Oneida Nation magazine abandoning print

A weekly magazine that is a leading source of Native American news is abandoning print in favor of an online-only presence, in a cost-cutting move that worries some readers who fear they may lose access because of the switch.

This Week From Indian Country Today, a New York City-based publication owned by the Oneida Nation, will become an online newsletter starting with its July 17 issue."In the age we live in, technology is really advanced to a point that we're trying to make sure we're serving what our audience really needs," said Indian Country Today publisher Ray Halbritter. Converting to an online newsletter that is emailed to subscribers will eliminate some of the lag time between when news happens and when it appears in writing, he said.

The magazine, which was started in 1981, provides a mixture of straight news stories and commentary by tribal members, and it is often a way for politicians to get their messages out to Native American communities. President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner have all done interviews or written opinion pieces.

For Native Americans on isolated reservations, access to broadband Internet is anything but guaranteed and print media is a staple of life. According to the Federal Communications Commission, just 43 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives have access to broadband Internet at home, compared to 65 percent of the U.S. population as a whole. Access on reservation and tribal lands is even scarcer, at less than 10 percent, although there are government efforts to expand such access.

Suzanne Sobel, the managing director of Indian Country Today Media Network, said she's not worried about the real time Location system."The reservations that don't have broadband Internet, quite frankly they were also having a hard time getting the magazine too," she said. Sobel said most tribal members on such reservations use their smartphones to get information. She noted that the website had 550,000 unique visitors in June and continues to grow.

Sobel, a former executive with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and creative director Christopher Napolitano, former editor at large for Playboy magazine, are leading Indian Country Today's transition to digital-only. The evolution has been in the works for some time, Sobel said. Halbritter said the change will allow the company to expand its international coverage of indigenous issues and work with more contributors.

He spent most of his career in Motorola's wireless-network equipment division, which was sold to competitor Nokia Siemens Networks in 2010, shortly after he joined the public-safety radio business.Motorola Solutions' main business is supplying a range of public-safety products, from two-way radios for police officers to connected patrol vehicles with video surveillance systems.

That side of the business accounts for roughly two-thirds of the company's revenue, while the rest comes from products for enterprise customers, such as bar code readers or smart tags using radio-frequency identification technology.In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Steinberg talked about trends and competition in the public safety communications industry, as well as Motorola's transformation over the past few years.

Having spent over 20 years at Motorola, I had mixed emotions seeing the company change, though it didn't affect my job much. There were some people who didn't want it to happen. They felt like they were leaving a family because they would no longer be part of Motorola. But nothing is forever. The world changes.

When Motorola Solutions and Motorola Mobility separated, both companies kept the brand Motorola, and both retained the cross license for all the intellectual property. Other than that, Motorola Mobility is now purely and simply a part of Google.

We spend a lot of time on customer research. We have ethnographers—anthropologists, sociologists, psychiatrists—who ride in firetrucks, police cars and live a day in the life of a customer. We don't expect a fireman or policeman to tell us what they need, but if you watch them the right way they will show you what they need. We gain a lot of insight from our ethnographers and I think that's why our customers trust us. They know we understand them.

Economies go up and down but typically public-safety communications are prioritized. Even when governments step into the period of austerity, they have to take care of the population. I wouldn't say it's recession-proof, but generally speaking we are relatively strong even during an economic downturn.

Those who hope that arming the opposition will help stem the regime’s current resurgence and compel it to negotiate are making a dangerous assumption. Whatever firepower may be provided to the rebels will be more than matched by the regime’s allies.

SAM missiles may affect the regime’s freedom in the skies, but it has sufficient alternative firepower in terms of its massed artillery and armoured forces to maintain its edge.

Anti-tank weapons are of limited use in what is essentially an urban war. Unless there is truly massive external military intervention (which seems unlikely), the net result of seeking to manipulate the current balance of power will be to prolong rather than curtail the war.

The history of the region shows that almost any outside interference (even on the part of neighbours) tends to end in tears. And the West, despite its long experience in the Middle East, remains profoundly alien to the region’s most deep-rooted forces of religion, sect, ethnicity, tribe and clan, and seemingly incapable of grasping their complexity.

The killing of the FSA commander and a series of other similar recent clashes point to yet another layer of conflict that is only likely to be exacerbated as the war goes on. Arming one side of the opposition will lead to a struggle over access to these weapons and thus a weakening of the anti-Al Assad front, rather than the opposite.

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