April 2005 Archives
Business First of Columbus -- Restaurants are adding, upgrading patios to give smokers a place at the table
Orlando Business Journal -- Reports blast 'double-dipping' by Wal-Mart: Retailer, which has gotten $50M in subsidies, has Florida's highest number of Medicaid-eligible workers.
Pacific Business News -- Where's my e-mail? Spam filters work too well for some
Washington Business Journal -- MBAs making comeback after an unpopular time
NY Times: Gossip isn't just useless blather. It helps clarify and enforce the rules that keep people working well together, studies suggest.
NY Times: Thomas Friedman argues that the telecom/dot-com glut and subsequent bust has created the conditions that makes it easier for so many customer service and high-tech jobs to be outsourced out of the nation.
NY Times: Wages for the average American worker fell last year, after adjusting for inflation - the first such drop in nearly a decade.
American Society of Newspaper Editors: The number of full-time journalists working at daily newspapers continues to fall while the number of minority journalists inched up nearly a half of a percentage point to 13.42 percent in 2004. Since the economic downturn of 2001, newsrooms have lost a net of more than 2,200 journalists while the number of minority journalists has increased.
In Wednesday's WSJ, "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economists Explains the Hidden Side of Everything" was reviewed. The book was written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
I've never forgotten Dubner's August 2003 profile of Levitt for the NY Times and his unorthodox exploration of topics such as falling crime rates in the 1990s and inflating of standardized test scores by Chicago teachers and other issues. I wanted to read more about his economic findings after reading the profile. Until now, Levitt's work has been primarily in academic journals. Now it's as handy as a bookstore.
The review was by Steven E. Landsburg, an economist and author of "Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Experience." I want to read that book too, though it will have to wait. "Freakonomics has had good reviews by others too.
There's also a blog by the authors.
Top 5 stories
Need a sale? Add a little bit of sugar -- Sell More, Feb. 28
Stage fright can cost you big bucks in business -- Sell More, March 28
Four Missourians among Forbes' world's richest people --St. Louis daily, March 11
Winn-Dixie CEO says possible store closings coming -- Jacksonville daily, March 17
You often get one opportunity to sell -- don't squander it -- Gitomer, March 14
Top 5 Entreprenuer/SalesPower
Entrepreneur -- Risk and reward: He felt disenfranchised by cubicle culture. So he started his own business. -- March 16
Entrepreneur -- Beating Murphy's law: In his business, what can go wrong, will. His job is to find ways to make it right. -- March 18
SalesPower -- A living online: He built a business on eBay. -- March 21
Entrepreneur -- Steady growth: Her business has gone from operating out of a spare bedroom to a $2.25 million concern. -- March 1
Entrepreneur -- Turning garbage to gold: Her firm grossed more than $20 million last year by knowing garbage. -- March 17
Greensboro News & Record profiles Roch Smith Jr., the owner of Charlotte 101 and Greensboro 101, which I did not mention earlier.
In the past, it has been nearly impossible to prove to local advertisers that local people are reading a particular Web site. If Smith can prove to advertisers that those blogs' readers are local and interested in local products, he'll have a shot at success.
Tip: Ed Cone, who is a source in the story.
This is a piece from February still worth noting: WSJ -- The Blogs Must be Crazy: Or maybe the MSM is just suffering from freedom envy by Peggy Noonan.
Points I liked:
Blogging changes how business is done in American journalism. The MSM isn't over. It just can no longer pose as if it is The Guardian of Established Truth. The MSM is just another player now. A big one, but a player.
Bloggers, unlike reporters at elite newspapers and magazines, are independent operators. They are not, and do not have to be, governed by mainstream thinking.
Some brilliant rising young reporter with a growing reputation at the Times or Newsweek or Post is going to quit, go into the blogging business, start The Daily Joe, get someone to give him a guaranteed ad for two years, and become a journalistic force. His motive will be influence, and the use of his gifts along the lines of excellence. His blog will further legitimize blogging.
The Business Review of Albany -- Rising gas prices don't slow RV sales
Baltimore Business Journal -- Jos. A. Bank says no to kids,' but maybe to women's wear
BizDemographics -- Norfolk most dependent on government jobs, ACBJ study finds
Charlotte Business Journal -- Lowe's takes NBA over NFL
Cincinnati Business Courier -- H-1B backlash: Federal program meant for hard-to-fill jobs, but critics cite company misuse
Denver Business Journal -- Federal court ruling hits 'junk fax' industry
San Francisco Business Times -- Rising economy injects new blood into venerable business clubs
NY Times -- 'Blockbuster' and 'The Big Picture': I Am Large, I Contain Multiplexes: New books by Tom Shone and Edward Jay Epstein describe the seismic change in the way movies are conceived, made and marketed.
Hollywood, like the world of "Terminator 3," seems on the verge of becoming a self-perpetuating machine, no human participation needed. The audience is obsolete. Large parts of many films are already computer-generated, so flesh-and-blood actors may become extinct too. Movies will be made on microchips and marketed to microchips, while still other microchips tally the profits. And out here in the real world we'll go back to doing what we did before there were movies. Er, what was that exactly, anyway?
Shone's book was also used in the February New Yorker article summarized at There's no business like show business
Wired News: The Need for Feed(s) -- "For online newspapers, news aggregators like Google News are a mixed blessing: They can generate big traffic, but maybe they're also stealing a bit of thunder. Some newspapers are about to fight back with services of their own."
More blog conferences are being held to spread the word about blogging, especially citizen journalism blogging. There's one in May in Nashville and one planned in Charlotte in September.
Also citizen media sites Charlotte 101 and Nashville 101 have launched.
Currently
"The Master Butcher's Singing Club" by Louise Endrich
Finished
"Bad Business" by Robert B. Parker
"Iceland's Bell" by Hollder Laxness, through page 200.
"The Dark Frigate" by Charles Boardman Hawes, a Newberry winner, but I could only get through p.63.
"What Mrs. McGuillicuddy Saw" ("The 4:50 from Paddington") by Agatha Christie
"Lewis and Clark on the Trail of Discovery : An Interactive History with Removable Artifacts" by Rod Gragg.
"The Motley Fool's money after 40 : building wealth for a better life" by David and Tom Gardner
"The Motley Fool Investment Guide" by David and Tom Gardner
"A New Song" by Jan Karon
Audio books
Currently
The Renaissance (a short history) by Paul Johnson
"For Cause and Comrades" by James M. McPherson
"Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow