September 2013

Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing NSA’s

For at least six years, law enforcement officials working on a counternarcotics program have had routine access, using subpoenas, to an enormous AT&T database that contains the records of decades of Americans’ phone calls — parallel to but covering a far longer time than the National Security Agency’s hotly disputed collection of phone call logs.

Under the Hemisphere Project, a partnership between federal and local drug officials and AT&T, the government pays AT&T to place its employees in drug-fighting units around the country. Those employees sit alongside Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents and local detectives and supply them with the phone data from as far back as 1987. The scale and longevity of the data storage appears to be unmatched by other government programs, including the NSA’s gathering of phone call logs under the Patriot Act. Hemisphere covers every call that passes through an AT&T switch — not just those made by AT&T customers — and includes calls dating back 26 years, according to Hemisphere training slides bearing the logo of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Microsoft Is Getting Nokia’s Phone Business for a Song

[Commentary] Say what you will about the overall strategic wisdom of Microsoft paying $7 billion and change for Nokia’s smartphone business and patent portfolio, but you certainly can’t fault Microsoft for choosing to buy now versus a few years ago.

Although Microsoft is not getting the whole company, it’s certainly paying a lot less for the piece it’s getting than it would have. Shares of Nokia peaked in late 2007 at $40.59, when its wireless phone division still ruled the world and its share of the world’s market for smartphones, then based primarily on its since-abandoned Symbian operating system. Nokia’s share never traded higher than that price; they’ve fallen since then by more than 90 percent. Nokia’s share price has deflated to the present $3.90 a share.

Jeffrey Bezos, Washington Post’s next owner, aims for a new ‘golden era’ at the newspaper

Jeffrey P. Bezos, the next owner of The Washington Post, says he doesn’t have all the answers for what’s ailing the newspaper industry or for the financially challenged news organization he is preparing to buy. But he says he’s eager to start asking questions and conducting experiments in the quest for a new “golden era” at The Post.

In his first interview since his $250 million purchase of The Post was announced in early August, Bezos said his basic approach to operating the business will be similar to the philosophy that has guided him in building Amazon from a start-up in 1995 to an Internet colossus with $61 billion in sales last year. Bezos said his major contribution to the business will be in offering his “point of view” in discussions with the paper’s leadership about how the publication should evolve. He also said he provides “runway” — financial support over a lengthy period in which the management can experiment to find a profitable formula for delivering the news. But Bezos suggested that the current model for newspapers in the Internet era is deeply flawed: “The Post is famous for its investigative journalism,” he said. “It pours energy and investment and sweat and dollars into uncovering important stories. And then a bunch of Web sites summarize that [work] in about four minutes and readers can access that news for free. One question is, how do you make a living in that kind of environment?”

Sinclair Broadcasting snatches up local TV stations as part of plan to build a national powerhouse

In a world of fast-rising new-media companies, Sinclair Broadcasting has old-fashioned big-media ambitions: Control enough local news markets across the land to build a powerhouse to rival CNN and the Big Four networks.

To that end, it bought eight television properties this summer from Allbritton Communications, marking the end of an era for the Washington media family that will pivot its attention toward Politico and other Web ventures. The real prizes in the billion-dollar deal: NewsChannel 8, Washington’s only 24-hour, local news channel, which could be repositioned as a national franchise, and WJLA, the ABC affiliate with one of the biggest television newsrooms in the country. In the past year, Sinclair has paid almost $2.5 billion to snap up 79 local television stations. If all the acquisitions are approved, Sinclair will control local broadcast television for a third of US households. “We are headed for a world in which fewer than 10 companies will control most of the local TV stations in the entire country,” said Craig Aaron, the president of Free Press. “There will be less competition for local scoops, fewer voices on the air and the same cookie-cutter content everywhere you look. As a result, people will be less informed.” Federal communications rules are designed to preserve healthy competition among local newspaper and television outlets. But Sinclair and other conglomerates have deployed a complicated business tactic that allows them to maintain multiple business arrangements in one local market. By merging business and newsroom operations among multiple stations, they can cut costs and boost profits. Sinclair has used the strategy of sidecar agreements, whereby they own one TV station and lease a second or third, across the country.

Amazon unveils MatchBook to pair print, digital books

Online retailer Amazon will launch a new service next month that allows consumers to acquire the digital versions of purchased print books for a lower price. The program, Kindle MatchBook, will be available this October.

Consumers who have purchased a physical book dating back to 1995 can snag the Kindle version for around $3. "In addition to being a great new benefit for customers, this is an easy choice for publishers and authors who will now be able to earn more from each book they publish," said Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle Content. All the standard Kindle features will work with titles purchased through MatchBook, such as WhisperSync and Popular Highlights.

Massive Verizon-Vodafone deal 'should sail through,' experts say

Verizon's $130 billion bid to buyout Vodafone's stake in Verizon Wireless is unlikely to face opposition from regulators despite being one of the biggest transactions in history, experts say.

The deal, which would be more than three times larger than AT&T's failed 2011 bid for T-Mobile, would give Verizon 100 percent ownership of the wireless venture. Verizon already owns a controlling share of Verizon Wireless, so gaining 100 percent ownership of the venture won't fundamentally alter the competitive landscape of the wireless industry, experts say. Harold Feld, senior vice president for Public Knowledge and a vocal critic of telecommunications industry consolidation, agreed that the deal is likely to receive swift regulatory approval. In a blog post, he explained that the companies will need to receive approval from the Federal Communications Commission, but he said to think of the process "more like a change of address notification than as a full on application."

NTIA’s BroadbandMatch Web Site Tool

The Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) invites the general public and other federal agencies to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections. The NTIA proposes to continue BroadbandMatch as an online resource for communities pursuing broadband projects and programs to advance the Obama Administration’s goal of increased broadband deployment and use in the United States.

The BroadbandMatch Web site began during the final funding round of NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) and the US Department of Agriculture’s Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) as a tool for potential applicants to identify possible partners whose resources and expertise could strengthen the project proposals. The NTIA believes BroadbandMatch has ongoing utility and ability to cost effectively advance the Administration’s goals by facilitating sharing among BTOP grantees and others of best practices for completing successful broadband projects and facilitating partnerships to undertake new broadband projects. BroadbandMatch helps inexpensively to leverage Recovery Act investments to achieve the Administration’s ongoing goal of ensuring that all Americans can access affordable, ubiquitous broadband service and develop the skills to use this empowering technology effectively. BroadbandMatch users access the Web site through an Internet browser and voluntarily complete a brief profile requesting. Registered users may then search the database for potential project partners by organization type, state, or keyword. Individuals, business or other for-profit organizations, not-for- profit institutions, and federal, state, local, or tribal governments can access the service, at no cost to the public.

Why the $7.2 billion Microsoft-Nokia deal is a terrible idea

[Commentary] Nokia announced that Microsoft will buy its devices business for shade over $7.15 billion in an attempt to mimic the Apple/Google strategy of owning the hardware, software and services. But Vic Gundotra, Google’s sharp-elbowed senior executive who, like Android co-creator Andy Rubin, wanted to win over Nokia and bring it into the Android camp about two years ago, put it best when he tweeted: “Two turkeys don’t make an Eagle.”

And while he might have ruffled some feathers in Microsoft and Nokia offices, his observation wasn’t that off the mark. Microsoft makes a mobile OS that the market doesn’t seem to want. Nokia smartphones sales make drying paint seem like a John Woo thriller. It doesn’t matter from which angle you look, the combination of these two companies into a single entity doesn’t add up. The money Microsoft saved in the deal is one thing, but the question that needs to be asked is: what has fundamentally changed with this deal? If you ask me, nothing really has changed.

Google takes second browser spot on the back of mobile

Mobile browsing continued to post gains at the expense of personal computers, a trend that has put Google into the second spot behind Microsoft as the browser maker with the longest reach.

According to Net Applications, an estimated 13.4 percent of all users accessed the Internet in August from a smartphone or tablet, breaking a six-month-old record. Most of the rest of the world's online users -- 85.8 percent -- went online with a desktop browser on a personal computer. The increase in mobile browsing has pushed Google past Mozilla as the browser maker with the second-largest combined desktop-plus-mobile user share Google's combined user share of 17.5 percent was earned on the basis of its No. 2 spot in mobile generated by the Android and Chrome browsers. That's in contrast to Net Applications' estimate of Chrome's desktop share of 16 percent, down more than 1.7 percentage points in August. When desktop and mobile browser user shares are combined, Google takes the second spot from Mozilla, and Apple's Safari is a stronger fourth-place rival than its minor desktop presence indicates.

Who Do Members of Congress Follow on Twitter?

Twitter has become such an integral medium for political communication that, according to our count, 97 percent of members of Congress now have an official Twitter presence. But Twitter is a two-way street — you spread your message, and you listen to what others have to say. So who are members of the House and Senate (or, doubtless more often, their staffs) listening to on Twitter?

Daily Intelligencer decided to find out: With help from the wizards at Twiangulate, we identified every congressional Twitter account, then analyzed which other accounts they follow most often. Topping the overall list of most followed accounts are four DC-based political news outlets, which, thanks to their bipartisan appeal, are followed by around 60 percent of members of Congress. But taking a look at the top twenty accounts divided by party shows zero overlap beyond The Hill, Politico, Roll Call, and CSPAN. Although they like a few of the same publications, Democrats and Republicans tend to lack interest in ... each other. President Barack Obama is only the eighth most-followed account among Democrats in Congress, which seems odd. On the Republican side, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), apparently the world's most interesting tweeter, is hogging two spots in the top ten. Mike Allen, the Politico Playbook scribe is not only the most followed journalist among members of Congress as a whole, but he also tops both the Democratic and Republican charts. Chuck Todd, Chad Pergram, Jake Tapper, Chris Cillizza, and David Gregory also enjoy relatively robust followings from both sides of the House. Republicans are following @RedState and @Drudge_report more than they’re following @AP or @nytimes. Democrats, meanwhile, are keeping close tabs on multiple NPR accounts.

Benton

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