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FISHRGAME
_____________
Feature
Stories -
132005
- 13th Week tviNews
Convergence
TOP STORIES CONVERGING INTO THE - 13th Week -
March
- 28th
•
132005
- / BARRY DILLER / Front Cover Vol
49-POW75
102
News print media distributors are Buying Websites
Firms
TVI Magazine, Tribune
Co., Gannett Co. and Knight Ridder Inc. all have
invested in start-up Internet news
services.
• •
TVI Magazine, founded in 1956 by Sam
Donaldson and Al Preiss, and newspaper
distributors, Tribune Co., Gannett Co. and Knight
Ridder Inc. all have invested in start-up news
technology companies -- that'll help them "enrich"
their news service to their readers.
• • TVI Magazine's, Yes90.net,
Your Easy Search, is a two year old news gathering
service, that collects and sorts news stories from
various sources on the
Internet.
• • Tribune Co., Gannett Co. and
Knight Ridder Inc. are each taking a 25% stake, in
the Palo Alto-based company Topix.net, a start-up
technology company, accourding to the LA Times on
Tuesday, March 22, 2005. Topix's founders will
retain the remaining share. Financial terms were
not disclosed under the deal, which will be
formally announced today.
• • Topix launched its site a
little more than a year ago and had 1.4 million
monthly users as of February, according to ComScore
Media Metrix, which measures Internet traffic.
That's still well behind leading automated news
aggregators such as Google News, which had 5.9
million users last month.
• • Topix is a small company with
nine employees working above a trophy shop.
• • Chief Executive and co-founder
Rich Skrenta said that Topix became profitable in
December and had about $1 million in annual
revenue, mostly from
advertising.
• • Yes90.net, Your Easy Search,
is a two year old news gathering service, founded
by Smart90.com as part of its media service
distributed on the Internet. TVI has a 25% stake,
in the Pasadena -based company.
102Diller
May Buy Ask
Jeeves
• •
The conglomerate reportedly is near a
$2-billion deal for the Internet search
service.
• • NEW YORK --
IAC/InterActiveCorp, an Internet conglomerate run
by media mogul Barry Diller, is near a deal to buy
Web-search service Ask Jeeves Inc., sources
familiar with the matter said Sunday.
• • The Wall Street Journal, which
first reported the deal, said IAC would pay $2
billion in stock, a 40% premium to Ask Jeeves'
market capitalization on Friday.
• • Neither Ask Jeeves nor IAC
were immediately available for comment.
• • IAC has a variety of Internet
businesses, including Home Shopping Network, Web
directory Citysearch and online mortgage provider
LendingTree. It also owns travel site Expedia.
• • Ask Jeeves' website Ask.com,
with its cartoon butler mascot Jeeves, became known
during the Internet boom of the late 1990s for
providing the answer to queries made in the form of
a question. MORE
STORY
03.
#102
Telecom Reglatory Property Seizures - is it
Wrong?
• • Recent
Telephone Company Mergers Point to a Better Way
says PCI
• •
SAN FRANCISCO -- 2005s regulatory policies in the
telecom sector are outdated and imposing heavy
economic and social costs on consumers, according
to Crossed Lines: Regulatory Missteps in California
Telecom Policy, released today by the Pacific
Research Institute (PRI).
• • In addition to examining the
regulatory burden, the study explains how to revamp
policy. Its message is especially timely. "Recent
merger activity in the telecom sector is shaking up
old business plans and moving us beyond obsolete
ways of thinking," says co-author Sonia Arrison,
director of Technology Studies at
PRI.
• • Crossed Lines reveals how
after the signing of the 1996 Telecommunications
Act, poorly written federal guidelines and zealous
state regulators created a false competition scheme
known as "forced-access."
• • By requiring incumbent
telephone companies to share their networks with
rivals at below-cost rates, the policy brought
California's telecommunications industry to the
brink of disaster by discouraging new
infrastructure upgrades and corporate investment.
• • As a result of forced-access,
so-called competitors abandoned building their own
networks in the state, serving a mere 28 percent of
customers with their own equipment by
mid-2004.
• • Facing ballooning maintenance
costs and reduced profitability, incumbent
telephone companies retreated from the traditional
telephone market. For example, SBC slashed
investment in California from eight billion dollars
in 2002 to five billion dollars in
2003.
• • "Forced-access rendered the
traditional telephone market unattractive and
unprofitable," said Arrison. "As state and federal
lawmakers now consider new industry regulations,
they should heed the lessons of the Telecom Act and
foster true consumer choice," she
concluded.
• • This month marks the ninth
anniversary of the 1996 Telecom Act. By tracing
industry developments within that short period,
Crossed Lines vividly demonstrates the rapid pace
of industry innovation and shifting market
trends.
///
NEWS
CONVERGENCE
Center
Page / Feature
NEWS CONVERGENCE
Feature
TIMELINE - Top Stories
To Start The Week With:
#102 Telecom
Reglatory Property Seizures - Are The
Wrong?
• • SAN FRANCISCO -- Current
regulatory policies in the telecom sector are
outdated and imposing heavy economic and social
costs on consumers, according to Crossed Lines:
Regulatory Missteps in California Telecom Policy,
released today by the Pacific Research Institute
(PRI).
• • In addition to examining the
regulatory burden, the study explains how to revamp
policy. Its message is especially timely. "Recent
merger activity in the telecom sector is shaking up
old business plans and moving us beyond obsolete
ways of thinking," says co-author Sonia Arrison,
director of Technology Studies at PRI. MORE
STORY
•
• Unocal Settles Lawsuit Over Myanmar
Project
• •
Unocal Corp. settled a landmark human
rights lawsuit that accused the El Segundo-based
energy company of being responsible for forced
labor, rapes and a murder allegedly carried out by
soldiers along a natural gas pipeline route in
Myanmar.
• • The suit was filed on behalf
of 15 Myanmar villagers in Los Angeles County
Superior Court in 1996. The case, brought under the
U.S. Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789, alleged that
the company knew or should have known that the
Myanmar army committed human rights abuses while
providing security for the $1.2-billion pipeline
project.
• • Terms of the settlement were
not disclosed.
• • A statement said the
agreement would provide compensation for the
villagers and provide money "to develop programs to
improve living conditions, healthcare and education
and protect the rights of people from the pipeline
region."
• • A Unocal spokesman declined
to comment on the case.
• •
Inflation? Consumer Prices Rise Sharply in
February
• •
Consumer Prices Rise Sharply in
February
• • Prices rose in February at
the fastest pace in four months, the Labor
Department reported, in the latest evidence that
climbing costs of oil, metals and other commodities
are increasingly being passed to
consumers.
• • The consumer price index
jumped 0.4% in February from the previous month,
sharply higher than the 0.1% increase in
January.
• • Core prices, which exclude
volatile food and energy costs, grew 0.3%, compared
with 0.2% in each of the last four months. Overall
prices were up 3% from February 2004, and core
prices gained 2.4%.
• • Energy led the increase,
leaping 2% for the month and 10.4% for the
year.
• • Analysts said the price gains
were worrisome but not fatal to the economic
recovery, partly because wages had not been going
up much.
•
• Paramount Pictures Hires Fox Executive
• •
Paramount Pictures Chief Executive Brad
Grey has tapped Fox Entertainment President Gail
Berman to be his second in
command.
• • The duo responsible for
revamping the studio joins another longtime TV
executive, Tom Freston, former head of MTV Networks
and now co-president of Paramount parent Viacom
Inc.
• • Berman's appointment as the
studio's top creative executive sends a clear
signal that Grey has no qualms about looking
outside Paramount's Melrose Avenue gates in
assembling his new team.
• • Berman, 47, has overseen a
schedule at News Corp.'s Fox that includes such
signature shows as "American Idol," "24," "The
Simpsons" and "The O.C." At Paramount, she assumes
the title of president.
•
• Supreme Court Rejects Philip Morris'
Appeal
• •
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal
by Philip Morris, setting the stage for the tobacco
giant to pay more than $16 million to a Glendale
woman who contracted lung cancer. It would be the
largest payment and the first punitive damages paid
to an individual smoker.
• • Altria Group Inc.'s Philip
Morris had been fighting to overturn the damages
award to Patricia Henley, 58. In February 1999, a
jury in San Francisco County Superior Court awarded
Henley $51.5 million. The award was reduced to
$10.5 million, but Philip Morris will have to
account for interest accrued during the years of
appeals.
• • William S. Ohlemeyer, vice
president and associate general counsel for Philip
Morris, said the "decision isn't going to make it
any harder for us to defend cases in
California."
•
• American Funds Wages Battle Against
Government
• •
State Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer sued the Los
Angeles-based mutual fund company that has been the
nation's most popular for the last three years,
alleging that giant American Funds failed to
properly tell its 20 million shareholders how it
paid brokerages to pitch its
products.
• • The firm beat Lockyer to
court, filing its own lawsuit against him and
contending that its financial disclosures have been
accurate and that Lockyer was encroaching on the
authority of federal
regulators.
• • American Funds, which has
$650 billion in assets, insists that it broke no
laws.
• • Lockyer's suit, filed in Los
Angeles County Superior Court, said American Funds
investors did not know that their brokers had
incentives to sell one fund over another. Lockyer
is asking for disgorgement of ill-gotten profit,
along with penalties and
restitution.
• • American Funds is a unit of
Los Angeles-based Capital Group
Cos.
•
• Schering-Novartis Drug Falls Short in
Testing
• •
A potential rival to Genentech Inc.'s
cancer drug Avastin stumbled in a clinical
trial.
• • Swiss drug maker Novartis and
its German partner Schering have been testing
PTK-787 as a treatment for colon cancer. The
companies said the drug did not extend the time it
took cancer to worsen &emdash; so-called
progression-free survival &emdash; when compared
with standard chemotherapy
drugs.
• • Like Avastin, PTK-787 was
designed to inhibit the growth of blood vessels
that feed tumors, a process known as angiogenesis.
PTK-787 was thought to have an advantage over
Avastin because it was a pill, and therefore
relatively easy for patients to take. Avastin is an
intravenous drug.
• • Novartis and Schering said
that they were continuing the clinical trial to see
whether PTK-787 would extend the overall survival
of patients but that results won't be known until
next year. Action by U.S. and European drug
regulators would come after
that.
•
• Real Estate Investors Believe in More
Magic
• •
A fund co-founded by former Laker guard
Earvin "Magic" Johnson has banked $490 million in a
second round of financing for commercial
developments in inner-city
neighborhoods.
• • Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund has
commitments for an additional $110 million that
would bring the total to $600 million by the end of
April. The fund expects that the new pot of money,
when combined with $300 million it raised in 2001,
will allow it to expand its portfolio to more than
$3 billion of property in cities across the
country.
• • The retired NBA star has been
a key partner in the fund's money-raising and
community outreach efforts. He also brings to the
table his network of corporate
partnerships.
• • Investors in Canyon-Johnson
&emdash; including the California State Teachers'
Retirement System, the University of Michigan and
Verizon Communications Inc. &emdash; profit when
projects the fund undertakes are
sold.
•
• Blockbuster Drops Its Bid for Hollywood
Video
• •
Blockbuster Inc. withdrew its bid to
acquire its smaller rival, No. 2 Hollywood
Entertainment Corp., citing moves by federal
antitrust regulators to thwart the
purchase.
• • The decision clears the way
for the nation's No. 3 video rental company, Movie
Gallery Inc., to acquire the Wilsonville,
Ore.-based operator of Hollywood Video for $850
million.
• • Lawyers from the Federal
Trade Commission had recommended that the agency
sue to halt Blockbuster's hostile takeover bid.
Concerns that the FTC would not budge from its
position resulted in Blockbuster's withdrawal, the
company said.
• • Movie Gallery executives
embraced Blockbuster's decision and said
Hollywood's shareholders would meet on April 22 to
approve an acquisition. The FTC has already
approved Movie Gallery's bid, which was recommended
by Hollywood's board.
///
ByLines:
Editors Note
102
IS YOUR INDUSTRY WEB SITE
Newsworthy?
-----TVI
Publishing introduces in its weekly New Convergence
pages, a new marketing think tank for the
international telecommunication industry. TVI
dynamic online news service utilizes its
established YES90 and tvinews team of blogers to
gather and sort its news events into a catagory
that'll fit your advertising needs.
TVI's
motto is "Television Without Borders".
-----
We can
now effectively serve any marketing need, that uses
a TV monitor. With just a click of a finger, our
Smart90 "key word" clicking tool, offers an almost
instantaneous answer to promotion ideas. Company
promotional material that appears on a TVI Magazine
Web site can be hyper linked with your company's
own URL. TVI Magazine can also link your ads to a
special Web page that your customer's own URL can
be linked to, for updated tvnews about your goods,
products or
services.
-----To
ensure that visitors find their way to promotion
information and product updates, TVI Magazine is
partnered with more than 250 of the world's most
popular search engines and electronic
directories.
-----Online
ad space can be purchased in monthly increments,
(with a one-month minimum). At renewal time,
advertisers can change their ad and/or move it to
another front page space if one is available. Your
TVI Magazine WebAD will indicate the total number
of hits on the home page per month and per day,
enabling advertisers to monitor their reach and
billings
regularly.
-----TVI
Publishing has three key pages for ad placement:
01) - Tthe Smart90 Plus which Anchors Your Name
Where Consumers are Searching on Google or Yahoo;
02) - a special Your Easy Search, Yes90 main page
that publishes your press releases and updates
during the lifetime of your promotional activities;
and 03) - the less expensive ad space is available
on our Click "key word" Yes90 news article archival
pages, that can be easily found by over 30 million
users utilizing Google or Yahoo. These archival
pages can be used by Your Easy Search bloger team,
to remind themselves what they were doing, "way
back when". It'll keep them focused. Advertisers
can submit their artwork and/or logo by email or
ftp.
-----Most
display and click ad advertising can be posted on
the TVI Magazine site within a few hours. However,
in the event that any graphic manipulation is
required, one must allow more time before the ad is
posted, usually two to seven business days for a
static banner and up to 10 business days for an
animated banner ad.
.-----It
just goes to show you, says Troy about the Telecom
Advertising industry -- "NOTHING IN THIS WORLD
IS PERMANENT" . . . so follow the
money -
- and
take some advice from a dinner-time chat with
"Stonehead"
-- Disappointments Are
Great! Follow the Money . . . the Internet and the
Smart- Daaf Boys.
///
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Respectfully
Submitted
Josie
Cory
Publisher/Editor
TVI Magazine
TVI
Magazine, tviNews.net, Associated Press, Reuters,
BBC, LA Times, NY Times, VRA's D-Diaries, Press
Releases, They Said It Tracking Model, and
SmartSearch were used in compiling and ascertaining
this Yes90 news report.
©2004-2006. Copyright. All
rights reserved by: TVI Publications, VRA TelePlay
Pictures and Big Six Media Entertainments. Tel/Fax:
323 462.1099.
LookRadio.com
-
Do
it with movies, slide shows and
music!
-----
Smart90's
24-hour, 365 days-a-year Broadband S90tv
WebMagic
web page is the simplest way to add the WebMagic to
your existing web pages. It's an Exciting New Way
to Advertise.
-----
Advertise
Now on Smart90.com and utilize S90tv's Web Magic on
your own domain. Email
your insertion order and advertising copy or banner
requests to the attention of: Advertising Marketing
Director at
look@smart90.com™.
- -----To
get you started today, you can attach to your
Email, your logo, slides, transparencies,
illustrations, photographs or other computer
graphics. The materials will be forwarded directly
to our art department.-
- -----
Advertising
material must be received by the 10th of every
month to be included in the following scheduled
print magazine issue. In regards to our daily
tviNews.net edition, your banner, logo, web movie,
slide show or 60x500 animated banner, that is to be
headlined at the top of our featured news page, as
a linkonad or smartkudoad,
can be Emailed to us at your convenience.
- -----
Or
better yet, tell us where to go to fetch the
information -- this way it will be much quicker to
get you up and running. For Ad rates please click
on: TVI
Advertising Rates.
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