News

2 June 2005

Full FDI in science magazines

The Centre has decided to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment in scientific and technical magazines and periodicals published by Indian companies. Till now, such foreign investment had to be capped at 74 per cent. Officials made it clear that the 100 per cent option is applicable only to the non-news category. The news media is still subject to a 26 per cent ceiling. The government feels...

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2 June 2005

FDI limit on non-news publications goes

The Government on Wednesday removed the cap on foreign investment in non-news publications. The existing investment limit, allowing a maximum of 74 per cent foreign equity in Indian entities publishing scientific/technical/specialty magazines/periodicals and journals, has been scrapped and up to 100 per cent foreign equity has been permitted, according to an official release. In case where both...

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1 June 2005

Dotcom Bloom

"Content is King." Remember that catchphrase and the essay by Bill Gates of almost a decade ago? "Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet," wrote the Microsoft founder in 1996, the year his company helped launch one of the first online magazines, Slate. That boom-time utterance would soon seem like a taunt to Web-only newsgathering organizations that launched...

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1 June 2005

A Bright Future for Newspapers

Philip Meyer, who has studied the newspaper industry for three decades, can see the darkness at the end of the tunnel. If present readership trends continue indefinitely, says the University of North Carolina professor, the last daily newspaper reader will check out in 2044. October 2044, to be exact. "I use that as an attention-getting device," says Meyer, whose latest book, "The Vanishing...

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1 June 2005

Companies subvert search results to squelch criticism

Someone tells you they have the opportunity of a lifetime for you. A way to make money by becoming an independent business owner through Quixtar. You're not sure about Quixtar and want to learn more, so you consult your favorite Internet search engine -- Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask Jeeves -- and type in the word "Quixtar." What you see next are search results, and most likely you'll just check out the...

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1 June 2005

FBI's No. 2 Was 'Deep Throat'

Deep Throat, the secret source whose insider guidance was vital to The Washington Post's groundbreaking coverage of the Watergate scandal, was a pillar of the FBI named W. Mark Felt, The Post confirmed yesterday. As the bureau's second- and third-ranking official during a period when the FBI was battling for its independence against the administration of President Richard M. Nixon, Felt had the...

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1 June 2005

Opening up of print media: Decision soon

The government is likely to decide on revision of uplinking norms for television news channels and printing of foreign newspapers in India within the next three weeks. The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has already prepared a note on downlinking guidelines for all TV channels, Phase Two of privatisation of FM radio and a liberalised community radio regime for the consideration of the...

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30 May 2005

Asia takes lead in newspaper renaissance

Worldwide newspaper sales edged up by more than two percent in 2004 while advertising revenue recorded significant gains, the World Association of Newspapers said Monday. In its report on trends in the newspaper industry, the WAN said 395 million copies of newspapers were sold daily in 2004 and read by an estimated one billion people worldwide. China, India and Japan were the world's biggest...

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29 May 2005

Journalists must stop being in denial: Bloggers here to stay

There is, writes Virginia Postrel in her column on Forbes.com, 'something about blogs [that] makes a lot of respectable journalists hyperventilate. News pros seem terribly threatened by online amateurs.' As an illustration she quotes a Los Angeles Times columnist, David Shaw, an über-hack who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1991 for his media criticism. Blogging, Shaw writes, is a 'solipsistic, self...

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28 May 2005

Reddy proposes visa-free travel for journos, proprietors

HYDERABAD: Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting S. Jaipal Reddy on Friday proposed visa-free travel within South Asian countries for journalists and newspaper proprietors as they were ambassadors of peace, amity and goodwill. Describing journalists as unacknowledged diplomats of the modern era, he said they could mould public opinion without being fettered by vote bank considerations...

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