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News of the movement for June 14, 2012 |
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New Orleans Meets the Hamster Wheel The gutting of New Orleans' beloved Times-Picayune and Advance Publications' plan to turn it into a sort of major-market AnnArbor.com looks set to bring journalism built on "motion for motion's sake ... volume without thought" to a city built on doing the opposite. For the Newhouses, who own the Times-Pic, the hamster wheel is a business model -- one the absentee chain owners are trotting out across the country like McDonald's with a new chicken sandwich. New Orleans Times-Picayune to Lay Off 200 As expected, the move by the New Orleans Times-Picayune to a less frequent publication schedule has been followed by deep cuts to the newspaper’s workforce. On Tuesday, the publisher announced that the newspaper will cut 201 employees, or 32 percent of its total workforce, including 84 out of 173 newsroom staff -- almost half the editorial team. 'A Morning Ritual': New Orleans Fights for Its Newspaper What happens when a media company wants to take away your daily newspaper? In New Orleans, you take to the streets. A recent rally to preserve daily publication of the Times-Picayune featured high-profile musicians as part of a campaign launched by the city's most prominent residents and powerful leaders to save the paper. 600 Newspaper Layoffs in One Day Is, Unfortunately, Not a Record Does Tuesday’s massive layoff of 600 in a single day at four Advance Publications newspapers in New Orleans and Alabama earn a place in newspaper-layoff history? Sadly, no. News organizations have announced other job reductions of even larger or similar size in recent years. 'Fit to Print' Documentary Profiles Decline of Print Newspapers, Laid Off Journalists Laid-off journalists speak out about the death of newspapers in the upcoming documentary Fit To Print. The documentary features interviews with staffers at the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal. It also follows three investigative reporters — Stephen Janis, Andrew Schneider and Laura Frank — as they attempt to carry on their work despite having been laid off.
It's About Time: U.S. Almost Gets Serious About Broadband Buildout It's good to see our politicians actually thinking about broadband and connectedness in a thoughtful manner. Almost! President Barack Obama will sign an order to make the approval process for broadband network buildout on roads and federal property smoother, easier and simpler. This is good news. But the funded academic projects won't produce the results that mass use and public innovation will. The President will sign an executive order to make broadband construction along federal roadways and properties up to 90 percent cheaper and more efficient. The order also creates the U.S. Ignite Partnership, a national network of communities and campuses with ultra-fast, programmable broadband services that will be a test-bed for designing and deploying next-generation applications for education, healthcare, energy and manufacturing. Building the Next Internet, 250 Times Faster As President Obama signs an executive order to make broadband construction cheaper and more efficient, developers in 25 cities are getting a playdate with GENI, an ultra-fast broadband sandbox, to build apps that push beyond the limits of today's Net. The goal is to build at least 60 new applications in strategic areas: health care, education, clean energy, manufacturing, transportation and security. ICANN Criticized over 'Commercial Land Grab' of Internet More than 1,000 new Internet "top-level domains," such as .app, .kids, .love, .pizza and also .amazon and .google, could come online beginning early next year, with the potential to radically change the face of the Web. But the move by ICANN, the U.S.-appointed company that decides what new domains can be added to the Web, has been criticized by some as allowing a commercial land grab of the Internet. U.S. Lawmakers Create Website to Crowd-Source a 'Digital Bill of Rights' Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Darrell Issa have started drafting a crowd-sourced digital bill of rights in hopes of preventing piecemeal laws like SOPA and CISPA from over-regulating the internet. The two have created a website where everyone is encouraged to contribute.
Consumer Groups: Verizon's New Data Pricing Is Awful Verizon finally unveiled its new shared data pricing, and the results call for steep increases for data consumption. Not too surprisingly, consumer groups aren't too impressed with the new offer, and say it's a prime example of duopoly power run amok. Justice Investigating Cable and Over-the-Top Video The Justice Department is contacting cable operators as part of an investigation into whether cable operators are trying to suppress over-the-top video competition through data caps, TV Everywhere "collusion," contract language and more. Watchdog Groups Love Justice Dept.'s Data-Cap Probe -- Cable Industry, Not So Much A Justice Department antitrust investigation into whether cable companies are unfairly discriminating against online-video providers is playing to rave reviews from watchdog groups but getting panned by the cable industry. The investigation is important because it could set the ground rules for how consumers receive TV in the future. U.S. Probe of Comcast, Broadband Giants Echoes Net Neutrality Battles The Department of Justice has opened a "wide-ranging" investigation into whether cable, satellite and telecom providers are stifling fast-growing Internet video services like Netflix, according to multiple reports. The probe carries echoes of recent battles over Net Neutrality, the idea that broadband providers shouldn’t discriminate against rival services. House Democrats Urge Scrutiny of Verizon-Cable Deals A group of House Democrats called on federal regulators to closely scrutinize Verizon Wireless' bid to buy spectrum from and enter into marketing agreements with a group of cable firms, saying the deals could threaten the competitive goals of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
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In Other News...Survey: Fox Most Uncivil, PBS Most Civil News Organization At British Inquiry, Cameron Denies 'Deals' with Murdoch Groups Ask Senate Not to Block FCC Political File Order Lieberman Warns July Is Deadline for Cybersecurity Bill RiP: A Remix Manifesto -- Taken Offline Due to Copyright Claim? How Microsoft and Yahoo Are Selling Politicians Access to You |
