Grumpy Editor

AMENDING CALIFORNIA LAW AFFECTING FREELANCERS IN WORKS

After getting heavy static from writers groups, the author of a new California labor law that restricts to 35 the number of assignments freelance journalists and photographers can take a year is seeking to amend the statute, notes Grumpy Editor.

 

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-SanDiego) says she will seek to remove the submission limit freelance media workers can produce for a company.

 

If the measure passes the California Assembly and Senate, it wouldn’t take effect until January, 2021.

 

However, two freelancer groups — American Society of Journalists and Authors, and National Press Photographers Association — are asking for immediate relief from the law’s restrictions.

 

They are suing on free-speech grounds, continuing their legal case in Los Angeles federal court. 

 

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

 

 

WORLD WAR II FLIGHT CREW HONORED.  Crew of a World War II B-17 Flying Fortress is remembered in a ceremony in Ramsholt, England, marking 75 years after their bomber crashed in the nearby Deben River in the closing months of the war.  Hundreds of people honor the crew of 10, eight of whom died when the plane came down shortly after takeoff on Feb. 20, 1945 after one of its engines caught fire. 

 

WARNING ON CENSUS BUREAU JOB SCAMMERS.  The Better Business Bureau says to beware of scams involving thousands of temporary jobs with the U.S. Census Bureau.  Scammers are asking to be paid fees for applications or training.

 

NEWSPAPER TEMPORARILY CUTS PAY.  Staffers at the Tampa Bay Times will see a 10 percent temporary reduction in pay starting March 13 stemming from falling revenues. Cuts will last 13 weeks.

 

IN-THE-NEWS VIRUS AFFECTS BUYING BEER.  Although the beverage has no relationship with current coronavirus fears, a report in Newsweek says some people are scared of buying Corona beer.

 

JCPENNY TO SHUTTER MORE OUTLETS.  Department store chain JCPenney plans to close six additional stores as sales and profit continue to decline.

 

POLITICAL ENDORSEMENTS SHELVED.  The Arizona Republic, Phoenix,  says it will no longer endorse political candidates for the 2020 presidential race.

 

RANSOM PAID FOR RETURN OF DOG.  A Northern California man says he paid a $1,000 ransom for the safe return of his dog --- a three-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel that was stolen from his parked car in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District.

 

FOX NEWS DOMINATES CABLE.  Fox News Channel continues its cable news domination in February, reaching its highest viewership in the network's 23-year history.

Permit for photos shot in forests shakes up press photogs

Confusion prevailed following federal regulations announced last week that starting in November news photographers would be required to obtain permits, costing up to $1,500, to take photos or videos in federal wilderness areas, observes Grumpy Editor.

The Oregonian, Portland, got that information from U.S. Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers, who added reporters or photographers who don't get permits could face fines up to $1,000.

Liz Close, the Forest Service’s acting wilderness director, told The Oregonian the move keeps wilderness areas from being exploited for commercial gain.  “We have to follow the statutory requirements,” she said, pointing to the need to be in compliance with the Wilderness Act of 1964.

“It’s pretty clearly unconstitutional,” said Gregg Leslie, legal defense director, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Alexandria, Virginia, The Oregonian reported. “They would have to show an important need to justify these limits, and they just can’t.”

The policy, as announced, would also apply to documentary film crews, nonprofits and private citizens who might sell a photo or a video.

However, it would allow members of the press to shoot photos and videos during breaking news events, describing them as "an event or incident that arises suddenly, evolves quickly and rapidly ceases to be newsworthy."

Then on Friday, Tom Tidwell, Forest Service chief, in clarifying the sticky position to media, said, “If you’re there to gather news or take recreational photographs, no permit would be required.”

That undoubtedly brought a sigh of relief to editors of publications such as Sunset magazine which monthly includes color art of national parks and forests. 

The October issue, for example, features illustrations of San Bernardino (Calif.) National Forest, Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, Yosemite National Park in California, Olympia National Park in Washington and Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Focusing on “hot stocks”?  About 1,000 activists gathered in Manhattan’s financial district last week to chant:  “We can’t take this climate heat; we’ve got to shut down Wall Street”…Then President Barack Obama, also in New York, speaking at the UN Climate Summit 2014, declared:  “Alarm bells are ringing”…Also getting into the climate act (as the not-yet-designated Secretary of Climate) was Secretary of State John Kerry who warned climate change may be “the most serious challenge we face on the planet”…At the same time, the Los Angeles Times reported: “Naturally occurring changes in winds, not human-caused climate change, are responsible for most of the warming on land and in the sea along the West Coast of North America over the last century” based on a study by researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Washington…CNSNews.com noted Oct. 1 will mark the 18th year of “no significant warming trend in surface average temperature," according to Patrick Michaels,  director of the Cato Institute’s Center for the Study of Science…The Journal of the American Medical Association also jumped into the climate act with a lengthy one paragraph shake-'em-up warning:  “The adverse health aspects related to climate change may include heat-related disorders, such as heat stress and economic consequences of reduced work capacity; and respiratory disorders, including those exacerbated by fine particulate pollutants, such as asthma and allergic disorders; infectious diseases, including vectorborne diseases and water-borne diseases, such as childhood gastrointestinal diseases; food insecurity, including reduced crop yields and an increase in plant diseases; and mental health disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder and depression, that are associated with natural disasters”…It should be noted that a Gallup poll on “warming” five months ago found “most Americans continue to express low levels of concern about the phenomenon. A little more than a third say they worry ‘a great deal’ about climate change or about global warming, putting these concerns at the bottom of a list of eight environmental issues”…With U.S. military being scaled back, overlooked during the heavy news week but reported in the Washington Times: Russia plans to add 80 warships to its Black Sea fleet by 2020 and expects to complete construction on a new naval base near Novorossiysk by 2016...Leaving a country boosts a company's stock price?  Announcement that Oakland, Calif.-based Clorox Co., maker of bleach and allied products, is exiting Venezuela hypoed its stock $6.66 to $97.23 last Monday…A two-thirds-page Toyota ad in The Wall Street Journal, designed to lure car buyers into showrooms, quoted Prius owners saying:  “We went across the U.S. three times in our first Prius.  The new one’s got a lot of adventure ahead of it”… Indication of things to come?  The Federal Trade Commission sent Grumpy Editor a news release --- in Spanish.

 

Selected for “quote of the year” at Media Research Center's 2014 Gala featuring the DisHonors Awards was columnist Eleanor Clift for her insistence that U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens was not murdered by terrorists at the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, but died as a result of smoke inhalation.

Memo to AP: Tinkering with photos once was no big deal

Associated Press severed its relationship with photographer Narciso Contreras after the news agency learned the Pulitzer prize-winning lensman manipulated a digital image of a Syrian rebel fighter by using software to remove a colleague’s (difficult to notice) video camera in the lower left corner of the frame, notes Grumpy Editor.

The action was taken after Santiago Lyon, AP’s vice-president and director of photography, said that while the alteration involved a portion of the image with little news importance, it breached AP’s requirements for truth and accuracy. 

Grumpy Editor reminds that touching up photos once was a common practice with daily newspapers. The procedure was for photo editors to send black-and-white glossies to editorial artists where they would paint out “busy” backgrounds/foregrounds and eliminate wrinkles from faces of entertainers and other people in the news, among other tasks. 

That routine included AP photos. 

Nobody complained. 

Also, photos were cropped to eliminate extraneous areas.

That, too, would be “shocking” today.

In the controversial image snapped last September by Contreras, a Mexican citizen, Lyon said AP’s “reputation is paramount and we react decisively and vigorously when it is tarnished by actions in violation of our ethics code.  Deliberately removing elements from our photographs is completely unacceptable.” 

See before and after images here:

 

In case you missed these…

PUBLIC RELATIONS SPECIALIST TOPS BEST CREATIVE JOBS CATEGORY.  U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Jobs of 2014” tally places public relations specialist atop the “Best Creative Jobs” category.  That position is followed by art director and architect.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects public relations specialists employment growth of 12 percent through 2022.  That amounts to 27,400 jobs to be filled.  PR profession claims No. 85 spot on the 2014 Best Jobs list.

BARTIROMO'S DEBUT ON FOX BUSINESS NETWORK SLATED.  Former long-time CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo officially joins Fox Business Network as its global markets editor on Saturday. She will anchor a daily program for FBN plus a weekly business-oriented show for Fox News Channel. 

MEDIA QUIET ON REPORT UFO ZOOMS BY JET.  Remember when anything relating to UFOs grabbed front-page headlines worldwide?  All was quiet in media last week after a report surfaces that a British airliner flying to Manchester from Spain encountered a near miss with a bright silver, metallic “rugby ball-shaped” unidentified flying object.  Pilot of the Thomas Cook A320 says he ducked as the object flew toward his aircraft, passing “within a few feet” above the jet which was flying 516 m.p.h. in daylight at 34,000 feet. 

WHY AD READERS SAY FORGETABOUTIT.  With ample space in a Friday full-page ad, JCPenney lists 22 “end of season savings” in small, difficult-to-read white words on red background.  At the bottom, four lines of almost unreadable tinier print relates to “while supplies last” and “selection may vary by store.” 

CNN CUTS VETERAN STAFFERS --- BUT PLANS TO HIRE.   CNN lays off more than 40 senior journalists, including an executive producer who spent 32 years at the network, reveals a delayed story out late last week.  Cuts are mainly in Atlanta, Washington and Los Angeles.  Despite that action, a CNN spokesperson says the cable network will add about 100 people this year, as it is “investing in journalism.” 

PORTLAND DAILY READIES SWITCH TO TABLOID.  The Oregonian is downsizing in format, going to tabloid from broadsheet. Along with the new 15 by 11 inches size, local, national and international news will be combined in the main news section. Sports will continue in a stand-alone section.  Some sections switch to the new size next month with the full change by April 2. 

NISSAN MOTOR CO. CITED FOR MISLEADING AD.   The Federal Trade Commission claims a Nissan TV commercial --- in late 2011 --- was deceptive because it showed a Frontier pickup pushing a stalled dune buggy up a steep sand dune when, in fact, the buggy and the Frontier were pulled up by cables. 

FEED BACKYARD BIRDS, GET A HEFTY FINE.  Not getting wide national media attention is a Morning Call, Allentown, Pa., report that a retired Bethlehem couple is facing an excessive $1,000-a-day fine for feeding their fine-feathered-friends.  Seems the bird feeder on their property is deemed out of compliance with a town ordinance designed to curb squirrels and other wildlife. The ordinance, in part, calls for a squirrel-proof top and catch basin affixed at the bottom of feeders.  

L.A. Times makes way on front page for giant Disney ad

At a time when most newspaper readers seek more front-page news, the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday turned over a chunk of its opening page to The Walt Disney Co. for a sprawling movie ad that included space where normally a top headline is placed, notes Grumpy Editor. 

In the process, only three news stories appeared on the front page.  Usually four to six reports run on its opening page.  (This compared with 15 to 18 opening-page stories when The Times, with greater competition from five other dailies in the city, produced “newsy” front --- and larger --- pages with eight columns.) 

The Disney ad, in white letters against a blue background, stretched across the top of the page, down the left side at almost a column width and full-width across the bottom in continuing the message. 

“In the past, The Times has sold movie tie-in wraps around the front page, done fake front pages that cause controversy or sold a chunk of the page for advertising,” Kevin Roderick wrote on his LA Observed website. “This is the first time I remember The Times (or any other top U.S. newspaper) dropping half of the content on its actual front page for an ad --- in this case for an advertiser the paper regularly covers and a movie it will also cover.” 

Roderick, who labeled it a “garishly unattractive Disney movie ad,” added that in The Times newsroom “there is a growing sense that the editors and publisher no longer care much about the printed paper, feeling that the future is digital.”

 

In case you missed these…

USA TODAY AND MCCLATCHY JOIN IN NIXING WHITE HOUSE PHOTO HANDOUTS.  Joining three dozen other news outlets that are nixing White House-provided photography, including images of President Barack Obama, are USA Today, the leading Gannett Co. newspaper, and McClatchy Co. which operates 30 daily newspapers.  USA Today said it will not use handouts originating from the White House Press Office, except in “very extraordinary circumstances.”  McClatchy editors simply said they will not publish photography issued by the White House.

 

Quiz time:  What was the most overused word (especially in advertisements and broadcast coverage) since last Wednesday?  See answer below.

 

IN THE “BAD PR” DEPARTMENT, ESPECIALLY FOR A CITY:  Huntington Beach, Calif., was threatening Johnny’s Saloon, a fixture in the Orange County beach city for three decades, with a $960 fine unless it removes a large rooftop POW-MIA sign that reads: THANK A VETERAN FOR YOUR FREEDOM!   Popular with veterans, the sign has been up for six years.  Said a city spokesperson:“We have been unable to locate a building and electrical permit for the roof sign so we need the owner to demonstrate that it has been permitted.” 

 

NEW MEANING FOR THE MILE-HIGH CITY.  The Denver Post appointed Ricardo Baca as the editor overseeing coverage of the recreational marijuana law that takes effect next month.  Baca, with the Post for nearly 12 years, was entertainment editor and music critic at the paper. 

 

ON TOP OF THE NEWS.  Some Bloomberg Businessweek subscribers still have not received the much-heralded 212-page Nov. 18 issue, its largest since 1999.  Missing that issue, callers to its subscription service were told to hold off until Nov. 25, then, if the issue was still missing, to request a copy.  Those who did call again were informed to expect the slow-to-receive issue in two to four more weeks --- in time for Christmas.

 

Quiz time answer:  Doorbusters. 

 

One of the funniest lines of the week from Jan Leno’s monologue on NBC’s The Tonight Show: 

Obama told Iran “if you like your uranium, you can keep your uranium.”

Cold/hot air spreads; 141 journalist fatalities; ‘fat’ banks

Two contrasting hot/cold atmospheric reports over the weekend grab the attention of Grumpy Editor as climate change stories continue to gobble space/airtime going into the new year. 

Both meteorological stories made news yesterday (Jan. 6) but few print editors placed them on the same page. 

A study published Jan. 6 in Nature Climate Change notes “a scientific poll of experts” feels melting glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland may lead to global sea levels rising more than three feet by year 2100. 

Jonathan Bamber, a professor in physical geography at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom and a co-author of the study, predicts “horrible consequences.”

Meanwhile, China so far this winter is struggling with the lowest temperature in almost three decades, triggering problems ranging from closed highways to power outages.

The China Meteorological Administration says the national average since late November is 25 degrees Fahrenheit, coldest in 28 years.

English-language China Daily reports about 1,000 ships are stuck in Laizhou Bay ice in eastern China's Bohai Sea.

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Reporting overseas becomes dangerous 

Being a journalist is becoming a dangerous profession. 

Last year, 141 journalists were killed in 29 countries, with Syria being the most dangerous for reporters, reports Swiss-based Press Emblem Campaign. 

The number is up 31 percent from 2011. 

In Syria alone, at least 37 journalists, 13 of them working for foreign media, were killed.

In addition, two freelance American reporters are missing in Syria:  James Foley, who has reported for Global Post and Agence France-Presse, among others, was abducted from his car on Nov. 22 in the northwestern part of Syria, and Austin Tice, from Houston, was abducted last August.

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Banks claim 2012 brought best profits since '06 

Not too much was said last week when U.S. banks ended the year trumpeting their best profits since 2006.

Those being nixed in seeking business or personal loans will find it interesting that the financial industry claims more people and businesses are taking out, and repaying, loans since 2009.

Meanwhile, interest paid on savings accounts and certificates of deposit is near zero. 

On one-year CDs, for example, Bank of America pays an ultra-slim 0.03 percent and Wells Fargo pays a scant 0.05 percent. 

Most major banks now focus on fees to boost bottom lines.

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In case you missed these... 

Top overused 2012 phrases, tallies Lake Superior (Mich.) State University, are fiscal cliff and kick the can down the road…Former vice president Al Gore pockets an estimated $100 million as cable channel Current TV, which he founded with business partners seven years ago, is sold to Al Jazeera for $500 million…Maybe more school money management classes are needed:  A Rasmussen Reports survey finds 55 percent of likely U.S. voters think capital gains should be taxed at about the same rate as other income…An Associated Press photo (with a credit line for the photographer) “showing” Hillary Clinton in a car being transported from New York Presbyterian Hospital clearly displays the driver and a male front-seat passenger, but the Secretary of State is not visible somewhere behind the car’s visor, rear-view mirror and dark interior…How to bust into TV:  Former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards, a Democrat who served prison time on a corruption conviction, stars in an A&E series starting Feb. 27.

Quiet Fed pay raise; overused fiscal cliff; ‘new’ Tribune

Despite a heavy flow of news stories on fiscal crisis and spending cuts at year-end 2012, somehow overlooked by major media was President Barack Obama’s executive order granting federal workers a pay raise, notes Grumpy Editor. 

The Weekly Standard’s Daniel Halper got wind of it and covered the development on Dec. 28. 

That was on a Friday afternoon, a time when most key media are snoozing. 

The raise becomes effective March 27. 

As an example of the pay increase:  Vice President Joe Biden will make $231,000 a year, up from $225,521. 

See how other federal workers fare here:  

Halper points out that a senior Republican congressional aide who reviewed the executive order and consulted with the Congressional Budget Office says the pay raise for federal workers will cost $11 billion over 10 years.

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“Fiscal cliff” much overused by media in 2012 

Fiscal cliff, meanwhile, was one of the most overused phrases by print and broadcast media in 2012. 

Yet, the phrase is now new. 

Some writers credit Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke with the words when he warned the House Committee on Financial Services last Feb. 29 of the coming “fiscal cliff” that would take effect with upcoming spending cuts and tax increases. 

Annalyn Kurtz, a reporter at CNNMoney, finds the earliest reference to the term was in a 1957 New York Times article on home ownership. 

Kurtz also notes Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) used fiscal cliff in 2008 in describing Obama’s spending program while Reuters used the phrase in several articles two weeks prior to Bernanke uttering the words in February.

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Future owner candidates eye Tribune Co. assets 

Now that Chicago-based Tribune Co. enters 2013 emerging from bankruptcy, talk centers on new owner candidates. 

Tribune Co. properties include the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Baltimore Sun, Daily Press (Newport News, Va.), The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) plus 23 television stations. 

Coming out of bankruptcy, senior creditors Oaktree Capital Management, Angelo, Gordon & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. now control the Tribune Co.’s portfolio of publishing and broadcasting assets, which are expected to be sold. 

Among names mentioned as possible future owners: 

Aaron Kushner, owner of the Orange County Register.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (for the Los Angeles Times).

Doug Manchester, San Diego real estate developer who bought the Union Tribune (now U-T San Diego) newspaper in 2011.

Austin Beutner, former venture capitalist and former deputy mayor of Los Angeles (for the Los Angeles Times).

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In case you missed these... 

Ten minutes into the 2013 Tournament of Roses parade yesterday, it was cutaway time in coverage for ABC and NBC networks which decided to air commercials just as the 100-plus-member precision-marching Marine Corps band passed the reviewing stand.  But the HGTV network, without commercial interruptions throughout, showed all…The Pasadena parade included the first Defense Department float.  It depicted the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. while an added attraction was an Air Force B2 bomber timed to fly over the reviewing stand at 1,000 feet as the Korean War float passed…The Food and Drug Administration moved toward approving genetically-modified salmon for human consumption…Chicago’s Sun-Times Media Group said it will consolidate its suburban newspaper chain…Most discussed story on news/talk radio in 2012 was the presidential election, topping chatter on the fiscal cliff, according to Talkers magazine…A dopey move by District of Columbia police was starting an investigation of David Gregory, Meet the Press host, after he held up to NBC cameras a high-capacity magazine during a gun control discussion.  Police said possession of a high-capacity magazine was not permissible.  One wonders if police would get as excited if a Washington Post photographer, for example, used a similar magazine to illustrate a story on guns.

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Note:  Going into 2013, Grumpy Editor with daily postings since September 2006, will now appear in expanded format weekly.

 

Pew Research finds cell phone users are a snappy bunch

Forget the phone calls, taking pictures leads the modus operandi by cell phone users, according to a survey by Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, notes Grumpy Editor.

A lofty 82 percent of folks with cell phones utilize the units to snap photos, finds Pew, which also tallies 85 percent of American adults own the wireless devices.

"Cell phones have become a portal for an ever-growing list of activities," researchers point out.

 

Cell phone use to access the Internet has more than doubled since 2009, they add.

Aside from phone calls, here are activities of cell phone users, as compiled in the Pew survey:

Percent       Used for

82         Picture taking

80         Sending or receiving text messages

56         Accessing the Internet

50         Sending or receiving email

44         Recording video

43         Downloading apps

31          Searching for health or medical information online

29         Checking bank account activity/online banking

Byline strike shelved by staffers at New York Times

Whew!  Looks like a talked-about byline strike by hundreds of New York Times staffers has been avoided after the newspaper reached a tentative agreement with the Newspaper Guild on a new labor contract after more than 18 months of negotiations, notes Grumpy Editor 

Times staffers last week were considering withholding bylines and photo credits to emphasize their unhappiness. 

If all goes well, readers no longer will be “threatened” with looking at stories and photos with missing bylines/credit lines. 

The withholding credits idea isn’t new.  Staffers at other news outlets --- including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and Associated Press --- have employed the tactic in recent years.

What credit-scrubbing news staff participants failed to realize:  most readers --- other than family members, close friends and fellow staffers --- aren’t even aware of the vanished bylines/photo credits. 

Veteran and retired newspaper editors will point out that in earlier days not every story was topped by the writer’s name.  And not every photo carried the lensman’s identification.

Writers or photographers credits were scribbled in by editors for stories and art that involved exceptional merit.  It was a reward for performance above and beyond routine, often involving difficult work in reporting/writing or photography.

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.

 

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.”