News

New York, August 21, 2006—Protesters including striking school teachers in southern Mexico seized 12 private radio stations today after unidentified assailants shot up a government-owned station already under the demonstrators’ control. At least 50 protesters of the antigovernment group, Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), simultaneously took over each of the stations in the city of...

Many industry observers applauded Time magazine’s decision to deliver newsstand copies on Fridays and subscriptions by Saturdays. The switch from Mondays, starting in January, may lift the leading international newsweekly’s ad revenue, while stemming a decline in circulation. It is bold, requiring wrenching changes in an organization whose reach parallels the State Department’s. Let’s hear what...

Time Magazine's announcement that it will shift publication dates -- hitting the newsstands before the weekend instead of Monday to appeal to busy readers -- is emblematic of a dilemma facing media companies' bottom lines: What to do with the news? As news organizations put more breaking news online -- from news about terrorism plots to the latest celebrity wedding -- tabloids and serious...

IF YOU have been reading the business pages and seen reports about newspaper readership and newspaper circulation on the past two Fridays, you could be forgiven for wondering what is the difference between the two. And, if you read the report this week in The Australian Financial Review, about the problem of "mouse fraud" in measuring the popularity of internet sites, you could be forgiven for...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. newsstands sold fewer magazines in the first half of 2006 compared with a year ago, data showed on Monday, as some markets were saturated with too many offerings while others had to compete with the Web. Newsstand, or “single-copy,” sales of magazines fell more than 4 percent to about 48.7 million copies in the first half of 2006, according to preliminary figures provided...

JOHANNESBURG: A South African draft law that its sponsors say is intended in part to curb pornography has drawn a cool response from the country's media and media watchdogs, who say it could be a first step toward political censorship. The measure, the Film and Publications Amendment Bill, has hit a particular nerve in South Africa, where memories of draconian restrictions and crackdowns on...

While conflict situations pose dangers for reporters they also bring inherent difficulties and dilemmas for the newspapers published in conflict zones like Kashmir. Limited freedoms available to the press under these circumstances challenge the very basis of a democratic setup. This also raises a vital question. Can a democracy survive without institutions like a free media and more importantly is...

If these were normal times, the American view of the conflict in Lebanon might look something like the street scenes that have electrified the suburbs of Detroit for the past four weeks. In Dearborn, home to the Ford Motor Co. and the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the country, up to 1,000 people have turned out day after day to express their outrage at the Israeli military campaign...

As an uneasy truce prevails on the Israel-Lebanon front, it is time for the Lebanese media to take stock of the situation. The month-long operations saw the destruction of basic infrastructure and the imposition of a land, sea and air embargo leading to a massive drop in advertising, distribution problems, and fears of paper supply shortages. SCOURING FOR NEWS: Lebanese civilians collect...

Press freedom organisations have called for the release of Straits Times reporter Ching Cheong, who has being tried in a closed-door proceeding in Beijing. His trial on espionage charges began on August 15 and ended late that afternoon without an immediate verdict. "We have seen no evidence that Ching Cheong has committed a crime, and we call for his immediate release," Committee to Protect...