, during the evening news, the majority of statements from reporters and anchors on all three networks are neutral. And when network news people ventured opinions in recent weeks, 28% of the statements were positive for Obama and 72% negative. Network reporting also tilted against McCain, but far less dramatically, with 43% of the statements positive and 57% negative, according to the Washington-based media center.
http://benton.org/node/15595
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BLACK RADIO ON OBAMA IS LEFT'S ANSWER TO LIMBAUGH
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Jim Rutenberg]
(7/27) Rush Limbaugh, meet your black liberal counterprogramming. Many African-American radio hosts and commentators are aggressively advocating for Sen Barack Obama's election on black-oriented radio stations daily. Since Limbaugh first flexed his tonsils two decades ago, Democrats have publicly worried about their lack of an answer to him and his imitators, who have proven so adept at motivating conservative Republicans to go to the polls, especially for President Bush. Now it is Sen Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, who has a harmonious chorus of broadcast supporters addressing a vital part of his coalition, feeding and reflecting the excitement blacks have for his candidacy in general. Sen Obama is getting support from white liberal talk radio hosts as well, but the backing he is getting from black radio hosts could be especially helpful to his campaign's efforts to increase black turnout and raise historically low voter registration enough to change the math of presidential elections in battlegrounds and traditionally Republican states.
http://benton.org/node/15594
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PRESIDENT BUSH, THE MEDIA'S FORGOTTEN MAN
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Ben Feller]
Across all forms of mainstream media, news coverage of President Bush has fallen significantly this year. The drop-off has big implications for Bush, whose ability to influence the public debate is weakened by less exposure, and for the country, which ends up with lighter scrutiny of the nation's highest office. And while the trend is not unusual for a lame-duck leader, the declining attention still seems pronounced given the forces working against Bush. News organizations, making an editorial judgment influenced by tighter budgets, see less point in covering an unpopular president with waning clout and diminishing news value. The presidential beat is expensive. For the reporters still following Bush, the big stories still happen, but far less often. TV correspondents find it harder to get on the air, photographers doubt whether their pictures will get any play, and writers often see their work buried in the back of the newspaper. On top of it all, Bush is not part of the story getting all the buzz: the race for his job.
http://benton.org/node/15593
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THE TECHIE IN CHIEF
[SOURCE: Newsweek, AUTHOR: Anna Quindlen]
[Commentary] When Sen John McCain described himself earlier this year as a computer illiterate who had never gone online, it just made him look odd. And old. And Out of It. And that's important, because Out of It is what Americans cannot afford in a president at this moment. So McCain's admission that he was behind the same curve raises a larger, more troubling question: if Osama bin Laden beat us with a laptop, shouldn't we at least have a president who is reasonably conversant with one? After all, some historians believe that one of the reasons the North prevailed during the Civil War is because Lincoln was savvy enough to use the most sophisticated means of communication available. If Senator McCain wants to know how it turns out for those who aren't as adaptable, he could take a look at Jefferson Davis. You can Google him. If you do that sort of thing. Or even know what it means.
http://benton.org/node/15598
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MCCAIN DEFENDS HIS TECH SMARTS
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Carla Marinucci]
Sen John McCain (R-AZ), fundraising in the San Francisco Bay Area, acknowledged that he isn't a "tech freak" or entirely comfortable with the Internet or e-mail. But he strongly disputed criticism that he is "out of the loop" as unfair. As the former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, he said, Sen McCain was a driving force to oversea legislation that helped the Internet flourish. "We passed the ban on Internet taxes, which was vital, I think, in the growth of the Internet. We had constant hearings ... about new technology that was being developed," including some of the more controversial aspects of "different and competing interests" in the field, such as broadband technology, said McCain. "So to somehow allege that I'm not up to date on it isn't in keeping with my record as chairman," he said. Sen McCain said he is well aware that technology "does drive the news. It is changing the shape of the news. ... It's changing the information age, and I've got to stay up with it." He added, "But I am forcing myself ... let me put it this way, I am using the computer more and more every day."
http://benton.org/node/15610
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CITIZEN JOURNALISTS MAKE NEW INROADS INTO POLITICAL REPORTING
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Uri Friedman]
Stuck with rising competition from Internet-mediated news, traditional media have been reaching out to Web-savvy citizen journalists to expand their online audiences. But only this year have major television networks and their web affiliates begun carving out reporting slots for nonprofessionals on one of their marquee topics: the presidential election. The trend is surfacing even as heightened competition between traditional media and citizen media strains relations between professionals and amateurs, who lack formal training in journalism standards and often publish material without a rigorous vetting process.
http://benton.org/node/15608
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INTERNET/BROADBAND

FCC PROBABLY CAN'T POLICE COMCAST'S BITTORRENT THROTTLING
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Declan McCullagh]
[Commentary] Federal regulators are planning to meet on Friday and declare that Comcast violated Net neutrality principles when throttling BitTorrent traffic on its network. This would become the US government's first Network Neutrality-related ruling. There's just one problem with the Federal Communications Commission's plans: They may not be quite, well, legal. In other words, the FCC may not actually have the authority to make its ruling stick. It's true that the FCC adopted a set of principles in August 2005 saying "consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice." But the principles also permit providers' "reasonable network management" and, confusingly, the FCC admitted on the day of their adoption that the guidelines "are not enforceable." If FCC enforcement against Comcast is illegal, why would Chairman Kevin Martin schedule Friday's vote?
http://benton.org/node/15592
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AT&T BANS WIRELESS P2P
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
No more downloading Lost episodes onto your cell phone. AT&T has banned wireless phone subscribers from using file-sharing applications and threatens to terminate service of anyone caught doing so. AT&T let the Federal Communications Commission know in a letter to Commissioner Robert McDowell who had asked about AT&T's policy regarding P2P traffic over its wireless network at an FCC forum in Pittsburgh on July 21. AT&T says it does not use "network management tools to block the use of P2P applications by its mobile wireless broadband customers."
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6582213.html?nid=4262
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP

FCC RELEASES XM-SIRIUS DETAILS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Although already widely reported, the Federal Communications released official word that it has approved the purchase of XM Satellite radio by now-former-rival Sirius. The FCC decided it was in the public interest to let the two companies merge even when the relevant competitive market was confined to satellite radio. That left at least one commissioner pondering if the decision reopened the possibility for a merger of satellite-TV companies. Commissioner Michael Copps, who voted against the merger, said the FCC majority made its own case for opposing the merger, starting off with the conclusion that it was a merger to monopoly, as the National Association of Broadcasters consistently argued -- a case of allowing the only two companies in the relevant satellite-radio market to combine. "The inescapable logic of the majority's findings is that by 2011, satellite-radio subscribers will face monopoly price hikes by a company with the incentive and ability to impose them," Commissioner Copps said. "No one has been able to explain to me how this could possibly serve the public interest." In a released statement Commissioner Copps wrote, "In essence, the majority asserts that satellite-radio consumers will be better served by a regulated monopoly than by marketplace competition. I thought that debate was settled, as did a unanimous commission in 2002, when it declined to approve the proposed merger between DirecTV and EchoStar."
http://benton.org/node/15590
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TRIBUNE TRIMMING BEYOND NEWSROOM
[SOURCE: Crain's Chicago Business, AUTHOR: Ann Saphir]
The Chicago Tribune will trim non-newsroom staff next month as it struggles to cope with unprecedented declines in revenue, interim Publisher Bob Gremillion said. The cuts come as all Tribune newspapers reduce their payrolls and shrink editorial output to deal with a drop in revenue that accelerated just as CEO Sam Zell took over the company in December, shouldering it with $8 billion in new debt in a leveraged buyout.
http://benton.org/node/15584
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BROADCASTING

NTIA WILL NOT SEEK ADDITIONAL DTV COUPON MONEY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
National Telecommunications and Information Administration chief Meredith Attwell Baker has told House Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) that its $1.5 billion budget for distributing digital-TV-to-analog converter-box coupons should be sufficient. She added that NTIA already took into account sending out more than the 33.5 million coupons budgeted for. In fact, given the rate at which the coupons are going unredeemed -- more than 50% -- NTIA should be able to have funding for 50 million coupons. The NTIA told IBM to get ready to send out another 6 million coupons above the 33.5 million it estimated it would be able to send out giving the funding. But Baker told Dingell that had only been an estimate and that the NTIA all along took into account that depending on the nonredemption rate, it might be able to fund more coupons. More than 21.3 million coupons have been requested and more than 6.6 million coupons have been redeemed. For all households, the coupon redemption rate is 45.8 percent and for households that rely on an antenna, the coupon redemption rate is 54.6 percent. Visit www.ntiadtv.gov/coupon_stats.cfm for redemption rate details.
http://benton.org/node/15589
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MAP PROPOSES NEW STATION LICENSE CATEGORY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Media Access Project, a public interest law firm, is proposing a new category of station license that would apply to existing TV stations' digital-multicast channels. The "S Class" licenses could be obtained by minorities and others if a station agreed to give up the excess digital spectrum for licensing. The station would be compensated via a baseball-style auction for "use of the main licensee's facilities" to deliver the channel. MAP will share the plan with the Federal Communications Commission today at the FCC's field hearing titled "Capital Markets and Ownership Diversity." MAP wants the FCC to separately license each of those digital channels (it does not currently do so) for broadcasters willing to volunteer their spectrum. Those licenses could then go to minorities, women and others underrepresented in media-ownership circles. The stations would have must-carry rights -- cable operators would have to carry them -- and public-interest obligations.
http://benton.org/node/15607
Capital Markets and Ownership Diversity
http://www.benton.org/node/15022
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MGM LINKS WITH WEIGEL BROADCASTING FOR DIGITAL SUBCHANNEL OFFERING
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, AUTHOR: Phil Rosenthal]
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, impressed with what Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting has done in packaging vintage TV shows under the Me TV and Me Too brands, announced Monday it is partnering on a national offering called This TV Network. A round-the-clock programming service stocked with movies and old shows from MGM's library as well as children's fare from Cookie Jar Entertainment, This TV will be made available for stations to air on their digital subchannels, beginning this fall. MGM describes it as "a turn-key solution for generating revenue for the digital spectrum." Weigel Executive Vice President Neal Sabin, who developed Me TV, Me Too and The U brands locally, will oversee the programming for This TV from Chicago. Ad sales will be managed from MGM's New York office. This TV plans to leverage the MGM library of more than 4,100 films and 10,000 hours of TV programming, as well as that of Cookie Jar Entertainment, home to children's properties such as "Johnny Test," "The Doodlebops" and "Caillou."
http://benton.org/node/15588
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INDECENCY FIGHT LIKELY TO LINGER PAST ELECTION
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
An appellate court's decision overturning the Federal Communications Commission's fines for the Janet Jackson Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" could push the indecency fight to post-Bush versions of the FCC and Congress. Lawyers and former FCC officials said the decision's timing, together with the Supreme Court's plan to hear oral arguments on a different indecency case this fall, suggest the FCC could be forced to temporarily hold off crafting new indecency rules. Even a slight delay could push a vote past the Jan. 20 inaugural. Congressional sources said although some legislators support regulations giving the FCC greater authority to act on indecency—perhaps against cable as well as broadcasters—the ruling arrived just as legislators are ready to depart for the August recess. With the political campaign likely to keep any fall session short, several legislative aides said action isn't likely until next year. Still, there is interest in acting on the issue.
http://benton.org/node/15587
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DIGITAL CONTENT

LITERACY DEBATE: ONLINE, R U REALLY READING?
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Motoko Rich]
(7/27) A look at a passionate debate about just what it means to read in the digital age. The discussion is playing out among educational policy makers and reading experts around the world, and within groups like the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association. As teenagers' scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading -- diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books. But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager like Nadia, who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write.
http://benton.org/node/15586
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ONLINE DISPLAY MARKET IS BEING OVERHYPED
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Abbey Klaassen]
The inconvenient truth is that for all its new-media spin, display advertising is "old" media -- a commercial message to be placed next to editorial or entertainment content. And we know by now that measured-media growth has pretty much ground to a halt as marketers continue to increase their dollars in unmeasured disciplines such as web development, public relations and database marketing at the expense of paid advertising. Most of the top 100 advertisers that wield the big budgets are still primarily TV and print spenders. For all its glory, the Internet still has not proven itself capable of being a primary branding medium. Most ads online are response-based and work best for brand marketers when they complement a branding campaign in other media.
http://benton.org/node/15585
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TELECOM

WAXMAN WANTS TO KNOW HOW MUCH AT&T, VERIZON, OTHERS RECEIVE FROM UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Joelle Tessler]
Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on Monday sent letters to 24 companies seeking information about how much money they receive from the Universal Service Fund's high cost program and how they spend it. The program, which is funded through a surcharge on long-distance bills, helps underwrite the cost of phone service in rural areas and other places where telecom companies otherwise might not build networks.
http://benton.org/node/15583
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TV SERVICE STALLS FOR VERIZON, BUT INCREASE IN WIRELESS CUSTOMERS KEEPS EARNINGS STRONG
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Laura Holson]
Verizon Communications is having a harder time pushing its television service, which competes with the big cable companies, but the company said the slowing economy had not hurt its cellphone business. In releasing its earnings report on Monday, Verizon said it added 1.5 million new wireless customers, the same number as last quarter. It was 25 percent fewer than the two million it added in the fourth quarter of 2007, but Verizon Wireless, which is a joint venture with Vodafone, said its churn rate — the pace at which customers defect to other carriers — fell to 1.1 percent from 1.2 percent in the previous quarter. By comparison, Sprint Nextel has a churn rate of 2.45 percent. Analysts, however, were concerned about the pace at which Verizon was winning customers for its fiber optic delivery of television programming, called FiOS TV. Verizon added 176,000 customers in the last three months, compared with 263,000 customers in its first quarter. In addition, the company said it added 187,000 FiOS Internet customers. Verizon's high-speed-Internet subscribers rose 12% to 8.3 million, a growth rate less than the 26% increase in the year-earlier period. The slowdowns reported by both AT&T and Verizon raised questions about whether the high-speed-Internet market is maturing or whether phone companies' DSL services are losing ground to cable companies' faster offerings.
http://benton.org/node/15603
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QUICKLY

FTC: KIDS TARGET OF $1.6B IN FOOD ADS
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Kevin Freking]
Children are confronted with such a barrage of advertising for food and drink - much of it unhealthy - that the entertainment industry should take steps to tie popular TV and movie characters to more nutritional products, the Federal Trade Commission says. The recommendation was part of a report showing that the nation's largest food and beverage companies spent about $1.6 billion in 2006 marketing their products — especially carbonated drinks — to children and adolescents. The report, to be released today, stems from lawmakers' concern about growing obesity rates in children. It gives researchers new insight into how much companies are spending to attract youth to their products, and what venues the companies are using for their marketing. To come up with its estimate, the FTC used confidential financial data that it required the companies to turn over.
http://benton.org/node/15606
More on the report's release
http://benton.org/node/15601

THE CHANGING NEWSROOM
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: ]
The American daily newspaper of 2008 has fewer pages than three years ago, the paper stock is thinner, and the stories are shorter. There is less foreign and national news, less space devoted to science, the arts, features and a range of specialized subjects. Business coverage is either packaged in an increasingly thin stand-alone section or collapsed into another part of the paper. The crossword puzzle has shrunk, the TV listings and stock tables may have disappeared, but coverage of some local issues has strengthened and investigative reporting remains highly valued. The newsroom staff producing the paper is also smaller, younger, more tech-savvy, and more oriented to serving the demands of both print and the web. The staff also is under greater pressure, has less institutional memory, less knowledge of the community, of how to gather news and the history of individual beats. There are fewer editors to catch mistakes. Despite an image of decline, more people today in more places read the content produced in the newsrooms of American daily newspapers than at any time in years. But revenues are tumbling. The editors expect the financial picture only to worsen, and they have little confidence that they know what their papers will look like in five years.
http://benton.org/node/15605

BROADBAND REGULATION COULD CRIMP CABLERS, ACA SAYS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Moss]
The "rejuvenation" that independent cable operators have enjoyed by expanding into broadband service could be impacted by possible federal regulation of network management practices, a lawyer for the American Cable Association warned Monday.
http://benton.org/node/15604
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McCain Defends his Tech Smarts

Sen John McCain (R-AZ), fundraising in the San Francisco Bay Area, acknowledged that he isn't a "tech freak" or entirely comfortable with the Internet or e-mail. But he strongly disputed criticism that he is "out of the loop" as unfair. As the former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, he said, Sen McCain was a driving force to oversea legislation that helped the Internet flourish. "We passed the ban on Internet taxes, which was vital, I think, in the growth of the Internet. We had constant hearings ... about new technology that was being developed," including some of the more controversial aspects of "different and competing interests" in the field, such as broadband technology, said McCain. "So to somehow allege that I'm not up to date on it isn't in keeping with my record as chairman," he said. Sen McCain said he is well aware that technology "does drive the news. It is changing the shape of the news. ... It's changing the information age, and I've got to stay up with it." He added, "But I am forcing myself ... let me put it this way, I am using the computer more and more every day."

Obama Overseas and the Media

Sen Barack Obama's trip overseas consumed 51% of the campaign newshole for the week of July 21-27, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism's Campaign Coverage Index. That was enough to make it the second-biggest campaign story line since PEJ began tracking them in mid-March. (Only coverage of the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, during the week of April 21-27, generated more attention.) The trip also helped Obama, for the seventh consecutive week, dominate John McCain in the contest for media exposure. The Democrat was a significant or dominant factor in 81% of the campaign stories studied compared with 53% for McCain. Interestingly, even with all the attention to Obama's trip, those numbers dovetail closely with the weekly coverage averages since the general election campaign began in June. In that period, Obama has factored in 79% of the coverage with McCain at 52%. One reason Obama's advantage might not have been greater last week was that McCain managed to inject himself into the media narrative by challenging his opponent over Iraq policy and with some counter-programming—including a visit to a German restaurant in Columbus Ohio while Obama was in Germany. But if you combine the top three story lines of the week—Obama's trip (51% of the newshole), the debate over Iraq that was largely triggered by Obama's visit there (7%), and press examination of its treatment of Obama (7%)—those three threads account for two-thirds of the week's campaign coverage.

Citizen journalists make new inroads into political reporting

Stuck with rising competition from Internet-mediated news, traditional media have been reaching out to Web-savvy citizen journalists to expand their online audiences. But only this year have major television networks and their web affiliates begun carving out reporting slots for nonprofessionals on one of their marquee topics: the presidential election. The trend is surfacing even as heightened competition between traditional media and citizen media strains relations between professionals and amateurs, who lack formal training in journalism standards and often publish material without a rigorous vetting process.

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