PhillyInc

Cable giant Comcast is investigating how hardcore pornography was broadcast Tuesday morning during Handy Manny, a popular cartoon program on The Disney Channel. Spokeswoman Beth Bacha described the incident as an “isolated issue in a local New Jersey facility that we immediately detected and corrected promptly.” The incident was first reported Wednesday in the New York Daily News. Comcast declined to provide the duration of the pornography broadcast, how many homes it reached, how the mistake happened and whether anyone will be disciplined for the X-rated error. -- Miriam Hill

FTS Group Inc. , which is developing a chain of wireless stores in the Philadelphia and Florida Gulf coast areas, today filed plans to sell 212.8 million shares with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Shares of the Tampa-based company currently trade on the OTC Bulletin Board. The last reported price for them on May 1 was 2 cents.

World Gate Communications Inc., the Trevose outfit kept alive by CEO Hal Krisbergh's determination to convince the world that it needs his company's slick Ojo video-phone, continues to struggle. Last week, the company said it lost $4.6 million in the first quarter, compared to a $2.6 million loss a year earlier.

Would Comcast Corp. be better off as a private company? Quite possibly yes, says Sanford Bernstein and Co. analyst Craig Moffett, who estimated in a recent research report that Comcast might be worth $50 billion more as a private company. The private investors would have to borrow about $72 billion, but they wouldn’t have to put any of their own money down. Comcast doesn’t comment on speculation, and Moffett admits he’s only speculating. He did, however, try to get Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts ’ attention by noting that for $50 billion, he could probably buy his own private island – maybe even Manhattan -- Miriam Hill

Memo: Humility is a virtue. With the Nasdaq saying it may de-list Verticalnet Inc., PhillyInc dug into the Inquirer's archives and found a September 2000 article quoting its then-CEO Joseph Galli Jr. on the bright future for the Horsham company:

“What Microsoft is to Seattle, we want to be to Philadelphia. We think we can be the catalyst of this region.”

Even since the infamous "Sleeping Comcast repairman" amateur video appeared on YouTube, it's been open season on the cable company. We just spotted another attempt on YouTube, this one by somebody trying to needle a customer-service rep into embarrassing the company. The attempt fails, and the video-maker admits that the Comcast rep foiled him: "That would have been a lot funnier if he had been a little bit more of a jerk."

How much is "Fancast" worth to Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA)? The cable company plans to launch the service this summer, pitched as a site that helps video-lovers find and organize stuff they want to watch. It has a beta teaser up at www.fancast.com. (If that doesn't load, download this screen shot.) Turns out Comcast had to pay up to use the name. According to the trade publication MultiChannel News, a Dallas company called Big in Japan was already using the Fancast name for its interactive podcasts for such shows as Nip/Tuck. Big in Japan, a division of 40-person information-technology-services company Architel, which specializes in creating social-networking applications, would not tell MultiChannel Newshow much Comcast paid. But Comcast evidently really wanted the name. It has high hopes for the service, described this way on its site: "With Fancast, you will be able to search for your favorite shows, movies, actors, or simply enjoy videos on the site. Fancast will provide you with a place to discover when your favorite shows or movies are on, and where you can watch them via television, video on demand, online or on other devices. really wants the name." What would it be worth to Comcast? $10,000? $100,000? We'll ask Comcast and keep an eye out for any disclosures. - Miriam Hill

Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) and the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. have found a common interest: gay and lesbian travelers. Southwest has given the city-chartered nonprofit agency $125,000 to help it extend its "Philadelphia - Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay" marketing campaign, an award-winning effort to capture some of the $55 billion a year that gay and lesbian travelers say they spend on going out and about. The funding coincides with Southwest's own launch last month of a Web page aimed at this specialty travel market. The GPTMC's campaign is here. - Tom Belden

Last month, Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq:CMCSA) Chief Executive Brian Roberts sold some of his shares for the first time since 2004. Now, it's president Stephen Burke's turn. Comcast reported to the SEC yesterday that Burke had sold about 236,000 shares on Monday worth about $6.4 million. He got $27.16 for 208,000 shares and $27 for 27,972 shares. These sales by top executives ought to raise eyebrows among investors, who already have bid down Comcast's share price by about 5 percent this year. Just two months ago, Roberts told Bloomberg News that the "business is on fire." The shares rose on his comments but then fell because the company's quarterly profits weren't as great as some on Wall Street had hoped, according to Reuters.

- Jonathan Berr

AOL has posted an online poll this week asking readers who they predict would succeed in buying Dow Jones & Co.? Of 1,350 respondents as of Tuesday afternoon, just 4 percent picked Inquirer owner Philadelpia Media Holdings, led by Brian Tierney. He lost to “Someone Else” at 12 percent but edged investor Ron Burkle at 3 percent. (That would be the second time Tierney edged Burkle - Tierney also outbid Burkle for the Inquirer/Daily News). Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. narrowly led the voting at 41 percent, followed by “Will Not Be Sold” at 40 percent. - Jonathan Berr and Thomas Ginsberg

"Pennsylvania consumers are being shortchanged because they are not getting access, even if the package is the most economical one for their needs," said Popowski told PhillyInc in an interview yesterday. His department, along with the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project and the Pennsylvania AARP, filed a complaint with the Pa. Public Utility Commission earlier this month.

Popowski says "more than 100,000 Pennsylvania residents" use the Lifeline service, but asserts that about 1 million are eligible for the program but don't take advantage of it. How many of those people want the bundled service? "I really don't know how many customers would take advantage it" if they could buy bundles of services.

Verizon is disputing the claims. Its spokeswoman, Sharon Shaffer, tells PhillyInc that the compani is preparing its formal response to the complaint. But she does give this informal response: "Lifeline is to insure that just the most basic limited local phone service is universally available."

- Jonathan Berr

Comcast, which reaffirmed its earlier guidance of $5.7 billion for capital expenditures this year, is in a pickle. On one hand, the company needs to ratchet up spending because, among other things, it's adding 6,000 new workers and building a new headquarters building in Center City. That hurts earnings in the short term, which angers investors that flock to tech stocks looking for quick gains.

The company also is victim of its own success. Wall Street not only expects Comcast to beat Wall Street earnings forecasts but to exceed them greatly. The 28 percent gain in profit and 31 percent jump in revenue only met analysts' forecasts. Bloomberg also points out that Comcast beat analysts' estimates for new TV and phone subscribers, though lagged expectations for high-speed Internet users.

That's good. But not good enough.

- Jonathan Berr

A fan of neither

According to The Wall Street Journal, MacElree had opposed the idea of selling her family's business to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NYSE: NWS). Her side of the family, of course, lost that battle last week. Confirmation of the family's narrow vote to sell came on Wednesday Aug. 1. The SEC filing states that the date of MacElree's resignation was two days earlier, Monday, July 30. If MacElree had quit to protest the sale, she would not be the first. A week earlier, it emerged that German publishing executive Dieter von Holtzbrinck had resigned as a director in opposition to board's endorsement of the sale.

Whether or not MacElree is angry about the takeover, she seems certain to gain from it. The $5 billion takeover offered to her and other descendents of the founder of Dow Jones is a premium of almost 70 percent over where the stock had been trading before Murdoch made his offer.

On the other hand, MacElree couldn't be more different politically from the conservative Australian media tycoon and perhaps from other elites on Wall Street itself. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, MacElree is a dedicated donor to Democrats in Pennsylvania and nationwide. She has given at least $1,000 to Sen. Barack Obama, the Illinois Democratic presidential hopeful, and at least $2,600 to Rep. Joe Sestak. By the way, MacElree's occupation in the campaign finance disclosures is variously as listed as "retired", "farmer", and "housewife."

- Jonathan Berr

Contrary to our previous post on Bancroft family member Jane C. MacElree, her hometown of Newtown Square is in Delaware County, not Bucks. Sorry.

Also, it's worth pointing out this line from the company's SEC filing on what prompted her resignation as a co-trustee:

"Such resignations were in anticipation of, and prior to, the execution by the trustees of those trusts of a voting and support agreement by and among those trustees, certain members of the Bancroft family and News Corporation, a Delaware corporation (“News Corp.”), relating to an offer by News Corp. to acquire the Issuer."

Also note her resignation came amid the last-minute rumors on July 30. That was a day before investors panicked that the sale was off, and two days before news came out that the deal was "back" on.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Seems a bunch of code monkeys in Germany has created a web site that tracks and displays the changes made to a Wikipedia entry, and they now have nabbed at least one Philadelphia-area company: AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN) of Wilmington and London. According to Ed Silverman at Pharmalot, the site called Wikiscanner has found that somebody from an IP address at the drug company removed negative references about the antispsychotic drug Seroquel from a Wikipedia page about the drug. The references were about suicide warnings for some young users of Seroquel. We're putting in a call to AstraZeneca.

Of course, collective editing and re-editing of information is exactly the point of Wikipedia and all wikis. Anybody who uses the information without bearing in mind the potential slant is, well, misusing the information. The point here is that companies now can be caught explicitly shaping the message in Wikipedia, where before the writers/editors were mostly anonymous. This just confirms and brings out in the open what has been, until now, merely a safe assumption about Wikipedia information.

So what other companies are doing it? Well, we'll let you know as soon as the traffic onslaught at the site cools off. We can't get through.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Not a good news day for Robert M. Jelenic, chair and chief executive of the Journal Register company (NYSE:JRC). The Yardley publisher of newspapers in the Mid-Atlantic states, including the Daily Local Times, Pottstown Mercury, Trentonian and the Main Line Times, learned that Moody's Investors Service has placed all ratings of the company under review for possible downgrades. Approximately $950 million in rated debt securities are affected. Net income in the company's most recent quarter dropped to 5.5 million from 9.8 million a year ago. Revenues also declined from $131.8 million to $120.7 million in that same period, due to a drop in advertising sales. Moody's will calculate the likelihood that Journal Register will be able to reverse two years' worth of quarterly sales declines.
- Jane M. Von Bergen

Nothing like covering the auditions for American Idol to reaffirm how powerful people's workplace connections are.
Tara DiOrio, 28, of Prospect Park, is the personal assistant to the executive of a local paint company. (She's the one singing "Walkin' After Midnight" in Philly.com's video) Her boss is paying her to try out. Joel Correa, 18, of Northeast Philadelphia, works at a local Circuit City store. "My managers are so stoked and they want all the nitty gritty," he said.
Jenn Jewell, a senior bank teller in York County, said, "When the radio comes on and there are no customers in there, we all stand and sing." Arleen Alexander works in a Home Depot in the Detroit area. Her co-workers made a good luck banner for the break room and if she gets any further in the process, they've promised a banner outside the store. "It's a great feeling to know everyone's on my side."

- Jane M. Von Bergen

Nothing angers the bloglodites more than "astroturf." (Our theory is that the reason blogs are so popular is that everyone likes using the lingo -- it's more fun than the actual content, as often as not.) And, then again, Comcast Corp. (NASD:CMCSA) has an ability to anger cable TV subscribers just on general principle. Combine astroturf and Comcast and it really gets to be juicily nasty.

Astroturf is a blog term for what appears to be an online grassroots movement by the people, but is instead a phony version of a grassroots movement created by the publicist. That's a no-no on the Web. In this case, it appeared to bloggers that Comcast was laying down some astroturf to defend its bargaining position with the Big Ten Network.

The Big Ten Network, which will officially launch on Thursday, promises to broadcast nearly three dozen Big Ten college football games along with dozens of college basketball matches and other sports. Comcast says that's a network for a niche audience of sports junkies and should be part of a sports package that costs extra for cable subscribers. Big Ten says that not only should its network be part of the basic tier package, but Comcast should pay it $1.10 per subscriber. Comcast said that's too high.

Big Ten fans have been howling -- in the blogosphere as well as everywhere else -- that Comcast is pricing them out of their passion. Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney has been on their side. But last week, an online commenter, labeled Victory4MSU20, trashed Delaney in comments posted on Big Ten fan Web sites. After referring to the "BigTen greedmongers," Victory4MSU20 urged posters to check out puttingfansfirst.com for the real story. That site is financed by Comcast.

A site administrator pinged (another great blog word!!!) Victory4MSU20 and found it came from Martin Waymire Advocacy Communications, a Lansing, Michigan public relations agency working for Comcast. Its job is to help Comcast to steer web crawlers to the PuttingFansFirst Web site. Yikes, astroturf! Major no-no, and Spartan Tailgate.com, the fan Web site for Michigan State, was not pleased.

Agency partner Dan Waymire told Multichannel News, an industry Web site, that the posting didn't come from the agency itself, but from an employee -- a Big Ten fan -- who was not aware of the agency's online policies. Waymire said Comcast was definitely not in the astroturf business and had nothing to do with the posting.

Hmmmm.

- Jane M. Von Bergen

Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA), the second-largest high-speed Internet provider behind AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is denying accusations made by bloggers that it's restricting users' access to the popular video-sharing service BitTorrent.

The bloggers, though, say they aren't buying Comcast's denials and their concerns have been heard on top Tech Web sites including Cnet.com, Slashdot.org and The Register, creating a public relations headache for the Philadelphia-based company. More than 240 people have commented about the issue on the news-sharing site Digg.com, most of them critical of Comcast. Some articles have gotten thousands of Diggs, or recommenations.

Charlie Douglas, a Comcast spokesman, told us: "We're not blocking access to any applications, including BitTorrent. We don't look at specific customer activity on the Internet or track what Web sites people go to."

Christopher Yoo, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, gave credence to Comcast's denial by saying the company probably has no incentive to thwart users of BitTorrent and noted that the BitTorrent problems aren't happening to all Comcast users. "Comcast has every incentive to make its network as attractive as possible to users while at the same time keeping up with the bandwidth," he said.

But John Palfrey, head of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, gave us a different take. "ISPs have a bunch of reasons not to like things like BitTorrent. If you are an ISP, what you want is for people to send simple emails from grandmother to grandchild."

The Washington Post says today that Comcast is now actually sending warning letters and cutting off service.

We've heard about romances and businesses in Second Life. Now, a wage dispute between IBM (NYSE:IBM) and its Italian workers in the real world is spilling into the alternate online world.

Their union, Rappresentenza Sindacale Unitaria, in conjunction with Union Network International, is sponsoring the first-ever, they say, online strike, asking avatar workers around the world to go picket IBM's Second Life online presense. Read more about it here. (Pictured is IBM board chairman Samuel Palmisano's Second Life avatar.) Avatars are stand-ins for people in Second Life.

It's no surprise that the IBM workers have been innovative in their approach to labor relations. In the United States, IBM contractors formed Alliance@IBM to work through the thorny issues involved in the increasingly-gray zone between being an independent contractor (lots of work, no benefits) and an employee (lots of work, benefits).

Alliance@IBM eventually affiliated with the Communication Workers of America, which is helping to coordinate the Second Life strike in the United States. The Italian workers have circulated an email explaining how to join Second Life.

Here's the fun part -- IBM's corporate Web site home page poses a question: "Could Your Avatar Teach You To Become a Real Life Leader?"

Well, let's see how they do in resolving the Italian wage dispute.

- Jane M. Von Bergen

Heard In The Hall, an Inquirer blog, says today that the city along with Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) is finally creating a new cable access system. It will be run by an entity called Philadelphia Public Access Corp. and will be available to Comcast customers. It's been several years in the making. One of its champions has been Gretjen Clausing. Some people think public-access TV has huge untapped potential as a promotional vehicle for small businesses. Then again, there's public-access entrepreneurs like Ugly George in NYC, who gained fame in the early 80's by convincing women to bare their breasts on Manhattan public access TV (now run by Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Stay, uh, tuned.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Was Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) punished for not cutting the FCC a break? Last week its news program, CN8, became the first show to be fined by the Federal Communications Commission for airing parts of a video news release (VNR) without identifying the source - in this case, the maker of the product CN8 was reporting on. It was just $4,000. Still, some people wondered why Comcast, which vociferously rejects the fine and is fighting it, was singled out? Many other cable and broadcast TV stations have been criticized for doing the same thing, including Philadephia's KYW-TV once in 2005, after which it gave full disclosure on other VNRs.

So now comes the FCC's chairman, Kevin Martin, on the topic. Yesterday he told some reporters, including from Broadcasting & Cable magazine, that Comcast got the first fine because it didn't agree to waive the FCC's time-limit on studying such alleged infractions. According to B&C, Martin said there actually were "dozens, if not hundreds" of complaints against many companies over VNRs but that the other companies all agreed to give the FCC more time to examine the complaints in something called "tolling agreements." Then he said:

"I believe Comcast had initially told our Enforcement Bureau that they would also agree to a tolling agreement. ... But then they decided they would not. So we were faced with a choice of issuing the NAL [notice of apparent liability] or allowing the time to lapse so we would never be able to take any enforcement action against them. And so, faced with that decision, we decided we would issue an NAL."

Does this mean Comcast would not have been fined if it gave the FCC more time? This seems Ironic. Is the time limit unreasonable? Was Comcast, led by Brian L. Roberts, trying to force FCC regulators' hands on a rule that it opposed?

Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice told B&C: "The commission had our response to the VNR inquiry for several months when they requested a continued delay. ... We declined because we were -- and remain -- confident of our position on the merits: That the statute does not apply to cable programming, and that even if it did, there was no violation because there was no exchange of value or benefit to CN8 or Comcast."

- Thomas Ginsberg

If you're a Comcast e-mail user and noticed a lot more spam lately through its normally clean system, it's not your imagination. Comcast confirmed the chatter we were hearing that its e-mail filtering system suffered a hiccup yesterday for about an hour around midday EST and let a load of blathering muck spill through to an undetermined proportion of its 12.4 million subscribers. Spokesman Charlie Douglas said at first he had not heard about the problem, then he got back to us pretty promptly with this statement:

"Comcast has taken an industry-leading position to fight spam and has successfully reduced inbound and outbound spam by nearly 70% in the past 18 months. Earlier today, some customers experienced a higher than normal amount of spam due to a filtering issue that we were able to fix in less than an hour. We apologize for the inconvenience."

-------------------------
From: [Redacted]
Sent: Tue 10/9/2007 1:52 PM
To: Ginsberg, Tom
Subject: RE: Comcast Spam Filter Has Gone Bust

Here's something to consider looking into. Comcast's trusty spam filter has gone AWOL during the past week or so (perhaps connected to the Atlantic City mayor's disappearance.) Customers in this region (confirmed on Comcast's online forums) are getting slammed with spam that was previously captured. I'm getting about 500 spams a day that I previously did not make it past Comcast's filter. ...

In any event, the spam getting through to me, my kids, etc. is all the usual (and easily filtered) stuff about anatomy size, performance enhancing drugs for men, etc. I've been a Comcast internet customer for about 8 years and have never experienced anything like this.

And this one slightly more graphic:

------------------------------
From: [Redacted]
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 3:24 PM
To: [Forwarded]
Subject: RE: is your comcast account getting a lot more spam lately

I'm glad you asked me that, because I was about to blame my husband and/or son-in-law for visiting untoward sites on my machine.

YES. Don't they know that my penis is just the size I want it? That I don’t shop at Walmart except under duress (Utica)? That I don’t need a new laptop? Oh, so many things that I didn't want before and REALLY don’t want now.

So, knowing that you've got the same problem, I shall prrrrrrotest.

Dunno what to make of all this. And don't know how often this happens. E-mail spam is an irreversible hazard of modern digital life. When we asked Douglas about these supposedly longer-term bogeys, he welcomed folks to call customer service and said Comcast would run them down. Comcast certainly appears to take spam seriously.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Take Comcast at its word: Its spam problem seems to have been fixed.

-----------------------
From: [Redacted]
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 12:09 PM
To: Ginsberg, Tom
Subject: Re: Comcast Spam Filter Has Gone Bust

... The flood of spam stopped this morning.

It always amazes me how some companies respond to problems only when the media calls -- rather than responding to (presumably) thousands of complaints from their paying customers. ...

- Thomas Ginsberg

One of the largest radio networks serving African American listeners, Radio One Inc. (NASDAQ: ROIA) of New York, says its will begin tracking listener preferences in Philadelphia and 14 other cities using Arbitron's electronic Portable People Meter. Radio One owns, among other shows, the Tom Joyner Morning Show. Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) already has been testing the so-called PPM in several cities, including Philadelphia, as a replacement for paper-and-pencil journals to create its radio ratings.

Arbitron in early September had reported sluggish enlistment of listeners for its PPM service in Philadelphia and Houston. But it's still gotten good reviews from the ad-sales side, as far as it goes. Here's a list so far of Philadelphia participants, ranging from KYW to Burlington County College.

Neely Tucker at The Washington Post nailed, uh, this tale of a hammer-wielding customer at Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) in surburban Washington. And there's much more of the story at ComcastMustDie.com. By the way, note all the riffs off Comcast's multimillion-dollar slogan "Comcastic," something we've done also. Seems everybody is getting their money's worth from that one.

This morning the Associated Press dropped a little bomb in the world of hardcore online users that probably deserves the attention of everybody else, too. It reported the results of its own investigation from several cities, including Philadelphia, that seem to confirm allegations that Philly-based Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) has been preventing some of its high-speed online customers from uploading large blocs of data through the file-sharing service BitTorrent. (See the full story here and sidebar here.) This interference by Comcast is not illegal. And it could be justified as a way of keeping some users' heavy online activity from affecting the Internet speeds of others.

So why does this matter? The AP story, written by Ron Harris, Brian Bergstein, Kathy Matheson and Deborah Yao (in Philadelphia), summarizes the implications:

The interference, which The Associated Press confirmed through nationwide tests, is the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider. It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users. ... The principle of equal treatment of traffic, called "Net Neutrality" by proponents, is not enshrined in law but supported by some regulations. Most of the debate around the issue has centered on tentative plans, now postponed, by large Internet carriers to offer preferential treatment of traffic from certain content providers for a fee.

In response, according to the AP, Comcast spokesman in Philadelphia, Charlie Douglas, reiterated that the company "does not block access to any applications, including BitTorrent." But Douglas did confirm, as Comcast has confirmed in the past, that Comcast uses "sophisticated methods" to keep Internet connections running smoothly.

The financial and legal implications of such actions are much harder to judge for both Comcast and BitTorrent. The AP identifies several other file-sharing services that seemingly would be, or have been, affected. "If widely applied by other ISPs, the technology Comcast is using would be a crippling blow to the BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella file-sharing networks. While these are mainly known as sources of copyright music, software and movies, BitTorrent in particular is emerging as a legitimate tool for quickly disseminating legal content."

- Thomas Ginsberg

Comcast has put out a statement in response to the AP investigation into its alleged interference in some customers' sharing of huge files over its network:

"Comcast does not block access to any Websites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services like BitTorrent. Our customers use the Internet for downloading and uploading files, watching movies and videos, streaming music, sharing digital photos, accessing numerous peer-to-peer sites and thousands of applications online. We have a responsibility to provide all of our customers with a good Internet experience and we use the latest technologies to manage our network so that they can continue to enjoy these applications."

This file-sharing issue has been simmering for months and affects a relatively tiny number of users among the millions of Comcast online subscribers. But the widely disseminated AP story seems to have cranked up the heat considerably. The bottomline financial or legal impact, if any, on Comcast and BitTorrent is still unclear. But Comcast -- the largest cable TV operator and No. 2 Internet provider in the U.S. -- seems to be moving quickly to prevent anybody from getting the impression that it's restricting Internet activity in any way for the typical user. If users in big numbers begin to think, however incorrectly, that Comcast limits access to any Web sites, then start looking for a real bottomline impact -- and local economic impact. We've also asked Comcast about any other fallout, such as legal action. Stay tuned.

- Thomas Ginsberg

We confess we didn't know this: Philadelphia is the home base of www.barelypolitical.com, which made the hit political parody video "I Got a Crush on Obama" and other political-military tributes. Last week, the Web site's owner, Ben Relles from Willow Grove, a Wharton graduate, announced he had sold the Web site to Next New Networks based in NYC. He and the team will keep working in Philadelphia, now as employees with a development budget.

In the past four months, their "Obama Girl" video has been viewed 3,919,702 times on YouTube, thanks to its star, Amber Lee Ettinger of Hazelton, Pa. She's an official "Playboy Babe of the Month" who single-handedly may solve all our worries about voter apathy. (And of course she has her own blog). That's her in a suitable-for-Mom photo at the upper left. And here's the video:

The video was made in New York, but turns out most of the Web site's team members are locals. The song producer, Rick Friedrich, is from Cheltenham. The singer, Leah Kauffman, is from Abington and attends Temple University. A writer is Rusty Ward of Collegeville, Pa. The whole crew's bio is here. Their San Francisco-based PR firm, LaunchSquad, which alerted us to the Philly angle, has gotten plaudits from the trade magazine PRWeek for the way it orchestrated the viral marketing, including creating Amber's blog.

Relles, the 32-year-old creator of BarelyPolitical.com who is originally from Fort Washington, declined to tell us how much Next New Networks paid for his Web property. But he does tell us he is "thrilled" with the deal and will retain some "ownership" benefits. He says the team now will be setting up a permanent office in Philadelphia with funds from Next New Network "for bloggers, editors, writers, everything to run the website."

Relles told us his "goal is to have writers and directors in the same office, to see what is happening [in the news] and think about how we can respond." The business model is to produce regular daily video or other content, starting this week, like this recent interactive piece called "Goodbye Bushies" (a farewell card to Tony Snow, Karl Rove, etc). They also would produce a longer, more elaborate video like "Obama Girl" once a month or so.

Most of the revenue will come from advertising. Relles said the model is to create videos that get massive hits on YouTube and other video sites, then drive traffic back to their own Web site, which will turn the eyeballs into high ad revenues. Relles knows the sexual tone of the videos so far has been the key to success -- the site's slogan is "Bare and Balanced," after all -- but he harbors hopes that other, cleaner kinds of innovative videos can also be hits and even increase political engagement by a wider, young audience.

"Agreed, the Amber Lee thing was successful because of the skin," Relles told us. "We need to do something really innovative to get that kind of success again ... but it is a challenge."

As for Relles' own politics, he won't go there: "I'll be 'no comment' on that. The Web site is positioned to be an equal-opportunity offender and not-partisan ... And I think it is."

- Thomas Ginsberg

J.P. Garnier, the Philadelphia-domiciled, soon-to-retire, notoriously outspoken CEO of GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE: GSK), told a conference of business editors that newspaper journalists are shooting themselves in the foot in the way they cover the pharmaceutical industry. According to a blog account of the Society of Business Editors and Writers conference, Garnier said that "two out of every three" readers don’t trust the media. "And that will be the cancer that will kill the media." He also faulted journalists for, among other things, relying for information on plaintiff attorneys who “are in it for the money, and they want to use the newspaper to make their case to the public." On those two points, Garnier may know what he's talking about, because both quotations might apply to the pharmaceutical industry, too.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA), the corporation bloggers love to hate, has a genuine defender in the blogosphere. A week before Halloween, the blog called ComcastRocks http://comcastrocks.blogspot.com sprang up and has engaged in a spirited defense of Comcast with any and all critics. The writer identifies himself/herself as a female Comcast employee, but has given no name or hometown (other than an e-mail address containing the name "Parks"), and insists he/she is "in no way getting paid by anyone, especially not Comcast, to have this blog." Frankly, the blog is too rough looking for a "flog" and one of Comcast's biggest skeptics, Bob Garfield at www.ComcastMustDie.com, seems to think it's a legit employee. Good for some fireworks, anyway.

Crawford Hill III, chairman of the science department at the Episcopal Academy in suburban Philadelphia and a member of the Bancroft family that once owned Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, is bemoaning the balky effort to pick somebody to claim the family's seat on Rupert Murdoch's board at News Corp. (NYSE: NWSA).

Hill was among the family members who had favored the sale to Murdoch. Last July, before the current hubbub, Hill wrote an interesting perspective about family ownership and an argument for a sale in a letter to the family (in which he incidentally confesses to being "an Eagles fan all the way.") After the sale went through, deadlines were missed to name a board member. According to the WSJ, Hill wrote in an e-mail to relatives: "This entire, sad and pathetic, final episode is a fiasco. No wonder we lost Dow Jones!!" In the end, family member Natalie Bancroft, a 27-year-old opera singer who lives in Europe and is said to have no experience in commerce or journalism, got the board seat.

In an e-mail to PhillyInc this weekend, Hill reiterated that the family "was actually very much in synch" about the board appointment "but was kept in dark by our advisors." He declined to say more.

Here's his whole e-mail printed with other Bancroft family e-mails by the WSJ and which Hill told us was genuine. (By the way, the John Carroll he mentions is the same John Carroll who was an editor at The Inquirer and Los Angeles Times, and who some Bancroft heirs wanted to take the Murdoch board seat on their behalf).

Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007

Hi all,

I can only say what a joke this episode has become. To learn only just now what Chris [Bancroft] kindly just passed along to us is both disgraceful and egregious and reflects poorly on those who should have guided this to a satisfactory conclusion.

None of this however is to reflect on the integrity, smarts or work ethic of Mike Hill (and Liz [Elisabeth Chelberg], for that matter) who has (have) all of those and more. I just wonder, given the very bizarre nature of this process (or, really, Non-Process) and the Board position itself as we now know it, why anyone in the family would want to do this.

This entire, sad and pathetic, final episode is a fiasco. No wonder we lost Dow Jones!!

I will call John Carroll and pass along the news. To those responsible- Thanks so much for placing me in this awkward position... on the other hand as I have pointed out elsewhere, getting these things right requires more than our designated representatives were capable of executing. The pattern holds to the end. What a shame. I had high hopes that we could get this right and worked hard to that end. Finding all this out now, after the fact is stranger than fiction.

My Best to you all- may your future endeavours be more successful than what transpired here today (not saying much) and may you carry on with your interesting and diverse lives.

I am done with this matter.

Thanks for listening and thanks to those of you who spoke up and supported me when you were so moved. I appreciate your efforts and value our relationships.

As ever,

Crawford

- Thomas Ginsberg

Drexel University real estate people are among the potential buyers who have made repeat visits to the Inquirer and Daily News building at 400 North Broad Street and the parking garage and lot behind it on 15th Street in recent weeks.

Agents for Drexel's Center City medical campus, which includes the dorms, bookstore and classrooms surrounding Hahneman University Hospital, have also been talking to property owners in the 300 block of North 15th Street, just south of the papers' back door, according to real estate sources.

The papers' owner, Philadelphia Media Holdings LP, said last year it wanted to sell the 1920s-era tower, which has been underused since prior owners moved the printing presses and trucks to Upper Merion Township in the early 1990s. The neighboring property at 440 North Broad, once home to the late Inquirer owner Walter Annenberg's TV Guide magazine, now houses offices of the Philadelphia School District.

No word on whether Drexel would share space with, or displace, the 1,000-plus news, advertising, circulation, finance and online workers now in the space. Philadelphia Media chief executive officer Brian P. Tierney declined comment. A Drexel spokesman and the university's real estate office did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

- Joseph N. DiStefano

James W. Hall, the new chairman and chief executive of Yardley-based Journal Register Co., soundly beat the median for mid-size companies. (See previous post on small-company chiefs' compensation). The company has told the SEC that in late November it agreed to give Hall, among other things, $675,000 a year in base salary, a bonus of up to $1.35 million next year, use of a car, lodging and travel allowances, and $33,000 a month for a "consulting" gig if and when he departs from the chief exec job.

Brian Roberts' Comcast Corp., amidst its pitch battle against tighter cable regulations by the Federal Communications Commission, now says it has hired one of the best telecommunications lawyers inside the Washington beltway to represent it before the FCC.

Kathryn A. Zachem will become the company's D.C.-based vice president of regulatory affairs, effective next February. She also will take the title of senior vice president of regulatory affairs for its Comcast Cable subsidiary. Comcast lured Zachem away from Wilkinson Barker Knauer L.L.P., a major Washington lobbying firm, where she worked for 23 years. The Washingtonian magazine this year deemed her one of the capital's best advocates if you're "appealing fines, getting new technologies authorized, or working to merge two satellite-radio networks" at the FCC. Or, perhaps, fighting to preserve your right to remain the country's No. 1 cable TV provider.

Zachem is not personally registered as a Washington lobbyist. But she'll evidently command Comcast's considerable firepower there. Her boss will be David L. Cohen back in Philly.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) , which has a cable-TV equipment business in Horsham, disclosed specifics on the cost of job cuts in 2007. It took charges of $311 million for the severance of about 5,100 employees during the first nine months of the year. Now it plans to take a net pre-tax charge of $90 million for the severance of an additional 1,600 workers.

Comcast Corp. boosted the size of its bank credit line to $7 billion from $5 billion, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Philadelphia cable television and Internet services provider said it had no balance on that credit line as of Jan. 30.

Is this a case of raising debt when you can, or preparing for some sort of deal?

Comcast is rumored to be a player any time a big media property is up for sale. After all, it is the nation's biggest cable company.

- Mike Armstrong

WorldGate Communications Inc. shut down in Trevose last week.

Founded in 1995 by Hal M. Krisbergh, the company developed a video phone but has made few inroads in the competitive market.

According to an SEC filing on Tuesday, WorldGate has been in a dispute with its largest customer, which has refused to pay up. Short on cash, WorldGate said it ceased operations "as a first step to winding down its business."

WorldGate has been a penny stock since late 2005 when its price slipped below $3. Shares closed at 8 cents yesterday, down 7 cents.

The company had 70 employees as of the end of 2006.

Without new financing, WorldGate may gone from the world.

- Mike Armstrong