WASHINGTON (AP)-The U.S. Justice Department has cleared the way for the eventual merger of Microsoft with Time Warner, the New York Times Company, the Times Mirror Company, the Washington Post Company, the Tribune Company, the News Corporation, Gannett, Newhouse, Knight-Ridder, the Associated Press, Reuter, United Press International, Cowles Media, Readers Digest, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Viacom, Tele-Communications, Inc, Jones Intercable, and 53 other media corporations.
The new company will be known as MicroPostTimes3D or M3D for short. The "Micro" stands for "Microsoft," the "Post" for "Washington Post," the "Times3" for the three "Times," and the "D" for "Digest."
"We are pleased with the outcome," said Microsoft Chairman William H. Gates III, who will chair the new corporation. "Let's face it. So-called diversity is a real drag to consumers and advertisers alike, an outdated notion in this multimedia age of international competition. Finally we can end media clutter."
M3D grew out of an experiment in which Time Magazine printed articles from Slate, a Web magazine started by Microsoft. "The efficiencies were immediately apparent to readers and advertisers," said Time Inc.'s Reginald K. Brack, Jr., who will serve as an M3D vice president, "and further integration of content was inevitable.
According to focus group research, consumers reported too many media choices. "M3D ends the problem," Brack said, "by consolidating different content providers from different media in a new broadband version of the World Wide Web. Readers will pay just one monthly fee. Then on a single Web site they will find everything from Oprah Winfrey reruns to the latest video games and the writings of Michael Kinsley."
"This is an elegant solution to the major legal problems posed by the technology of the Web," said Gates. "M3D will need to link only internally. What's more, M3D will address fair use questions. After all, if only one major media company exists, it can quote itself to its heart's content."
Brack said: "No longer are there old and new media. You might say that we in traditional media finally 'got it.'
"For years Microsoft showed the way through its pre-eminence in operating systems. Tens of millions of consumers benefitted from using Microsoft word processors and Microsoft spreadsheets with Windows 4.1.95 and the rest. Standardization wins every time. Now imagine the exciting consequences for us in the media and the nation as a whole. Consumers will be able to access the same news and views and reach the same conclusions, as opposed to the chaos and incivility that characterize our present political debate."
- David H. Rothman, rothman@clark.net