NEWSPAPERS
Chattanooga Times Folds After Long Newspaper War (NYT)
INTERNET
Computer Experts to Disclose Discovery of Potentially Serious
Web-Security Gap (WSJ)
Prodigy Cleared by Appeals Court of Responsibility for Nasty E-Mail
(WSJ)
America Online May Link to CBS News (NYT)
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Reports Indicate Online Holiday Sales
Exceeded Expectations (CyberTimes)
Real Force in E-Commerce Is Business-to-Business
Sales (CyberTimes)
PHILANTHROPY
Corporate Medici Lost to Mergers, Art Groups Fear (NYT)
ANTITRUST
Windows Has No Rival, Says Intuit CEO (WP)
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NEWSPAPERS
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CHATTANOOGA TIMES FOLDS AFTER LONG NEWSPAPER WAR
Issue: Newspapers
After 120 years of publication, the Chattanooga Times will be no more. The
paper finally scrum to a decades old battle of survival in a two newspaper
town. The thirteen grandchildren of Times' founder Adolph S. Ochs passed
control of the paper to its rival, The Chattanooga Free Press. A new daily,
displaying the nameplates of both papers, will carry two editorial pages --
one representing the liberal views of the Times, and the other articulating
the conservative opinions of the Free Press. Only a handful of American
cities continue to publish competing daily newspapers.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A13), AUTHOR: Felicity Barringer]
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/chattanooga-newspaper.html
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INTERNET
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COMPUTER EXPERTS TO DISCLOSE DISCOVERY OF POTENTIALLY SERIOUS WEB-SECURITY GAP
Issue: Privacy
Dubbed the Russian New Year exploit, a potential security "hole" which makes
it easy to booby-trap World Wide Web sites to steal or destroy data has been
discovered. Finjan Inc., a computer security firm, is expected formally to
announce the problem today. Bill Lyons, Finjan's CEO said, "We think this
is probably the biggest security hole in Internet history." The danger is
caused by combining two legitimate functions to create the hazard. The hole
exploits the CALL function of Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet that divides Web
sites into frames. Code can be secretly downloaded to users' computers
simply by visiting the booby-trapped site. The computer user must have
Excel on the users' machine but the program does not have to be running to
create the security problem. Microsoft already makes software available
that disables the CALL function.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B6), AUTHOR: Don Clark]
http://www.wsj.com/
PRODIGY CLEARED BY APPEALS COURT OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR NASTY E-MAIL
Issue: Online Services
In a unanimous decision released yesterday a four-judge New York appeals
court dismissed a case against Prodigy Communications Corp. saying Prodigy
was not responsible for a series of nasty electronic mail and online
postings made by a prankster. The ruling is expected to further protect
Internet-service providers from libel lawsuits. The suit, filed in 1994 by
a 15-year-old boy named Alex Lunney, sought punitive and compensatory
damages from Prodigy. The prankster used Lunney's name in the e-mail and
online postings. The court noted that Prodigy wasn't legally responsible
for the electronic communications since the company wasn't a "publisher" of
the statements and also did not know that they were false.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B4), AUTHOR: Kara Swisher]
http://www.wsj.com/
AMERICA ONLINE MAY LINK TO CBS NEWS
Issue: Internet/ Journalism
America Online and CBS are expected to announce a deal for the network to
replace ABC as the exclusive provider of broadcast news for AOL. Details of
the deal are not yet available, but agreement will most likely initial
"promotion for promotion." CBS has long trailed other TV network news
organization in building a presence on the Internet. CNN and MSNBS's new
sites are among the most visited sites on the Web.
[SOURCE: New York Times (C4), AUTHOR: Bill Carter]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/05cbs-aol.html
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ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
======================
REPORTS INDICATE ONLINE HOLIDAY SALES EXCEEDED EXPECTATIONS
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Tedeschi reports, America Online said that sales for the six-week holiday
season reached $1.2 billion on its network alone, half of some estimates for
total holiday spending on the Internet by residents of the United States.
"It's no longer your computer geek who's driving online shopping," said
Wendy Brown, AOL's vice president of electronic commerce. "People were
buying toys, things for babies, kids, apparel, electronics -- you name it."
Of AOL's 15 million members, 1.25 million used a service to make their
first-ever online purchase from one of the site's 110 merchant partners; 63%
reported that they were "very satisfied."
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Bob Tedeschi tedeschi( at )nytimes.com]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/cyber/articles/05aol.html
REAL FORCE IN E-COMMERCE IS BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS SALES
Issue: Electronic Commerce
You think Amazon.com and CDNow are big in e-commerce? The combined sales of
Internet retailers is $7.8 billion -- one business-to-business seller,
Cisco Systems, says its Internet sales currently average more than $8
billion per year. Business-to-business transactions make up 75% of Internet
sales. Even though Wall Street loves Internet retailers right now,
business-to-business e-commerce will continue to have a much greater effect
on the American economy than all the high-profile virtual retailers
combined. Forrester http://www.forrester.com/ projects
business-to-business sales will reach $1.3 trillion, or 9.4 percent of all
business-to-business sales. Meanwhile, the Aberdeen Group
http://www.aberdeen.com/index.htm, a Boston-based research firm, "pegs
business-to-business at 10 to 20 times the business-to-consumer market,"
said David Alschuler, Aberdeen's vice president of e-business and enterprise
applications. Holiday Internet retail hype "has put visions of sugar plum
fairies into people's heads," Alschuler said. "But the fact is, business on
the Internet is cutting significant costs out of the supply chain, with
better procurement and resource planning. That stuff shows up as line items
on balance sheets of companies like Intel, but in the long run, that will
have a far bigger impact than what you buy from Amazon."
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Bob Tedeschi tedeschi( at )nytimes.com]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/cyber/commerce/05commerce.html
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PHILANTHROPY
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CORPORATE MEDICI LOST TO MERGERS, ART GROUPS FEAR
Issue: Arts/ Philanthropy
With a record number of corporate mergers in the past year, arts
organizations and other charitable groups have begun to wonder about how
these large-scale consolidations might effect them. There is a fear that
corporate giving might become a causality of merger mania. Newly merged
companies often give less combined than each of them gave individually. It
is also common for a corporation to cease giving to a state or community
once it has closed its headquarters there. Many nonprofit institutions are
anxious about their futures because of the large role that companies play in
philanthropic giving. Twelve percent of all contributions to non-religious,
nonprofit organizations come from corporations.
[SOURCE: New York Times (B1), AUTHOR: Irvin Molotsky]
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/arts/arts-donate.html
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ANTITRUST
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WINDOWS HAS NO RIVAL, SAYS INTUIT CEO
Issue: Antitrust
The Microsoft Windows operating system is an "essential service" for which
"there is no effective substitute." That was the view expressed by William
Harris, chief executive of Intuit Inc., as the government's antitrust trial
against Microsoft Corp. resumed yesterday in Washington. Harris urged the
court to order a "broad remedy" that would prevent Microsoft from using
market advantage with Windows to favor its other software products.
Microsoft's lead attorney, John L. Warden, mocked the witness's suggestion,
saying it would have the effect of creating a "national operating system
commission" that would determine what features could and could not be added
to Windows. Warden also took issue with another of Harris's proposed
remedies - that Microsoft be forced to include rival software products in
Windows - saying that the "operating system can't include every application
in the world." The government's final witness, Franklin M. Fisher of MIT,
is expected to take the witness stand today.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (C1), AUTHOR: Rajiv Chandrasekaran]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/microsoft/micro.htm
See also:
MICROSOFT LAWYER RAISES THE SPECTER OF FEDERAL OVERREGULATION OF SOFTWARE
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B5), AUTHOR: John R. Wilke]
http://www.wsj.com/
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