M/PI Source Online

Newspapers of the Future

By Russell Hickey

It was surprising -- if not uplifting -- to see the news that an Associated Press survey of newspaper editors in Europe revealed an optimistic view of the future of newspapers.  Some in the U.S., such as San Francisco Chronicle columnist David Lazarus, view the Internet a threat to the future viability of newspapers.  In contrast, the AP survey found a view that the Internet was more an opportunity than a threat.

There is another split of opinion, however, that may have as much impact on the future of newspapers as any.  In one camp are those who believe the Internet should be used as the publication tool for longer, in-depth, investigative journalism.  In the other camp are those who believe the Internet should be reserved for current, breaking news -- leaving the print publications as the home of investigative reporting.

The latter opinion would be more in line with a recent recommendation by Mitchell Stephens, a professor of journalism at New York University.  In short, Stephens argued that newspapers content needs to be more opinion and analysis driven to compensate for the fact that the printing and delivery process necessarily makes the content "old news" by Internet standards.

No matter which route the industry takes, it ought to remember this axiom:  You get what you pay for.  A recent study by the University of Missouri-Columbia concluded that investing in the newsroom could result in better profit margins.  The reason?  Poor news quality chases off your consumers.

Russell Hickey is a Claims Counsel at Media/Professional Insurance in Kansas City.

20 Years In The Making

By Mike DiSilvestro

What is today one of the most respected and well attended media law seminars in the country began as a small half day affair attended by local attorneys from Kansas City.  The first seminar was organized by the media law committee of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association and few of those in attendance would have guessed at what the future held.  Jim Borelli, Vice President and Special Counsel for Media/Professional Insurance recalled, “Although we at Media/Pro had high hopes and big dreams for this seminar from its inception, we had no idea 20 years ago that this conference would become one of such high quality and prominence.”  Even then the talent and experience of the local bar attracted high quality speakers to the seminar. Leslie Stahl, then the CBS national affairs correspondent, was the first luncheon speaker. 

This year’s seminar on May 4 http://www.continuinged.ku.edu/programs/ml/ will take a look into the future.  “The past twenty years has seen so much change in the practice of representing media clients that we wanted to examine some of the foreseeable challenges that media lawyers will be facing in the future”, said Pat Groshong, program chair for this year’s seminar.  Some of the panel topics include how technology such as cell phone cameras will effect the local newsroom; how will privacy law be changed when there is a camera everywhere you go;  what does the future hold for copyright law and what are the insurance issues related to these challenges?  Speakers will include some of the top lawyers and journalists practicing today.  Our luncheon speaker will be the political cartoonist Scott Stantis from the Birmingham News.  Other speakers include Fred von Lohmann from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Bruce Sanford of Baker & Hostetler and Michael Sullivan of Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz.

This year, for the first time, insurance agents and brokers can earn continuing education credits by attending the seminar.  3 hours of CE have been approved in Missouri and Kansas and approval is pending in Illinois, New York,California and Texas.  Borelli says, “We look forward to continuing to serving the media law and liability insurance communities by continuing to develop and provide many more outstanding programs in future years."

Media/Professional Insurance has been proud to be one of the sponsors of the seminar from the beginning.  We hope you can join us as we celebrate 20 years of great success!

Mike DiSilvestro is a Vice President - Underwriting at Media/Professional Insurance.

"Not so fast, my friend"

By Russell Hickey

It's long been assumed that, in the Internet age, reader's attentions spans have gotten shorter.  A new study by the Poynter Institute, however, found readers of on-line publications spent more time reading the stories they selected versus readers of broadsheets or tabloids.

The study can be found at: http://eyetrack.poynter.org/

The study is on-going, and further findings and analysis of reader behaviors are expected to be released later this year.

Russell Hickey is a Claims Counsel at Media/Professional Insurance.

Prior Restraints

By Russell Hickey

Yesterday the Missouri Court of Appeals granted relief from a Jackson County trial court's decision to prohibit The Kansas City Star and The Pitch, Kansas City's alternative newsweekly, from publishing an article about an internal utility memo.

It has long been settled law that prior restraints against the media are to be granted in only the rarest of circumstances.  The decision by the Missouri Court of Appeals is consistent with that jurisprudence.  Unfortunately, this is the second time in four years that The Kansas City Star has been forced to seek relief from a prior restraint.

The Star's article about yesterday's decision can be found at: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/16848297.htm.

A copy of the decision is also online.

Russell Hickey is a Claims Counsel at Media/Professional Insurance.

Agog About Blogs Panel

Thanks to all who participated on the panel, both on-line and at the conference.

To view the video that introduced the topics discussed, please watch this video featuring Jeff Jarvis.

Digital Media and Prime Time Changes

By Russell Hickey

Yesterday NBC Universal announced a plan to restructure the company in order to save $750 million over two years.  Part of the restructure includes a new plan for prime time programming and increased investment into "digital initiatives."  The new plan for prime time includes less scripted shows (expensive to produce) and more reality and game shows (relatively inexpensive to produce).

Two quotes from NBC Universal chairman and CEO Bob Wright that appeared in two separate articles seemed to provide the big picture:

First, regarding the prime time plan, Wright told the Los Angeles Times that "the audience just isn't there.  We have some of our best stuff at 8 o'clock, and it's struggling."

Second, regarding the investment in the digital media, Wright told CNNMoney.com that "success in this business means quickly adjusting to and anticipating change. This initiative is designed to help us exploit technology and focus our resources, as we continue our transformation into a digital media company for the 21st century."

In other words, it's a lesson straight from Economics 101: supply and demand.  The media companies who will be most successful in the era of convergence will be those who capitalize on the fractured nature of consumers.  If more consumers can be found via the Internet, get more of your content on-line.

From an insurance perspective, getting more content on-line will push entertainment companies toward (if not beyond) the limits of their traditional media coverage.  In other words, it will be critical for entertainment companies and their brokers to make sure their insurance policies include coverage for cyber and technology exposures.

From the consumer perspective, one has to wonder whether the prime time plan will only cause further fracturing of the consumer base.  Will the reduced emphasis on scripted television shows only push more consumers to look for entertainment elsewhere?

Russell Hickey is a Claims Counsel at Media/Professional Insurance.

Agog About Blogs

At 2 PM on November 9, Media/Professional CEO Leib Dodell will be moderating a panel discussion about blogs.  The discussion points include why so many companies are using blogs and how these blogs will alter the professional liability landscape.  The panel will be part of the Professional Liability Underwriting Society's International Conference in Chicago.

During the panel, a live chat will be available by clicking this link or pointing your Internet browser to gabbly.com/www.mediaprof.com/blog.

For an introduction of the topics to be discussed, please watch this video featuring Jeff Jarvis.

Mr. Jarvis is an associate professor and director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York's new Graduate School of Journalism.  His blog can be found at www.BuzzMachine.com.

UK's Highest Court Delivers Landmark Ruling

By Scott Swift

Last week, the United Kingdom's highest court issued a landmark ruling in Jameel v. The Wall Street Journal Europe that enables reporters to publish allegations that may be difficult to prove true if brought to trial. In sum, the Law Lords held that journalists reporting responsibly and on matters of public interest can publish allegations about public figures.

The lawsuit stemmed from a February 2002 article published by the Wall Street Journal Europe, which reported on Saudi Arabia's efforts in monitoring bank accounts of several businesses and individuals. The United States requested that the Saudi government monitor these accounts to  determine whether they were being used to fund terrorist organizations. One of the businesses mentioned in the article, and its president, Muhammed Jameel, sued the Wall Street Journal for libel and was awarded $74,000 in damages at the trial court level. 

In recent years, London has been deemed the Libel Capitol of the world by many journalists and First Amendment lawyers because of its numerous libel decisions against publications. It is difficult for a publication to prevail in a London court because it has to prove the allegation is true, as opposed to the plaintiff having to prove the allegation false, as is the standard in the US.

The Law Lords, however, in the Jameel case took the extraordinary step of recognizing that requiring the Wall Street Journal Europe to prove that the allegations against Jameel were true was impractiable, given the secretive nature of the investigation and the Saudi government. The Law Lord's overturned the lower courts' decisions and dismissed the lawsuit.

In the decision, one judge wrote, "We need more such serious journalism in this country and our defamation law should encourage rather than discourage it."

Many commentators tout the decision as a long overdue victory for publishers in the UK. As recently quoted in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/world/europe/), Stuart Karle, The Wall Street Journal's general counsel, aptly stated: “Going forward this decision means that if you’re a quality news organization you can fully and fairly cover the important issues of the day without this nagging problem of having a libel judge in London basically engage in an autopsy of every single thing you did and decide whether he agrees with your editorial judgment.”

Scott Swift is a Senior Claims Counsel and Loss Control Counsel at Media/Professional Insurance.

You Can Run, But You Can't Hide.

By Scott Swift

When Fred Goldman won a $20 million judgment against O.J. Simpson for the wrongful death of his son, Ronald Goldman, it is unknown whether Mr. Goldman had any idea of the challenge he would face trying to collect the judgment. Nonetheless, Mr. Goldman and his attorneys are testing a novel legal theory in an attempt to force O.J. Simpson to hand over his right of publicity to Mr. Goldman.

According to a recent lawsuit filed by Mr. Goldman against O.J. Simpson (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,212338,00.html), Goldman is asking a court to transfer ownership and control of O.J. Simpson's right of publicity to the Goldman family. If Mr. Goldman prevails, the Goldman family, and not Mr. Simpson, will be able to profit off the commercial exploitation of Mr. Simpson name, likeness, and image.

While most courts agree that an indvidiual has the right to exploit and protect their likeness, and transfer these rights to others, no court has ever forced an individual to transfer his or her right of publicity in order to satisfy a civil judgment rendered against that person. Setting aside the issue of whether Mr. Simpson's name even has value, it is  unlikely that a court will rule in Mr. Goldman's favor given the highly personal nature of one's right of publicity,

Scott Swift is a Senior Claims Counsel and Loss Control Counsel at Media/Professional Insurance.

When Silence is Not Golden

By Russell Hickey

According to a lawsuit filed this month by a Los Angeles boutique, your mother was wrong when she told you that if you didn't have something nice to say you should say nothing at all.

On September 7, attorneys for Kitson filed a lawsuit against the publisher of Us Weekly.  On the surface, the lawsuit is essentially a breach of contract claim.  In settling prior litigation, the publishers of Us Weekly had agreed not to "make any statement or communication" with the intention of "disparaging or otherwise impugning the business or management" of Kitson, damaging the personal or business reputation of Kitson or its management, or "interfering with, impairing or disrupting the normal business operations" of Kitson.  In its lawsuit, Kitson is claiming that agreement has been breached by a lack of ordinary coverage of the store.

Last week, David Hauslaib of the blog Jossip discussed this case on NPR.  According to Hauslaib, the mere presence of stores and products in the Us Weekly photos is as valuable -- if not more valuable -- than traditional advertisement.  The value of appearing in those photographs stems from the consumer reaction to seeing celebrities at certain stores or wearing certain brands.

According to the lawsuit, Kitson claims one picture was "cropped to ensure that the blue Kitson bag which is generally known to readers of the magazine did not display the name Kitson on it."  Moreover, Kitson claims photographs of Evangeline Lily and Maria Shriver did not mention Kitson despite the fact that Lily was photographed inside the story and Shriver was photographed while leaving the store.  According to the lawsuit, Kitson claims the lack of coverage resulted in more than $10,000 a week in lost revenue.

NPR described Kitson's allegations as "product displacement."  Newsday columnist Ellis Henican described Kitson as a "reverse stalker."  Regardless of the label, it is a disturbing evidence of the convergence of advertising and editorial content -- at least in the eyes of those being covered in the media.

Russell Hickey is a Claims Counsel at Media/Professional Insurance.