In 1997, USA Today Demands an End To Framed Links
This is David Noack’s “Interactive Communications” column from the June 21, 1997, issue of Editor & Publisher, reporting that USA Today had told TotalNEWS to stop framing its Web site. The demand followed a legal settlement in which six major media companies forced the suburban Phoenix, Ariz., company to cease linking to their sites through an ad-bearing “frames” structure. Allegra Young, USA Today Online marketing manager, wrote to TotalNEWS president Roman Godzich withdrawing permission that USA Today Online had granted the previous December in a conditional letter allowing TotalNEWS to link and frame the online newspaper.
Young’s letter argued that the settlement gave the plaintiffs better terms than USA Today was getting:
“We note that one result of your settlement with Dow Jones & Co., the Washington Post Co., Reuters New Media Inc., Time Warner Inc. and Times Mirror Co. is preferable treatment for those who filed suit. . . . Our content receives a smaller portion of screen space and is hemmed in by your advertisements. We would like to be afforded equal treatment with other news media organizations.”
In a phone interview, Young said the frames should come off as soon as possible, and that USA Today had been supportive of TotalNEWS and didn’t think that support should cost it screen space. Her letter did not say what would happen if the frames stayed. “Let’s see if we can resolve it amicably before we bring the lawyers in, which of course would be the next step,” she said. She added that USA Today tracks its top 25 referring URLs and TotalNEWS never appears among them; Netscape, Yahoo!, AT&T and the San Jose Mercury News were among the sites that did.
Godzich said he was in discussions with USA Today, that sites not in frames had seen a significant drop in traffic from TotalNEWS, and that he had received no other requests to remove frames. He said he would have taken the case to court if he had the financial resources but called the settlement “sensible,” adding that a lot of “disinformation” had been written about the issue.
“Most of the people who come from the Internet community don’t see it the same way that people from the publishing community see it and that’s still the majority of people online”
The column notes that framing was a recent development in the ongoing development of browser software such as Netscape’s Navigator. The piece ran on page 102, with a jump to page 114.