Uniban revoga decisão de expulsar aluna hostilizada por ir à aula de minissaia – O Globo

Uniban revoga decisão de expulsar aluna hostilizada por ir à aula de minissaia – O Globo.

Something to look forward to . . .

I’m now doing some of my blogging at another site. If you have been a follower, please click this link, Rockinon: the Blog.

I think you’ll enjoy this little piece.

Cheers,
Rockinon

Where were you when? . . . Watching TV?

If you read the first part of this blog, then read the second part, too.

Please go to:

http://rockinontheblog.blogspot.com

This blog is slowly being phased out; I’m moving. Thank you for your support. I do hope to see you at my new blog – Rockin’ On: the Blog.

Today’s word: spurtle

Please go to:

http://rockinontheblog.blogspot.com

This blog is slowly being phased out. Thank you for your support. I do hope to see you at my new blog – Rockin’ On: the Blog.

Where were you when . . . ?

Where were you when . . . ? The post looking at the question posed by Paul Berton, the editor-in-chief of The London Free Press, has been moved to my new blog. Please click on the link.

Thank you,
Cheers,
Rockinon

Too big to succeed

Numerous newspapers are on the financial ropes. All too often newspaper executives simply blame the Internet; it steals their ad revenue and their readership base, coaxing away readers with information gleaned from the venerable old news-providers themselves. I believe the Internet may not be at the root of their financial crisis. It’s size. Newspapers, or at least the chains that control them, have become too big to succeed, or at least too much in debt to succeed.

Take the Tribune Co. in the States — Sam Zell brought $315 million to the table to leverage control of a company valued at $13.5 billion. Just 353 days later the now private company filed for bankruptcy in a federal court in Delaware. Source: Newsosaur.

What went wrong? According to the Wall Street Journal, the Tribune Co. was unable to service its massive $12 billion in debt. Under Zell, the Tribune became the second most leveraged of the 20 largest public media companies in the States, carrying a debt load 9.2 times the company’s operating earnings. Such massive leveraging immediately resulted in the company’s bond issues falling deep into junk territory, raising borrowing costs. Considering it took only a year under Zell’s leadership for the Tribune to enter bankruptcy, such massive leveraging seems to have immediately thrust the entire media operation deep into junk territory, not just their bonds.

In a financial bind like this a company can either increase profits or decrease costs. Under Zell it appears the approach of choice was to decrease costs with layoffs, more layoffs and yet even more layoffs. I call this the employee-as-ballast theory. It is followed by many in the publishing business; jettison employees and watch the company soar, not!

Closer to home, we have Quebecor Media in Canada headed by PKP, Pierre Karl Peladeau. Once called the King of Convergence by the CBC, PKP is the gentleman many credit with guiding Quebecor World, once the world’s largest printer, to financial ruin, bankruptcy, insolvency.

PKP’s own Canoe carried a story calling Quebecor World the “insolvent printer” in June, 2009. In early 2003 the stock reached $35; when I last looked, it could be picked up for 2.6 cents. Under PKP’s leadership the world’s largest printer lost 99.9 percent of its value!

In June 2009, the following was reported: Chicago-based printer RR Donnelley tendered an unsolicited bid to purchase Quebecor World, the insolvent (Sun Media’s term) printer. This bid was rebuffed, but later in the month  Mark Angelson, a former RR Donnelley CEO, was named chairman of the printer reorganized to “satisfy” bankruptcy code requirements. Quebecor World and Quebecor, the owner of Sun Media, are now totally separate companies with a shared past but unlinked future. I thank an alert reader for this additonal information.

PKP has brought his magic touch to the world of Canadian media. In 1999 Quebecor gained control of Toronto-based Sun Media for about $1.3 billion, creating the second-largest newspaper company in Canada. The layoffs started almost immediately. The little paper that grew began to wither, shades of Sam Zell.

In 2007 Quebecor Media bought competitor Osprey Media Income Fund in a deal worth about $517 million. Quebecor executive vice-president Luc Lavoie said Quebecor intended to respect the traditions of its new titles. A couple of years later the Cobourg Daily Star, founded in 1831, the Port Hope Evening Guide, founded in 1878, and the Colborne Chronicle, founded in 1959, were closed — replaced by a new Sun Media print and online newspaper, Northumberland Today. So much for tradition.

Again, the layoffs started almost immediately. Quebecor sees its now truly paper-thin newspapers as lean, mean, fighting machines. Others see the often century-old papers simply as gutted, like dead fish but with greater stench.

An ad builder and two graphic artists were laid off by the Sault Star and the pre-press department closed, said Elaine Mills, president of the Local. “They took all their computers out on Sunday and moved them to Barrie.”

Mills gave an example of the cumbersome nature of the Sun Media/Quebecor Media approach called “centres of excellence” by the chain and called outsourcing by those losing their jobs.

A classified adviser who was working on a monthly real estate section had to fax every ad, along with a cover page, to Barrie where it was being produced. Dozens of faxes had to be sent and the phone lines were often busy on the receiving end, turning it into a hair-tearing chore. For full detail, see the CWA Canada article on the hollowing out of the Osprey chain.

Years ago, when I still worked for a paper under PKP’s control, I was asked by the business section to take a studio photo of a voodoo doll stuck with pins clearly labelled CEO, VP, etc. I jabbed the doll with one of the large pins and joked, that one is for Pierre. Man, I wish I still had that doll.

Work Long, Die Early, The Road to Successful Retirement

Updated and moved to:

Rockin’ On: Money

Hope to see you there,
Cheers,
Rockinon

Freedom Fund down 71% in 9 years!

This has moved to:

Rockin’ On: Money

Thanks for visiting,
See you at Rockin’ On: Money,

Cheers!

Another Site Worth a Bookmark

I’m very busy this week, garage door to paint and other stuff to do. But, there are a few of you who visit everyday. These quick blogs are for you.

http://www.ted.com

Yesterday I came upon this site: http://www.ted.com. I had watched a  video on newspaper design and noted it originated with TED.com. The video was excellent, recalling The London Free Press redesign efforts of year’s past.

I googled TED.com. I watched a few of the videos and I must note that these videos played almost totally free of the hesitations. This is quite unlike the on-line videos done by my local newspaper, The London Free Press, part of the Sun Media/Quebecor Media empire. Often I simply move on rather than endure the halting video and choppy sound.

A quick viewing of a few of the other videos on the TED.com site, left me thinking that I disagreed with some of what was said but still I was left thinking. That’s good. I’m going to learn more about old TED.

The video of Jacek Utko discussing his lively, engaging designs done for European papers is worth a view, if you have the time. It only lasts six minutes. Could good design save newspapers — at least for now? Jacek Utko thinks so.

Pay close attention when, at the two minute mark, he talks about his revelation, his moment of inspiration, brought about by a viewing of the Cirque du Soleil in London, UK. Utko realized that the Canadians took a creaking, rundown, boring form of entertainment and took it to the highest possible level of performance art. He decided to do the same thing with creaking, rundown, boring newspapers.

The time is now for newspapers to take their creaky, boring Internet designs and attack them with the creativity that Utko brought to his newspaper redesigns. As Utko says, “Give power to designers.”

Jacek Utko on newspaper design.

The Lily Page Keeps Growing

All lilies do not like to bloom at the same time.

Another new lily bloom has appeared. See all my lilies that have bloomed, as of today, here.

All lilies do not bloom at the same time. Some are early bloomers and others are late. This keeps a continuous stream of new blooms appearing for weeks.

The Internet is just so cool. I ordered five more different lilies from Horner Lilies in Thorndale over the Internet. I got the confirmation of my order by e-mail this morning. I didn’t have to burn even a litre of gas. The Internet is green.

(This is not an ad. I just like Horner Lilies.)