.news

Status:	Active
Date Implemented:	21 March 2015
Type:	Generic
Category:	Media
More information:

.news is an active TLD in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The proposed application succeeded and was delegated to the Root Zone on 21 March, 2015. United TLD Holdco, Ltd is the manager and registry for the TLD. Prior to reaching General Availabilty on July 15, 2015, the TLD logged over 1,000 registrations during its trademark sunrise period.

Applicant

1. Donuts (Hidden Bloom, LLC) has applied for a total of 307 TLDs. It submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.

Former Applicants

1. Radix, .news is one of 31 applications submitted by the company.
2. Uniregistry, Corp., the company has applied for 54 TLDs and is owned by domainer Frank Schilling.
3. Primer Nivel
4. Famous Four Media (dot News Limited) has applied for 61 TLDs.
5. Amazon
6. Merchant Law Group LLP

Amazon

Amazon's application was issued a GAC Early Warning from the representative of Australia and GAC Chair, Heather Dryden. The warning system is noted as a strong recommendation on behalf of national governments to the ICANN Board that a given TLD application should be denied as it stands. Applicants are encouraged to work with objecting GAC members.

The warning states that the applicant is "seeking exclusive access to a common generic string .. that relates to a broad market sector," which Ms. Dryden notes could have unintended consequences and a negative impact on competition.

Radix

Radix received a GAC Early Warning as an entire applicant, where each one of the applicants was flagged by the U.S. Government. This seems to be the only time a portfolio applicant had all of their applications warned. The issue does not deal with the technical capabilities or thematic content of their applications, but rather the inclusion of an email address associated with the US' Federal Bureau of Investigation. It seems that Radix included correspondence with this address as a recommendation with each of their applications.

Top-Level Domain

Governmental Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN as they relate to concerns of governments, particularly matters where there may be an interaction between ICANN's policies and various laws and international agreements or where they may affect public policy issues (ICANN Bylaws).