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8 June 2012 | Reuters

Tribune seen nearing bankruptcy conclusion

Tribune Co's long bankruptcy entered what is expected to be the final stage on Thursday, although the media company still faces months of regulatory clearances to transfer broadcast licenses to new owners. The owner of 23 television stations and publisher of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times asked a Delaware bankruptcy court to approve a reorganization plan to pay off creditors. The company failed a year ago in an attempt to end its Chapter 11 case because of creditor disputes, but this time success appears much more likely. Tribune Co, which also owns a cable network and several other large newspapers, was acquired in 2007 by financier Sam Zell in a USD 13bn leveraged buyout. The buyout, which Zell has called the "deal from hell," coincided with a U.S. recession and a major downturn in newspaper advertising and readership as consumers flocked to the Internet. Less than a year after the deal closed, the company filed for bankruptcy, and noteholders have blamed Zell and the buyout for their losses. The bankruptcy plan would turn over ownership to holders of the company's loans, a group that is led by JPMorgan Chase & Co and hedge funds Oaktree Capital Management LP and Angelo, Gordon & Co. They will appoint the company's seven-member board. On a conference call with the legal teams on Wednesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey discussed when the reorganization would become effective and procedures for an appeal - giving the impression that confirmation was likely.

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8 June 2012 | The Guardian

Facebook app store launches

Facebook has launched an app store, similar to that for the Apple iPhone, in a bid to turn the social network into a key entertainment platform online. The network announced its "App Centre" in a blogpost late on Thursday, confirming its first major move into a booming market of gaming, lifestyle and productivity applications. The app store will be available only to US users from Friday, opening to each of Facebook's 901 million users in the coming weeks. It will feature 600 apps, including the popular Draw Something and Pinterest, and new games such as Jetpack Joyride and Ghosts of Mistwood. The move is designed to keep Facebook users on the social network for longer, giving them less reason to leave the site for a rival platform. However, the focus on mobile apps is likely to attract criticism from those who see them as harmful to the future of the open web. Facebook has already faced criticism from internet rivals such as Google for its so-called "walled garden" approach to what can and cannot be released on its platform. The app store will be available on Facebook's iOS and Android apps, as well as on the main website. Users can send an app on the website to be downloaded onto their mobile device.

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8 June 2012 | Rapid TV News

Azteca unveils new Azteca Novelas studios

Azteca, the second-largest producer of Spanish-language television programming in the world, has inaugurated its new Azteca Novelas studios, the most modern in Latin America. The project has been two and a half years in the making. Azteca Novelas has successfully produced 98 novelas in its 19 years of operation. Of the total, 75 titles have been exported to more than 110 countries. The current annual production capacity of Azteca Novelas is more than 1,700 hours, which said Grupo Salinas Chairman Ricardo B. Salinas Pliego said will be boosted in quantity and quality with the new soundstages. The project includes seven HD studios with green technologies built in. The studios total 15,110 square metres of construction, including more than 5,000 square metres of sound stages.

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8 June 2012 | Wall Street Journal

China aims to up pressure on Internet firms to control content

China is proposing a law that puts more pressure on Internet companies to control and monitor the flow of information online, a sign the government will continue to put a tighter grip on social networks and Web discussions it views as destabilizing. The new law, a draft of which was released for comment by the government Thursday, requires all the users of blogs, microblogs and Internet forums to use real identification when registering accounts, and allows the government to punish intermediaries for the spread of information it deems illegal. The previous law only forbade the direct spread or creation of illegal content, and was more ambiguous about user identification. Although the new steps give the government greater legal reach to crack down on Internet users and companies if it is deemed necessary by China's leaders, the law primarily puts the burden of Internet supervision on the Internet companies themselves. In language added to the law, the government encourages companies to "self-regulate" and "monitor" users and content. Forcing Internet users to use real identification is designed to tone down online discussion that can often veer into the political by making users identifiable by—and accountable to—the government. The new law also broadens the government's ability to audit Internet service and access providers and extends the length of time that Internet companies must store records of content created by the company and its users for six months.

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8 June 2012 | Biz Journals

US: More than half of senior citizens now use the Internet

More than half of Americans who are 65 or older now use the Internet or email. That's the first time data have shown more than 50 percent of seniors going online. This study, by the Pew Research Center , found that 53 percent of older Americans use the Internet or email. And just over a third (34 percent) use social networks like Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), with 18 percent of them doing so every day. Email, having been around a long time, is widely used, with 86 percent of Internet users 65 or older using it, and 48 percent of them doing so every day. The study, for Pew's Internet and American Life Project, found that 69 percent of older Americans have a mobile phone, up from 57 percent two years ago. Even among those 76 or older, 56 percent have some type of cell phone, also up from 47 percent two years ago. The so-called "G.I. Generation," as those 76 or older are named, still has a far lower level of Internet use. Just 34 percent of them use the Internet and 21 percent have home broadband.

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8 June 2012 | Yahoo.com

Estonian president scolds Paul Krugman on Twitter

The President of Estonia slammed Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on Twitter today over Krugman's short blog post pooh-poohing the Eastern European country's economic recovery. Krugman wrote that defenders of Europe's austerity measures often point to Estonia's economic recovery to defend their policies. He included a chart that showed the country's rising GDP and added: "Better than no recovery at all, obviously—but this is what passes for economic triumph?" Estonia's president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, struck back on Twitter. "Let's write about something we know nothing about & be smug, overbearing & patronizing: after all, they're just wogs," Ilves wrote, using the derogatory British slang term for dark-skinned people from Africa or the East. "Guess a Nobel in trade means you can pontificate on fiscal matters & declare my country a 'wasteland'. Must be a Princeton vs Columbia thing," he added, referencing the university where Krugman teaches and his own alma mater. (It's unclear when and if Krugman actually called Estonia a wasteland, even though Ilves puts the word in quotes.) So far, Krugman hasn't joined in the Twitter fight.

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