The Internal Revenue Service should change the outdated way it considers whether media get tax-exempt status, a group of journalists, foundations and news websites said in a report that was partly backed by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Rules dating from the 1970s that require organizations seeking 501(c)(3) status to primarily engage in education have led to months- and sometimes years-long delays in websites obtaining such status, said the study. Written under the auspices of the Council on Foundations and led by Steve Waldman, who wrote the commission’s study on the future of media when he was an aide to Genachowski, Monday’s report said some news websites have folded while their applications were pending. “Unnecessary obstacles seem to be getting placed in the way of nonprofit news outlets attempting to educate their communities,” Genachowski said.

The government and broadcasters are working to improve the delivery and efficiency of emergency alert system messages using wireless capabilities, broadcasters and some FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said Monday during an emergency alert system meeting in Washington. The meeting was organized by NAB and the National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations. Making the system more effective will involve improving cybersecurity and keeping pace with advancements in broadcast technology, they said.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Monday criticized a decision by the Copyright Office that said it’s a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for consumers to unlock new mobile phones. Genachowski asked Congress to take action. Meanwhile, a White House official said the administration agrees people should be able to unlock their phones. On Jan. 26, the librarian of Congress issued a ruling that effectively made it illegal to unlock new phones (http://1.usa.gov/ZaI6qS). Violators face heavy fines and prison time.

Prices in FCC spectrum auctions have been on the rise since the mid-2000s, but factors beyond the tradeoff between supply and demand make it difficult to say that rise is evidence of what the government says is a “spectrum crunch,” said Scott Wallsten, senior vice president-research for the Technology Policy Institute (TPI), at a TPI-led event Friday. In a report released Tuesday, Wallsten examined FCC data from the 69,000 spectrum licenses it has sold through auctions since 1996. The agency has been holding spectrum auctions since 1994. The data included in the report shows that while spectrum prices are continuing to rise, “the rate of price increase has probably been slowing” (http://bit.ly/WmcTWk)

The FCC Emergency Access Advisory Committee (EAAC) heard reports from various working groups Friday as it tries to wrap up a final report by March 11 on communications by the disabled in a next-generation 911 world. The EAAC has been unable to reach consensus on some key issues related to a possible move away from text telephone (TTY) for emergency communications.

Technology’s role in emergency communications dominated the FCC’s second Superstorm Sandy field hearing late Thursday, as did the role of backup power and any possible regulatory requirements. Four of the five commissioners attended the hearing at Moffett Federal Airfield in Santa Clara, Calif., held weeks before the FCC is slated to discuss a rulemaking on emergency communications emanating from its Public Safety Bureau derecho wind storm report recommendations (CD March 1 p2). The hearing included two panels on ways to integrate communications tools like Facebook as well as next-gen technologies and concerns going forward.

The focus of the FCC in March is once again on public safety communications, with a rulemaking likely to force the agency to revisit whether to again impose backup power requirements on carriers. An NPRM for the March 20 meeting, which circulated late Wednesday, raises numerous questions following up on the commission’s January derecho report (CD Jan 11 p3).

FCC Managing Director David Robbins told FCC staff in a town hall meeting Thursday sequester may not mean furloughs for staff, at least initially. But Robbins didn’t provide much detail about what will happen next, agency officials told us. Robbins briefed FCC staff at FCC headquarters and the briefing was carried over the agency’s internal intranet. Staff for the FCC commissioners are to be briefed separately.

Verizon and AT&T are happy that California state regulators are backing off on talk of instituting VoIP provider requirements, they told the regulators this week, while objecting to concerns of consumer advocates. President Michael Peevey of the California Public Utilities Commission filed a proposed draft decision on Jan. 28 that would potentially close one of the CPUC’s dockets on VoIP regulation. That docket focused on a potential rulemaking on how interconnected VoIP providers would contribute to the support of California’s public purpose programs, including the state’s LifeLine program, high-cost funds, its Advanced Services Fund, Teleconnect Fund and the Deaf and Disabled Telecom Program. The proposed decision is part of a two-year proceeding in the state, begun in January 2011. But a California law, SB 1161, passed last fall (CD Oct 2 p7) would restrict state regulation of IP services for the next several years and should kill the proceeding, Peevey argued.

LIN Media chose to build its own mobile marketing platform and hired an industry veteran to do it, after failing to identify a reasonably priced company in that sector to buy, CEO Vincent Sadusky said Thursday during the company’s Q4 earnings call. LIN has been investing in a mobile marketing platform so it can sell ads on its own properties and help its advertising clients place ads elsewhere on the Web and on mobile devices, he said. “We looked at several entities to try to buy and jump start that, given that mobile and social [advertising] are things we'd like to offer to clients,” Sadusky said.