Monthly Archives: May 2012
Albright retires after long career as St. Pete Times retail reporter
by Chris Roush
Mark Albright, the long-time retail reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, has retired after 39 years at the paper.
Albright started working for the paper, long known as the St. Petersburg Times, in February 1973. He is a Kent State graduate.
After covering slow-moving local government and politics for 13 years, Albright shifted his attention to why we buy.
He’s covered the ever-changing business of retailing — from flea markets to Neiman Marcus — since 1986. He’s interviewed most every prominent merchant in the country. He’s profiled Wal-Mart greeters and spent days following department store buyers making their rounds in New York’s garment district.
His work is quoted in retailing textbooks. He buys his own clothes and groceries. He’s tight with a buck, but has been known to splurge. When things get slow at the office, he goes shopping.
On his last day of work, Albright was working on a story right up until walking out the door.
The nicest guy — and most powerful site — in tech blogging
by Chris Roush
Richard Nieva of Fortune writes about Tim Stevens, the editor in chief of tech blog Engadget and, he argues, one of the most powerful people in the tech world.
Nieva writes, “Peter Rojas founded the blog in his tiny Lower East Side apartment in 2004, with the goal of covering technology in plain speech. In an industry smitten with jargon and officialese, Engadget covered gadgets in a way that was readable. Rojas created Engadget for Weblogs, Inc. and cashed in when CEO Jason Calacanis sold the company to AOL a year later for $25 million. It continued to grow. As of today, Technorati, a website which ranks the popularity of blogs, lists Engadget as the world’s number one tech blog, with The Verge right behind it. In April, the site received 4.8 million unique visitors, according to comScore Inc.
“Engadget quickly became an authority. According to a former Apple employee, executives at the company originally avoided talking to Engadget or Gizmodo because their coverage was ‘too snarky.’ That changed after Steve Jobs began reading them every day. Stevens recalls a phone call he once got from a public relations person after writing a negative review of a tablet. ‘She told me I ruined the company,’ he says. ‘I thought, ‘Don’t ruin my day by telling me that. You should make a good product.” One PR person from a prominent agency in Silicon Valley says good coverage from the blog is crucial to a product’s success or failure with consumers. ‘They can make your launch a big mess. They are incredibly important,’ says the representative who declined to be named.
“Engadget has a staff of about 40 writers and editors scattered around the globe — from Silicon Valley to Paris and Taipei. They report in numerous languages, including Chinese and German. The staff has had moments of journalistic ingenuity and brilliance. When Apple released the iPhone 3G in 2008, for instance, former editor in chief Ryan Block travelled to New Zealand, the closest launch country to the International Date Line, to get his hands on a phone. The maneuver bought Engadget the most precious commodity in the business of blogging: time. The gambit gave the site an 18-hour lead over media outlets on the East Coast.”
Read more here.
Dobbs catching up to Kudlow
by Chris Roush
Lou Dobbs of Fox Business Network is catching up to Larry Kudlow of CNBC in terms of viewers, according to a report by Jacob Wolinsky of ValueWalk.com
Wolinsky writes, “However, the ultimate competition is primetime hour at 7pm. Lou Dobbs has been going head to head with Larry Kudlow of CNBC, and according to the latest Nielsen ratings, he is in a tight race.
“The 7PM shows both focus on the political economy and feature two veteran newsmen. The Nielsen ratings for the month of May, showed Dobbs bringing in 30,000 viewers aged 25-54 (the key demographic group for advertisers), compared to The Kudlow Report’s 39,000 viewers. In addition, last week, Dobbs was even closer to Kudlow, trailing by only 3,000 viewers in the age group.
“Dobbs has only been on FBN for just over a year and was practically tied with Kudlow for March and April. For parts of April and May CNBC split Kudlow’s hour with NHL playoff games which widened the gap between CNBC and FBN – but now that the games are over, and the race has resumed. With the election heating up and the economy the number one issue, the competition should be getting more exciting.”
Read more here.
Reuters union responds to management with its own PIP
by Chris Roush
Talking Biz News reported last week about the growing conflict between Reuters management and the New York Newspaper Guild about how some journalists were being targeted with unfair performance incentive plans, or PIPs, as a way to push them out of their jobs.
The union has now written a tongue-in-cheek PIP for Reuters management.
It reads:
Thomson Reuters Editorial management recently issued a wave of PIPs (Performance Improvement Plans) – 29 and counting – to Guild-represented journalists. In our review, we found that it is actually the performance of some of the front-line supervisors who issued the PIPs that needs improving.
This memo details the offenses, but not the offenders. We’re saving that information for the many arbitration hearings that lie ahead.
MEMORANDUM
Date: May 30, 2012
To: Individual Editorial Managers (you know who you are; we are withholding the names for now on the off-chance you discover some shred of common sense, integrity and honesty)
CC: Rob Doherty, General Manager, Karen Hamilton HR Business Partner
From: The Newspaper Guild of New York
Re: Poor Implementation of Management Performance
This is to notify you that your performance as an Editorial manager is not meeting expectations. Your own qualifications as a manager, as evidenced by your less than stellar supervision of the journalists who report to you, are dubious. It is plain you don’t understand the work our members do, nor what Thomson Reuters clients require.
The Guild urges you to improve your own performance as journalists and managers, instead of blindly following some edict laid down by senior managers who think the best way to improve performance is through a reign of terror.
PERFORMANCE AREAS REQUIRING IMMEDIATE IMPROVEMENT:
– You fail to give promised guidance and feedback in a timely manner. When you do provide guidance, it is often vague. When a reporter returns with the story you requested, you deny having asked for it and say there “must have been a misunderstanding.” Similarly, you repeatedly move the performance goalposts you set for reporters, making it practically impossible to deliver the quality and/or the quantity of stories requested.
– You fail to edit reporters’ work in a timely fashion, putting Thomson Reuters behind the competition on some stories and allowing other stories to be overtaken by events.
– You criticize journalists for not cultivating new sources, but fail to let them attend, or limit their attendance at, events where they could make new contacts.
– You assign journalists to cover the day-to-day market coverage that Thomson Reuters clients require, and then fail to give these journalists time to focus on the special projects you say they must do to “improve their performance.”
– When editing and often significantly rewriting journalists’ copy you insert errors and then attempt to obfuscate them. You do this in your own reporting as well.
– You repeatedly violate company style guidelines on corrections, often in an attempt to obscure errors (see above). Your initial editing frequently reflects a lack of subject knowledge, an inability to structure stories and unfamiliarity with English usage and grammar.
– When you cannot find any other reason to criticize a Guild member’s performance, you resort to the absurdly petty, e.g., “You don’t use enough pronouns!”
– You use meaningless management-speak in advising Guild members how to improve, e.g., telling them repeatedly that they should be “plugged in,” as if they were toasters.</>
IMPACT OF PERFORMANCE ISSUES
You have helped senior management create a poisonous work environment at Thomson Reuters. At news bureaus across the United States, journalists – both those targeted and their Guild and non-Guild colleagues – are distracted by worry for their livelihoods, making it more difficult for them to actually do their jobs. Productivity and morale have plummeted, and clients have told us they notice the difference.
Your management is below the level demanded by journalistic ethics and expected by Thomson Reuters clients.
REQUIRED ACTION
As noted in numerous grievances filed against Thomson Reuters by the Guild, you need to rescind all Performance Improvement Plan notices and discipline issued against Guild members. If there are legitimate performance concerns with individual reporters, talk to them and coach them, but remove discipline from the equation, as required by our contract.
Cho leaving Baltimore for Dallas
by Chris Roush
Hanah Cho, a business journalist at the Baltimore Sun, is leaving the paper and headed to Texas.
Cho tells Talking Biz News that she has accepted an offer to join the business news desk of the Dallas Morning News, where she will cover small business/entrepreneurship and banks.
Her new job starts July 2. She started at the Sun in September 2003 so she has been with her current employer almost 9 years.
Cho was the winner in the breaking news category for large publications in the 2008 Best in Business award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. She was the lead reporter/writer in the coverage of Constellation’s failed merger with Warren Buffett’s energy company.
Cho dropped out of pharmacy school to pursue a career in journalism. She grew up in New Jersey but lived in several states for interesting jobs, including stints in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota and Los Angeles, before settling in Baltimore.
Cho is president of the Washington, DC chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association. She attended Rutgers-New Brunswick and the University of Maryland.
The Facebook journalism bubble
by Chris Roush
Steven Levy of Wired writes about the massive amount of coverage being devoted to Facebook even after its initial public offering.
Levy writes, ¨Because of some funny business when the big day finally arrived — you can read about this, oh, just about everywhere — the IPO actually triggered yet another wave of Facebook news, along with endless arguments about how the IPO was botched, or whether it really was botched. And the post-mortems had barely begun when Zuckerberg poked his own hole in the quiet period by posting a photo of his wedding, held barely after the peals of the (cracked) NASDAQ bell had faded. The nuptial was a determinedly low-key event, but for all the press commentary it generated, you’d think it was a geek version of Will and Kate.
¨So we’re still in the Facebook Journalism Bubble, reading basically the same articles by the same writers. Meanwhile, other stories get short shrift. Most of the venues that budgeted multiple Facebook posts every day barely found room for a story or two about the first private space vehicle to dock with the International Space Station. Surely that’s as big a story as discovering who designed Mrs. Zuckerberg’s wedding gown.
¨Which is not to say that there aren’t plenty of unexplored angles left in the Facebook saga. But preciously few in the sea of coverage dip into the real and persistent news of Facebook — it’s a company driving a tech-based redefinition of how we share human experience.¨
Read more here.
Why Bloomberg shouldn’t buy the NYT
by Chris Roush
Jonathan Berr of InvestorPlace.com writes about why Bloomberg LP should have no interest whatsoever in acquiring the New York Times and merging its news operations with its own.
Berr writes, “At a time when scads of news organizations — including the Times— are retrenching, Bloomberg has added coverage, including Bloomberg View, its op-ed page. The company now employs what it describes as more than 2,300 news and multimedia professionals that provide real-time financial information to more than 310,000 subscribers.
“One way that Bloomberg keeps these people glued to their Bloomberg Terminals is by telling them everything that they need to know, such as what’s in The New York Times. All the paper’s main stories are summarized every day, along with those of other major outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and CNBC, making the actual purchase of the Times unnecessary.
“Managing journalists is like herding cats in the best of times, and integrating the 1,200 or so reporters and editors who work for the Times into Bloomberg’s investment-bank-like corporate culture would be a nightmare. There would be tons of duplication with Bloomberg’s existing news infrastructure, so it’s not clear how many Times staffers would be offered jobs at the new company. Following the BusinessWeek acquisition, about 100 employees were not offered jobs with Bloomberg News.”
Read more here.
House committee to hold hearing on how data released to biz media
by Chris Roush
A U.S. House panel will hold a hearing June 6 to examine a series of changes planned by the Department of Labor around its release of the U.S. jobs report and other key data to the business media.
Geoffrey Rogow of Dow Jones Newswires writes, “The hearing is expected to examine the ‘politicization’ of data-release practices at the Labor Department, according to a notice from Rep. Issa that was reviewed by Dow Jones Newswires. Solis was appointed by President Barack Obama. Galvin has been with the Bureau of Labor Statistics since 1978.
“Beginning in July, the Labor Department will no longer allow news agencies to use customized computer networks to send market-moving employment data to a range of clients, including traders. Currently, a number of news agencies, including Dow Jones & Co., publisher of this newswire, maintain specialized hardware and software on government premises.
“The hardware allows the news organizations to transmit data to subscribers as soon as it is released. Some traders pay for access to feeds that allow the speediest delivery of the data. These ‘high-speed’ firms often make trades within microseconds after the data are released.
“A representative for the Department of Labor couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
“The hearing comes roughly three weeks after a U.S. senator raised concerns over the Labor Department’s plan to change the procedures used by journalists to report on data from the department, including the monthly nonfarm payrolls report.”
Read more here.
Fort Lauderdale paper seeks new biz editor
by Chris Roush
Here is the job description:
The Sun Sentinel seeks an aggressive, experienced editor who is a strong leader to take charge of its Business department.
The ideal candidate will be a creative thinker with solid news judgment and outstanding management skills. He or she will lead a department of one assistant editor and nine reporters.
The Business Editor will direct coverage from a consumer perspective to give us new approaches to storytelling in print and online while emphasizing useful, local and unique content. We’re looking for an innovative, resourceful, collaborative editor who embraces change and understands the Sun Sentinel’s audience.
Sophisticated editing, planning and digital skills are a must, along with the ability to work with the staff to aggressively develop business/consumer news and enterprise coverage.
Applicants should submit a resume, samples of work and a vision statement to Associate Editor Anne Vasquez, alvasquez@sunsentinel.com <mailto:alvasquez@sunsentinel.com> .
“Money with Melissa Francis” to debut Monday on Fox Business
by Chris Roush
A new show, “Money with Melissa Francis,” will debut Monday on Fox Business Network.
This show will air weeknights from 5 p.m. to 6p.m., and it will feature a breakdown of the day’s top stories and how they impact the American taxpayer.
In addition, Melissa Francis will continue in her role as co-anchor of ”Markets Now” at 1 p.m. alongside Lori Rothman.
Francis will discuss and debate key issues facing business in America and examine their impact on the economy. The program will also provide a recap of the day’s top news stories and market moves.
The debut of the new show will shift Fox Business Network’s evening lineup, moving Gerri Willis‘ “The Willis Report” to 6 p.m. The show had been previously planned for 8 p.m.
“Lou Dobbs Tonight” will remain weeknights at 7 p.m. and Neil Cavuto will take over the 8 p.m. time slot.
“Stossel,” hosted by John Stossel, will continue to run Thursdays at 9 p.m.
Read more here.
