TunaCorp

TunaCorp is one of Tasnica's AAA corporations, and boasts a leadership position in two major fields: media communications and civilian travel. Thus TunaCorp can be broken down into two major divisions: Tuna NewsMedia, and Tuna TravelLine. TunaCorp's CEO and founder is none other than the irascible Ted Tuna.

Tuna NewsMedia - Perhaps the better known of TunaCorp's two divisions, Tuna NewsMedia is a pioneer and consistent leader in Web communications, especially in the area of broadcast and print news reporting. Assets: TNN- The flagship of Tuna NewsMedia, TNN (Tuna NewsMedia Networks) is the largest major television network in the Web of Worlds. Providing service throughout Tasnica and the Core worlds, TNN operates on a national level. Typically, TNN will have a network bureau headquarters in the national capital of a given nation (Tasnicaport, Pandora, Truce, Nikeah, Toroia, etc.), and then affiliate broadcasters in major cities. Each affiliate answers to the capital bureau, which in turn answers to the network headquarters in Orlean, Winlan.

Bureaus are responsible for producing national newscasts. Each bureau is staffed locally, and its concerns are ultimately aimed at playing to its primary audience (that being the natives of whatever country). Affiliates operate similarly, though on a municipal level, producing local newscasts aimed at the immediately local viewership. Affiliates also are responsible for local programming, being the final arbiters of which programs go into which timeslots (though generally the recommendations of the national bureau and network headquarters influence these decisions, and few affiliates deviate from what the bureaus and network recommend).

-Programming on TNN-

National News- This varies from country to country, but production value and standards for excellence in reporting are generally higher than Tuna's smaller competitors. The vastness of the Tuna media empire guarantees, though, that most all national bureaus have immediate and unfettered access to international news through Tuna's Web-wide newschannel, WNN (see below). This allows Tuna NewsMedia to easily outreport its less-widespread competitors by consistently being the first on the scene, complete with cameras, boom mics and your standard talking-head field reporters.

Local News- As above, custom-tailored to meet the needs of the immediate community. Tuna's local affiliates have broad discretion over programming within their cities, thus ensuring that the network has the broadest appeal among potential viewers come ratings time.

Television Entertainment- Tuna produces much of its own original programming, from situation comedies to hourlong dramas, and even miniseries events and made-for-TV-movies. Tuna also co-produces a number of entertainment media with Bahamut WEB, the other of the Republic's AAA mass media giants.

WNN- WNN (Web News Network) is Tuna NewsMedia's 24-hour television newschannel. Though based in Tasnica, it has a Webwide focus, especially in the realm of international diplomacy, war coverage and politics. To reflect this international bent, WNN's primary headquarters are in Contac and the City of Kupopolis. WNN is broadcast via cable and satellite, setting it immediately appart from TNN (which is broadcast over the airwaves on the national level). Also unlike TNN, WNN's primary focus is information rather than entertainment. To that end, WNN is not held to standards of ratings or viewer performance, but rather only to the high journalistic values of Ted Tuna himself.

WNN's programming ranges vastly, but every program is aimed at keeping the viewer informed of Web events. News comes in hours-long chunks, interspersed with talk shows and debate shows where the issues of the day are analyzed, argued and predicted.

WNN2- A fairly recent development, WNN2 was launched because Ted Tuna was not satisfied with the coverage he was getting from just one 24 hour newschannel. WNN2 is much like its sister network, though it is more heavily saturated with political punditry and talk shows than WNN (whose main thrust is straight reportage).

TSN- Tuna Sports Network is another cable/satellite based network dedicated to covering various sporting events throughout the Web. The network's biggest ratings come about during the collegiate football and fencing seasons, two of the only events which have managed to garner significant international attention.

Tuna Press Media- Tuna Press Media is a subdivision of Tuna NewsMedia, and it is through the Press Media subdivision that Ted Tuna controls the various newspapers of his media empire. If TNN is Ted Tuna's flagship, Tuna Press Media is his standing ground army. Some of the more important papers he owns include: The Tasnicaport Press, The Winlan Times, The Quad Reporter, The Narshe Press, The Maranda Telegraph, The Truce Herald, the Trann Press, the Baronian Observer (which has been headquartered and printed in Eblan since the Great War), the Priman Press, the Kuvallan Khronicle, the Carrion Royal Reporter and the Medinan Gazette. Tuna is trying to break into the Fringe market, but his modus operandi in the Core has been to purchase existing papers to avoid expenditures involved in building a print journal from the ground up, and no suitable purchases have yet presented themselves in Alter or in Merge.

TRN- Tuna Radio Network was once the crown jewel in Ted Tuna's media empire. At the time, radio was in, and so TRN once boasted a network that, for its time, was comparably as vast as TNN. Now, however, TRN's old network infrastructure has broken down, and Tuna simply owns radio stations for the sake of owning radio stations. He owns at least one in every major city of the Web, though he sometimes owns two (in the case where one is devoted to news reporting, and the other is devoted to playing popular music). Despite how some have downplayed the significance of radio in the modern Web of Worlds, one may be surprised to learn that radio advertising (particularly to youths tuning in to hear pop music) is one of the Tuna media empire's biggest sources of revenue (before even television or print advertising).

Tuna TravelLine</b> Tuna TravelLine is Ted Tuna's inter-Web travel division. TravelLine owns fleets of taxicabs, buses, aerospace liners and cruise ships that cover an impressive area throughout the Web, running to every major port in the entire Web (with exceptions to be had [by necessity] in Communist-held territory). Tuna TravelLine also boasts the significant development of being the first major civilian transport network to have established major aerospace hubs in both Fringe dimensions, making their coverage of the Web of Worlds more or less total. Their closest competitor is Aerospace Esper -- both corporations make claims at being "the best" and "the first" more often than can be appropriately counted. A truly independent analysis would put both corporations at a tie in the travel market (although Tuna hedges out Aerospace Esper due to the inherent differences in their home countries: Tasnica allows its citizens free travel, while the Esper Union still tightly regulates where its citizens move and why).