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Wal-Mart starts selling caskets, urns online By EMILY FREDRIX, AP Retail Writer Wed Oct 28, 4:03 pm ET MILWAUKEE – The world's largest retailer wants to keep its customers even after they die. Wal-Mart has started selling caskets on its Web site at prices that undercut many funeral homes, long the major seller of caskets. The move follows a similar one by discount rival Costco, which also sells caskets on its site. Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., quietly put up about 15 caskets and dozens of urns on its Web site last week. Prices range from $999 for models like...

Online spending down as holiday season nears Recession puts brakes on fast-paced growth of e-commerce By Ylan Q. Mui Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, October 24, 2009 Online retail's runaway growth has hit a wall as consumers have cut back on the discretionary spending that drives the industry's sales. According to research firm comScore, e-commerce sales have been steadily declining this year, with spending not including travel dropping 2 percent in the third quarter. That has set the stage for a tough holiday season, which can account for as much as half of annual sales. "It's not pretty at all...

Time Inc. is gathering U.S. magazine publishers to start a jointly run digital newsstand next year that would deliver their titles to mobile devices like increasingly popular electronic book readers. ---------------- snippity snip ------------------------

The Boston Globe will soon begin charging for its Web site, publisher P. Steven Ainsley told the paper’s union bosses yesterday as the Globe’s parent New York Times [NYT] Co. confirmed in a regulatory filing that the money-losing Hub broadsheet is for sale. News of the Globe’s intention to charge for Boston.com came a day after News Corp. [NWS] Chairman Rupert Murdoch announced his company would start charging for content at all of its news Web sites, including the New York Post, The Times of London and The Sun, a popular British tabloid. News Corp. already charges for some access...

Media giant News Corporation Ltd intends to charge for all its news websites in a bid to lift revenues, as the transition towards online media permanently changes the advertising landscape. News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch told analysts in a conference call after News Corp released its full year results that the traditional newspaper business model has to change. "The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive methods of distribution," Mr Murdoch said. "But it has not made content free. Accordingly we intend to charge for all our news websites," he said. He said News Corp would use the Wall...

MURDOCH: 'WE PLAN TO CHARGE FOR ALL OF OUR NEWS SITES'... 'WE WILL START CHARGING FOR FOXNEWS.COM'... Q. WILL YOU SHUT DOWN ANY OF YOUR NEWSPAPERS?' A. 'ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE... BUT NO PLANS FOR IT' FOXNEWS PROFIT 50% HIGHER THAN LAST YEAR... VERY HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR NEW JAMES CAMERON FILM...

States across the U.S. have been taking a harder line against an old problem -- cigarette smuggling -- as part of the widening search for solutions to their budget problems. States including Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island and Virginia this year have stepped up law-enforcement efforts with the aim of recouping taxes lost to bootleg cigarette sales. Studies indicate states are losing about $5 billion annually in tax revenue because of illegal tobacco sales, said Phil Awe, who heads the tobacco-diversion division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "We do not want to have our...

"We all know that The New York Times and other papers have been thinking hard about finding ways to charge readers for the news on their web sites, and there’s evidence that the decision-making process is moving along. Bloomberg has reported that a survey of print subscribers included this sentence: The New York Times website, nytimes.com, is considering charging a monthly fee of $5.00 to access its content, including all its articles, blogs and multimedia. It also asked about a $2.50-a-month “discounted fee” for print subscribers....."

The New York Times has sent a survey to its print subscribers asking them how much they would pay for access to its website. From Bloomberg New York Times Co. said in a survey of print subscribers that it’s considering a $5 monthly fee for access to its namesake newspaper’s Web site. Times Co. also asked whether subscribers would be willing to pay a discounted fee of $2.50 a month for access to the site, in the poll confirmed today by Catherine Mathis, a company spokeswoman. Nytimes.com, the most visited among newspapers’ sites, is currently free. Times Co. is contemplating...

The New York Times is testing a price point of $5 a month for access to nytimes.com, with a 50 percent discount for print subscribers. The Times e-mailed a survey to print subscribers Thursday afternoon inviting their reaction to that pricing plan and asking a range of questions about online pricing. NYT survey A portion of the Times' survey on charging for access to its Web site. (Click image for larger version.) New York Times Co. spokeswoman Catherine Mathis confirmed in a telephone interview that the Times had sent the survey, but said no timetable has been set for a...

The visit last month was particularly significant as it was his first trip since the New York Times and IHT websites were merged to a single global product. The tie-up in March served as a precursor to a key decision in August on how best to charge for access to the group's websites, reversing an earlier decision not to, and becoming the first major non-financial newspaper group to take the step. The move comes as the advertising downturn proves particularly challenging for the listed group, which has seen its market value fall 65pc to $707m (£438m) in the past year....

It has been a bad week for gun owners in Tennessee, but the taxpayers lucked out when a proposal to tax online purchases when the retailer advertised through an instate company, website or blogger, stalled. Check to see if your state is considering an eTax.

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-read-the-wsj-for-free-online-2009-6Check out the link______________________Other than the Denver Post, which got all the Rocky Mountain News subscribers when that paper shuttered, The Wall Street Journal is the only newspaper in the top 25 to add to its circulation this year.And though this turn of events probably has as much to do with subscription discounting as anything, everyone likes to say the Journal is adding subscribers at least in part because it's erected a paywall online. We've even come out and said the troubled New York Times should follow the Journal's lead.But all solutions have their problems, and it'd be unfair...

Here's a story the newspaper industry's upper echelon apparently kept from its anxious newsrooms: A discreet Thursday meeting in Chicago about their future. "Models to Monetize Content" is the subject of a gathering at a hotel which is actually located in drab and sterile suburban Rosemont, Illinois; slabs of concrete, exhibition halls and mostly chain restaurants, whose prime reason for being is O'Hare International Airport. It's perfect for quickie, in-and-out conclaves. There's no mention on its website but the Newspaper Association of America, the industry trade group, has assembled top executives of the New York Times, Gannett, E. W. Scripps,...

Home furnishing giant Ikea has launched legal proceedings over the rights to the domain name iloveikea.se, a site which currently specializes in selling used Ikea furniture. The site, which is modeled after the popular Swedish buy-and-sell site blocket.se, has been operating for about a month. Ikea has now asked the Internet Infrastructure Foundation (Stiftelsen för internetinfrastruktur), the body responsible for registering domain names ending in ‘.se’, to help resolve the dispute over iloveikea.se, claiming the site infringes on the Ikea brand. “It’s obvious that a visitor to a homepage with the description iloveikea as the impression that it is the...

News Corp plans to introduce micro-payments for individual articles and premium subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal's website this year in a milestone in the news industry's race to find better online business models. "A sophisticated micropayments service" will launch this autumn, Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief of Dow Jones and managing editor of the Journal, told the Financial Times. The move will position the Journal as the first big newspaper title to adopt a model many are studying cautiously as they seek to reduce dependence on plunging advertising revenues. It comes as John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator leading congressional hearings on...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – As US newspapers shrivel up and die, an unlikely figure is emerging as their potential savior: News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch. The much-villified Australian-born media tycoon is preparing to battle against the practice many hold largely responsible for newspapers' current plight -- the "original sin" of giving away their content for free online. The 78-year-old Murdoch announced this week that the days of free are over. He said he planned to begin charging readers of the websites of News Corp. newspapers "within the next 12 months," testing the scheme "first on some of our stronger ones. "We...

Many states are looking for ways to increase their tax revenue by taxing purchases made online. This extends to third party solicitors located in another state. Our Constitution infers that states are restricted from enacting laws that burden or restrict interstate commerce. Let’s stop this tax now.

If you're planning a major purchase via the Internet, you might want to do it quickly. Congress is expected to introduce a bill this week that would require Amazon.com, L.L. Bean, Cabela's and other online merchants to collect sales tax on all online purchases and return that money to the state in which the purchaser resides. Online Sales Tax?Tony Avelar, AP12 photos Congress will soon introduce a bill requiring sales tax on all online purchases. To read the latest on credit card changes, click through our gallery.(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker) I was recently shopping for a TV for...

Leave it to a Massachusetts politician to get taxes completely wrong. U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt is soon expected to reintroduce the Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) bill, a federal mandate for collecting local sales taxes on interstate purchases. You buy organic Oreos from Oregon or moose meat from Montana, and Massachusetts sales taxes would track you across the Internet. Supporters argue it’s unfair to make traditional “brick-and-mortar” businesses collect our state’s 5 percent (for the moment) sales tax while a shop next door can sell the same item online tax-free. They’re right. Every business should be treated the same. What’s wrong...

congress and Obama have their eyes on the Internet to help fund more government spending. Congress is expected to introduce a bill this week that would require Amazon.com, L.L. Bean, eBay, Cabela’s and other online merchants to collect sales tax on all online purchases and return that money to the state in which the purchaser resides. The new bill rewrites the ground rules for mail order and Internet sales by eliminating what its supporters view as a “loophole” that, in many cases, allows Americans to shop over the Internet without paying sales taxes. Currently, Americans who shop over the Internet...

Friday, April 17, 2009 Print ShareThisThe free ride may soon be over. For the past decade and a half, most Internet shoppers haven't been forced to pay sales tax while buying goods online. But now, according to CNet News, an alliance of "brick-and-mortar" retailers and state governments has teamed up to end that — and they've crafted federal legislation that may be introduced in Congress as early as next week. Previous attempts in past years to do so have flopped.

If a little-known but influential alliance of state politicians, large retailers, and tax collectors have their way, the days of tax-free Internet shopping may be nearly over. A bill expected to be introduced in the U.S. Congress as early as Monday would rewrite the ground rules for mail order and Internet sales by eliminating what its supporters view as a "loophole" that, in many cases, allows Americans to shop over the Internet without paying sales taxes. Currently, Americans who shop over the Internet from out-of-state vendors aren't always required to pay sales taxes at the time of purchase. Californians buying...

The feds are taxing tobacco yet again. They say this is about getting people to quit, but we all know better. If smokers quit smoking where would the money for all those liberal social experiments come from? Tell DC to puff off, and put out your stinky cigarette, cigar, or pipe. E-cigs, the future of nicotine addicts :) All the nicotine and none of the cancer causing tars and chemicals. Pick your flavor: apple, coffee, Red Bull, etc. "Smoke" anywhere! No ashtrays, no lighters, no stink! I ordered mine two days ago, and I can't WAIT to get it. I'll...

BERLIN--A key piece of Internet technology that banks, e-commerce sites, and financial institutions rely on to keep transactions safe suffers from a serious security vulnerability, an international team of researchers announced on Tuesday. They demonstrated how to forge security certificates used by secure Web sites, a process that would allow a sufficiently sophisticated criminal to fool the built-in verification methods used by all modern Web browsers--without the user being alerted that anything was amiss. The problem is unlikely to affect most Internet users in the near future because taking advantage of the vulnerability requires discovering some techniques that are not...

SEATTLE (AP) -- Amazon.com Inc. said Friday that the 2008 holiday season was the online retailer's "best ever," with more than 6.3 million items ordered and 5.6 million units shipped during its peak day on Dec. 15. Amazon's upbeat take on the holiday season bucked the drumbeat of generally dismal news from retailers. Holiday sales typically account for 30 percent to 50 percent of a retailer's annual total, but rising unemployment, home foreclosures, the stock market decline and other economic worries led many shoppers to slash their shopping budgets this year.

<p>SEATTLE (Nov. 28) - Sears.com was inaccessible to U.S. shoppers for two hours on Friday in what was the most notable Web hiccup of the holiday gift-buying season's official start.</p> <p>Other sites, including Amazon.com Inc., experienced minor slowdowns, according to Shawn White, director of external operations at Keynote Systems Inc., a San Mateo, Calif.-based research group.</p>

Hello Freepers. It's that time of year again. Let's boost the economy. LET'S GO SHOPPING!!

Consumer spending on e-commerce sites grew just 1 percent during October compared with the same month a year ago, according to ComScore. In fact, last month was the worst growth month for online retail spending since ComScore began keeping track in 2001. Rising prices and unemployment rates, and the psychological impact of the chaos of the financial markets are to blame, according to ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. But the dip in spending can't be too much of a shock to those who watch ComScore's monthly reports carefully. The preceding six months featured declining growth rates--April saw 15 percent growth, and...

Ebay is forcing customers to a payment option of Paypal or credit cards by October 20, 2008. Their email states: Offer an approved electronic payment method by October 20 Make sure you're ready for an uninterrupted holiday selling season: Offer PayPal, a merchant credit card, and/or one of the other approved electronic payment methods by October 20 when checks and money orders will no longer be allowed. Their release states as follows: Faster, more secure checkout experience Paper payments end this October Beginning late October 2008, all items listed on eBay.com must be paid for using one of the following...

Some long-time eBay users are rebelling against policy changes at the on line auction company -- they've gone as far as loosely organizing an international boycott. EBay trading rules have changed recently and many eBay sellers don't like them. They claim the new rules threat the small time sellers who built eBay into a multi-billion dollar company. Around 47,000 people have signed an online pledge to boycott eBay until the company changes its new trading policies. “Our collective belief as eBay users is that eBay wants to get rid of the small time sellers that built eBay, said Ann Smith...

New York's expansive new online sales-tax requirements are drawing mixed responses from major e-tailers that haven't previously collected such fees in the Empire State. Despite a pending lawsuit challenging the law's constitutionality, Amazon.com has said on its Web site that it still plans to abide by the law and add sales tax to orders shipped to New York when the mandate kicks in June 1. But online outlet store Overstock.com wants nothing to do with collecting the new tax, according to reports at the Affiliate Tip blog and The New York Times. A few weeks ago, New York's governor signed...

The owner of an Internet-based firearms store that sold a gun to Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho says he is now offering a discount for students who want to carry guns on campus to protect themselves. The company, TGSCOM Inc., also sold two 9mm Glock magazines to Steven Kazmierczak, who killed five people at Northern Illinois University earlier this year. The owner of TGSCOM, Eric Thompson, announced today that for the next two weeks he will sell firearms at cost in the hopes of targeting students who may be on a tight budget. Customers will have over 5,400 different kinds...

NASHVILLE - Prospects for passage of legislation allowing Tennesseans to buy wine over the Internet may have diminished because of an organized attack from a group that is apparently sponsored by wine and liquor wholesalers opposing the bill. Using a Web site, direct mail and faxes, Tennesseans Against Teen Drinking has prompted a flood of e-mails and calls to legislators from citizens whom legislation sponsors say are being misled and misinformed. The Web site, www.stopteendrinkingtn.org, includes statements attacking both Internet wine sales legislation and a bill allowing the sale of wine in grocery stores. It also allows viewers to automatically...

If you buy books, movies or other items from Amazon.com, be prepared to pay more soon. The online retail giant isn't raising prices. Gov. Eliot Spitzer is raising taxes - at least he hopes to. Spitzer has proposed closing a loophole in state tax law that allows out-of-state Internet retailers - Amazon.com being the biggest by far - to avoid charging sales tax to New Yorkers for online purchases. Rather than pay tax when they buy online, New York residents are supposed to account for the sales tax on their personal income tax returns. Few do, and the state loses...

Last week I wrote asking for reader input into the questions we would ask Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican candidate for President in 2008, in an upcoming interview. Thanks to the great feedback in the comments, we were able to put together a list of questions to use for the Romney interview, as well as future podcasts with other candidates we are scheduling now. The interview is below. Due to time constraints with Governor Romney, however, we weren’t able to get through all of the questions. Instead of rushing, we divided the questions up into two parts; his campaign says...

Massachusetts residents may have to pay sales tax on items ordered on the internet, although officials involved in the decision say nothing definite will be decided in the immediate future. A law signed by Gov. Mitt Romney last month includes the state in the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, a group founded in March 2000 that discusses common problems with collecting sales tax, including those from internet sales, according to Tim Connolly, communications director for the Mass. Dept. of Revenue. The department will represent the state at the meetings, beginning with one held in Indianapolis on May 19 and 20. “What...

States are Losing Money This Holiday Season with On-Line sales Streamlined system makes it easier for retailers to collect sales taxes WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Steven Rauschenberger, past president of the National Conference of State Legislatures and the former assistant Republican leader of the Illinois Senate, will testify before the House Subcommittee on Administrative and Commercial Law in support of "The Sales Tax Fairness and Simplification Act" or H.R. 3396. Sponsored in the House by Massachusetts Congressman William Delahunt and Illinois Congressman Ray LaHood, the bill responds to the eight-year effort by state legislators, governors and the private sector to...

A judge rules that the retailer needs to stand trial for having a Web site that is insufficiently accessible. When a federal court judge issued rulings Oct. 2 that the $60 billion retailer Target needed to stand trial on charges that its Web site is not sufficiently accessible to visually-impaired shoppers, it sent a strong signal to much of the e-commerce space.

Vanity question I have regarding the taxes paid on Internet shopping. Is it standard practice for a company to tax the shipping and handling charges? The reason I'm asking I just ordered something online and the company charged my taxes based on the amount that included the shipping and handling.

Cast in the good-guy role of stopping Internet cigarette sales to children, Maine's deputy attorney general got roughed up Wednesday by several Supreme Court justices who suggested the law is not on his side. Maine's deputy attorney general, Paul Stern, argued that Maine, like many other states, is trying to keep tobacco out the hands of underage smokers and that it cannot be done without the help of companies that deliver cigarettes bought over the Internet. Congress has encouraged the states "to deal with the significant public health problem of youth access to tobacco," Stern told the court, arguing for...

American consumers jammed online shopping sites on Monday, the official start of the holiday season for e-tailers, resulting in robust sales, according to an Internet research company. ComScore Inc. reported on Tuesday that consumers spent $733 million online on Monday, a 21 percent gain from the same day a year ago. ComScore had expected that sales would exceed the $700 million figure. While the first Monday after Thanksgiving kicks off the online holiday shopping season, it's not the busiest day for retailers, according to comScore. Last year, the busiest online shopping day was Wednesday, Dec. 13, generating $667 million in...

Federal prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of thousands of people who bought used books through online retailer Amazon.com Inc., newly unsealed court records show. The withdrawal came after a judge ruled the customers have a First Amendment right to keep their reading habits from the government. "The (subpoena's) chilling effect on expressive e-commerce would frost keyboards across America," U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker wrote in a June ruling.... Federal prosecutors issued the subpoena last year as part of a grand jury investigation into a former Madison official who was a prolific seller of used books on Amazon.com....

This year, Halloween could be a bit more hair-raising for American consumers, especially if they have an Internet connection. October 31st is the last day Congress can act to extend or make permanent the Internet Tax Moratorium. If Congress chooses to do nothing (not always a bad thing in my view), the tax moratorium will expire and on November 1st, state and local jurisdictions would be allowed to impose taxes on broadband and Internet access. This would also represent the first major tax increase on consumers in almost eight years. There are about 15,000 different taxing jurisdictions, so American consumers...

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Your favorite pants are fraying? You may soon be able to order replacements directly from the factory where they were made, according to the chief scientist of an ambitious Chinese Internet project. China's government is building a vast virtual world dubbed Beijing Cyber Recreation District, which founders say will help the manufacturing superpower evolve into an e-commerce juggernaut. Some supply-chain experts say the project is impossibly grandiose in its goal to provide direct links between tens of thousands of Chinese manufacturers and millions of individual customers around the world. But every "Made in China" label...

Boeing's surplus store in Kent, a mainstay for people in need of a cheap computer or a hard-to-find power tool, will close by the end of this year. Boeing instead plans to sell its surplus items in bulk to wholesale buyers over the Internet and through a more traditional contracting process with business partners, said spokesman Dean Tougas. Boeing will develop a Web site over the next few months to support its online plans, he said. The store's final day will be Dec. 21. For 35 years it has sold just about anything that Boeing no longer uses, except aircraft...

Senator Susan Collins introduced legislation on Aug. 3 to help crack down on illegal sales of tobacco to children by banning the shipment of cigarettes and other tobacco products through the U.S. mail. Specifically, the bill would add cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to the U.S. Postal Service's list of restricted, non-mailable products. A first violation of mailing such a product would be liable for a civil penalty of up to $5,000 or 10 times the estimated retail value of the tobacco products, including all federal, state, and local taxes, whichever is highest. Civil penalties of up to $100,000 would...

SEATTLE — Amazon.com Inc. said Tuesday that second-quarter earnings plunged nearly 58 percent as the online retailer focused on giving customers cheap or free shipping deals and investing in new technologies. Despite the hefty income drop, sales jumped 22 percent, which the company attributed to its focus on providing customers with things they want - such as the shipping deals. Amazon.com shares fell more than 12 percent in after-hours trading as the online retailer also said it planned to invest heavily in its new toy sales strategy and cut prices on many products. It also projected lower operating income for...

(AP) SEATTLE -- Amazon.com Inc. said Tuesday that second-quarter earnings plunged nearly 58 percent as the online retailer focused on investing in a shipping deal and new technologies. The results sent Amazon.com shares down over 9 percent in after-hours trading. For the three months ended June 30, the Seattle-based company reported earnings of $22 million, or 5 cents per share, compared with earnings of $52 million, or 12 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. In a conference call, Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak said net income was hurt by approximately $10 million because of the termination...

Yahoo is planning to pony up $60 million to buy a 10% share in South Korea's No 2. online retailer GMarket. South Korea has one of Asia's fastest growing e-commerce industries. Yahoo will buy its steak, I mean, stake from the venture capital firm Oak Investment Partners. It seems Oak Investment is the only significant outside institutional investor in GMarket...in other words, Yahoo had to go through them to get their foot in the door. Yahoo's COO, Dan Rosenweigg, said, "GMarket's strength in e-commerce complements the strong offerings we already provide in the Korean market across communications, content, and search...