Monthly Archives: August 2011
Madoff cancels interview with Gasparino of Fox Business
by Chris Roush
Charles Gasparino of Fox Business Network reports that convicted Ponzi scheme Bernie Madoff has canceled an interview with him after Gasparino reported that Harvard Business School said it was not working with Madoff to teach ethics at the school, something that Madoff has told Gasparino.
Gasparino writes, “Madoff also doesn’t like being called an egomaniac. In my FBN story, I quoted Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist and Fox News contributor, who made the point that Madoff may be reaching out to various members of the press to brag about his alleged involvement with the Harvard Business School among other things because of a pathological need to feel important, particularly now that he’s been exposed as a fraud who must spend the rest of his life in jail.
“‘As for your comments about my use of the media to somehow feed my ego,” Madoff writes, ‘Of the more than one hundred requests I have received world wide, I have only granted three interviews two for books and one for the London Financial Times, who like you wrongly reported that I was working on an Ethics course.’
“Just to clarify Madoff’s assertions once again, my reporting involved his claim that he’s working on an entrepreneurial course: I merely cited other reporting on the ethics course, which contained no visible corrections other than Harvard’s continued denials.
“Finally, Madoff appears annoyed about some of the comments I made particularly in an interview with Bianna Golodryga of ABC’s Good Morning America that he’s estranged from his wife Ruth, son Andrew and that he shows little remorse over the death of his other son, Mark, who committed suicide last year.”
Dow Jones columnist leaving for Morgan Stanley PR job
by Chris Roush
Peter Gallagher, a former Wall Streeter who was hired last year by Dow Jones Newswires to write a column, is leaving the business news service for a job in the Morgan Stanley corporate communications office.
In an e-mail to his colleagues, Gallagher writes:
I’m taking an early sabbatical from my second career in journalism.
Going from being a first time hack to a first time flack at Morgan Stanley in Corporate Communications as a financial writer.
Would especially like to thank my editors Arindam Nag and John Morris for training me to be a better writer as well as Rob Passarella and Gaby Stern for making the introduction.
Hard to leave especially after one of my first and more provocative columns – recommending that H-P separate its non-enterprise operations – essentially played out this month.
Should the whims of Wall St present a reason / opportunity / necessity to return, I hope to have more insight to offer our readers.
Trust what I have learned will shine through in my new role and reflect well on Dow Jones.
Reuters readying new app with just photos
by Chris Roush
The Wider Image iPad app was conceived and produced by Reuters pictures. Its vision is to re-imagine the way news photography can engage through evolving platforms, to position imagery at the heart of multimedia and to realize the potential of photojournalism. For more information, go here.
WSJ looking for small biz editor
by Chris Roush
Kevin Delaney, the managing editor of WSJ.com, sent out the following job posting to the staff on Wednesday:
The Wall Street Journal is looking for an editor to lead a reporting team covering news and issues affecting small business and the sector’s role in the economy, and to manage the online presence for this coverage on WSJ.com and SmartMoney.com.
The editor leads the reporting team, drives and edits coverage, oversees the small business pages on WSJ.com and SmartMoney.com, and works closely with the corporate and special sections desks. The team produces multiple types of articles and multimedia, including basic news, enterprise, analysis, surveys and service-oriented journalism, for print and online. Some writing may also be required of the editor. The multi-faceted nature of this role could make it an attractive opportunity for a very strong editor or reporter looking for deeper digital experience.
The successful candidate will have a vision for increasing our small business readership and creating a compelling web presence. He/she also needs a keen eye for groundbreaking stories and strong management skills.
Please contact Jonathan Krim if you’re interested.
Company web sites fail to help reporters
by Chris Roush
A study by the Financial Times and Bowen Craggs & Co. has discovered that corporate web sites do not provide the information that journalists need to do their jobs more effectively.
David Bowen writes, “There are obviously great differences, depending on the media and the individuals, but here are some generalisations:
“They do not want to be spoon fed – give them a ready-made story, and they will either ignore it, or look for a way to put a different twist on it (not necessarily in the company’s favour). The last thing they want is to write the same story as other people. What they do want is leads, which explains the keenness with which they have taken to Twitter. Companies need to understand Twitter – both to feed journalists leads and to get early warning that a nasty news storm is about to blow in.
“They are sceptics – or they should be. They are not inclined to believe anything a company tells them, and they have a sharp nose for spin. That said, they are big users of corporate sites, because these are the best sources of facts and figures.
“They tend to be in a hurry, and impatient. Their inclination is often to pick up the phone rather than trawl a site. Companies can make themselves unpopular by failing to make press contacts easy to find. But if they make the site easy enough to use, they can stop people reaching for the phone. Journalists also like material they can print out and read on the way to an interview or meeting: fact-filled but concise and easy to absorb.”
Read more here.
FT pulls apps from Apple
by Chris Roush
The Financial Times has pulled its iPad and iPhone apps from Apple’s App Store after losing a battle to keep control of customer data obtained through subscriptions.
Georgina Prodham of Reuters writes, “The Pearson-owned FT and Apple had been in negotiations for months but ultimately failed to reach a compromise, an FT spokesman said on Wednesday.
“Apple launched its own subscription service for magazines, newspapers, videos and music earlier this year but has won little support from major publishers.
“The iPad tablet computer, launched a year and a half ago, created a new market popular with affluent professionals and has been a major driver of new subscriptions to FT.com, which now accounts for about a quarter of the FT’s total sales.
“The FT’s digital subscriptions rose 34 percent to 230,000 in the first half of this year, with mobile devices accounting for 22 percent of FT.com traffic and more than 15 percent of new subscriptions.”
Read more here.
Bloomberg loses in attempt to get analyst call case dismissed
by Chris Roush
Bloomberg LP lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit by Swatch Group AG that accused the news service of secretly recording an earnings conference call with securities analysts and giving a transcript to clients.
Moira Herbst of Reuters writes, “Swatch accused Bloomberg of tapping into its Feb. 8 earnings call and providing a transcript that day to online subscribers, without permission in both cases.
“The world’s largest watchmaker said this occurred after it told listeners at the beginning of the call not to record it for publication or broadcast.
“Swatch sought a court order directing Bloomberg to destroy its copies of the recording and transcript, as well as damages and other remedies for alleged ‘willful’ infringement.
“Bloomberg countered that Swatch had an obligation to be transparent and disclose financial performance information to everyone rather than select analysts.”
Read more here.
Bloomberg submits FCC filing asking Comcast to adhere to agreement
by Chris Roush
Bloomberg LP submitted yet another filing Tuesday to the Federal Communications Commission asking the regulatory agency to force Comcast to put Bloomberg Television closer to CNBC in its channels as part of an agreement that allowed the cable company to purchase a majority stake in NBC Universal.
Comcast has resisted making the change, arguing that the agreement with the FCC does not require it to give Bloomberg Television such placement. It has asked the FCC to submit the dispute to an administrative law judge.
Bloomberg has argued against having the dispute adjudicated by a judge, noting in its Tuesday filing — submitted by the high-profile Washington law firm Patton Boggs — that “Should this case be referred to an administrative law judge, it is almost certain that far more time will elapse before Bloomberg will be able to obtain relief.”
In the filing, Bloomberg estimated that it could be as long as two to three years before it could get its network located near CNBC on Comcast cable systems.
“It is essential for the viability of independent news programming and the integrity of the FCC’s merger review process that Comcast not be permitted to simply walk away from its commitments,” said Greg Babyak, head of government affairs for Bloomberg, in a statement. “Bloomberg LP is confident that Chairman Genachowski and his colleagues will require Comcast to abide by the independent news neighborhooding condition to which Comcast affirmatively agreed to gain approval for its acquisition of NBCU.
“Comcast’s ongoing refusal to implement the independent news neighborhooding condition is nothing more than an attempt to run out the clock. With eight months of the condition’s life having already elapsed, Comcast still refuses to acknowledge the Order’s mandate that ‘now’ means ‘now.’”
Comcast was critical of Bloomberg’s tactics back in July. You can read about its statement here.
NYT names new economy reporter
by Chris Roush
New York Times business editor Larry Ingrassia sent out the following announcement to the business news desk staff:
We’re pleased to announce that Shaila Dewan will join Business Day and our team of reporters covering the economy.
Shaila, who most recently was a National correspondent in Atlanta, is a talented reporter and wordsmith who has demonstrated great range in her career at The Times. She has a knack for spotting great stories and telling them through people, skills that will be very valuable as she works with Catherine Rampell and Motoko Rich on the economics beat, reporting to Winnie O’Kelley. The economy is one the biggest stories anywhere, and explaining policy and enlightening readers about what is going on and what it means to them is central to the paper’s overall coverage of what’s happening in America.
As a National reporter, Shaila produced smart stories about our economic times, writing about how the well-to-do were cutting back on conspicuous consumption after the financial meltdown; profiling a Georgia town that lost its bank; examining the wave of furloughs, voluntary and otherwise, meant to stave off layoffs; and chronicling Charlotte’s fall from banking grace as rivals Bank of America and Wachovia teetered on the edge.
Shaila - pronounced SHY-lah (though she’s not shy) – joined The Times in March 2000 on the Metro desk. She helped covered 9/11 and ended with a two-year stint in the cop shop (“my favorite,” she says), where she wrote about declining crime, floating bodies, advancements in forensic science and the death of two undercover officers in a Staten Island gun deal gone bad.
In 2005, she joined National. “Six months later, Hurricane Katrina hit, setting the course for my reporting for months and years to come. In addition to covering the usual Southern mix of race, politics, criminal justice travesties and civil rights history, I helped cover the Virginia Tech shooting, the mine explosion in West Virginia, the bizarre saga of Amy Bishop, the professor who went postal in Alabama, and, of course, the BP oil spill,” she reports.
Shaila originally is from Houston, where she began her reporting career at the Houston Press, an investigative newsweekly.
Las Vegas biz paper names new ME
by Chris Roush
Jennifer Land has been named managing editor of the Las Vegas Business Press, effective immediately. She has been running daily operations for several months as interim managing editor.
Laura Emerson writes, “Before joining Stephens Media as a copy editor for the Review-Journal business section and designer for the Business Press in February 2008, Land, 31, was the universal desk editor of The Villages Daily Sun in The Villages, Fla.; a page designer for the Boca Raton News in Boca Raton, Fla.; and managing editor of the High Springs Herald in High Springs, Fla.
“A 2002 graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in magazine journalism, Land looks forward to her future with the Business Press.
“‘A big goal of ours is to help out the small-business owners,’ Land says.
“She plans to accomplish this through the addition of more how-to articles, profiles that exhibit how local companies have found success and informative pieces on where to find quality business resources.”
Read more here.
