Microsoft Offering News Without Charge on Internet
Date: 30 April 1996
By Peter H. Lewis
Peter Lewis
The Microsoft Corporation has made headlines countless times in the last 20 years, but now it wants to make headlines in a different way -- as a global news provider on the World Wide Web. The software giant is expected to announce today that MSN News, which has gathered and repackaged news articles for the million-member Microsoft Network on-line service since last August, has been shifted to the World Wide Web, where it is available without charge.
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THE MEDIA BUSINESS;Big Newspapers Report Circulation Losses Are Slowing
Date: 30 April 1996
By Iver Peterson
Iver Peterson
Most of the country's biggest daily newspapers lost circulation in the six months ended March 31 compared with the similar period a year earlier, according to nationwide figures released yesterday. But the declines were smaller than in the past for many and were offset by impressive gains by The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The Daily News in New York. Circulation figures are reported by the Audit Bureau of Circulations every six months and are based on statements from each publisher.
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Metro Matters;Raising Funds By Arresting Journalists
Date: 01 May 1996
By Joyce Purnick
Joyce Purnick
LAST week, two reporters were arrested at the Waldorf-Astoria for doing their jobs. This is not the most common occurrence in media-friendly New York. But Thursday night, police officers hustled Wayne Barrett of The Village Voice and Andrea Bernstein of The New York Observer out of the hotel on Park Avenue for trying to cover Gov. George E. Pataki's fund-raiser.
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COMPANY NEWS;METROMEDIA CANCELS ALLIANCE ACQUISITION
Date: 30 April 1996
Bloomberg Business News
Bloomberg News
Metromedia International Group Inc. called off its $360 million purchase of Alliance Entertainment Inc. yesterday, one month after Alliance warned that its first-quarter revenue would not meet expectations. Alliance had said that it expected first-quarter revenue of $175 million, less than estimates of $191 million. Metromedia, the media company controlled by investor John W. Kluge, agreed in November to acquire Alliance, a New York-based distributor of compact disks and cassettes, for $12 worth of its stock for each Alliance share, plus warrants. It revised the stock portion to seven-tenths share of Metromedia for each Alliance share in December.
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COMPANY NEWS;DISCOVERY TO ACQUIRE THE NATURE COMPANY
Date: 30 April 1996
Reuters
Discovery Communications Inc., which operates the Discovery Channel on cable television, plans to buy the Nature Company from CML Group Inc. for $40 million in cash, the companies said yesterday. The Nature Company, in Berkeley, Calif., is a specialty retail chain and mail-order business selling nature-related books, toys and games. The deal includes 114 Nature Company stores and three Scientific Revolution stores. Discovery, a privately held company based in Bethesda, Md., is owned by the Liberty Media Corporation, Cox Communications Inc., Advance/Newhouse Communications and John S. Hendricks, founder, chairman and chief executive of Discovery.
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WORLD NEWS BRIEFS;New Chechen Leader Is Now Reported Dead
Date: 30 April 1996
AP
Just a week after Russian forces killed the separatist Chechen leader, Dzhokhar M. Dudayev, Russian news reports said that the rebel chief's successor had died at the hands of his comrades. There were conflicting reports about the death of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, who succeeded Mr. Dudayev as the leader of Chechen rebels, and one report said he was still alive. None of the reports could be independently confirmed and none quoted rebels or offered details of his death.
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COMPANY NEWS;FUNDS OF SOROS ACQUIRE STAKE IN USAIR
Date: 30 April 1996
Bloomberg Business News
Bloomberg News
Investment funds run by the billionaire George Soros have acquired a 5.13 percent stake in the series B cumulative convertible preferred stock of USAir Group Inc. The investors paid $8.44 million to acquire 218,600 series B shares as an investment, according to a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The most recent transactions of the investment funds include the purchase of 160,000 shares at $52.61 to $53.25 each between April 10 and 18, the S.E.C. filing said. The preferred shares were unchanged yesterday at $49.25. USAir, based in Arlington, Va., is the nation's fifth-largest airline. A share of the class B stock is convertible into 2.49 common shares.
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WORLD NEWS BRIEFS;Pakistan Premier Blames 'Foreigners' for Bombing
Date: 30 April 1996
AP
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto blamed foreigners for a bombing that killed 40 people on a crowded bus on Sunday and promised that those responsible would not go unpunished. Though no one has claimed responsibility for the bomb, which had been stuffed in the fuel tank, Ms. Bhutto told the state-run news agency that the attack was "foreign-inspired subversion," a usual reference to neighboring India.
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