Grumpy Editor

WSJ calls Romney 'tough,' Newsweek cites ‘wimp factor’

People walking past newsstands yesterday saw contrasting cover headlines with Newsweek magazine --- dominated by a large photo of smiling, tieless presidential hopeful Mitt Romney --- proclaiming “The Wimp Factor” with the subhead, “Is he just too insecure to be president?” while The Wall Street Journal’s main above-the-fold front-page headline, was “Romney Talks Tough,” observes Grumpy Editor.

So it goes in an election year --- which could be the last for a print version of Newsweek.

(Barry Diller, chairman of Newsweek owner IAC/InterActiveCorp., says the 79-year-old weekly eventually will transition to an online publication.  More on that could come as early as September.)

As Newsweek pitches this week’s cover story:  “Dodging reporters, fearing his base, hiding his taxes --- is Mitt Romney just too insecure to be president? In Newsweek, Michael Tomasky surveys a history of presidential manliness and asks just where Mitt would fit amid the studly swagger of Dubya and Reagan.”

And who is Michael Tomasky?

Tomasky is Newsweek/Daily Beast special correspondent and editor of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. 

The quarterly describes its mission “is to build a vibrant and vital progressivism for the twenty-first century that builds on the movement’s proud history, is true to its central values, and is relevant to present times.”

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal’s story on Romney pointed out his tougher approach to Iran’s nuclear ambitions and keeping that nation from obtaining nuclear weapons should be America’s “highest national security priority.”

 

Artsy Olympic events photos make front pages in U.S.

With hordes of still photographers having a field day at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, some --- in efforts to stand out from the crowd --- were too artsy prior to and at opening ceremonies, notes Grumpy Editor after surveying the art output over the weekend. 

Examples of two Associated Press photographers’ efforts zeroing in on Olympic subjects with strikingly strange results that, amazingly, captured eyes of some editors who ran with them: 

A blurred AP shot of a gymnast from China running in a training session.  What was odd was the fuzzy result wiped out the participant’s legs and arms, making the scene sort of spooky. 

Another AP cameraman captured a New Zealand woman gearing up for equestrian events by running with her horse.  The photo showed only her legs and shoes alongside the horse’s hoofs.  Although identified (along with her horse’s name) in the caption, she was cropped off at the thighs. 

Friday night’s opening ceremonies, capped by fireworks over London’s Olympic Stadium, gained the most attention on front pages over the weekend. 

One artistic AP photo, showing the aerial display, looked like a colorful inverted glass bowl over a green splotch, with nothing distinguishable.  Nevertheless, it was spread over the upper half of the front page of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. 

While staff photographers were on scene from the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, New York Times and Houston Post, among others, AP’s Morry Gash focused his camera the traditional way in capturing the five Olympic rings glowing over the stadium. 

Gash’s normal shot was used on front pages of a number of U.S. dailies, including The (San Luis Obispo, Calif.) Tribune, Bradenton (Florida) Herald, The (Munster, Ind.) Times, Gloucester County (N.J.) Times, The Boston Globe, The (Lorain, Ohio) Morning Journal, Knoxville’s News Sentinel, Sacramento Bee and the Chicago suburbs’ Daily Herald. 

Washington Post’s photographer also snapped a similar front-page shot. 

The Houston Chronicle’s lensman at opening ceremonies zeroed in on 20 U.S. athletes, including one from Cypress, Texas --- all sporting the U.S. participants (now widely cited) made-in-China jackets, shirts and berets. 

Being a bit different, the New York Times photographer clicked on a squadron (nine to be exact) of Mary Poppinses, holding black umbrellas, descending into Olympic Stadium.  The front-page art appeared over the headline: 

A Five-Ring Opening Circus, Weirdly and Unabashedly British.

 

Salty talk in the office grabs spot on ABC radio news

With all the happenings in the world --- ranging from a small earthquake in the Los Angeles area to pre-Olympic Games activities --- what’s a piece on “swearing at work can harm your career prospects” doing as one of the major news events heard Wednesday on top-of-the-hour ABC News on radio, wonders Grumpy Editor. 

Anyone who is on a company payroll or wearing a suit in job hunting should be well aware that repeatedly uttering naughty words is not tolerated in the business world. 

(An exception might be when brass at a major Madison Ave. advertising agency, for example, is notified it is losing a big account.) 

Yet, grabbing the attention of ABC News on a hot July day was a press release from CareerBuilder, Chicago, noting 64 percent of employers say they would think less of a worker who repeatedly uses curse words, while 57 percent say they'd be less likely to promote someone who swears in the office. 

Seeking more information, Grumpy Editor finds the Harris Interactive survey includes more than 2,000 hiring managers and 3,800 workers in companies of various sizes, according to CareerBuilder which describes itself as “the global leader in human capital solutions.” 

Noteworthy, though, is that the survey reports 51 percent of workers swear that they swear in the office.

(Perhaps that’s after they receive their paychecks.) 

Some 95 percent confess they cuss in the presence of co-workers, 51 percent say they do so in front of the boss, although workers were least likely to use expletives while facing senior leaders (13 percent) and their clients (7 percent), according to the survey.

(Saying salty words in front of a vice president is a sure way to get replaced.)

Among other survey findings in modern office culture:  Men are more likely to swear at work (54 percent) vs. women (47 percent); Washington, D.C. (home of Congress, the White House and 13,000 registered lobbyists) is the top-swearing U.S. city, and 35 to 44-year-old workers rank as the top swearing group.

 

NBC bags $1 billion in Olympic Games TV/digital ad sales

With the Olympic Games from London officially getting under way tomorrow, NBC will be live-streaming every competition --- 3,500 hours, 302 events in 32 sports --- on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Olympics app for mobile devices and tablets, notes Grumpy Editor. 

That’s a major tech change from the 2008 Olympics. 

It’ll be difficult not to spot an Olympics event on television. 

NBC is calling in all the troops for full coverage. 

The NBC Network, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC Sports Network, Bravo and Telemundo plus two specialty channels will be on scene. 

Along with that giant effort, NBCUniversal, now controlled by Comcast Corp., has sold more than $1 billion in national television and digital advertising linked to the Olympics. 

That’s $150 million more than the 2008 Olympics coverage from Beijing. 

Yet, the event is expected to be a money loser for NBCUniversal.

The Los Angeles Times today points out NBCUniversal nearly a decade ago agreed to pay $1.18 billion for television rights to the London games.

 NBCUniversal, it adds, is spending at least $100 million for staffing (with nearly 3,400 people working on Olympics coverage) and equipment to televise the events. 

 

Obama talks to VFW about jobs for veterans, but…

Rather than presenting a solid plan with a pathway to job creations for veterans, President Barack Obama told a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno Monday that “we’re going to set up a kind of reverse boot camp,” notes Grumpy Editor. 

Although job-searching veterans already possess a specialty from military service, the president proposed still more training plus education and advice for starting a business. 

“Our American veterans have the skills America needs,” he proclaimed.  “So today, our economy is growing and creating jobs, but it’s still too hard for too many folks to find work, especially our younger veterans, our veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.” 

Indeed, with the jobless rate in June for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at 9.5 percent, the president’s rhetoric sounded uplifting.  Yet, not many eyebrows were raised by media. 

Obama also informed the VFW that he signed a veterans “skills to jobs” act that requires federal agencies to look at relevant military training when approving applicants for federal licenses and certificates. 

“We’ve got to put those folks back to work,” he declared. 

Not mentioned was a retraining program for veterans announced two months ago.  Called the Veteran Retraining Assistance Program, it allows qualifying veterans to receive up to a year of education assistance. 

But that won’t do much good for the many veterans in their twenties and early thirties. 

To qualify for VRAP, veterans must be between 35 and 60 years old and unemployed.

 

Wall Street Journal plans 16-page real estate section

Hey, maybe booming real estate activity is just around the corner, or maybe up the street, because The Wall Street Journal plans to introduce a 16-page residential real estate section in two months, notes Grumpy Editor.

The WSJ also plans to hire up to 10 staffers for the section that is slated to debut in Friday editions nationally and online in late September or early October. 

It comes at a time when parent company News Corp. is preparing to spin off the WSJ and other publishing assets. 

The section will focus on topics such as home financing, distinctive neighborhoods and properties around the world.

The section’s online version will include expanded video content and slideshows of high-end properties.

And, of course, advertisers are in mind, too.

The section hopes to boost WSJ ad revenue via financial, real estate, furniture and home design firms that cater to high net-worth consumers.

 

ABC’s Ross wrongly links shooting suspect to Tea Party

Media folks over the weekend were still buzzing over the major faux pas of ABC News’ veteran investigative reporter Brian Ross who, in haste on television Friday, wrongly indicated the Aurora, Colo., theater shooter may have had connections to the Tea Party, notes Grumpy Editor. 

In a Good Morning America segment with co-host George Stephanopoulos, Ross offered the Tea Party connection after noting a 52-year-old Jim Holmes on a Colorado Tea Party Web site. 

“Now we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes, but it’s Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colo.,” cited Ross. 

Stephanopoulos ended the segment with, “Okay, we’ll keep looking at that, Brian Ross.  Thanks very much.” 

But James E. Holmes, the shooting suspect who makes his first court appearance today, turned out to be 24 and not a Tea Party member. 

(Grumpy Editor emphasizes taking a few extra minutes on the Web to run down names in the community would have turned up the correct Holmes, with the younger age, on Paris Street, complete with apartment number, in Aurora.)  

A statement from the Colorado Tea Party Patriots said attempts “to characterize the shooter as a Tea Party member without having made any effort to contact our organization are shameless and reprehensible.” 

ABC News later said an earlier “broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect.  ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted."

 

Bloomberg jazzes up Businessweek with quirky layouts

There have been some interesting changes since Bloomberg bought BusinessWeek (then with an upper-case W) in October, 2009 from McGraw–Hill Cos. and rechristened the magazine Bloomberg Businessweek, observes Grumpy Editor. 

Most noteworthy was getting the fatherly 80-year-old business weekly to appeal to a much younger readership via content and layouts. 

In the July 16-22 issue, for example, Bloomberg Businessweek splashed an inordinate 47 snapshots of Andrew Mason into a six-page spread on the Groupon CEO. 

Actually, with another image on the contents page, make that 48 shots of the “merry prankster,” as the magazine labeled its subject.  One page alone featured 14 Mason photos of assorted sizes. 

Also interesting in the current issue was the sole art plunked in a two-page Olympics story:  a dog with an inverted bucket reading “The Olympics” placed over its head. 

Another space chewer were drawings of 200-plus tiny cars crawling up two pages to illustrate “China Applies the Brakes on Car Sales.” 

Other quirky things included much text with little to break up columns of gray matter, some photos without captions, abundance of cartoons (one featured colorful sketches of 18 pieces of attire linked to a Nordstrom makeover piece, while flipping the page showed two more) and a large, unusual graphic of President Barack Obama that put him in different shades of green via tiny dots, associated in earlier days when zinc engravings were used for illustrations in magazines and newspapers.

The issue also included one of the biggest bylines seen --- the bold-face half-inch writer’s name matched the size of the opposite-page headline, “How the Mormon Church Makes Its Millions.” 

For those who like to keep up with personal care, a report on “the condom war” with a British maker seeking to boost U.S. market share, used art of…well, you know.

The magazine came with a wrapper that showcased quotes on “what the press is saying about the new Bloomberg Businessweek.” 

Among them, a quote attributed to mediabistro.com:  “We like the new, more streamlined look and, of course, the smart coverage the magazine has always been known for.  Only in a more subtle, slightly more elegant way.”

 

Bloomberg Businessweek among magazines seeking input

Magazines, nervous about sinking circulation numbers, are sending out more surveys to readers these days, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Bloomberg Businessweek got into the act with a dozen Web pages seeking input on “how important or unimportant are each of the following attributes in determining whether you read or subscribe to a business/financial news magazine.” 

It sought one response for each item labeled very unimportant, somewhat unimportant, neither important nor unimportant, quite important or very important. 

Among subjects: 

Helps me generate actionable insights 

Is a thought leader and innovator 

Prepares me to lead the conversation 

Presents an intriguing perspective on important issues 

Is smart, demonstrates alertness and quickness of thought 

These were dandy for research and marketing folks to mull and digest. 

But for long-time readers, nowhere was there mention on simply how to improve the publication. 

Bloomberg Businessweek, mysteriously, does not include a staff box in each issue.  Thus, readers have no easy way to email editors or writers with news tips or prompt feedback. 

Now, that would come under the very important category in any survey.

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In Part II tomorrow (July 20), Grumpy Editor will have some things to say about this week's issue of Bloomberg Businessweek.      

 

 

Ahoy! Future U.S. sailors will sail without urinals aboard

Gender-neutral. 

That’s a term that will be appearing more in print and heard on the air, especially in connection with some U.S. Navy ships, predicts Grumpy Editor. 

The biggest boost will be linked to a new class of carriers that will sail without urinals (in the “head,” as the Navy describes the location), in part to accommodate female sailors. 

As Navy brass explain:  Omitting urinals lets the Navy easily switch the designation of any head from male to female, or vice versa, helping the ship adapt to changing crew compositions over time. 

A ship without urinals is a shocking development to veteran sailors. 

Making the “relief areas” aboard ships more gender-neutral is a relatively new consideration for the Navy.

Future ships, led by the Gerald R. Ford class of carriers --- starting with the namesake carrier due in late 2015, with others to follow through 2027 --- is one of a number of new features meant to “improve sailors' quality of life and reduce maintenance costs,” says the Navy.

Improving "quality of life” on the high seas with female sailors on board isn’t amplified.

But the plumbing switch, explains Capt. Chris Meyer, manager of the Future Aircraft Carriers Program for the Naval Sea Systems Command, will lead to less maintenance.

That’s because urinal drain pipes clog more than toilets and therefore can be smellier and costlier to maintain, explains Meyer.

The new arrangement will lead to sweeter-smelling ships in the future.