Stories by James Ledbetter

Extra, Extra! Tribune Buys Times Mirror

In the never-ending quest for ever-bigger media monoliths, the Tribune Company is acquiring Times Mirror in a deal worth some $8 billion. Assuming the merger meets regulatory approval, it will create the nation's third-largest newspaper company. But like most media mergers these days, there's also a potentially valuable Internet gem at the center.

Arizona Democrats and Online Voting Just Click

Arizona Democrats, victims of bad timing, are holding the first politically irrelevant primary of the 2000 election season. Under the best of circumstances, Arizona - land of Barry Goldwater and John McCain - is no hotbed of Democratic activism.

By the Numbers

Politicians will tell you just about anything they think you want to hear. But this year's real story beams through in numbers. Here's our somewhat random, but awfully revealing number narrative. It says as much about those of us who surf the Net as it does about the politicians who crave our votes.

Hillary Hires an I-Builder

Two days before the official launch of her U.S. Senate campaign, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has officially joined the Internet culture.

Net Voting Experiment Leaves Alaskans Cold

It was billed as the first great experiment of Internet voting: Several thousand Alaskans living in remote areas would be given the chance to vote in the state's Republican Party straw poll on January 24.

A Total Eclipse of the Vote?

When faced with a gargantuan merger like AOL Time Warner Inc., some media outlets seem to lose their perspective faster than you can say Road Runner. The blitz of media coverage has treated this business deal as if it were the discovery of a lost continent. Look at The New York Times: On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Times ran or blurbed ten stories about the merger on its front page, compared to one story about the presidential contest.

A New Media World Order

No corporate merger in recent history has tweaked the public's imagination like last week's bombshell announcement that America Online and Time Warner will become one. And while the merger's size and scope are breathtaking, its power to fascinate and enrage is in many ways symbolic: It appears to portend the end of the Internet as an alternative realm outside the bounds of traditional media.

AOL-Time Warner Make It Big

Time founder Henry Luce once dubbed the twentieth century "The American Century." Monday morning, AOL Time Warner Inc.'s proposed new chairman, Steve Case, ushered in "the Internet Century." In an unprecedented blending of traditional and online media, Time Warner and America Online announced an all-stock merger of a company valued at over $300 billion.

Time Warner, AOL to Merge

Time founder Henry Luce once dubbed the twentieth century "The American Century." This morning, AOL Time Warner's proposed new chairman, Steve Case, ushered in "the Internet Century." In an unprecedented blending of traditional and online media, Time Warner and America Online announced an all-stock merger of a company valued at over $300 billion.

Hillary Clinton gets hacked

Is someone sympathetic to New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani playing political tricks on Hillary Clinton's Web site?

Moguls form global e-commerce policy group

A gaggle of high-powered communications chief executive officers announced yesterday the founding of an "unprecedented" global group that will issue policy recommendations intended to encourage the worldwide growth of electronic commerce.

[]