The newest news in the ongoing new news/old news convergence is the 350-billion-dollar merger of America Online and Time-Warner, Inc. The multimedia marriage joins 20-million internet subscribers with 13 million cable-hooked households and the gigantic CNN-news empire.
The colossal corporate marquis announces brands like Netscape, Time, and Fortune, Moviefone, Warner Brothers and HBO, Sports Illustrated, People and Entertainment Weekly, TBS, TNT, and Compuserve.
It's the first mega-merger where the money's on the dot-com side of the equations, marking a kind of coming of age for internet business and maybe eradicating once and for all the distinction between new and old media.
AOL/Time-Warner promises channel surfing and net-surfing, Cartoon Network and cable networking, magazine stands and instant messaging. (Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
