February 3, 1998

The Microsoft Media Map

Bill’s well on his way to becoming the Citizen Kane of the Web.

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


From Microsoft’s lowly beginnings in Albuquerque in 1975, it has grown into the multinational, new-media-eating monster of the 1990s. Slow to discover the profit potential of the Internet, Microsoft embarked in 1996 on a spending spree unprecedented in the industry, swallowing Internet software and technology companies, and aligning itself with Internet media creators of all kinds, in a high-stakes game of catch-up.

The goal: to control the future of information delivery. Not only does Microsoft have most Netizens’ desktops, it now has a piece of the wires on which their data travels from computer to Internet, with its $1 billion investment in Comcast’s cable modems and its acquisition of WebTV. Today Microsoft is influencing the very ways that data is exchanged on the Net, the ways it’s presented, viewed, created, and distributed.

But why stop there? In the ever-expanding world of new media, why be satisfied with owning the technology that moves information around? Why not own the information itself? After all, there are advertising dollars and subscription fees to swoop on. In November 1996, Microsoft formed an Interactive Media Group which is now flooding the Web with Redmond-copyrighted content through a slew of Web sites under the Microsoft Network umbrella. It’s also developing a new search engine to compete with the likes of Yahoo, and a new home page to battle America Online.

Here the MoJo Wire presents a graphical primer to the Web world of Microsoft: Click on the company names to see their connections.

The Microsoft Media Map does not show the entire Web world of Gates, Allen, and Microsoft; we’re sure we haven’t found it all, and it gets bigger every day. E-mail your tips for additions or changes and we’ll include them in an ongoing update.

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate