Debates Denied, Univision Turns to Candidate Forums

By AMY CHOZICK

Univision's request for an official presidential debate may have been rejected, but the Spanish language network has succeeded in securing both candidates' attendance at “Meet the Candidate” forums, the network said late Thursday afternoon.

President Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney will sit down on separate nights for a question-and-answer session moderated by Univision's Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas. The sessions will take place in front of a live audience and will most likely air on a delay with Spanish-language translation, a Univision spokeswoman said. The dates of the interviews have not yet been determined.

Although Univision has interviewed presidential candidates in the past, the upcoming events will mark the first time both parties' presidential nominees have sat down for this type of longer, interactive discussion. That level of access underscores the importance of the country's 21 million registered Hisp anic voters, especially in key swing states like Florida, Nevada and Colorado.

As the No. 1 Spanish-language network, Univision serves as the only source of TV news for many of its viewers who do not watch NBC or CNN. The network said it had partnered with Facebook and will solicit questions from viewers via social media before each “Meet the Candidate” forum.

Last week, Randy Falco, Univision's chief executive, wrote a letter urging the Commission on Presidential Debates to add a debate that would focus on issues like education, health care and immigration that particularly resonate with Hispanic voters.

After the Commission rejected Mr. Falco's proposal, Mr. Ramos, a host on Univision's evening newscast used his prime-time program to urge both candidates to speak directly to Univision viewers.

“These events speak to President Obama and Governor Romney recognizing the important role Hispanic America will play in the elections and in defining the future of our country,” Isaac Lee, Univision's president of news, said in a statement.

According to recent polls, Mr. Romney's selection of vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan has tightened the race in Florida where, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, Hispanics make up 13.1 percent of the state's more than 11.2 registered voters.

Mog, an Online Music Service, Sells Its Ad Network for $10 Million

By BEN SISARIO

Last month, half of the digital music company Mog was sold to Beats Electronics, the company behind the popular Beats by Dr. Dre headphones. Now the other half, an advertising network for music Web sites, has been sold as well.

The Townsquare Media Group, which owns 244 radio stations in small cities, as well as a collection of music Web sites, has bought Mog Music Network and will rename it Townsquare Media, the companies announced.

No price was given, but two people involved in the negotiations, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal was private, said the price was slightly more than $10 million.

The news was first reported on Thursday afternoon by the technology Web site AllThingsD.

Mog Music Network sells advertising for more than 1,000 music sites, and according to the company its sites reach 62 million monthly users. While it is less well known than Mog's streaming service, which offers mi llions of songs by monthly subscription and competes with Spotify and Rhapsody, the ad network generated half the revenue of the combined company.

Townsquare owns music sites like PopCrush, Ultimate Classic Rock and Taste of Country, as well as the Web pages for its radio stations, but it had no overarching online ad  network. It is expected to retain the employees of the Mog network in its offices in California, Chicago and New York.

In a statement, Steven Price, Townsquare's chief executive, said the deal “complements our high touch portfolio of radio, digital, mobile and live event assets and helps us to balance our media footprint from local-to-national.”

The deal also allows Mog's investors - Menlo Ventures and Balderton Capital, as well as Sony and Universal Music - to get back some, but not all, of $33 million they had put into the company. Beats, which is controlled by the record executive Jimmy Iovine and the hip- hop star Dr. Dre, paid $14 million for Mog's music service.

Ben Sisario writes about the music industry. Follow @sisario on Twitter.

Verizon Wins Approval for Huge Spectrum Purchase

By AMY CHOZICK

Verizon Wireless won unanimous Federal Communications Commission approval to move forward with its $3.9 billion purchase of airwaves from the country's largest cable providers.

An F.C.C. panel voted 5 to 0 to allow Verizon Wireless to expand its wireless data networks by tapping into the mostly unused airwaves of Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Cox Communications. The Justice Department approved the agreement last week, but advised that certain adjustments in favor of consumers should be made.

In addition to the additional spectrum, which Verizon Wireless said it would use in its new fourth-generation Long Term Evolution (or 4G LTE) wireless network, the partnership enables the companies to market Verizon services and in some cases sell their own services in Verizon stores. Comcast, for instance, has already dispatched its sales force to Verizon Wireless stores in 21 markets. The cable company offer s wireless customers discounts and other incentives if they sign up for Comcast's phone, Internet and cable service.

“This purchase represents a milestone in the industry and we appreciate the F.C.C.'s diligent work to review and approve the transaction,” Dan Mead, president and chief executive of Verizon Wireless, said in a statement.

David L. Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast, said the deal was “a smart and efficient way for Comcast to deliver a broader array of wireless services, and is an efficient deployment of this spectrum.”

Over 370 markets and 75 percent of the United States population have access to Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE network. The additional spectrum will help Verizon, the No. 1 carrier, accommodate the growing demand for data on smartphones.

The agency's approval comes as the wireless industry has expressed increasing concerns that it is facing a spectrum crisis and that the current level of available airwaves will not accommodate the growing use of mobile devices.

Cable companies bought spectrum in 2006 with the hopes of eventually entering the wireless business, but in most cases the cost of building a retail footprint proved too high.

The Justice Department had initially worried that Verizon Wireless's spectrum transfer and cross-marketing arrangement would hinder competition and drive up costs. Regulators approved the transfer with suggestions of how the deal could avoid harming consumers.

But as Verizon and cable companies cheered the F.C.C.'s decision, some consumer groups said it cemented a couple of giant companies' dominance in wireless and broadband services.

“By allowing Verizon and the cable companies to sell each other's services, the D.O.J. and the F.C.C. are acknowledging what has been clear for some time - that broadband competition policy in the United States has failed,” said Gigi B. Sohn, president and chief exe cutive of Public Knowledge, a Washington-based nonprofit that promotes an open Internet.

Verizon Wireless said it would acquire the cable companies' spectrum shortly after government regulators rejected a $39 billion takeover bid by its chief rival, AT&T, for T-Mobile last year. After the abandoned AT&T deal, T-Mobile lobbied the F.C.C. to reject Verizon Wireless's bid for additional spectrum. T-Mobile said in an F.C.C. filing the deal was “unlikely to provide any near-term benefits to Verizon Wireless customers.

Amy Chozick is The Times's corporate media reporter. Follow @amychozick on Twitter.

University Credit Unions Can Be Good Choice for Student Banking

By ANN CARRNS

″Students heading to college generally prefer a bank that's convenient to campus and doesn't charge a lot of fees. A new report from the Web site Nerdwallet.com suggests that university credit unions, when available, are often a better deal for students than big banks.

The site looked at about 80 universities and found that most of the time,  student accounts at university credit unions offered lower fees, better access and more perks than big banks. (The report focused on options with brick-and-mortar branches, rather than online-only banks or other nontraditional banking outlets, on the theory that many students may be new to money management and that they - or their parents - prefer to have teller assistance available if needed, said Stephanie Wei, a vice president at Nerdwallet).

Free student checking is alive and well, at both banks and credit unions. But credit unions charge less for out-of-network A.T.M. transac tions, and many offer a specific number of free out-of-network transactions per month, Nerdwallet found.

University credit unions, which typically serve students as well as university employees, also tend to be located where students can easily reach them. University credit unions had branches on campus more often than banks and offered more surcharge-free A.T.M.'s near campus. (Nearly three-fourths of university credit unions in Nerdwallet's report had branches on campus, compared with just over half of banks).

And the credit unions tended to offer more perks - like financial literacy classes, or even gift certificates for students who maintain good grades.

To help students compare options, Nerdwallet has designed a helpful tool that lets you see what options are available near your school. Say you're heading to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “UMassFive College Credit Union” beats Bank of America “with lower fees and better accessibility a nd perks,” the tool informs you, before adding details of on-campus A.T.M.'s and other features.

Off to the Georgia Institute of Technology? It's a bit of a closer match, in a competition with Wells Fargo, but the tool says the credit union still wins: “Georgia United Credit Union wins this match by offering truly free checking with low fees.”

Do you or your child bank with a university credit union? Are you a satisfied customer?

News Corp.\'s Chief Digital Officer to Step Down as Company Prepares to Split

By AMY CHOZICK

News Corporation's chief digital officer, Jonathan Miller, will step down, the company announced on Thursday, in the latest example of an executive departing since News Corporation said it would split the publishing business from the rest of the company.

Mr. Miller will leave his post at the end of September but will continue as an outside adviser on digital matters through fall 2013, the company said.

Previously the chairman and chief executive of AOL, Mr. Miller came to News Corporation in 2009 to help manage the company's tech investments and steer its brands into the digital age. But that's easier said than done in an entrenched global company the size of News Corporation.

Initially, Mr. Miller was tasked with turning around MySpace. News Corporation sold the social networking web site for $35 million last June, after purchasing it six years earlier for $580 million. Mr. Miller also helped with the introduction of The Daily, the first iPad-only publication and a passion project for Rupert Murdoch. Last month, News Corporation confirmed that The Daily would lay off nearly a third of its staff members.

Other efforts, like developing YouTube channels and serving on the board of Hulu, a joint venture with News Corporation's Fox Broadcasting, Disney's ABC and Comcast's NBCUniversal, have fared far better.

In a statement, Mr. Miller said “it feels like the right time to exit” and pursue “new ventures that will lead me back into an operational role.”

Mr. Murdoch called Mr. Miller a visionary and said that “as we continue to prepare for our proposed company separation, I respect Jon's desire to return to an operational, entrepreneurial role with a stand-alone company.”

Mr. Miller's departure, first reported by AllThingsD, is the latest in a series of executive changes as News Corporation readies itself for a split.

La st week, David Haslingden, a 20-year News Corporation veteran who most recently served as president of the Fox Networks Group, said he would leave to spend more time with his family in Australia. David Hill, chief executive of Fox Sports, became a senior vice president, a larger role that includes homing in on digital and programming investments globally. Peter Rice was named chairman and chief executive of the Fox Networks Group.

More changes are expected at News Corporation in coming months, including layoffs on the corporate side of some of its smaller businesses like Dow Jones & Company, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Barron's.

“Our businesses will continue to strive to be as efficient as they can be,” Chase Carey, News Corporation's chief operating officer, said this month when asked about potential layoffs at Dow Jones.

Amy Chozick is The Times's corporate media reporter. Follow @amychozick on Twitter.

Digital Notes: Spotify Revenue Grew Fast in 2011, but Losses Mounted, Too

By BEN SISARIO

Everything about the streaming-music service Spotify is growing rapidly: the number of people who listen, the number of apps that work on its platform, the amount of money it takes in and  the amount of money it loses.

Citing documents filed with regulators in Luxembourg, The Wall Street Journal reported that Spotify had $236 million in revenue last year,  an increase of 140 percent from the $99 million it reported for 2010. Also, the company, which was founded in 2006, has been losing larger sums of money each year. In 2011, its net loss was $56.6 million, up from $42 million in 2010 and $26 million in 2009.

Spotify is reportedly raising more than $200 million in a round of financing that would value the company at up to $4 billion.

The numbers for 2011 are largely in line, if slightly lower, than what Spotify's chief executive, Daniel Ek, confirmed to a Swedish newspaper, Dagens Industri, in April. “The quest ion of when we'll show a profit actually feels irrelevant,” he said at the time. “Our focus is entirely on growth. It is priority one, two, three, four and five.”

Spotify, which came to the United States a year ago, is available in 15 countries and is expanding quickly. It offers streams of millions of songs free, with advertising, or without ads for monthly subscriptions of about $5 to $10. Last month, the company said that 15 million people logged on each month and that four million were paying subscribers, but it did not break those numbers down by country.

The filing in Luxembourg, where Spotify's parent company is located, said the company had 32.8 million registered users by the end of 2011, according to The Journal. That means that a little less than half its customers return at least once a month, and that about 12 percent of those who try it decide to pay. In the past, up to 70 percent of Spotify's revenue has come from subscriptions.

Spotify declined to comment on the numbers but said in a statement: “Offering both a basic free and fully featured paid-for service has been instrumental to what we've achieved so far, both in fighting piracy and convincing millions of people to pay for music. Over 15 million people now actively use the service worldwide, with four million of them now paying. That's a pretty phenomenal following for a music service still in its relative infancy.”

Ben Sisario writes about the music industry. Follow @sisario on Twitter.

Fox News Purports to Identify Author of Book on Bin Laden Raid

By JULIE BOSMAN

Fox News on Thursday purported to identify the member of the Navy SEALs who has written a narrative account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

The member of the SEALs who wrote the book, “No Easy Day,” under the pseudonym Mark Owen and, in it, he describes being present at Bin Laden's death.

Christine Ball, a spokeswoman for Dutton, the imprint of Penguin that plans to publish the book on Sept. 11, said in a statement prompted by the Fox News report:

Mark Owen, like every SEAL he has served with, has put his life on the line time and again for his country for more than a decade. Sharing the true story of his personal experience in “No Easy Day” is a courageous act in the face of obvious risks to his personal security. That personal security is the sole reason the book is being published under a pseudonym. We respectfully request that all news organizations and all Americans consider these facts when deciding whether to pursue or publicize his real identity.

F.T.C. Settles with Marketers of Ab Circle Pro

August 23, 2012, 12:54 pm

By TANZINA VEGA

There are few easy ways to loose weight quickly, but that has not stopped some marketers from making claims to the contrary, especially for products pitched on late night infomercials.

On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with the marketers of one such product, an abdominal exercise machine called the Ab Circle Pro.

The commission accused the marketers of falsely claiming that using the device for three minutes was the equivalent of doing 100 sit ups and that users would loose 10 pounds in two weeks. The defendants in the case have agreed to pay a minimum of $15 million and a maximum up to $25 million in refunds to consumers.

“The FTC reminds marketers that they sh ould think twice before promising a silver-bullet solution to a health problem â€" whether it involves losing weight or curing cancer,” said David C. Vladeck, the director of the commission's bureau of consumer protection in a statement. “Weight loss is hard work, and telling consumers otherwise is deceptive.”

The defendants include Michael Casey and David Brodess, the owners of Fitness Brands and Fitness Brands International, and Direct Holdings America and Direct Entertainment Media Group, subsidiaries of Reader's Digest Association.

An infomercial producer named Tara Borakos and her companies, Tara Productions and New U, as well as the spokesperson for the brand, Jennifer Nicole Lee and her companies, JNL and JNL Worldwide, were also named as defendants in the case.

Despite being the product spokeswoman, Ms. Lee was not charged with making false claims. Instead, she will be under order not to make false claims abo ut her personal weight loss and will not be allowed to endorse any product “unless the endorsement reflects her honest opinion or experience.”

“She was not an owner of the companies or a director or officer of the companies that actually marketed the product,” said Mary Engle, the associate director of the commission's division of advertising practices, of Ms. Lee's exemption. “Her role in the liability is different.”

The payments to consumers will include $1.2 million from Fitness Brands and $13.8 million from Direct Holdings Americas, Direct Entertainment Media Group and Reader's Digest. Ms. Lee was not ordered to make any payments.

On a conference call with reporters, Ms. Engle described sales of the Ab Circle Pro as “very substantial” and said the commission “encourages cable networks as well as other networks to screen the ads before they run them, including infomercials.”

According to the commission, the commercials aired mor e that 10,000 times between March 2009 and May 2010. As a result of the charges, the makers of the Ab Circle Pro agreed to cease sales and production of the product, Ms. Engle said.

Ms. Engle would not comment on whether the commission was investigating a similar product, called the Ab Glider Pro, which is endorsed by the television personality, Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

The commission recently has announced similar settlements with other companies, including a $25 million agreement in 2011 with Reebok International over claims about the effectiveness of its EasyTone line of sneakers meant to firm a person's legs and buttocks.

In May, the commission announced a $40 million settlement with Skechers for making false claims about various shoes that could help consumers loose weight without having to go to a gym.

Tanzina Vega writes about advertising and digital media. Follow @tanzinavega on Twitter.

Half of Homeowners Under 40 Are Still Underwater

August 23, 2012, 11:00 am

By ANN CARRNS

The country's underwater homes are slowly resurfacing as the housing market improves. But younger borrowers are still more likely to be submerged, a new report from real estate site Zillow.com finds.

Overall levels of negative equity improved in the second quarter of the year compared with the first quarter, as home values continue to rise. But about half of borrowers under 40 still owe more than their homes are worth, the analysis found.

Younger borrowers are more likely to be affected by negative equity in part because they generally have been in their home for shorter periods of time and had less time to build equity before the housing debacle. But on the bright side, younger borrowers tend to be in relatively “shallow” water compared to older borrowers and are less likely to be delinquent on payments, said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow.com.

The disproportionate impact on younger borrowers may actually have a helpful effect on home values, by creating tight inventory of homes for sale. Younger borrowers trapped by negative equity tend to be reluctant to sell, even though their homes are often the most attractive to first-time buyers who might be ready to plunge into the market. “Sellers don't want to sell, even if buyers want to buy,” he said.

When they do sell, prices are higher - which helps push values up. The process is actually moving the market toward recovery, but it's a gradual process, he said. “Over all, the second-quarter report is positive,” said Mr. Humphries. “The housing market is healing, albeit slowly.”

These results come from the second edition of the new Zillow Negative Equity Report, which looks at curre nt, outstanding loan amounts for individual, owner-occupied homes, and compares them to those homes' current estimated values.

Of the 30 largest markets tracked by Zillow, negative equity fell the most from the first to the second quarter in the Phoenix metropolitan area (from nearly 56 percent to about 52 percent) and the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area (from 46 percent to roughly 44 percent). The Las Vegas market continues to have the highest rate of negative equity, with nearly 69 percent of borrowers underwater (down from 71 percent in the first quarter.)

Are you an under-fortysomething with negative equity in your home? What will it take to get you to sell?

The Breakfast Meeting: Politics Bores the Networks, and Harry Tempts British Papers

By NOAM COHEN

Confident that the presidential election this year lacks the drama of 2008, ABC, CBS and NBC are cutting back coverage of the conventions, Jeremy W. Peters reports. This means, among other things, that the first night of the four-night Republican National Convention will be skipped entirely by the networks, including a speech by Ann Romney, Mitt Romney's wife. The other three nights will get an hour each. (The Democratic convention is only three nights long, but NBC will offer two of its three hours of coverage on the final night so it can carry an N.F.L. football game earlier in the week.)

• Brian Williams, the NBC anchor, said that “people have had it up to here” with political news, and added: “I'd love more coverage of the conventions. I also live in the real world.”

• Menacing plans for the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla., was a storm brewing in the Caribbean, Tropical Storm Isaac, The Tampa Bay Times reported. According to some models Isaac could reach Tampa by Monday, the start of the convention; other models show it breaking up over the mountains of Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

Photographs showing a naked Prince Harry in a Las Vegas hotel suite with a naked woman, or women, published by the Hollywood Web site TMZ were confirmed as genuine by palace officials in London, John F. Burns reported. While the two candid photographs - presumably taken by cellphones during a game of strip billiards - have been flashed around the world, they have been kept out of British publications, and off British Web sites, after royal aides asked Britain's newspaper watchdog, the Press Complaints Commission, to warn British newspapers not to publish them. The Telegraph reported: “Today their warning appeared to have worked, with no British newspapers publishing the images despite them being freely available on the Internet.”

• To some, including the CN N host Piers Morgan who is a former British tabloid editor, this restraint was a sign of less-than-fully-free press. His post to Twitter: “Oh, the irony of every single media outlet in the world now running Prince Harry photos â€" EXCEPT the ‘naughty' British tabloids. #shackled”
• Of course, even at the “shackled” British Web sites, the images were merely a click away.

The conservative documentary “2016: Obama's America” is the top movie for advance ticket sales, according to online ticketing service Fandango, The Hollywood Reporter writes. The movie, codirected by Dinesh D'Souza and based on his book that argues that President Obama pursues his father's left-leaning, “anticolonial” ideals, will expand to 1,075 theaters on Friday. Last weekend, The Hollywood Reporter noted, the film grossed an impressive $1.2 million in only 169 theaters.

The British betting house Ladbrokes has set its odds for the Nobel Prize in Literature, with Ha ruki Murakami topping the list at 10/1 odds. The listing of the odds was flagged in a Twitter message by Publishers Weekly, and are given respect â€" last year the Swedish poet and eventual prize winner, Tomas Transtromer, was considered the second favorite. (The biggest payout is for the writers at 100/1 odds, including Jonathan Franzen.)

Thursday Reading: Father\'s Age Linked to Risk of Autism, Schizophrenia

By ANN CARRNS

A variety of consumer-focused articles appears daily in The New York Times and on our blogs. Each weekday morning, we gather them together here so you can quickly scan the news that could hit you in your wallet.

 

New Scenes Filmed in L.A. Said to Replace Theater Shoot-Up in \'Gangster Squad\'

By MICHAEL CIEPLY

LOS ANGELES - In the heat of another too-hot afternoon, this city's Chinatown - the real one, not the myth explored in the movie with that name - was littered on Wednesday with the repercussions from last month's theater shootings in Aurora, Colo.

A parking lot on the site of Little Joe's, an Italian restaurant that predates the Chinese presence, was clogged with tents, trucks and trailers. They formed the base camp for a film production that was code-named “Slapsy.”

Across Broadway, just past the chipped and fading Gate of Maternal Virtues, Chinatown's central plaza was hung with Christmas tinsel.

A black Plymouth sedan, circa 1949, was parked outside an establishment with a sign called the Dragon Club. It appeared to be a hastily constructed movie-set bar. Nearby, walkways were blocked by a couple of antique trucks and an ominous-looking Cadillac with fat whitewall tires.

All of it, a security guard was telling some puzzled tourists, belonged to a picture called “Gangster Squad,” with stars including Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling. “They have to change some scenes,” the guard explained, because of the people who were killed watching “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Indeed, Warner Brothers, which released “The Dark Knight Rises,” pulled its trailer for “Gangster Squad,” which is about the bloody pursuit of the Los Angeles crime kingpin Mickey Cohen, because of a scene in the movie in which men shoot up the crowd in a theater. The film's opening was then delayed from Sept. 7 until Jan. 11.

And for the last several nights, cast and crew have been reassembled for an elaborate reshoot that will presumably eliminate the theater violence - and which has certainly turned Chinatown on its end.

Whether the Aurora shooting, which left 12 people dead, have worked any deeper changes in the film business remains very much open t o doubt.

One thing is clear: ticket sales have fallen. According to weekly reports from Hollywood.com, the Top 12 films have underperformed the Top 12 from equivalent weekends last year for three of the last four weeks.

Michael Cieply covers the film industry from the Los Angeles bureau.