Grumpy Editor

Gina Lollobrigida still grabs space...in Wall Street Journal

Actress Gina Lollobrigida probably was the most surprised person in Italy yesterday when The Wall Street Journal selected a vintage Associated Press shot of her reading Variety to illustrate a story on the sale of the Hollywood trade paper, observes Grumpy Editor. 

The two-column photo of Lollobrigida, now 85, was snapped 42 years ago. 

So some editor, going through the art files, remains impressed by the Italian actress who was labeled “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World” after the sex symbol appeared in a U.S. movie with that title in 1955. 

Penske Media Corp. finalized a deal with Reed Business Information, part of Reed Elsevier Group plc, to acquire 107-year-old Variety, a daily must-read for people in the entertainment business, for about $25 million.  The deal also includes weekly Variety. 

PMC, founded in 2004, is a key player in digital entertainment media. 

It owns Deadline.com, TVLine.com, HollywoodLife.com and Movieline.com. 

“We plan to rapidly build upon Variety’s foundation while extending this invaluable brand’s presence across the Web, broadcast, mobile and international markets," says PMC chief executive Jay Penske.

Washington Post. Co. moves into health-care services

With steady declines in its newspaper circulation and advertising revenues in recent years, the Washington Post Co. is diversifying into an area far afield from the publishing category --- home health-care and hospice services, notes Grumpy Editor. 

The Post Co. agrees to acquire a majority stake in Celtic Healthcare, Inc., founded in 1996, a relatively small player in the health-care business. 

Celtic operates in nine locations in Pennsylvania and Maryland. 

With the move, the Post Co. adds to its non-publishing operations that include Kaplan education services, Phoenix-based Cable ONE, and television stations in Detroit, San Antonio, Houston, Miami, Orlando and Jacksonville. 

The company also is “investing in a number of digital initiatives that are evolving our ability to better serve advertisers and reach consumers."

These include Trove, a personalized news aggregation service, and SocialCode, a full-service Facebook advertising agency. 

Partisan gap shows in different views on economic news

An interesting Pew poll finds far more Republicans and independents view economic news these days as “bad,” compared with Democrats’ opinions on the topic, notes Grumpy Editor.

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press poll, conducted Sept. 7 to 9, tallies 60 percent of Republicans, 36 percent of independents and 15 percent of Democrats label economic news as mostly bad. 

Pew says the poll's authors found “the gap striking” as differences in perceptions of economic news emerged after President Barack Obama took office --- “but they never have been as great as they are today.”

Among the public generally, Pew adds, 58 percent say they are hearing a mix of good and bad news about the economy, while 35 percent feel they are picking up mostly bad news and 6 percent see mostly good news.

For more on the Pew findings, go here.

Meanwhile, views could change before the week ends. 

 Economic news due out tomorrow includes:

The consumer-price index.

Retail sales and industrial production for August.

University of Michigan’s initial reading of consumer sentiment for September.

And, since many look overseas for world economic clues, European finance ministers meet in Nicosia, Cyprus.

 

 

Media overlook G.M. Janesville plant continued into 2009

Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s facts, especially with the shuttering of a General Motors plant in his home town of Janesville, Wis., are getting much scrutiny by media --- which should be doing a bit more fact-checking, finds Grumpy Editor. 

At last week’s Republican National Convention in Tampa, Ryan quoted then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at a campaign stop at the G.M. Janesville plant on Feb. 13, 2008, saying: “I believe that if our government is there to support you and give you the assistance you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another 100 years." 

Ryan added, “Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year." 

Democrats immediately attacked Ryan for pointing a finger at President Obama for the plant’s shutdown. 

As it turned out, G.M. brass decided to halt SUV production at the Janesville facility (which employed as many as 7,000 workers in 1970) on Dec. 23, 2008 

Most media cite December, 2008, as when the plant closed. 

But G.M. did not lock the doors that day. 

One Washington Post columnist, for example, did not mention that date and backed up six months, writing, “G.M. announced the plant’s shutdown in June, 2008,” making it appear the closing action took place seven months before Obama took office. 

Actually, with some checking, media would have learned that production at the G.M. Janesville plant continued to April, 2009, with about 110 workers remaining to complete an order for small-to medium-duty trucks for Isuzu Motors Ltd. 

To its credit, today's Wall Street Journal, under "Corrections & Amplifications," noted G.M.'s Janesville plant did indeed halt vehicle assembly in April, 2009, not Dec. 23, 2008, as it reported in an Aug. 31 convention article. 

U.S. buys Russian helicopters for Afghanistan’s air force

Despite cries for more U.S. jobs, one of the strangest deals has American taxpayers footing the bill for almost two dozen Russian-built helicopters for use by the Afghanistan air force, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Other than Bloomberg News three months ago and this week’s issue of Bloomberg Businessweek, little has been reported by U.S. media about the unusual transaction.

Newspaper editorial page writers should get somewhat excited over this, especially during the summer doldrums.  

Bloomberg Businessweek writers Danielle Ivory and Kathleen Miller point out, “Since May 2011, the Pentagon has paid Rosoboronexport $411 million for 21 Mi-17 helicopters.” 

Rosoboronexport is the state-run arms trader that Congress says is arming Syria. 

Kazan Helicopter manufactures the medium twin-turbine transport at two Russian plants. 

The Bloomberg Businessweek writers also reveal the “Pentagon didn’t solicit bids from any other company for the helicopters.” They add that Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) --- leading 17 U.S. senators seeking to cancel the deal --- says the no-bid order “seems just plain stupid.” 

Back on May 8, Bloomberg News writers Tony Capaccio and David Lerman reported, "The Pentagon says it’s in a bind, with nowhere to turn for helicopters needed by Afghanistan’s air force except Russia."

The Mi-17 choppers, they added, "include full Western avionics, navigation, communications and situation-awareness capability.” 

Cost of the 21 helicopters three months ago was pegged at $375 million.  That’s $36 million below the price tag noted this month. 

What’s noteworthy about this close to half a billion dollar Pentagon-spurred deal that benefits Russia is that talk in Washington includes deep cuts in the defense budget --- for the U.S.

 

In reporting Chevron fire, media aid in gas price boost

While dark smoke was still billowing from a fire at Chevron Corp.’s Richmond, Calif., oil refinery, media --- especially broadcast --- were warning that gasoline prices “soon” would surge to above $4 a gallon on the West Coast, notes Grumpy Editor.

The blaze at Chevron’s facility, near San Francisco, erupted Monday night and was extinguished early Tuesday. 

But near-hysterical media immediately warned about zooming prices at the pump. 

News reports put Chevron’s Richmond facility output accounting for 16 percent of the region’s daily gasoline consumption.  (However, scope of “region” was not pinpointed.) 

Quick research by Grumpy Editor found that Chevron’s Richmond facility ranks third by capacity in the state and is one of four refineries in the Bay area, among 21 in California. 

BP West Coast Products, Carson, tops the California oil refinery list, followed by another Chevron refinery in El Segundo, both near Los Angeles. 

See a graphic on the many California refineries here. 

The Los Angeles Times today noted “the expected run-up in gasoline prices” at the Chevron refinery “may not come as quickly as expected, but it's coming.”

It pointed out the refinery was now partially operating.

The blaze produced one of the more interesting quotes from a public official. 

Associated Press reported Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin --- a Green Party member --- declared the fire was “unacceptable.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easier loans? Bloomberg News, WSJ differ on report

So are banks making it easier to obtain loans?

Well, yes and no, depending on the news source --- which makes the situation confusing for loan seekers, finds Grumpy Editor. 

Bloomberg News, in pointing out “banks are lending the most since the recession ended in June, 2009,” said yesterday the latest Federal Reserve quarterly loan officer survey showed U.S. banks “continued to report having eased their lending standards across most loan types over the past three months.” 

Bloomberg noted banks cited “stronger demand for auto and credit card loans.” 

Bloomberg also quoted an investment strategist saying, “banks are lending, people are borrowing, housing prices are going up and a sense of normality is returning.” 

Sounds encouraging.

But then The Wall Street Journal, working off the same Fed survey, yesterday reported “despite the increase in mortgage demand, lenders were keeping standards tight for mortgage borrowers, as well as for small business loans.” 

The Journal added that among loan officers surveyed, 93 percent said standards for approving mortgages to those with strong credit “were unchanged from the prior quarter” and 95 percent said standards for businesses with under $50 million in annual sales also were unchanged.

 

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.

 

Voters remain fuzzy over Romney’s business experience

Despite Mitt Romney’s many years as a business executive, a Rasmussen Reports survey finds voters are evenly divided over whether the business experience of the former CEO of Bain Capital is a plus or a minus, observes Grumpy Editor.

However, Rasmussen adds, voters in the survey consider Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, more ethical than President Barack Obama.

Attacks on his background have made some voters switch their opinion of Romney's business record and now Americans are equally divided on whether the ex-Bain executive's real world experience is a positive or a negative, according to the Rasmussen poll of 1,000 likely voters.

The latest Rasmussen national telephone survey finds 41 percent of likely U.S. voters think Romney’s track record in business is primarily a reason to vote for him, while a similar 41 percent consider it chiefly a reason to vote against him.

“A sizable 18 percent are not sure,” adds Rasmussen.

"These findings suggest that President Obama's attacks on Romney's tenure as a venture capitalist with the Bain Capital investment firm may be having some effect," notes the poll taker.

Indeed, Grumpy Editor feels some newspaper readers/TV news viewers appear to be confused by the foolish fuss, hypoed by major media overplaying whether Romney was actively managing Bain Capital after 1999.

Most editors are going along with the detraction rather than focusing on candidates' solid plans for correcting the country's economic woes and increasing jobs --- where an improvement would be reflected in a much-needed boost in advertising, especially sought by newspapers with sinking revenues. 

SmartMoney magazine to retire print issue, go all-digital

SmartMoney, the Dow Jones & Co. personal finance magazine, will end its print edition and go all-digital following the September issue, notes Grumpy Editor.

The publication, a unit of News Corp., has been struggling in recent months. 

In this year’s first quarter, SmartMoney saw a 19.3 percent drop in advertising revenue and a 23.4 percent decline in ad pages. 

Word of the shuttering was bad news for print staffers. 

The company said about 25 employees “are being impacted as part of the print magazine's closing, with those affected eligible to re-apply for open positions with SmartMoney.com and other openings within the company."

SmartMoney was launched as a joint Dow Jones and Hearst Corp. operation in 1992. Dow Jones acquired Hearst's 50 percent interest two years ago. 

"SmartMoney has led the way in personal finance coverage for 20 years," said Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief of Dow Jones and managing editor of The Wall Street Journal.

"It has been honored with many awards and provided intelligent, objective analysis and guidance for readers in print and online."