2005-2014

Yahoo's latest online news project is called "The Hot Zone" and is billed as a much-needed look at war-torn regions that have drawn scant mainstream media coverage. But the title could just as easily describe the trouble the media giant could encounter as it ventures for the first time into original news reporting. Web portals have traditionally played the role of news aggregators, publishing the...

BOULDER, Colo. (September 16, 2005) -- NYTimes.com debuts a major initiative on Monday: TimesSelect, a paid-subscription service that grants access to selected premium Web content and services. This is a big deal, for the New York Times, and for the newspaper industry. Now, up front let me say that I like the overall thrust of this initiative -- but I'm skeptical of one major component, putting...

KATHMANDU, Sept 16 - Police cracked down on journalists demonstrating peacefully in Kathmandu on Friday, arresting about 80 journalists. Most of them were picked up by police before the protest meet. They were released in the evening. Defying the government ban on demonstrations and rallies, journalists assembled at Ratnapark and chanted slogans demanding immediate restoration of press freedom and...

THE reputations of many national newspaper editors are on the line this autumn but none faces so critical a test of his judgment as Alan Rusbridger, Editor of The Guardian. Strategic decisions by Rusbridger’s two predecessors were critical to The Guardian’s standing. As editor for 19 years from 1956, Alastair Hetherington removed Manchester from the masthead, moved his office to London and made...

A Mumbai photographer is among the five winners of National Geography Society's 2005 All Roads Photography Program, which recognises "indigenous or under-represented" photographers who document changing cultures in their own countries. The 2005 photography winners are: Marcela Toboada Avilés of Mexico for "Women Of Clay." Toboada is a self-taught freelance photographer who lives in Oaxaca...

September 16, 2005 -- Time Warner stock jumped yesterday as investors cheered the possibility of a wide-ranging Internet partnership with Microsoft. Time Warner has been in discussions with Microsoft about selling a stake in its beleaguered America Online unit and merging AOL with Microsoft's Web unit MSN. The Post broke the news of the talks yesterday. Time Warner's shares rose 58 cents, or 3.2...

Humbled by the surging fortunes of Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., two titans of the Internet's early days – Microsoft Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s America Online – might scrap their historic rivalry and join forces. Microsoft's MSN and AOL are negotiating to combine some or all of their operations – including their free e-mail and instant-messaging services as well as widely viewed portal pages...

Over the last few weeks, the media have given the Katrina disaster the special treatment reserved for Ultra-Mega-Double-Select Topic-A stories. You've read the massive headlines and gaped at the photo spreads of New Orleans under water. You've watched as the television banners evolved from "DEVASTATION IN THE GULF" (CBS) to "ROAD TO RECOVERY" (CNN). You've heard the theme music. And as the Gulf...

Soon after the floodwaters engulfed New Orleans, reporters chronicled the thousands trapped at the Superdome, trapped at the convention center, and trapped on rooftops. As the days passed, news consumers had to wonder: Why couldn’t citizens just hike out of the city to the nearest patch of dry land? The Socialist Worker webzine on Sept. 6 provided an answer: You couldn’t leave without facing down...

Yahoo! has been taking a beating in the blogosphere lately. On Sept. 6 came the revelation that it provided information that helped Beijing jail a journalist. Days earlier, a report said Yahoo was actively supporting the companies that spawn pop-up ads. Around the same time, bloggers started griping about new Yahoo software downloads that change the preferences on users' PCs. Pretty soon, even a...