In brief: S-R adding Voice for West Plains
The Spokesman-Review will expand its neighborhood news coverage of Cheney, Medical Lake and Airway Heights beginning April 10 when it debuts the West Plains Voice, a community newspaper available every Thursday to subscribers and free on newsstands throughout these communities.
April 10 also marks the start of free distribution of Thursday’s South Side Voice, North Side Voice and Valley Voice editions on newsstands throughout neighborhoods served by these newspapers.
Free distribution of the Handle Extra, serving Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint, Hayden and Kootenai and Bonner county neighborhoods, will begin April 13.
Subscribers will continue to receive these sections in their daily Spokesman-Review.
The expansion also brings the addition of full color to each page of every Voice, allowing for color photographs and graphics to accompany news and feature stories written by staff writers, correspondents and citizen journalists.
Steady growth of West Plains communities prompted the decision to split news coverage of Cheney, Airway Heights, Medical Lake and Fairchild Air Force Base out of the South Side Voice into a newspaper focused on these communities, according to Voices editor Tad Brooks.
– Staff reports
WASHINGTON
AT&T, Verizon win most new airways
The nation’s cell phone companies won big in a record-setting government airways auction, the Federal Communications Commission announced Thursday.
AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, the nation’s two biggest cell phone carriers, were some of the top bidders, dampening hopes that the auction would dramatically increase competition for wireless services.
The auction, overseen by the FCC, attracted a record $19.6 billion in bids. Bidders were anonymous, but the agency released the names Thursday.
Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and British telecom giant Vodaphone Group, won nearly every license in the consumer-friendly “C block.”
Verizon won the regional licenses in the block covering every state with the exception of Alaska.
Google Inc. posted a package bid for the C block licenses early in the auction, but it was not enough to win, meaning the search engine giant will not be entering the cellular telephone business.
– From wire reports