Extended
New Media Index

An Ongoing Wrap-Up of Key Developments on the Interactive Frontier

More recent news items are at the beginning of each section. For just the most recent news, visit the NAA New Media Federation's Digital Edge. Also be sure to read Presstime's monthly new-media commentary.

STRATEGIC MOVES

Many Internet surfers will lose their free rides as newspapers and other content providers start charging admission. The Post-Bulletin in Rochester, Minn., walled off portions of its site to nonsubscribers in May. They can only view headlines and classified ads; if they want to see the rest, they must ante up a subscription fee. Subscribers are given a personal-identification number to access the site, archives, chat rooms and interactive content. By year-end, Media General Inc. of Richmond, Va., plans to charge fees for access to some of its newspaper sites. New York Times Digital will market new, paid products to 15 million registered users. Boston.com already pitches @bat Insider, an enhanced version of its free Boston Red Sox e-mail @bat. The site will offer breaking-news e-mail messages, Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy, post-game reports and other subscriber-only features. A season costs a flat rate, but early subscribers received a 33 percent discount. More than 300 fans signed up during the first four days. Belo, parent of The Dallas Morning News, jumps on the bandwagon, revealing plans to start charging for some of its e-mail newsletters. In the meantime, visitors to Belo's sites register names, e-mail addresses and interests before getting beyond home pages. Although research by Advanced Interactive Media Group of Scarborough, Maine, shows that newspaper Web sites have a small but positive impact on subscriptions and single-copy purchases, publishers are anxious to also make money online. Other content providers move to the paid model. Yahoo! wants to charge $9.95 a month for stock news and quotes; Variety.com asks visitors for $59.95 per year; TheStreet.com charges $199.95 for access to portions of its site; MLB.com, the Web site of Major League Baseball, charges users listening to games; and Salon.com sells an ad-free version of its content. Consumer Reports has 550,000 online subscribers who pay $19 to $47.40 annually. Until recently, few providers charged for content. The Wall Street Journal has 574,000 subscribers who pay $29 to $59 annually to read WSJ.com, but many experts speculate that subscribers write off the fees on their income taxes as business expenses.

The St. Petersburg Times and the Star Tribune in Minneapolis each sign agreements with eBay that give local eBay users the option of purchasing a three-line ad to run in a special area of the paper's print classified section. The Tribune will run eBay Seller Classifieds Sunday and Wednesday, and the Times will run them Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Readers then go online to bid and buy items. Both papers will receive a payment for each visitor that pursues an item and registers as an eBay member. AdStar.com will provide the technology to power the new classified section.

ScreamingMedia Inc. of New York City partners with commercial aircraft manufacturer, Boeing Co.of Seattle, to provide passengers with broadband access services including Internet and e-mail while they fly.

Morris Communications Corp. of Augusta, Ga., sells the residential dial-up portion of its Internet access business in Augusta, Grand Island, Neb., and Topeka, Kan., to EarthLink of Atlanta. Networks, a Morris-owned company, will continue to be a provider of digital subscriber line services, Web hosting and other commercial services.

Ctnow.com, the Web site of the Hartford Courant, partners with Connecticut Public Broadcasting Inc., parent company of Connecticut Public Television and Connecticut Public Radio partners to provide expanded news coverage to online users. Visitors to ctnow.com will have access to news produced by cptv.organd wnpr.org and vise versa.

CentralValley.com, The Fresno (Calif.) Bee and KSEE 24 television station form a media alliance to collaborate on news and information.

Tribune Interactive, the Internet unit of Tribune Co. of Chicago, agrees to provide local news and headlines from nine online newspapers, including The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., to Yahoo! News.

The News Journal, a weekly newspaper in Amelia, Va., ceased publishing on paper and is only published online at njwebnews.com. Spiraling postage and printing costs were cited as the reasons for abandoning the printed edition.

wsj.com, the online edition of The Wall Street Journal, partners with General Motors' OnStar service to provide audio financial news through OnStars' Virtual Advisor. Content will include the market's top headlines and hourly business updates

knightridder.com eliminates free e-mail from its Real Cities sites. Only about 5,000 accounts were active as of February.

Four newspapers owned by Lee Enterprises Inc. of Davenport, Iowa, established flood2001.com to provide critical news and information about the record flood along the Mississippi River. Two Iowa papers--the Quad-City Times in Davenport and Muscatine Journal--along with two Wisconsin papers--the La Crosse Tribune in and the Daily News in WinonaÑare feeding the site.

CityXpress of Vancouver, Canada, signs an agreement with esportsdesk.com to provide community sports content to its partners. CityXpress has integrated esportsdeck.com's products into its Outdoors & Recreation Special Section as the Community Sports Zone.

New York Times Digital partners with Cityfeet.com, an online commercial real estate marketplace that allows small businesses to search for office, retail and industrial spaces. The co-branded site provides access to a free classified database that incorporates online and print listings from The New York Times and Cityfeet.com. As similar site will be launched in June at a href=http://www.Boston.com>Boston.com.

The New York Times Co. and NYTimes.com creates a College Times Internet site, which organizes news stories into more than 200 academic disciplines and offers personalized e-mails based on each user's field of study.

America Online Inc. of Dulles, Va., and WCITIES, a location-based information service provider in London, will offer WCITIES' international destination information to consumers through AOL's Digital Cities and other AOL local properties.

Belo Interactive Inc. of Dallas and Strategy.com of Vienna, Va., introduce My News, free personalized service that delivers Belo's local news and information content to consumers through e-mail, the Internet, mobile phones, pagers and faxes.

The Washington Post Co. invests in Rearden Steel Technologies, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based company headed by WebTV founder Steve Pearlman that is developing a hardware-software solution for the home entertainment market.

Times Publishing Co. is negotiating a joint classified-ad partnership with eBay Inc. that would ask users in Tampa Bay who post merchandise for auction on eBay.com if they also want to place a classified ad in the St. Petersburg Times.

Tribune Interactive Inc., the new media subsidiary of Tribune Co. of Chicago, signs an agreement with AT&T Wireless to provide local news and information on AT&T Digital PocketNet service. Headlines and full-length articles will come from latimes.com initially. Eventually chicagotribune.com, newsday.com, orlandosentinel.com, sunspot.net, sun-sentinel.com, ctnow.com and mcall.com will provide content.

TownNews.com acquires AnytimeNews from Community Publishers of Chanhassen, Minn., creating a network of more than 550 online U.S. newspapers in 43 states. TownNews.com, based in Moline, Ill., is operated by International Newspaper Network, whose majority owner is Lee Enterprises of Davenport, Iowa, publisher of 23 daily newspapers including the Quad-City Times in Davenport.

The New York Times Co. and online publisher NewStand Inc. of Austin sign a five-year agreement to provide daily Internet distribution of the print version of The New York Times in the same format as it appears on newsstands, including photos, advertisements and graphics. Access will be sold on a single-copy or subscription basis. The Times Company also takes a minority stake in NewsStand.

AutoTrader.com of Atlanta, a classified-advertising Web site that sells cars, introduces an interactive display advertising program that allows auto dealers to create full-page, color display ads online. AutoTrader's investors include Cox Enterprises Inc. of Atlanta and Landmark Communications of Norfolk, Va.

Work.com, an Internet resources portal for small businesses developed by Dow Jones & Co. of New York City, and Excite@Home, closed in March.

Salon.com's editor asks readers to pay an annual $30 subscription to keep the online publication alive. Meanwhile, Variety.com unveils a redesigned Web site that puts a price tag on previously free content.

USA Today of Arlington, Va., cuts seven editorial staffers from its Internet operation as part of effort to reduce payroll by 5 percent. Cuts were also made in the paper's newsroom.

KOZ of Research Triangle Park, N.C., lays off 39 employees and files for bankruptcy. The company sells software, e-commerce tools and services to newspapers and media companies to operate their Web sites.

Localbusiness.com lays off about 80 employees and discontinues operations. The company began as dbusiness.com and reported on small and mid-sized U.S. businesses and at one point created content-sharing agreements with newspaper sites.

Terra Lycos SA, the Internet service provider formed from the takeover of Lycos by Spain's Terra Networks last October, cuts 15 percent of its staff, or slightly more than 500 employees. The company controls a network of more than 140 Web sites in 20 languages.

New York Times Digital eliminates 47 jobs, or about 15 percent of its workforce. This is the second round of layoffs this year. The first layoff in January cut 69 positions.

Yahoo! of Santa Clara, Calif., cuts 12 percent of its 3,510 staff after reporting its first quarterly loss in nearly two years.

iSyndicate.com of San Francisco lays off nearly half its staff. Meanwhile, ScreamingMedia Inc. of New York City considers acquiring iSyndicate for about $7 million.

TheStreet.com cuts its staff of 190 by 20 percent and tries to save money by subleasing a portion of its principal office space and cutting discretionary spending in areas such as contract services, marketing and travel.

Before the year's end, The Walt Disney Co. will shutter two World Wide Web sites devoted to entertainment news, information and reviews--MrShowBiz.com and WallOfSound.com.

Rival Networks of Seattle closes Rivals.com, a site that provided links to information on sports, teams and leagues ranging from professional to high school.

SportsLine.com of Fort Lauderdale lays off 15 to 20 percent of its 400-plus domestic workforce and reduces marketing and advertising expenses.

AvantGo of San Mateo, Calif., eliminates 15 percent of its staff. Many newspapers partner with AvantGo to create a wireless edition.

CondeNet, the online division of Advance Publications Inc. of Staten Island, N.Y., lays off 18, or 12 percent, of its 147 employees. Advance Publications publishes 26 newspapers including The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and The Oregonian in Portland.

Standard Media International of San Francisco, parent of The Industry Standard magazine, cuts 69 of its 400 employees or 17 percent of staff. This is the second layoff this year.

Salon.com of New York City cuts salaries by about 15 percent and postpones plans for a weekly radio broadcast on more than 100 Public Radio International affiliated stations to brace itself against the "dot-bomb" syndrome

Britannica.com of Chicago cuts its U.S. staff by 31 percent, or 68 of its 220 employees, and switches to a subscription-based model

Home.com of Menlo Park, Calif., an online Realtor, lays off 150 employees or 40 percent of its staff

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Newspapers' online moves continue:

• NYTimes.com will supply direct links to articles on business, technology, political, national and international news to AltaVista.com of Palo Alto, Calif.
• Azcentral.com partners with Liquid Seats Inc. of San Carlos, Calif., to create an online ticket marketplace where visitors can find, buy, sell and auction tickets to Bay Area sports, entertainment and music events. There is no fee for buyers but sellers pay a 10 percent service charge for each completed transaction. ANG Newspapers of Hayward, Calif., and KnightRidder.com of San Jose, Calif., are also partners.
• Seattlep-i.com, Web site of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, offers a new feature, dubbed the 4 O'CLOCK NEWS, which provides tailored content for users looking for late news, links for a smoother commute, menu ideas and restaurant reviews.
• The Washington Post partners with the local NBC TV affiliate to provide traffic updates at Washingtonpost.com/traffic and NBC4.com.
• The Seattle Times redesigned its Web site, seattletimes.com, expanding its Web page by 20 percent, incorporating a new navigation system and providing more content, information and resources.
• The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., is using the free, open-source Web development platform Zope, created by Digital Creations of Fredericksburg, Va., to build and dynamically deliver its Web site, Fredericksburg.com.
• New York Times Digital will incorporate yellow pages, white pages, an e-mail directory and maps from Westboro, Mass.-based Switchboard Inc. into co-branded areas of newyorktoday.com, boston.com and telegram.com, the Web site of the Telegram & Gazette in Worchester, Mass.
• Madison (Wis.) Newspapers Inc. and the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal partner with CityXpress of Vancouver, Canada, to provide special sections on their Web sites. The Rapid City Journal will feature Health & Wellness and Dining & Entertainment sections, and Madison Newspapers will feature a Home & Garden special section.
• boston.com partners with United Virtualities of New York City to advertise home deliver of the Boston Globe online. Visitors to Boston.com will see a home delivery truck "drive" across the home page and launch the message, "50 percent off on home delivery."
• The Bismarck (N.D.) Tribune introduces three CityXpress Online special sections on its Web site, ndoline.com: dining and entertainment, outdoors and recreation, and home and garden. The sections offer editorial content daily and links to local businesses, products and coupons alongside the articles. The Tribune is owned by Lee Enterprises Inc. of Davenport, Iowa, and CityXpress is based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
• The Houston ChronicleChronicleCars.com, to allow visitors to research vehicles, conduct side-by-side vehicle comparisons, and locate a specific dealership, search its inventory and request parts, service, financial and insurance information, and price quotes. The Chronicle also introduces, HoustonJobCentral, a city-wide employment site. Other partners include the Greater Houston Partnership, city of Houston, Harris County, Hire.com, Houston Technology Center, the University of Houston and the Downtown Houston Association.
• Pulitzer Inc. of St. Louis eliminates its postnet.com brand and introduces a new site, STLtoday.com, which shifts away from a news-based format to place a greater focus on marketplace, entertainment and neighborhood categories. The site will incorporate content from the suburban newspapers Pulitzer acquired last year from the Journal Register Co.
• The New York Post contracts with Cold North Wind Corp. of Ottawa, Canada, to digitize its nearly 200-year-old archives and make them available on the Internet. Meanwhile, GaleGroup of Farmington Hill, Mich., will integrate the archives of all 98 Gannett Co. newspapers, except USAToday, into its InfoTrac online services.
• BostonHerald.com introduces a new marketplace directory using an advertising and promotions directory system developed by PlaceLinks Inc. of Wellesley, Mass.
• Foster's Daily Democratin Dover, N.H., the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, Corpus Christi Caller Times and Lawrence (Kansas) Journal-World adopt technology developed by Clickshare Service Corp. of Williamstown, Mass., to sell their news content over the Internet.
• Washingtonpost.com offers breaking news, articles and columns to Sprint PCS Wireless Web subscribers.
• Seattle Times Co.'s NWsource.com and South Jersey Publishing's jerseysouth.com join KnightRidder.com's Real Cities Network. Meanwhile, Real Cities sites provide content to OnmiSky wireless subscribers.

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The New York Times Co. wins the rights to newyorktimes.com, a domain name it lost in 1996 when it was registered to New York Internet Services. United Nations Arbitrator David Plant ruled the domain should be transferred to the New York Times Co.

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The number of U.S. homes with Internet access dropped slightly during the first quarter of 2001, marking the first decrease in years, finds a survey by Telecommunications Reports International Inc. of Washington, D.C.

Internet penetration reached the highest levels for West Coast local markets, with Portland, Ore., and San Francisco leading the list as the most wired cities in March 2001, according to Nielsen//NetRatings of New York City. Nielsen//NetRatings measures and reports Internet audience behavior based on data collected from 62,000 U.S. home users and 8,000 U.S. work users and 130,000 international users.

Nearly 7 million U.S. households now have some type of high-speed Internet access, either through cable modem or DSL services, finds Telecommunications Reports International. This is a 165 percent increase over the same time last year.

The North American market will account for less than 10 percent of global revenues from wireless advertising, m-commerce and wireless content subscriptions services by 2003, finds Jupiter Media Metrix.

Internet advertising in the United States reached $2.2 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2000, bringing total online revenue for the year to $8.2 billion, according to Interactive Advertising Bureau's Internet Ad Revenue Report.

Many U.S. consumers believe they shouldn't have to pay for online content, according to a survey by the Consumer Electronics Association of Arlington, Va. While 89 percent of Internet users download multimedia content and information, half oppose fees for downloading content, found a survey of 1,812 U.S. adults interviewed via the Internet during February 2001.

Twenty-two percent of advertisements on news and information Web sites during the fourth-quarter of 2000 were nonpaid, self-promotional ads, compared to 19 percent on portals and search engines, according to data from AdRelevance, a unit of Jupiter Media Metrix

The number of African Americans using the Internet increased by 44 percent to 8.1 million between December 1999 and December 2000, according to Nielsen//NetRatings of New York City. The Asian American online population grew by 18 percent to more than 2.1 million people and the Hispanic online population grew by 19 percent to 4.7 million during the same time period. Nielsen//NetRatings measures and reports Internet audience behavior based on data collected from 62,000 U.S. home users and 8,000 U.S. work users and 130,000 international users.

--Compiled by Lisa Rabasca, Presstime Staff Writer.