Monthly Archives: July 2004

Unusual Newspaper Funding Disclosure

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Jason Stein’s article on Brazil’s growing soybean export business (and the financial implications for Wisconsin Soybean farmers; Brazil’s costs are lower and they are clearing forests to grow beans) follows a number of articles in other publications on Brazil’s agricultural prowess, including The Star Tribune and the NY Times. Stein’s article is certainly useful and informative (I’m glad they are covering these issues!), however, the article includes a disclaimer that:

Reporting in Brazil was made possible through a grant from the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Department at UW-Madison.

I find this amazing. Capital Newspapers is a $112M+ (2003 revenues) very profitable business. I can’t think of one good reason why University funds (direct or indirect) should subsidize this private enterprise. A trip to Brazil, including lodging, food and transportation planned somewhat in advance should cost no more than $3 to $5K. I’d rather see them fund some students, we’d likely get a more for our money.

Ted Turner – My Beef with Big Media

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Captain Courageous, or Outrageous, depending on your POV, Ted Turner takes some shots at media consolidation in this Washington Monthly article:

Today, media companies are more concentrated than at any time over the past 40 years, thanks to a continual loosening of ownership rules by Washington. The media giants now own not only broadcast networks and local stations; they also own the cable companies that pipe in the signals of their competitors and the studios that produce most of the programming. To get a flavor of how consolidated the industry has become, consider this: In 1990, the major broadcast networks–ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox–fully or partially owned just 12.5 percent of the new series they aired. By 2000, it was 56.3 percent. Just two years later, it had surged to 77.5 percent.

Ironically, on the day I read this, Gannett announced that they purchased a rival Green Bay, WI newspaper, the News-Chronicle (along with a number of regional and weekly publications). Frank Wood owned the News Chronicle, which in 1989 published a long series of articles critical of Gannett and its business practices. Richard McCord, the writer of these articles went on to publish a book – the Chain Gang.
Jon Lauck references this book in his disection of the newspaper monopoly situation in South Dakota.

History of the ATM

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Ellen Florian wrote an interesting article on the history of ATM’s: The Money Machines:

The line was long and slow, and he became increasingly irritated as his lunch hour dribbled away. All at once, he had a flash of inspiration. ‘Golly, all the teller does is cash checks, take deposits, answer questions like “What’s my balance?” and transfer money between accounts,’ recalls Wetzel, now 75 and still living in Dallas with his wife. ‘Wow, I think we could build a machine that could do that!’ And with a $4 million go-ahead from Docutel’s parent company, that’s exactly what he and his engineers did. Read more about the story of the ATM.”

Via Slashdot.

A View of Wisconsin – ouch

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The Economist continues its series on swing states for this fall’s presidential elections. This week, they visit Wisconsin.

An interesting place that John Kerry is desperate to cling on to, but where independents tend to prefer George Bush
IT IS a quiet-looking state, a land of rolling hills, family farms and a few medium-sized cities in the middle of the northern stretch of the country. But, when it comes to politics, Wisconsin is more dramatic than it looks.

Then there’s this shot of reality (college grad retention and a generally ageing population):

Unfortunately for Mr Kerry, young liberals moving to Wisconsin are the exception rather than the rule in a fast ageing state. Without a smart urban centre of its own to attract young professionals, Wisconsin has seen an exodus of college graduates in the past two decades. It ranks 43rd among the 50 states in the share of college graduates in its workforce, says Terry Ludeman, a jobs expert. Meanwhile births are plummeting in its largely white population, down to about 65,000 a year from 93,000 at the height of the baby boom. As Wisconsin gets greyer, it is probably getting a little more conservative.

Fitting commentary, given my post yesterday on our state politicians poor priority choices…..

(more…)

More on Local Media Monopolies – from South Dakota

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Jon Lauck summarizes a number of recent posts on the implications of local media monopolies, particularily on our democracy.
Corporate earnings pressure is certainly one thing, but I believe there are other factors at play such as:

  • Insulated environment: The Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 sanctioned newspaper monopolies. Competition is a good thing, however in this case, the Act has simply created a general malaise.
  • Lowered expectations: Rather than informing readers with depth, many newspaper’s have adopted the USA Today “McPaper” approach. This flies against internet users demands: lots of information quickly and deep information (google and others) when I want it.
  • Hiring: The sports page often has more depth than others.
  • Failure to take advantage of new tools & media.

Money is not the only issue, in fact, I don’t believe it’s the issue. Leadership is.

Wisconsin State Priorities?

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The State Journal editorial page takes Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager to task for joining with six other states and New York City to sue five of the country’s largest power producers to force them to cut carbon dioxide emissions. This is the same organization that, under Democrat Jim Doyle signed us up for the Matrix personal data mining project – then later withdrew.
Keeping the environment clean is certainly important, but the WSJ raises some useful issues on this topic. I believe that our state leadership is ignorning (for political reasons) the most important economic issues of our time, such as the construction of true high speed networks.
High speed data networks are the rails and roads of the future. Yet, today, we are saddled with slow services supported by local telco monopoly SBC.
Verizon just announced that fiber to the premises (“fttp” or to the home) will be available in Keller, Texas, parts of Southern California and Florida. Prices will range start at $40/month for 2 to 5mbps service; with optional speeds up to 30mbps. (Currently, many state residents can choose from 384kbps to 1.5mbps DSL or cable service – 1/10th the speed, or less of the fibre based products).
These speeds make high quality personal video conferencing a reality (family & friends), new small businesses from the home possible and most importantly, will reduce the cost of true high speed access for all residents.
Nice to see our politicians are paying attention.
David Isenberg has some useful examples of “value-subtracted” telco business models. Isenberg also discusses a May, 2004 study that shows a dramatic reduction in telco operating expenses after they switch from a copper wire based network to a fibre system.