IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 2 November
02-11-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
IBM wins Bank of Ireland contract | News Corp reveals paywall figures
The Irish Times reports on the ongoing Moriarty tribunal. Documents shown in court indicate that some of the civil servants charged with choosing the winner of the 1995 mobile phone licence competition had misgivings about the result right up to its announcement. However, the lead consultant to the process, Prof Michael Andersen, told Michael McDowell SC, for the tribunal, that he believed the civil servants who recorded their misgivings in the documents may have been "covering their backs". He also said that at the time there was talk of an upcoming position for a telecoms regulator and there may have been some "struggling" between civil servants who were interested in the position.
The paper also says that IBM has won a five-year IT contract with Bank of Ireland. The contract was previously held by Hewlett-Packard. IBM will manage the group's entire IT infrastructure, including desktop systems, servers, mainframes, local area networks and service desk. Larry Kiernan, chief technology officer and head of group IT at the bank, said the company would continue to work closely with HP to ensure a "smooth transition" to IBM.
According to the Financial Times, the first official figures on the impact of News Corp's paywall around the Times and Sunday Times have been published. News International said that 105,000 customers had so far paid for a monthly subscription, single copy or for pay-as-you-go access to the papers' content online. Coupled with the 100,000 print subscribers to the Times who activated free digital accounts, the publisher said that its total paid audience for digital products was close to 200,000. Analysts said a lack of detail in the numbers published -- for example, no breakdown of how many readers bought the iPad app rather than a website subscription -- would limit the conclusions that could be made about the paywall strategy.
The Wall Street Journal says that Google appears to be set for a renewed clash with Turkey's government, as it reposted YouTube videos that a court had ruled insulting to the republic's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The four videos, which have kept YouTube banned in Turkey since May 2008, were taken off the web late last week by a Turkish group of self-described "volunteers", working closely with the government. The group used Google's automatic copyright protection system to have the clips removed. Turks were able to access YouTube directly for the first time in more than two years last weekend, after a court on Saturday lifted the ban. Google, however, said Monday it was restoring the videos.
The paper also reports that LinkedIn has launched a new recommendations service that allows the network's more than 80 million members to post reviews of products and services linked to their professional profiles. The new program will help build LinkedIn's marketing business, which provides about one-third of the company's revenue. Companies that allow their products to be reviewed will be able to include a notice in their ads on the site that a product has been recommended by a named connection in a user's professional network.
Free! "In the papers" email newsletter -- get the full text to your in-box every business day. Email itp@enn.ie with 'subscribe' in the subject line.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 