OWNERSHIP
Is the Devil At Work in Media Alliances? (USA)
European Capitalism Gets Less Cozy (WSJ)
INTERNET
Whitney Plans to Include Internet Art in Biennial (CyberTimes)
Can TV Spots "Ad" Value To E-commerce Companies? (WSJ)
'Cybersmear' Lawsuits Raise Privacy Concern (SJM)
Internet Labels Lose Meaning in Rush for Popular Addresses (NYT)
OWNERSHIP
IS THE DEVIL AT WORK IN MEDIA ALLIANCES?
Issue: Ownership
[Op-ed] There are evil opposites at work in the way our information media
are organizing themselves: consolidation and fragmentation. In it's most
extreme form, fragmentation has made the control of information so diffuse
that nobody is in charge. "Anyone who can afford a secondhand computer and
an Internet connection is empowered to become the next Matt Drudge, and
there are few penalties for being irresponsible." On the other hand, the
high cost of competition is driving media companies to seek economies of
scale via mergers, partnerships and content-sharing arrangements. Yet there
is a bright side to these two trends in that the anarchy of the Internet
gives everyone a chance to have their viewpoint heard. Good can also come
from concentration, "if the Washington Post-NBC combination can put a brand
name on news reporting that is associated with truth and objectivity, we'll
all benefit. If the brand is managed in a way that symbolizes
sensationalism and sleazy entertainment, we'll know that, too." The middle
ground might be somewhere between information monopoly and information
anarchy. "As our media systems reinvent themselves, we should stay focused
on the goal of accountability."
[SOURCE: USA Today (29A), AUTHOR:Philip Meyer holds the Knight Chair in
Journalism at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is also a
consultant for USA TODAY and member of the newspaper's board of
contributors.]
(http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/ncguest.htm)
EUROPEAN CAPITALISM GETS LESS COZY
Issue: Mergers
[Op-ed] British Vodafone has its eye on German Mannesmann. While mergers in
the telecommunications arena are nothing new, this German drama has great
significance. "At stake is nothing less than 'Rhenish Capitalism,' that
peculiarly Teutonic model of national economic management. And the real
'enemy' is not some uppity British wireless provider with a $100
billion-plus war chest, but a global market that respects neither passports
nor borders." There is a cultural sentiment in which Germans do not look
fondly on hostile takeovers and the outcome of this situation will
determine the fate of the German economy as well as Germany's system of
"cozy capitalism," in which public companies enjoy defenses against
takeovers.
Chancellor Schroeder and other politicians are rushing to Mannesmann's
defense. "Their foot soldiers are the labor unions, which hate any change,
and this one in particular, as Vodafone wants to keep only Mannesmann's
highly profitable D-2 cell-phone network and sell the rest,
which will indubitably cost jobs in the short run." However, capitalism is
"alive and hyperactive in Europe, while capitalists are wiggling out from
under the heavy hand of governments that think themselves smarter than the
market."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A28), AUTHOR: Josef Joffe, a German
journalist, is on leave as a lecturer at Stanford University's Institute
for International Studies.]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB943816680210997483.htm)
See also:
MANNESMANN BOARD REJECTS VODAPHONE BID, PAVING WAY FOR HOSTILE TAKEOVER
FIGHT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A23), AUTHOR: William Boston]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB943808303790211506.htm)
INTERNET
WHITNEY PLANS TO INCLUDE INTERNET ART IN BIENNIAL
Issue: Arts
The Whitney Museum of American Art (http://www.whitney.org/) is preparing to
include Internet-based artworks in its biennial survey of American art next
spring. The presence of digital art in the biennial would mark one of the
first times that a substantial number of works from the emerging genre is
being shown in a major exhibition along with works from more traditional
media. "This potentially recognizes that Net-based art is no different than
other contemporary art," said Steve Dietz, the director of new-media
initiatives at the Walker Art Center (http://www.walkerart.org) in
Minneapolis. Among the works that may be presented in the biennial are Mark
Amerika's Grammatron (http://www.grammatron.com/), a work of hypertext
fiction; Lew Baldwin's Redsmoke.com Web site (http://www.redsmoke.com/); Ben
Benjamin's Superbad.com site (http://www.superbad.com/); John F. Simon Jr.'s
Every Icon software (http://www.numeral.com/); Darcey Steinke's Blindspot
(http://adaweb.walkerart.org/project/blindspot/), an interactive narrative;
Marek Walczak's Switch Web project
(http://www.turbulence.org/Works/switch/); Annette Weintraub's Sampling
Broadway Web project (http://www.turbulence.org/Works/broadway/); and
Fakeshop (http://fakeshop.com/), a New York-based Web venture that is an
entry point for live performances on the Internet. The artists selected for
the Whitney Biennial are scheduled to be announced in mid-December; the show
will open March 23, 2000.
[SOURCE: CyberTimes (11/25), AUTHOR: Matthew Mirapaul]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/11/cyber/artsatlarge/25artsatlarge.h
tml)
CAN TV SPOTS "AD" VALUE To E-COMMERCE COMPANIES?
Issue: Advertising
[Op-ed] Internet companies are spending their advertising money offline. In
the first half of 1999, Internet companies spent about $755 million for
offline advertising, including $400 million for TV ads and $90 million for
radio spots. Billboards in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Manhattan and
Boston have been sold out for months. Add to this another $1 billion for
advertising, including $100 million from Amazon.com alone, and more than 20
Super Bowl commercials from start-up Internet companies at $2 million a pop
that are expected during the holiday season. "The buyers of e-commerce ads
are acting on their faith that between now and 2003 or 2004, when Internet
use reaches a plateau, the long-term winners of the Internet game will
already reach the top of their service and product categories." New
companies must work quickly to be the first to build the leading brand in
their niche. Internet companies are abandoning time-tested methods for
building effective and measurable advertising campaigns. Internet companies
have been spending on advertising while Internet investors are ignoring
traditional valuation methods. By the end of the holiday season we should
know whether TV airtime is an effective driver of e-commerce activity.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (A28), AUTHOR: Anthony B. Perkins,
editor-in-chief of Red Herring and co-author of "The Internet Bubble"]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB943815746465397556.htm)
INTERNET LABELS LOSE MEANING IN RUSH FOR POPULAR ADDRESSES
Issue: Internet
Once upon a time, you could learn a lot about a Web site from the last
three letter of its address, but that is not so true any more. "Since about
two or three years ago, there is no distinction between .com, .net and
.org," said Christopher Clough, a spokesman for Network Solutions. When the
company lost its government-sanctioned monopoly on Internet address
registrations, Network Solutions stopped checking to verify that domain
registrations were appropriate for a particular category. Some companies
that find Web address no longer available in the popular .com category are
pushing into .org and .net territory. While some people, like Richard
Forman, president and chief
executive of Register.com, contend that a company using a .org address "is
misleading the public," it is unlikely that there will be a move towards
forcing applicants to meet certain qualifications for existing domains.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C5), AUTHOR: David F. Gallagher]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/11/biztech/articles/29name.html)
'CYBERSMEAR' LAWSUITS RAISE PRIVACY CONCERN
Issue: Privacy
In a growing trend, companies have been filing suits against the anonymous
authors of disparaging -- or economically damaging -- comments posted on the
Web. But these lawsuits are raising concerns among Internet users and
privacy advocates, who charge companies with abusing the court system to
crush critics and retaliate against their own employees. "It's a very new
area of the law," said Ann Beeson, staff attorney with the ACLU. "We're
making the argument that there is a right to communicate anonymously. We
aren't saying people have the right to defame, but . . . the resumption
should be in favor of the First Amendment." Companies can subpoena
Internet services like Yahoo and AOL to discover the identity of the John
Does posting contentious comments. "It is a very challenging problem for us
and society to deal with," said Jon Sobel, associate general counsel for
Yahoo, who claims the company is trying to strike a balance between
legitimate concerns about damaging postings and the free speech rights of
members. "It's an example of how the medium is introducing all kinds of new
issues for us and individuals to deal with -- we're trying like everybody
else to figure out a way that's fair."
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Howard Mintz]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/indepth/docs/boards112999.htm)
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