SANTA MONICA (Fine-Hayes) So much for business-friendly Santa Monica. The City Council in the midst of considering a series of measures that would clamp down on residential and commercial development. In addition, a union-led measure to implement a minimum wage of over $10 an hour for hotels and eateries is getting support. While now quite going back to the days of the “People’s Republic of S.M.,” the shift is leading to more than a few shudders. W/Photos.
HISTORY (Fine) Surveying the political cast of characters that has made Santa Monica, well, different, from the rest of L.A. W/Photos.
THIRDSTREET (Brinsley) Spotlight on one of the area’s most successful shopping districts. How it helped steer the city’s recent growth and at what cost. W/Photo
HOSTEL (Hayes) A new youth hostel in Hollywood has been hopping practically ever since it opened its doors. What are the economics behind these places? W/Photo
WAGES (Pettersson) Is L.A. following the national trend of rapid job growth, increased labor costs and productivity declines? W/Charts
HOLLAND (Swertlow) Tweedy clothes, African safaris, $60,000 shotguns what on earth is the British-based Holland & Holland trying to sell its wares on Rodeo Drive? Good question. W/Photo
PRESCRIPTION (Donahue) Scared of Y2K meltdown, consumers are starting to hoard prescription medicines and the AMA is saying it might not be such a bad idea. Not exactly the way to control a panic. W/Photo
LATINO (Sarkisian) Latinos have represented a huge portion of L.A.’s first-time homebuyers. So how has demand been during the last few months of stepped-up home-buying activity and can the local real estate industry keep up? W/Photo
SCHOOL (Sarkisian) You thought it was bad enough when your teenager complained that all her friends wore Guess jeans. Well as the new school year fast approaches, the whine is over Palm Pilots and micro-cell phones.
SUITES (Taub) That rustling sound you hear could be L.A.’s biz boys whose employers bought up luxury boxes at the Staples Center. The question is who gets tickets to the Lakers-Knicks and who winds up with the Clippers? W/Photo
CARNIVAL (Pettersson) Negotiations are underway between the Queen Mary Hotel and Carnival Cruise Lines to build a $100-million passenger terminal adjacent to the QM. But what’s wrong with San Pedro? Plenty. W/Photo
PORT (Brinsley) The Port of Long Beach’s decision to get into the oil business five years ago is not looking very good. It’s lost $26 million in oil field operations, or $17,000 per day. Part of the problem is the sagging price of oil, but there are others.
TRAINER (Donahue) Who trains Hollywood’s elite personal trainers? Sheila King, an exercise physiologist at UCLA. W/Photo
JUNK (Booth) Tracking the high-yield junk bond market.
CARS (Taub) Here’s an Internet start-up that’s an unqualified success: CarsDirect.com, another idealab spinoff, that expects to sell $400 million worth of cars and trucks in its first year. Of course the company is still in the red but what else is new? W/Chart-web site
GOLF (Taub) L.A. leads the nation in privatizing golf courses having leased them to private companies and showing increased revenues. But let’s track the maintenance os these courses to see whether the private guys are doing a better or worse job than the city. W/Photo
BIZBUYER (Fisher) It’s not quite as sexy as eBay but a new Internet company called Bizbuyer is getting lots of attention from investors. The concept: an auction-type service for the business-to-business market. W/web site
RENAL (Donahue) Total Renal Care is a mess these days and it’s George deHuff’s job to turn things around. But how does he plan to go about doing it?
POLITICS (Fine) tentative Checking on recent fund-raising of L.A.’s mayoral candidates.
MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY
7TH (Swertlow) For all the hype over the WB’s racy teen dramas, “7th Heaven” turns out to be the network’s biggest show. Why is the show clicking? W/Photo
TBA
TECH TALK
COMPUTERS
ADVERTISING/PR
KATHRYN HARRIS
SMALL BUSINESS
HARP (Booth) Harp shop owner. W/Photo
WEEKLY BRIEFING
APPLEGATE
ASK LORRAINE
ENTREPRENEUR’S NOTEBOOK
PEOPLE
INTERVIEW (Pettersson) Bishop Charles Blake or John Mack. W/Photo
NEWSMAKERS (Gorchov)
FEATURED NEWSMAKER (Gorchov)
INVESTMENTS & FINANCE
CORP FOCUS (Booth) TBA
WSW
QUINN
REAL ESTATE
COLUMN (Hayes)
OTHER
AGENDA
HISTORY
NEWSUM
THIS WEEK
CALENDAR
ECONOWATCH
FTR CHARTS
LABJ 100
LETTERS
OPED
Main/30″/mike1st/mark2nd
By SARA FISHER
Staff Reporter
Just two years ago, Jonathan Taplin kept having to explain to his friends and family what he did for a living.
While the Internet was off and running, few people had even heard of the term “broadband” much less recognized the potential for transmitting books, TV shows, concerts and massive amounts of data in a flash.
Today, as co-founder of Santa Monica-based based Intertainer Inc., Taplin can pretty much cut to the chase. “Any lingering doubt that this technology won’t take off is gone,” he said.
Last year it was dot-com this year’s new buzzword is broadband. Liiterally, it’s a means by which information can be gleaned from the Internet at break-neck speeds. But broadband encompasses more than a fast means of distribution; it’s an avenue by which new forms of entertainment and interaction can be deployed.
Why just watch “Jeopardy,” after all, when you can play along with the contestants?
Why just settle for the current episode of “ER” when you call back one of your favorite episodes from last year?
Why just sit through a Dodgers game when you can bring up Raul Mondesi’s batting stats in a flash?
These are just some of the tantalizing possibilities of a broadband world possibilities that have led to a fast-forming workforce in L.A. and elsewhere in areas ranging from content to software to distribution.
Who are these people? They’re creative visionaries, entrepreneurs, financiers and even entertainment executives. All seem driven by the lure of a multibillion-dollar industry and the belief that they will be the ones to set the industry’s course.
“This is the year that people are curious about broadband and what it can do, wondering if this is something they should be getting into,” said Richard Wolpert, partner in charge of Yucaipa Cos.’ Internet and technology ventures. “And next year, they will. My personal belief is that we’re contributing to one of the biggest things to happen to business and society since the Industrial Revolution.”
Broadband has become a catchall term for any means of high-speed Internet access. But it specifically refers to the coaxial cable laid under ground, a fat pipe that brings the Internet into homes and businesses over the same lines as cable TV and at lightning speed.
Other high-speed Internet access options are available from telephone companies such as Pacific Bell and GTE, which offer high-speed DSL or ISDN connections over their copper lines. Another choice will be wireless connections via satellite, which El Segundo-based DirecTV has begun developing.
How quickly high-speed broadband will take off is a matter of debate. Only about 19 percent of online households in the United States will have broadband access by 2002, according to Jupiter Communications. Most experts don’t expect to see the audience reach critical mass until 2004 or so.
But that anticipated pace could easily accelerate. The more compelling the online offerings, the greater the demand. The more demand, the faster the infrastructure rollout. The more connected eyeballs, the more money invested into content.
And the more money invested, the faster the ramp-up.
Los Angeles is emerging as one of several epicenters of the broadband industry, with others scattered from Silicon Valley to Virginia’s high-tech cluster. Not surprisingly, L.A.’s primary strength is developing creative content for the high-speed Internet world.
“Broadband plays to the strengths of many people in this town,” said Jon Goodman, executive director at EC2, USC’s center for multimedia and electronic communications. “There is direct crossover knowledge from traditional entertainment productions to these new broadband productions.”
Indeed, the Business Journal’s who’s who in broadband is dominated by entertainment-industry types, many of whom have transformed themselves into new-media entrepreneurs.
Dave Goldberg, head of Launch Media Inc., was formerly a Capitol Records marketing executive. Taplin, Intertainer’s co-CEO, has a 25-year history as a Hollywood heavyweight. David Neuman, president of Digital Entertainment Network, was formerly president of Disney Network Television.
There also are those in the mainstream media who have spearheaded broadband change including Kevin Mayer, head of broadband development for Walt Disney Co., and Robert Tercek, senior vice president of digital media at Columbia Tri-Star Television Group. (In general, though, the major studios have been slow to get on the broadband train.)
Content, of course, is only one part of the equation. A less flashy, but arguably more crucial, role has fallen to local policymakers.
The current high-stakes battle involving AT & T; Corp., America Online and others about whether cable owners are required to open their networks to competing high-speed Internet service providers is one of the biggest issues facing the L.A. City Council. Freshman Councilman Alex Padilla, who was recently named chairman of the council’s Information Technology Committee, will likely play a major role in determining how soon and by what means Angelenos have high-speed Internet access.
As for the development of the underlying technologies and infrastructure, there is a modest amount of activity around town that ranges from Pasadena’s EarthLink Network Inc., which is finally rolling out its high-speed access strategy, to the smaller-scale Redondo Beach-based Internet Ventures Inc.
There’s also a smattering of consultants, hardware manufacturers and software developers around town, but hardly representing a broad-based industry.
“Los Angeles is much more dedicated to the content than the hardware that drives it,” said Brad Nye, co-founder of trade organization Venice Interactive Community. “There is not a lot of technical knowledge here, and there is not a lot of beta-testing of new products in the community for us to play with.”
To help narrow the gap, Nye plans to launch a monthly series of meetings this fall, tentatively dubbed “VIC’s BIG (Broadband Interactive Gallery) Lab.” The goal is to bring together decision-makers from broadband-related software and hardware companies and the content-creation community. The fostered interaction should accelerate the industry’s overall pace of development, Nye hopes.
As the pace of innovation picks up, so should the pace of investment.
Roughly $150 million has been placed in L.A.-area broadband-related companies over the past two years a figure expected to escalate in the next two or three years.
“Some believe that broadband is simply going to be a continually faster connection with rich media, and others see full streaming and pay per view,” said Sandy Climan, managing partner of West L.A.-based Media Networks.com LLC. “I personally see broadband as a hybrid, where the streaming video will provide companion information to supplement entertainment. It will be the difference between being passively entertained by a television show and an experience in which your brain is turned on.”
In short, broadband is so new that no one knows what the industry’s ultimate “killer app” will be. In all likelihood, it’s not anything invented yet.
But to paraphrase Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, we’ll know it when we see it.