Monday, May 25, 2009

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Pelosi Focuses On Clean Energy In China Visit Top
SHANGHAI — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, long a fierce critic of Beijing, toured China's financial capital on Monday on a visit focused on environmental issues rather than human rights, though her presence emboldened protesters. Pelosi took a low-key approach as she prepared for meetings in Beijing just days ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democracy protests. The apparent shift approach dovetails with President Barack Obama's new emphasis on engagement with Beijing, rather than confrontation over its human rights record. Visits by Pelosi and other senior U.S. figures have been aimed at highlighting cooperation between the two countries on a slew of issues. Still, the leading Democratic lawmaker's reputation as a strong human rights defender galvanized petitioners in Beijing, where several hundreds gathered Monday morning near the capital's South Railway Station to air their grievances. Dozens of police stood guard and most protesters were kept behind police lines. While many complaints were about individual cases, photos posted on the Chinese-language Web site Boxun.com, a U.S.-hosted Web site banned in China, showed one group of demonstrators holding up a black-and-white cloth banner that said: "Welcome Pelosi. Pay close attention to human rights. SOS." Speaking to U.S. business figures Monday in Shanghai, Pelosi noted her commitment to human rights issues over the years. During a 1991 visit to Beijing, the Democrat from California unfurled a banner that read "To those who died for democracy in China" in the square. Years later, she attempted to present human rights petitions to then-visiting President Hu Jintao. When Tibetans staged protests against Chinese rule last year, Pelosi visited their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. "I will continue to speak out for human rights in China and around the world," Pelosi told members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. "Indeed, protecting the environment is a human rights issue," she said according to a copy of the speech distributed to journalists. "We hope to send a clear message that transparency, accountability, enforcement, and respect for the rule of law are essential if we are to protect our planet," she added. Pelosi did castigate North Korea after Pyongyang announced that it had successfully carried out an underground nuclear test, weeks after threatening to restart its rogue atomic program. "If today's announcement is true, these tests would be a clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, which requires that North Korea not conduct any further nuclear tests. Such action by North Korea is unacceptable and cause for great alarm," Pelosi said in a written statement. Pelosi said she and other members of her delegation planned to urge Chinese leaders to use their influence to get the North to return to six-nation talks aimed at ending its nuclear program. The lawmaker arrived over the weekend accompanied by a delegation of four Democrats and one Republican, all members of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. The main focus of their visit is the shared goal of promoting clean energy and combatting climate change. Pelosi met Monday with Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng. The two exchanged pleasantries but made no substantive remarks before reporters. The delegation will later meet in Beijing with Hu and other leaders. U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman and Democrat Sen. John Kerry is also in China, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will arrive next week. He is expected to reassure Beijing about the strength of the U.S. dollar and thus the value of China's vast holdings of U.S. Treasury notes. ___ Associated Press writer Audra Ang in Beijing contributed to this report. More on Nancy Pelosi
 
In-Flight Wireless Internet Eyed For Enhanced Airplane Entertainment Top
In-flight Wi-Fi now offers Internet and e-mail connectivity. But airlines are looking at a possible second-generation market: using that connection for enhanced in-flight entertainment.
 
Financial Times Editorial: Newspapers Must Convince Readers Product Worth Paying Top
Perhaps some of the reporting done up to now by for-profit papers will in future be funded by foundations or trusts. But the industry should not lose faith in the free market. When people really want or need something, they will pay for it, one way or another. If today's publishers cannot convince their readers to do so, they will be overtaken by others that can. More on Newspapers
 
Friday Fall TV To include More Scripted Series Than Before Top
In recent years, Fridays have become a wasteland for network TV, populated largely with low-cost, low-impact reality series and newsmagazines....Friday this fall looks different. The major networks' schedules, announced last week, include 10 scripted series. Fox, ABC and NBC, which combined aired one last year, have six.
 
Dave Zirin: Life Imitates Sports: Kobe/Cheney vs. Melo/Obama Top
When Life Imitates Sports: Kobe/Cheney vs. Melo/Obama By Dave Zirin Competition becomes riveting when opponents complement each other's strengths and flaws. Two imperfect adversaries can match up and forge something memorable. Ali vs. Frazier. Magic vs. Bird. Navratilova vs. Evert. Tom vs. Jerry. This past week we witnessed a set of battles -in politics and sports - that eerily mirrored one another. In one corner we have Kobe Bryant and Dick Cheney. In the other there is Carmelo Anthony and Barack Obama. Bryant and Anthony, leaders of their respective basketball teams - the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets - have been locked in a playoff series that has the makings of a classic. The series is tied at two games apiece. Through the first two games alone, the cumulative score was 209-208. Bryant scored 72 points in the series and the man they call "Melo" countered with 73. Last Thursday's heart-thumping game went down to the last play. Cheney and Obama had their own Thursday battle, delivering back-to-back speeches on national security, torture, and the closing of the prison on Cuba's Guantánamo Bay. As Cheney sneered at the world and Obama spoke softly, his eyelids at half-mast, the parallels with their hoops brethren were overpowering. In one corner, Cheney and his long lost twin Kobe Bryant. In the other, Obama and his brother from another mother, Carmelo Anthony. The facts speak for themselves: Cheney and Kobe both live to scowl and a sneer. Their opponents, Obama and Carmelo, have trademark smiles that would shame sunshine, inspiring media and colleagues alike to gush. Cheney and Kobe give off vibes like they have lived through authentically tough times. Cheney speaks with the rumbling gravity of a scared Marine Corps vet while Kobe tries to come across like he is a hard case with a short fuse. In reality, Cheney avoided Nam because, as he said infamously, he had "better things to do;" Kobe was raised in Europe by his basketball playing father, becoming fluent in Italian in the process. In contrast, in his youth, Obama and his family relied on food stamps for a time; 'Melo was raised on the roughest edges of Baltimore. But both are also known for their "mellow" manner, playing it cool, attracting a crowd and making people feel at ease. Cheney and Kobe are more known for making people feel like they were just wedgied. They aren't there to be your buddy, but to inspire you through fear. There are other similarities as well. Kobe conserves his energy these days, shooting long jumpers and then - before you know it - exploding to the rim and sucking the oxygen out of the arena. Cheney has been largely silent for years, and on a good day had a pulse. But the man known as vice has emerged in recent weeks to control the news cycle by staunchly defending the legality and morality of torture. By contrast, Carmelo plays the whole game at the same pace. He doesn't explode to the rim. He glides. He would sooner attend a go-go show than overextend himself. What can sometimes be mistaken for lackadaisical play is really Melo just being mellow and lulling opponents into a false sense of security before he takes them to the rack. Obama, for all his oratorical gifts, will more often happily drone on until opponents don't know how to respond. We saw this clearly on Thursday. Cheney came out acerbic and brazen but seemed to lose steam as his own 5,500-word speech meandered on. Kobe as well came out strong but didn't shoot a free throw in the fourth quarter and couldn't even get the ball on the last play. He looked spent. Also on Thursday, Obama spoke softly and without urgency. But he ended by giving a 6,000-word speech that carefully constructed his every angle. In it he maddened many supporters who long for him to start breathing some fire and find Cheney some handcuffs. Melo as well came out soft in the first quarter, maddening fans with his absence of urgency. He is also a player who has made it difficult for longtime Denver supporters by appearing disinterested in "the fight." This is the first year in his six-year career Anthony's team has made it out of the first round of the playoffs. In the weeks to come we will no doubt get more drama from Cheney, Bryant, Obama and Anthony. One debate has life or death implications, the other only feels that way. One is a metaphor for life, the other is life itself. The sports contest is exemplary. But on the political side, one thing is certain. We need to be able to blaze a more urgent progressive path so our choices are not confined to being a passive Melo or a mega Dick. [Dave Zirin is the author of "A People's History of Sports in the United States" (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com More on Barack Obama
 
Lee Stranahan: Jon & Kate And John & Elizabeth And How We Make Them Possible Top
John and Elizabeth Edwards had the high honor of gracing the front cover of the National Enquirer with reality show stars Jon and Kate Gosselin recently but the couples have more in common than having a couple of Jo(h)ns accused of cheating by the tabloids. Both the Edwardses and the Gosselins seem to be trapped inside media magnified marriages that few of us can possibly understand. Welcome to the purgatory of the Professional Marriage, where the relationship becomes a business entity and where dissolution takes on the complexity of an auto industry bankruptcy. This is what happens couplehood itself becomes too big to fail. For most of us, marriage is a matter of love and the dreaded complications of divorce are kids and splitting up the finances and in some cases, religious issues. Anyone who's been through a divorce knows that those are complications enough. We can't imagine what it's like to get to a place where a political career or hit TV show is a factor in keeping a relationship together or not. I've written at length on HuffPost about the John and Elizabeth Edwards saga and I find myself asking time and again, "Why can't either of them just be honest about what happened and what is happening now?" But there's a whore host of calculations going on behind every statment that carry more weight than honesty. It's spin. Once you play that game with positions and policies, playing it with relationships probably doesn't seem that hard. The Jon And Kate Plus 8 special that TLC has been promoting for weeks was exercise in surrealism. On one level, it revealed a lot about the relationship between the Gosselins but mainly that was through what wasn't said. They didn't right out tell us that they've been separated for about six months but that's the only conclusion to be drawn from patching together what was said in the show and what's been printed by the tabloids. But past the paparazzi staking out the bouncy at the kid's birthday party, the real Fellini twist of the show is that we in the viewing audience are the ones who destroyed this marriage. The whole facade exists for our benefit. It would be easy to blame the Gosselins or TLC or the show's producers or the tabloids or the sponsors but let's be honest and accept responsibility. If nobody was watching, they'd all go do something else. But here we are now; entertain us... That's why Elizabeth Edwards does a book tour. That's why Kate says she's been 'working' so much in the past six months to take care of her audience that her kids called her by her babysitter's name. These woman aren't dumb. They know what we like and what our society rewards. People like Octomom know, too; she was just too obvious and blatant about what she was up to to make us comfortable. (I'm not absolving the men here, by the way, but in the specific examples of Kate and Elizabeth they are ones who seem to be appearing on TV lately.) What none of them seem to see, however, is that they serve dual roles. They are inspirational mirrors for some of us. There are woman who have struggled with kids or cheating husbands who see themselves in Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. Gosselin. There are men who identify with Jon Gosselin's constant public emasculation. That's the emotional illusion of art, where we project our own lives onto total strangers. But a lot of us - most, I think - just watch and remind ourselves, "If someone asks you to be on a reality show...say no." The lesson of hubris plays out in front of us daily. Flip around HuffPost and see it in politics with Dick Cheney, in sports with Manny Ramirez and in the weird oxymoron of entertainment news with the Gosselins and Edwardses. We're reminded not to be too proud or too in love with fleeting things like power or success. We see the results. These are things we all need to hear. That's why human beings tell stories. We need fables and morals to help us experience other people's live and mistakes so we can better guide ourselves. At least that's what I'll tell myself when I tune in next week. More on John Edwards
 
Google Increasingly Battles Facebook In Search Top
TOKYO — Google has long been the king of search, dominating rivals including Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. But it increasingly sees social networks such as Facebook as challengers to its search engine, a company official said Monday. As people search out advice online for everyday, personal decisions, the standard list of links served up by Google is not seen as intimate or trustworthy. For decisions such as choosing a restaurant or a day care provider, social networking sites or known review sites have an advantage, said Google Group Product Manager Ken Tokusei. Such sites offer information from friends or acquaintances, and Tokusei said users tend to trust that information more. This puts Google's results at a disadvantage. "We haven't gotten to the point where results are seen as if they come from someone you know," said Tokusei. The search giant has begun to offer tools for users to rate results and delete unrelated links, but it still has work to do, he said. As Internet users gain savvy and experience, they also expect better-honed answers to queries. Sites such as WolframAlpha, launched earlier this month, comb the Internet for data, and analyze it to provide specific answers to queries, rather than a list of sites. Google Inc. does something similar for some searches, providing price quotes for "Sony stock" or an answer for "Tunisia capital." But it also provides the familiar list of sites to dig further, a strategy it is unlikely to change. "It's a matter of determining what kind of information the user is looking for. But we will always serve some links to pages with our results," said Tokusei. He spoke to reporters at Google's Japanese headquarters in Tokyo, where he gave an overview of the company's basic search tools. Google has developed a host of expanding tools and services, from a mobile operating system to an online word processor, but it devotes 70 percent of its employees and resources to search. The company still faces fresh competition from its traditional rivals, which are regrouping in an attempt to take back market share. Microsoft has failed to make much headway in repeated Internet ventures. But the deep-pocketed company, which has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into improving its search engine, continues to develop a new search technology, part of which is called "Kumo" internally. Yahoo, which has seen its market share plummet to Google, is tweaking its search results, cutting out some links and emphasizing images and video. Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has said he is still interested in buying part of Yahoo, after a proposed deal was turned down last year. More on Facebook
 
Microsoft To Overhaul Search Engine But Expected To Struggle Against Google Top
An overhaul of Microsoft's internet search engine could finally put the quality of its service more on a par with search group Google, but the software company is still likely to struggle to win back market share it has lost in recent years, according to analysts. More on Microsoft
 
Canada's Globe And Mail Replaces Editor Top
TORONTO — The publisher of Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper says editor in chief Ed Greenspon is stepping down. The newspaper's publisher and Chief Executive Phillip Crawley said in an e-mail to employees on Monday that Greenspon is being succeeded by business editor John Stackhouse. Crawley says new skills and different styles of leadership are needed at Canada's national newspaper. Greenspon joined the Globe in 1996 and was Ottawa bureau chief before serving as the paper's editor in chief for almost seven years. Stackhouse was a foreign correspondent before taking up executive roles as foreign editor and national editor. Crawley says Stackhouse has proved himself to be a strong team leader in cross-functional business initiatives. More on Newspapers
 
'Jon & Kate' Season Premiere: Anger At The Media And Each Other Top
 
State Secrets Showdown: Judge Threatens To Penalize US In Wiretap Case Top
President Obama vowed last week to rein in the use of a legal privilege that allows the administration to discard lawsuits that involve "state secrets," promising that a new policy is in the works that will quell criticism by civil libertarians. But hours after Obama's speech laid out a "delicate balance" on national security, his Justice Department was criticized by a federal judge in California overseeing a case that has delved deeper than any other into one of the government's most highly classified data-gathering programs. More on Barack Obama
 
Liz Cheney Running For Public Office? (VIDEO) Top
The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen has been keeping a close watch on Liz Cheney, noting that the ubiquitous daughter of the former vice president "practically lives on cable news" these days. "She also lies routinely, accuses the president of helping terrorists, and is so mindless in her attacks on the nation's elected leadership, she's something of a national embarrassment," Benen writes. And according to close friends of hers, she may be the next Cheney to run for office:
 
Meg Whitman Writing Book On Values, eBay Tenure Top
NEW YORK — Former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman, a presumed candidate for governor of California, is working on a book about the "core values" that helped her build the online commerce giant. The book, currently untitled, is scheduled to be published by Crown Business in February, just as California starts voting for its next governor. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Whitman will donate all of her earnings to charity. "Whitman will interweave personal stories and leadership lessons culled from her tenure at eBay and other companies," according to a statement issued Monday by Crown, an imprint of Random House, Inc. "She will offer a blueprint for success in both business and life, identifying core values that make it possible to achieve success without ethical compromise." Whitman, 52, joined eBay in 1998, when the company had just 30 employees. By the time she stepped down last year, eBay was a multibillion dollar company with more than 15,000 workers. She formed an exploratory committee earlier this year to seek the Republican nomination for governor. Incumbent Arnold Schwarzenegger cannot run again because of term limits. "She is eager to share her successes, her setbacks, and her values, which will provide a detailed portrait of this extraordinary woman and a best-practice template for others in business today," Crown's vice president and publisher, Tina Constable, said in a statement.
 
Ari Melber: Obama's Cocaine, Clinton's Pot and The Facebook Generation Top
The New York Times convened several tech experts this weekend to debate online privacy and the "overuse of social networking tools." Professor Clay Shirky stole the show, recounting a college tequila run that ended with his hair on fire. That youthful indiscretion was a harmless secret for Shirky, back in the days went you had to be physically present to witness a private event: Society has always carved out space for young people to misbehave. We used to do this by making a distinction between behavior we couldn't see, because it was hidden, and behavior we could see, because it was public. That bargain is now broken, because social life increasingly includes a gray area that is publicly available, but not for public consumption. So nowadays, a tequila flaming head incident cries out for instant memorialization via cell phone, Facebook and YouTube. That may ding some millennial reputations, Shirky contends, but eventually it will recalibrate societal norms to tolerate a greater range of benign misconduct - as long as adults "cut young people some slack." So if President Clinton dabbled in pot and President Obama once tried some blow, the argument goes, then surely we can chill out on today's kids: Just as Bill Clinton destroyed the idea that marijuana use was a disqualifier to serious work, the increasing volume of personal life online will come to mean that, even though there's a picture from when your head was on fire that one time, you can still get a job. The arc of social networking does bend towards reality; a society that sees more of itself should eventually discard some delusions about its own behavior and propriety. The examples of Clinton and Obama, however, actually cut in the opposite direction. Both politicians disclosed past drug use on their own terms, long after the fact, within a larger narrative about their personal growth and fitness for public office. For Clinton, it was a parsing separation from perceived hippie dalliances. He was lampooned for claiming not to inhale, sure, but candidate Clinton still drove the discussion to distinguish himself from baby boomers who waxed nostalgic about drugs and protests. Obama tacked more towards authenticity, beating rivals to his own vulnerabilities with a candid, even casual description of drug use in his memoir. In essence, both men strained to exert control over their history. Many young people no longer have that option at all. With photos and videos stalking their professional ascent, millenials will have far less control over the timing and framing of embarrassing disclosures. Furthermore, while Clinton and Obama are salient examples of people who excelled despite revelations of adolescent drug use, they are not exactly a reasonable baseline for most people. These are two people who are exceptionally gifted at presenting themselves to the public - a skill the Facebook generation can appreciate - while the rest of us will probably have more trouble explaining away the tape. This post originally published at Personal Democracy Forum More on Facebook
 
Online news fees: financial salvation or suicide? Top
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is a rarity among large U.S. newspapers _ it's selling more weekday copies than a decade ago. In Idaho, the Post Register's circulation has remained stable, while many other print publications have lost readers to the Internet. How can this be? The executives behind the Arkansas and Idaho newspapers believe it's because they've been giving free access to their Web sites only to people who subscribe to the printed edition. Everyone else has to pay to read the Democrat-Gazette and the Post Register online. Meanwhile, most publishers have been giving away their stories and photos to all comers on the Internet. "To me, an online subscription is just the commonsense thing to do," says Roger Plothow, editor and publisher of the Post Register in Idaho Falls, Idaho. "To just give it all away on a Web site is completely and blindly idiotic." The blunt logic is starting to resonate with many newspaper publishers, who are preparing to erect toll booths on parts, if not all, of their Web sites. They hope the switch brings in more online revenue and gives print subscribers another reason to keep buying the newspaper. If it works, it would provide a sorely needed boost for an industry that has seen $11.6 billion, or nearly one-fourth, of its annual advertising revenue dry up during the past three years. But the strategy brings enormous risks. Ending free access to news could drive many online readers away and discourage online advertising at a time when more marketing budgets are shifting to the Internet. Running free Web sites certainly isn't the only reason newspapers are suffering. The allure of less expensive advertising options offered by Google Inc. and other Internet companies already were hammering newspapers before the recession exacerbated the pain. But the abundance of news on the Internet hasn't helped print editions containing virtually the same content that's often available online a day earlier. As a result, 28 percent of newspaper executives responding to a recent survey by the Associated Press Managing Editors, a group of newspaper executives, said their publications are considering online fees. Newsday's owner, Cablevision Systems Corp., plans to charge for online access to the Long Island, N.Y., publication beginning this summer. MediaNews Group, which owns The Denver Post and 53 other daily newspapers, has decided to charge for the online version of its print editions but hasn't said when. Having already killed the print edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Hearst Corp. is assessing whether online fees could help save its 15 remaining daily newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Houston Chronicle. And a startup called Journalism Online is setting up a system that will sell a monthly subscription to material from multiple newspaper Web sites, beginning this fall. The participating newspapers will get slices of the revenue. "Online fees will give people one less reason to stop subscribing to the newspaper" in the print format, said Steven Brill, Journalism Online's co-CEO. "Fewer people will be saying, `Why am I buying this thing when I can get it free online?'" Even though print ads aren't attracting as many dollars as they once did, they still sell for about 10 times the price of online ads. Consequently, Internet subscriptions could help some newspapers even if the fees serve mainly to keep print circulation stable. Former newspaper editor Alan Mutter, now an industry consultant and blogger, calls decisions during the 1990s to make most newspaper Web sites free the industry's "original sin." But gaining penance won't be easy. At this point, whether newspapers charge for their online content or not, free news is likely to remain a staple at major Web sites such as Yahoo, MSN and AOL that pay for the right to post stories from The Associated Press and other sources. Bloggers and citizen journalists are likely to keep posting their own takes on the news on free Web sites. Those free summaries may be enough for readers unwilling to pay for the original stories. "If you do the math, there isn't going to be enough money to support newspapers no matter what they do," said Chris Tolles, chief executive of Topix, a Web site that shows snippets of free online stories from newspapers across the United States. A recent study that the Newspaper Association of America conducted with media consultants supported the idea that online newspaper fees threaten to do more harm than good. The reason: The subscriptions probably won't generate enough additional revenue to justify driving away the majority of Internet readers who won't be willing to ante up. The study concluded newspapers with circulations of about 50,000 probably wouldn't pick up much more than $1 million in annual revenue from online subscriptions. That estimate is based on the assumption that a newspaper attracting about 250,000 monthly visitors to a free Web site would be able to get just 2 percent of them _ 5,000 people _ to pay $17 per month. Meanwhile, that newspaper would likely see its online advertising revenue plummet. Although the study didn't attempt to quantify how much advertising might be sold under this scenario, a Web site drawing substantially fewer visitors figures to be a less compelling marketing magnet. Online ad rates tend to be tied to the size of an audience, although a paying readership can be more attractive to certain advertisers. Both the risks and lures of online fees have tugged at The New York Times. The newspaper initially charged for its Web site in 1996 only to stop the next year after attracting only 4,000 subscribers. It had more success under another program that attracted about 200,000 subscribers who paid to read the Times' most popular columnists online. Then the Times scrapped that approach after concluding it could make more money from selling online ads on a mostly free site. But now, with its online ad revenue down 8 percent in the first quarter, the Times' parent company is once again considering whether it makes sense to introduce more online fees. Brill, the founder of Court TV and American Lawyer magazine, is one of the biggest advocates for the idea. He believes fees generated by Journalism Online will be producing millions of dollars in new profits for participating newspapers by the second year of operation. "I really don't see a downside to trying to do this," Brill said. The Wall Street Journal has proved online subscriptions can work. The News Corp. publication won't specify how much money it gets from online fees, but says its Web site has 1.08 million subscribers (most of whom also pay to receive the print edition as part of a package). That could bring the Journal annual revenue of about $100 million from online fees, based on the newspaper's starting annual rates of $103 for online only and $140 for the print edition with Web access. The Journal's total circulation is nearly 2.1 million, second in the nation, up from 1.8 million a decade ago. The most recent figure included about 383,000 online-only subscribers _ a number that the Audit Bureau of Circulations didn't break out 10 years ago. The Journal has some advantages. It focuses on financial news _ a niche that traditionally attracts an audience willing to pay for insightful information. That's particularly true if the fees can be claimed as a business expense, though the Journal believes most of its online subscribers don't rely on that, based on reader surveys. Perhaps just as importantly, the Journal never devalued its content by giving it away on the Internet _ just like the Post Register in Idaho. Plothow credits Internet subscriptions for keeping the Post Register's circulation level at about 23,000. About 6,200 of the newspaper's print subscribers also have requested and received access to the Web site at no additional charge. The Idaho newspaper has just 625 online-only subscribers, who pay $6 per month, half the price of home delivery of the newspaper. At the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Publisher Walter Hussman Jr. decided in 2002 to start charging to read the publication's Web site. Weekday circulation averaged 180,314 during the six months ended in March, according to the ABC. That was down 1 percent from the previous year, but slightly above the Democrat-Gazette's weekday circulation at the same time a decade ago. Just 3,400 people pay $4.95 per month for an online-only subscription to the Democrat-Gazette, but that doesn't worry Hussman. "The only reason we do it is to keep people reading the print edition," he said. "If people can't read the paper for free online, it turns out a lot of them are actually willing to subscribe to it." The Democrat-Gazette's modest circulation gains look more impressive compared with the alarming erosion at other large newspapers. The Houston Chronicle, the largest daily newspaper in neighboring Texas, has seen its weekday circulation plunge nearly 22 percent, to 425,138, over the last 10 years. Scores of other newspapers have suffered declines ranging from a few percentage points to more than 30 percent. Industrywide, U.S. newspaper circulation fell by about 13 percent, or 7.4 million, from 1999 to 2008, according to Editor and Publisher. While online fees are yielding returns in rural areas like Idaho and Arkansas, it will be more difficult to get them to work in larger markets, where more bloggers and small specialty sites offer free access to some of the community topics and information available in newspapers. To justify online fees, newspapers likely will have to focus more on extraordinary content, a model that might look something like the subscription system that has been successful for premium TV channels such as HBO and Showtime. To produce the equivalent of must-watch cable programs, newspapers likely will have to dig even deeper on investigative projects, mine niche subjects and assemble more multimedia packages that work well on the Web. It won't be easy, given that most newspapers have smaller staffs after a torrent of job cuts during the past two years. Mutter, who writes a blog called "Reflections of a Newsosaur," doubts most publishers understand how to produce the "content niches" that will cause people to ante up. "What I have seen and heard so far seems more like aspirations than well-conceived plans of action," Mutter said. Yet it's not an impossible task, said Walter Isaacson, former managing editor of Time magazine and now chief executive of the Aspen Institute, a think tank. Charging online fees "could create a discipline on journalism that produces more things of value," Isaacson said. "In that sense, this advertising crisis could have a silver lining. We could end up getting better journalism and a better business model out of it." More on Newspapers
 
GM Bankruptcy Would Be Most Complicated In History Top
It is not just lawyers who will be busy handling a G.M. bankruptcy filing, which would be perhaps the biggest and most-watched in legal history. Because of its size and scope, the bankruptcy would be the most complicated that any American company has gone through -- more complex than those of Chrysler and Lehman Brothers, two other notable bankruptcy cases now making their way through the system. More on Auto Bailout
 
Larry King Reveals He's Liberal In Autobiography Top
Interviewer Larry King's on-camera politics are inscrutable. But the CNN host comes clean about his lefty views in his autobiography, My Remarkable Journey, which landed in bookstores this week.
 
John Standerfer: A Crazy New Way to Balance the Budget Top
The current California budget crisis, while troubling in its own right, is merely a dress rehearsal for what the entire country will be facing in the next decade. California is showing us that even governments with economies larger than Spain, Mexico or Canada and with such world class assets as Silicon Valley and Hollywood are not immune to dire financial straits. Unlike the global credit crisis, California's problems do not originate from complex Mortgage Backed Securities, Credit Default Swaps or other complex derivatives. Like so many of its residents, California is simply trying to spend more money than it earns. As has been pointed out innumerable times in personal finance advice columns, there are two simple ways to resolve this issue, increase income (raise taxes) or reduce spending (cut services). Unfortunately, neither of these is deemed politically "palatable", which is the real crux of the issue. The current political environment in both Sacramento and Washington makes it virtual political suicide to vote for any meaningful increase in income or reduction in spending as the offender would be crucified in the next election cycle as the "candidate who voted against saving infants' lives" or "who voted for tax increases that caused working class people to lose their homes". The flip side of this scenario is that the intelligent legislators will simply do nothing. If there's never a budget presented with cuts for children's health care then you can't be accused of increasing spending or cutting health care. If there's never a proposal for tax increases, you can't be accused of raising taxes or not balancing the budget. The best move politically is to do nothing and blame your lack of inaction on the opposing political party; it's an undefeatable strategy that has been adopted by the majority of the legislators. To break this logjam of complacency, we need a new way of allocating government money. The current structure of passing large bills that represent an entire budget with each line item having a percentage increase or decrease over the previous year is irreconcilably broken for the reasons enumerated above. Instead, we need to move to an affirmative style of budgeting where each representative is able to actually represent their constituents and allocate their tax dollars to the programs that are important to them. Here is how it works: at the beginning of each budget cycle, 50% of the estimated revenue (minus required interest payments) would be allocated to the House of Representatives and 50% to the Senate. The total dollar amounts allocated to each chamber would then be equally divided among the members. For example, if the total estimated revenue was $3 Trillion, then the Senate would receive $1.5 Trillion and each Senator would receive $15 billion to allocate. Each member is then free to allocate their percentage of the revenue on whatever programs they (and their constituents) see fit. Since all programs would have an initial budget of $0, if no legislators allocate any money to ethanol subsidies, then they would cease to exist. If less money than is currently being spent was allocated to Social Security, then benefits would decrease; the same with defense and every other program. Furthermore, each member would have an actual record of how they felt their constituents wanted money to be used and that record could be easily reviewed, which makes voting decisions simpler in the next election cycle. Additionally, programs with minimal support would die a natural death without forcing a majority of members to vote against them. Also, this would allow for a more nimble federal budget as it would be completely reallocated on a yearly basis. Feel we should support electric cars? Encourage your representative to allocate $2 million of your district's money to electric car tax breaks. Disappointed that your fiscally conservative candidate did not appropriate any money toward paying down the debt? Vote them out. What happens if there's an emergency and we need to spend more than we generated this year? Require a 2/3rds majority to borrow from next year's allocation and then spend the money in the same way. In the case of the recent stimulus bill, that concept would have given each member of Congress the ability to spend (or save - by paying down debt) their district's percentage of the money we're borrowing. This new way of allocating taxpayer's money would provide voters with significantly more transparency into what their representatives in Washington are doing and force legislators to actually make decisions annually about what money is spent on instead of hiding behind the status quo, both of which would be a welcome change. It may also be our best hope at staving off a California type crisis at the national level. More on House Of Represenatives
 
Mike Tyson Daughter Exodus Injured, Accidentally Hanged Herself UPDATED Top
***UPDATE: SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO REPORT*** FROM AP : Boxer Mike Tyson's 4-year-old daughter is on life support after she was found with her neck on a treadmill cable Monday, police said. The girl's 7-year-old brother found her on a treadmill with her neck on a cable attached to the exercise machine at their Phoenix home, police Sgt. Andy Hill said, calling it a "tragic accident." The boy told the girl's mother, who was in another room. She took the girl off the cable, called 911 and tried to revive her. Responding officers and firefighters performed CPR on the girl as they rushed her to a nearby hospital, where she was in "extremely critical condition" and on life support, Hill said. "Somehow she was playing on this treadmill, and there's a cord that hangs under the console -- it's kind of a loop," Hill said. "Either she slipped or put her head in the loop, but it acted like a noose, and she was obviously unable to get herself off of it." Hill said former heavyweight champion Tyson had been in Las Vegas but flew to Phoenix immediately after learning of the accident. Police didn't release the girl's name. Tyson could not immediately be reached for comment. Calls to three of his representatives were either not returned or not answered. Hill said everything in the investigation pointed to an accident. "There's nothing in the investigation that revealed anything suspicious," he said. He added that responding to calls involving children is an officer's most difficult duty. "Those are the things that stay with you in your career," he said. "We always hope for a miracle -- not to have the worst happen to a child." --- TMZ reports that Tyson's young daughter Exodus is on life support after she was found hanging by a cord. --- ***UPDATE: SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO REPORT*** Fox's Phoenix affiliate confirms that Mike Tyson's four-year-old daughter Exodus is in critical condition at St. Joe's Hospital after she was found hanging by a cord. Her seven-year-old brother alerted their mother after finding her in distress and Exodus was rushed to the hospital. Read more details from Fox here , and watch their video report below. --- ESPN, citing media accounts from Phoenix, reports that Mike Tyson's young daughter Exodus is in critical condition after accidentally hanging herself. ESPN quotes a police officer, in remarks to a radio station, saying that the young girl had been watching television with her room in a brother with exercise equipment and somehow ended up choking herself. The girl's mother administered CPR before the paramedics got there. Tyson was not thought to have been at home at the time and was rushed to hospital after the incident. More on Sports
 

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