The Missoulian from Missoula, Montana • 31

II NEWSROOM 52 3-52 40 Missoulian Inside usiness Getting Ahead D2 TV Listings D3 Wall Street Journal D4 Sunday, February 22, 2009 Urn aTV Checking progress of digital transition Unemployed hit with bank fees on benefits By CHRISTOPHER LEONARD Associated Press For hundreds of thousands of workers losing their jobs during the recession, there's a new twist to their financial pain: Even as they're collecting unemployment benefits, they're paying bank fees just to get access to their money. Thirty states have struck such deals with banks that include Citigroup Bank of America JPMorgan Chase and US Bancorp, an Associated Press review of the agreements found. All the programs carry fees, and in several states the unemployed have no choice but to use the debit cards. Some banks even charge overdraft fees of up to $20 even The first steps of the digital TV transition began early last Wednesday morning and, for the most part, it seems like it went fairly well. More than 28,000 people called 1-888-CALL-FCC on Tuesday for help getting their TV sets working, according to the Associated Press.

Much less than the projected 100,000 callers a day they were prepared for (snurl.comcbl2h). And more that a third of full-power TV stations in the U.S. 641 in all changed to DDI TO Pisl n4 though they could Yi digital on Feb. 17, according to the Washington Post, even though more than 5 million U.S. households, or 4.4 percent of homes, still cannot receive digital broadcasts (snurl.comcblp6).

So did all the public service decline charges for more than what's on the card. "It's a racket. It's a scam," said Rachel Davis, a 38-year-old dental technician from St. Louis who was laid off in October. Davis was given a MasterCard issued through Central Bank of Jefferson City and recently paid $6 to make two $40 withdrawals.

The banks say their programs offer convenience. They also provide at least 'Banks, particularly ones that have received federal help, should not be imposing endless fees and charges on the unemployed in this time of economic crisis. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, MARK RATLEDGE announcements the Federal Communications Commission required TV stations to air pay off? Or did we not get full effect of transition problems because the transition has been stretched out until June? It's impossible to say, but I think the work local stations did to point out the upcoming change to viewers paid off. But June 12 is the new analog cut-off date, so there is still work to be done.

In Montana, several stations in Missoula, Great Falls and Butte stopped analog broadcasts, while some stations in Billings wanted to cut analog but were prevented by the FCC because of the potential negative impact to the market. In Missoula, while other stations stayed analog or continued to broadcast analog alongside digital, KTMFABC stopped analog broadcasts. I talked with Linda Gray, president of Max Media Montana, the company behind KTMF, and she explained the work up to the transition and how the company See RATLEDGE, Page D6 one way to tap the money at no charge, such as using a single free withdrawal to get all the cash at once from a bank teller. But the banks benefit from human nature, as people end up treating the cards like all the other plastic in their wallets. The fees are raising questions from lawmakers who just recently voted to infuse anks with taxpayer money to keep them afloat.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said the situation points to "yet another example of how we need to regulate the ways in which i banks charge overdraft and other fees." "Banks, particularly ones that have received federal help, should not be imposing endless fees and charges on the unemployed in this time of economic crisis," said Maloney, who has written a bill to require that consumers be notified at the point of sale if they're about to incur overdraft fees. Some banks, depending on the agreement negotiated with each state, also make money on the interest they earn after the state deposits the money and before it's spent. The banks and i ni i I i SERGIO SALVADOR Associated Press Recently unemployed engineer Arthur Santa-Maria poses recently at a Bank of America ATM in Los Lunas, N.M. Santa-Maria was surprised to learn he must pay fees to withdraw his unemployment money using a state-issued Bank of America debit card.

credit card companies also get roughly 1 percent fees or interest. It's difficult to estimate the to 3 percent off the top of each transaction profits because they depend on how often made with the cards. recipients use their cards and where they use Neither banks nor credit card companies them, will say how much money they are making off But the potential is clear, the programs, or what proportion of the revenue comes from user versus merchant $ee JOBLESS, Page D6 Internet darling Twitter looks for ways to turn a profit Follow us For breaking news updates and more, follow the Missoulian on Twitter at twitter.commissoulian. the mystery strategy will pay off even as a devastating recession destroys much-larger companies. Just three months ago, Twitter rejected a $500 million takeover offer from an even bigger phenomenon, Facebook the owner of the world's largest online hangout.

Although shooing away Facebook was risky, Twitter still isn't under immense pressure to generate revenue. The 29-employee company has already raised $55 million, including a $35 million round recently completed with Benchmark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners. Like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and other communal Web sites that have become Internet sensations, Twitter gives people a stage where they can express themselves and connect with kindred spirits. See TWITTER, Page D2 By MICHAEL LIEDTKE Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO Twitter Inc. has spawned a new way to communicate by limiting messages to 140 keystrokes.

So here's a way to describe the Internet's latest craze within Twitter's space restrictions: It's a potluck of pithy self-expression simmering with whimsy, narcissism, voyeurism, hucksterism, tedium and sometimes useful information. One vital ingredient has been missing from the mix so far revenue. That raises questions about whether the nearly 3-year-old service can make the leap from intriguing fad to sustainable business. Twitter intends to start testing ways to make money this spring. And co-founder Evan Williams promises it won't drive away the more than 6 million people who have set up accounts on the unconventional communications network.

"We don't see any reason why this can't be a very large and profitable entity," said Williams, the San Francisco-based company's chief executive. "We have enough traffic on our Web site that we could put ads on there and maybe we could make enough to pay our bills, but that's not the most interesting thing we can do." Williams, 36, won't say what he has in mind besides selling ads, but he and the handful of other people who own privately held Twitter seem confident in mi, fcW WM BM iiii JW liii I i JEFF CHIU Associated Press Twitter founders Biz Stone, left, and Evan Williams are seen in their office in San Francisco recently. Twitter Inc. revolves around riffing in messages limited to 140 keystrokes. Revenue has been conspicuously missing from the mix so far, raising questions about whether the nearly 3-year-old service can make the leap from intriguing fad to sustainable business.

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