March 2009

The economic stimulus law mentions health information technology dozens of times, establishing an agenda to promote electronic health records, form standards committees and work out health information privacy and security impasses. However, the $20 billion package also contains a more obscure provision that has buoyed hopes among advocates of open-source technologies projects that have struggled to gain acceptance in the health IT marketplace. Tucked away in the law is a call to explore open-source technologies in the healthcare setting. The provision directs the Health and Human Services Department to conduct a report on the "availability of open-source health information technology systems." The study will look into the availability of heath IT open source systems and compare its total cost of ownership to proprietary systems. Congress must report on the progress of the study by Oct. 1, 2010. Although a relatively minor provision, open-source advocates consider it significant.

House Communications, Technology & Internet Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) spoke to the National Association of Broadcasters State Leadership Conference in Washington on Tuesday. He said radio broadcasters are going to have to pay a per-performance fee, so it is in their interests to get together with not only music rights holders but cable, satellite and online distributors to figure out how much that should be. Chairman Boucher said that as part of bringing broadcasters into that performance rights scheme, the rates cable, satellite and online music distributors already pay would come down. He said would ultimately benefit broadcasters, too, because their online streams would likely be at least as valuable to them as their over-the-air signals, and maybe more so. That may have been an effort to sugar coat a biter pill for broadcasters, who face the prospect of having to add another expense to already stretched budgets. It was not what broadcasters wanted to hear, something Boucher readily acknowledged. NAB members have been pushing hard against any fee/tax, saying it could cost jobs and reduce music diversity. But it was what Boucher suggested they needed to hear.

He also addressed the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act before Congress this year saying broadcasters and multichannel video providers need to come up with a negotiated solution to the problem of delivering TV signals to so-called "split markets," or one will likely be imposed. Chairman Boucher said he would try to pass the most narrow version possible of the SHVERA act, without "collateral issues" like retransmission consent reform. But he said a couple of issues would inevitably come before the committee. One was allowing the importation of signals from adjacent markets to markets that lack that particular network affiliate signal, which is not controversial and which he supports. Another, he said, was making sure that satellite operators carry TV stations in all 210 local markets. "I frankly have a feeling that unless we have a statutory mandate, the time may never come," saying that statutory requirement is "the best thing we can do."

Update: Chairman Boucher also said, "Let me tell you this morning that our subcommittee has no plans to reinstate the fairness doctrine."

In an ailing radio industry, with a graying audience and a pro-government landscape, Rush Limbaugh should be shuffling off into irrelevancy. Instead, his ever more outrageous attacks have everyone debating whether he's the GOP's de facto leader, while the party shapes its ideology to fit his needs.

In an effort to protect its print franchise, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis has begun withholding certain content from its Web site. In a note to readers published on March 28, editor Nancy Barnes explains that the Star Tribune had great success breaking news online and building up its audience. Indeed, the Star Tribune regularly ranks as one of the top 30 newspaper Web sites. In February, the paper's online home reported a 16% increase in unique users to 2.4 million year over year, according to Nielsen Online. The site also has a high average time spent per person, at a little more than 30 minutes in February, Nielsen reported. But Barnes wrote to readers that she has increasingly questioned the notion of free online content: "I also believe that we as an industry, have to drive more value into our printed papers so long as we continue to deliver more news that way."