TV Woos Viewers With News Of Business
Date: 17 February 1997
By Peter Truell
Peter Truell
Financial television grows rapidly in 1990's as programmers seek to attract the millions of Americans who now make more of their own financial decisions; many broadcasters on these newer channels are reluctant to say much about their ratings, and Nielsen Media, the television ratings company, keeps its numbers private; CNBC, one of few that reveals such information, says that it now reaches 61 million homes and that in the last quarter of 1996 an average of 2.3 million homes tuned in each week, up slightly from the prior year; race in December between CNBC and CNN to provide live ticker quotes running across the bottom of their screens highlights growing competition in the field; table; photo (L)
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Recycling Advocates Don't Take Less News Coverage Lightly
Date: 17 February 1997
By Claudia H. Deutsch
Claudia Deutsch
Steel Recycling Institute is abandoning righteous indignation and attempts to play to journalists' social conscience that advocacy groups usually use to drum up friendly coverage; mounts public relations campaign with enough gimmicks, celebrity endorsements and other bells and whistles to sell the most crass consumer product; reporters and editors offer numerous reasons for sporadic interest in a topic that once routinely hit page one (L)
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Revisiting the Food Lion Case
Date: 17 February 1997
By Terry Tang
Terry Tang
Terry Tang Editorial Notebook column voices concern over $5.5 million punitive judgment against ABC, whose producers lied on a job application to do an investigative report on Food Lion supermarket chain; says that while criminal methods cannot be tolerated, there may be instances where reporters must use deception to get an important story told (M)
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And the winner of the 'Worst Software Patent of the Year' is, hmm, a certain William H. Gates.
Date: 17 February 1997
By Teresa Riordan
Teresa Riordan
Gregory Aharonian, editor of Internet Patent News Service, will officially announce his annual Worst Software Patent of the Year award on Feb 17; winner for 1996 is number 5,552,982, a 'method and system for processing fields in a document processor' invented by William H Gates 3d, better known as Bill Gates, chief executive of Microsoft Corp; Peter J Jackson and Bryan Loofbourrow are also listed as inventors; patent itself is assigned to Microsoft (L)
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Racial Killing Bursts a British Press Taboo
Date: 18 February 1997
By Warren Hoge
Warren Hoge
Daily Mail, British tabloid, audaciously defies country's official secrecy and libel laws by publishing photographs of five white men, alleged white supremacists, who it identifies as murderers of Stephen Lawrence, 18-year-old black, in London in 1993; acts after defendants refused to testify before reconvened coronor's jury, which found them guilty of unlawful killing but refused to publicly identify them; case has provoked outcry over police competence and sensitivity in racial crimes, rights of defendants to be presumed innocent and responsibilities of press; number of judges have denounced newspaper's action, and Attorney General may press formal contempt charges; photos (M)
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Stocks Rise in Japan
Date: 17 February 1997
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Japan's Nikkei index of 225 issues is up 28.65 points, or 15-hundredths of 1 percent, at 18,750.65 on Monday, Feb 17 (S)
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Ad Spending Soars
Date: 18 February 1997
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Brokerages, banks and insurers spend $1.8 billion on advertising in 1996 (S)
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Top Swedish Banks Open Merger Talks
Date: 18 February 1997
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Swedbank AB and Foreningsbanken AB, two of Sweden's five biggest banks, are again discussing possible merger; Svenska Handelsbanken AB says it has secured over 98 percent of Stadshypotek AB under $3 billion takeover offer (S)
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Crescent Buys Dallas Offices
Date: 18 February 1997
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Crescent Real Estate Equities Co to buy most Carter-Crowley Properties Inc assets, including 14 office properties and stake in Dallas Mavericks basketball team (S)
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Sale of Gucci Lifts Investcorp Earnings
Date: 18 February 1997
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Investcorp reports earning record $90.4 million, 1996, up 29 percent from 70.3 million in 1995; says it is poised for acquisitions in Europe and United States (S)
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