Ready, Fire, Aim! - Mihail's Public Blog

The Microsoft MSN butterfly is ubiquitous these days, even in Instant Messages sent by AOL staffers except that their version has a red circle around it with slash thru it according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):

Andrew Weinstein, an America Online spokesman, said staffers who have used the "no butterfly" icons are showing solidarity with the city of New York, which protested the blizzard of butterfly decals that MSN pasted around town during its launch. He added, "Some of our employees also found it a little ironic that the world's largest software company would choose a bug as its logo."

MSN took the whole thing as a compliment. "We are flattered to be recognized," says Bob Visse, director of marketing for MSN. "It's not often that the No. 2 is recognized so heartily by the No. 1."

I remember going to the annual Yellow Pages conference in early 2001 in Jacksonville, Florida and being blown away by the size and potential of the yellow pages industry. According to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):

Much of the talk in the private-equity business, particularly among buyout firms, is what will become of the recent "hot" property: the stodgy old phone books that are a staple of telephone tables in parlors across the country. After a wave of yellow-pages buyouts, it's become clear that they exemplify the new measured approach to private-equity investing.

"If you went back a couple of years ago, people were looking for the next great thing with explosive growth," said Stewart Kohl, co-managing general partner at private equity firm Riverside Co. "I think what you're seeing now is the inverse of that. People want stable, predictable growth."

...Private equity firms were attracted to the yellow pages businesses for their high margins and low capital requirements. "These are very well-run businesses," Mr. Comack [a telecommunications analyst with Guzman & Co.] said. "They have margins somewhere in the mid- to high-50s. And they have very steady cash flow."

The Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes," a politically oriented talk show with Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes as co-hosts, can now make that claim.

According to new ratings data from Nielsen Media Research, "Hannity & Colmes" squeaked by "Larry King Live" with an average audience of 1.65 million people this month. Mr. King has been watched by an audience of 1.58 million people so far this month.

The reversal of fortune further solidified the Fox News Channel's new standing as the most-watched cable news network, a title it took from CNN for the first time in January. It has never looked back. "Larry King Live" had already lost its place as the top-rated program in all cable news to the Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor," with Bill O`Reilly as its host.

The complicated issue of chemistry between anchors can make or break a news morning show as CBS has found so they're trying something different -- one man and three women are the four co-anchors of the newest "Early Show" -- according to this New York Times story (registration required):

"The Early Show" has long trailed the other networks' morning shows in the ratings. CBS executives determined that the failure of the previous "Early Show" co-hosts, Bryant Gumbel and Jane Clayson, was proof that the network should find an alternative to the traditional morning-show format of male-female anchor couples.

Platonic friendship, or the illusion of it, has always been the secret of successful morning television shows. Ms. Couric and Matt Lauer seem like best buddies on "Today," Ms. Sawyer and Charles Gibson come across as elegant partners on "Good Morning America."

..."The Early Show" is watched on average by 2.6 million people. ("Good Morning America" is watched by 4.6 million, while "Today" is watched by more than 6 million.) One sign that its more successful rivals are not yet feeling threatened was that Ms. Sawyer did not appear yesterday because she was on assignment.

Integrating them tightly into the programming itself, a new cable network from Scripps Network is introducing new advertising possibilities to foil new technologies and hardware that allow viewers to skip the regular 30-second advertising according to this New York Times story (registration required):

Television networks, dreading a future in which digital devices hand viewers the power to skip commercials automatically, have responded by increasingly integrating ads into the programs themselves. Now, a new cable network has elevated the practice beyond the occasional, building such anti-ad-zapping efforts directly into its business model.

The entire schedule of the new network, Fine Living, has been specifically set up to incorporate various forms of advertising that can foil the abilities of personal video recorders like TiVo and ReplayTV. Every show, for example, is available for sponsorship, while advertisers are collaborating in the making of certain one-minute segments that run in the middle of programs.

The shows also provide other opportunities for the placement of an advertiser's message. For example, there are minute segments known as "take-aways" that run periodically during the programs, offering summaries of information relevant to the subject featured in that particular show. A show about hiking, for example, contains a segment about what gear to take along. Photographs of rustic scenes take half the screen, while the announcers' words scroll down the other half. But across the top of the whole screen the advertiser's logo appears for the full minute.

The most important retailer in the country Wal-Mart has now added Lycoris low-cost PCs running Linux according to this News.com story on the New York Times site:

Through its Web site, the retail giant early this year began offering low-cost PCs without an operating system preinstalled. It then expanded to Linux, initially relying on the Lindows distribution of Linux and later expanding to include MandrakeSoft's version of the OS.

By using the open-source software and low-cost processors from Taiwan chipmaker Via, Wal-Mart has been able to drive down prices to $199 for a PC without a monitor.

Lycoris was launched in Redmond, Wash., home base of OS rival Microsoft, two years ago by former Microsoft systems tester Joseph Cheek. The company began selling Lycoris Desktop/LX, its version of Linux for desktop PCs, early this year and quickly won recognition for dressing up Linux with a user interface similar in look and feel to recent versions of Windows.

IBM may be behind the new company being touted in ads today according to this New York Times story (registration required) after some investigative reporting put various clues together. Especially the fact that IBM is a major client of the advertising company (Ogilvy & Mather) behind the ad and IBM CEO is expected to outline  IBM's vision of the future of computing, "with companies buying information technology as they would a utility service, somewhat like electricity."

Bagotronics? It is the ungainly name of a company that, according to a full-page advertisement in The New York Times yesterday, sells a "business time machine" that gives its user "the power to go back in time and erase all your costly business blunders."

The remarkable gadget, the ad continues, "performs as well as a machine that costs six times as much, but at only three easy payments of $299.95, it's affordable to companies of any size."

...Prominently shown in the ad is the ostensible company's Web site, called www.bagotronics.com. Clicking most anywhere on the Web site calls up a message with the admonition to pick up the Thursday issue of The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times or The San Jose Mercury News for more details.

This is all, it seems, an elaborate — and expensive — ad for an ad. But for what?

So much for the environment and making the US less dependent on foreign oil. The new fuel economy numbers were announced by the EPA, and the fact that most new vehicles are SUVs is showing with automakers using the excuse that they are only giving what consumers want, according to this New York Times story (registration required):

The average fuel economy for the new 2003 model cars and passenger trucks is 20.8 miles a gallon, the Environmental Protection Agency reported today, about 6 percent below the high point set 15 years ago.

Among those with the best fuel economy, the share of the new models getting more than 30 miles a gallon dropped to 3.5 percent from 5.5 percent a year ago. Only 33 of the 934 cars, trucks and vans listed in the 2003 model statistics are that efficient, compared with 48 of 865 models available last year.

In 1987 and 1988, before Americans developed a fascination with gasoline-hungry sport utility vehicles, the fleet averaged 22.1 m.p.g.

"Clearly, it is disappointing that more than 15 years after fuel economy peaked, fuel economy is still hovering around an all-time low," said David Friedman of the Union of Concerned Scientists in Berkeley, Calif. "And yet the technology is out there. We could be averaging close to 30 to 40 miles per gallon, and that's with conventional technology: nonhybrids, better engines, better transmissions, improved aerodynamics."

In a first, McDonald's in France is telling customers that children should eat less of its fast food that is now under attack from critics via lawsuits, according to this New York Times story (registration required):

In an "advertorial" about obesity in children that appeared in the magazine Femme Actuelle in May, McDonald's France said the number of visits to its outlets should be limited. Forbidding children from eating fast food would be counterproductive, it said. "However, there is no reason to eat excessive amounts of junk food, nor go more than once a week to McDonald's."

A spokesman for McDonald's in the United States said the company did not agree with the views expressed in the advertorial.

"This is the opinion of one consultant in France," the company said in a statement. "We do not share this view at all."

...McDonald's also described as frivolous a lawsuit that Mr. Banzhaf's law students filed against the company for not disclosing that it used beef tallow in making its fries. But the company paid $12.5 million in March to settle the case, he said.

Is this a first in recent US corporate history? According to this New York Times story (registration required):

In a small but significant sign that the boss won't get away with it any more, Bausch & Lomb will not be paying its chief executive a bonus this year after he admitted misrepresenting his educational record on his CV.

The eyecare products maker said on Tuesday that Ronald Zarrella, who has been its chairman and chief executive for less than a year, would forfeit any annual incentive bonus for 2002. The decision will cost him a minimum of $1.1m, which was guaranteed under his contract.

...But the board said his "lapse in judgment" could not pass without consequence, and docked his bonus. It also expressed its irritation that he "did not communicate with us and with the employees in a completely straightforward manner when the problem arose."

...Mr Zarrella's treatment, and Bausch & Lomb's stance of disapproval, will be closely watched. The company was recently placed joint first by Standard & Poor's in a list of US companies judged by transparency and disclosure.

Swanson, the originator of the frozen dinner, is reinvigorating the brand thanks to its new owners, according to this New York Times story (registration required):

The commercial, part of a new $10 million TV campaign created by the Interpublic Group's Foote, Cone & Belding in New York, could not be further from Swanson ads for its frozen dinners in the 1950's. Swanson invented the "TV dinner" in 1953 as emergency food for busy housewives. But the country's more demanding palate and corporate indifference have turned this piece of Americana into little more than a subject of wistful nostalgia.

...But it is a booming market. Back when Swanson TV dinners were introduced, housewives were valued as cooks and TV dinners were the food you let the baby sitter serve or what you ate when Dad was out. Today, women are no longer preparing from scratch. Instead, they are assembling food from a variety of sources, ranging from the freezer case to fast food restaurants to supermarket take-out.

"Women are becoming food assemblers, not food preparers," said Dianne Jacobs, general manager of frozen foods at Pinnacle.

In fact, the overall trend in dining is to let someone else do it, said Harry Balzar, vice president at the NPD Group, a Chicago-based market research firm. He said only 33 percent of all dinners are cooked from scratch, and that number is declining.

"It's all attributable to one fact and that is that 77 percent of all dinner in America is prepared by women," said Mr. Balzar. "And you can't tell me that with all the demands and pressures women have on their time that the job of cooking is not a job they would want to get out of. Women are transforming meal preparation."

The economy and corporate scandals' continue to have a detrimental effect on the mood and attitude of the workforce according to this New York Times story (registration required):

Some employees are questioning whether it is worth going the extra mile when asked by senior executives because, as the WorldCom scandal demonstrated, some executives are looking out for themselves, not their corporations.

For the first time in two decades, most workers surveyed said they would vote to join a union if they could, looking to unions as a way to gain coveted protections on the job.

And a New York Times/CBS News Poll found that American workers were more anxious about the economy than at any time since 1993. A survey of 668 Americans conducted from Oct. 3 to 5 found that 56 percent of Americans considered the economy fairly bad or very bad. Thirty-nine percent said they thought the economy would get worse, 46 percent expected the economy to remain the same and 13 percent predicted it would get better. This pessimism was fed by numerous factors, including the corporate scandals, lingering effects of the Sept. 11 attacks, Wall Street's woes and worries about a war with Iraq.

With 70 percent of respondents saying the economy is worse than two years ago, this pessimism has influenced feelings about job security. Slightly more than half of those polled said they were very or somewhat concerned that in the next year they or someone in their household might be out of work or looking for a job.

This New York Times story (registration required) details how the future of television has finally arrived but that there's still a lot to be worked out between the cable companies that distribute the content and the networks that produce most of the content with the "negotiations with the highest stakes are taking place inside AOL Time Warner."

AOL Time Warner is moving faster than any other cable company. As one of the largest companies on all sides of the business — in cable systems, television production and operating networks — it is situated to reconcile the competing interests. How it fares at selling the digital services could influence the shape of the industry. The company has already shown it can use its power to change Hollywood, when Warner single-handedly brought down prices to jump start sales of DVD's.

...Some analysts say AOL Time Warner and other cable companies have already stumbled by overestimating the nation's couch potatoes. Since 1996, cable companies have spent more than $55 billion on reworking their systems to be able to offer various two-way digital services. Time Warner, the second-largest cable company, has invested aggressively, upgrading more than 98 percent of its systems. But of the more than 70 million people with access to digital cable, only about 15 million subscribe, and only about 3.5 million Time Warner customers do.

Industry analysts and executives say that the main reason for the slow demand is that, until the last several months, digital cable simply meant 150 channels, with no qualitative difference but more difficult to navigate. Time Warner and the other cable companies are betting that on-demand and video-recorder features will make digital cable irresistible even to viewers who turn up their nose at the smorgasbord of channels.

The cable companies are also fighting with fast-growing satellite services, which are courting subscribers with set-top boxes including built-in digital recorders like TiVo and ReplayTV devices, made by SONICblue. The recorders also make it push-button easy for viewers to store programs or movies to watch later as well as to fast-forward over the commercials. (AOL Time Warner and other media companies are suing ReplayTV for copyright infringement, in part because the device can skip all commercials automatically, without a viewer even pressing fast forward.)

Years after Apple got rid of the floppy drive (but without providing a suitable alternative) Dell is pushing a 16MB USB Memory Key for $20, the same price as a floppy drive from Dell, that can hold up to 10 floppy disks worth of data according to this News.com story.

Dell will offer a 16MB version of the USB Memory Key in place of a floppy drive for customers who opt to pair it with one of two Inspiron notebook models. The device uses flash memory and works by plugging into a PC's USB (universal serial bus) port. When connected, the Dell-branded device appears on a computer's desktop as a removable hard drive, allowing people to drag and drop files for storage or to move them to another computer. When not in use, it fits easily into a shirt pocket.

Customers can order the USB Memory Key in place of a floppy drive on Dell Inspiron 4150 and 8200 models. However, it will work with any computer--including Dell's other notebooks--that has a USB port and Microsoft's Windows 98 or later operating system.

Continuing bad news about the economy according to the New York Times story (registration required) while the Bush White House seems to be focused on getting votes for its Republican candidates and on the war on terrorism and war on Iraq,

In a report that is not only a warning signal for the economy but could also have an impact on next week's Congressional elections, the Conference Board reported today that consumer confidence plunged to a nine-year low in October.

The board's index of consumer confidence, which measures assessments of present and future expectations, fell to 79.4 this month from 93.7 in September. It is the biggest one-month drop since the decline registered from September to October 1990. And it is the lowest reading on consumer confidence since November 1993, when the index stood at 71.9 and was rising as the economy recovered from the 1990-91 recession.

In addition, the report found that consumer expectations about conditions six months from now were also sharply lower.

The declines were especially unnerving because consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of the nation's gross domestic product.

The Jack Welch divorce proceedings saga continues according to this New York Times story (registration required). So much for wanting to reduce the public mess for GE and himself.

John F. Welch Jr., the former chairman and chief executive of General Electric, is trying to bring in Daniel K. Webb, a prominent trial lawyer and a former United States attorney in Chicago, to work on his pending divorce from Jane Beasley Welch.

Mr. Webb, a partner at Winston & Strawn in Chicago, has represented Philip Morris in tobacco litigation and has recently been hired by Microsoft for a new round in the government's antitrust battle. Controversial cases are a natural for trial lawyers, he has said, because those are the ones where the parties do not settle but instead go to trial.

...Mr. Welch's plan to add Mr. Webb, who has handled some business issues for General Electric, signals that the divorce could turn even more acrimonious. There had been some speculation that Mr. Welch and his wife might reach an out-of-court settlement to avoid any more bad publicity for him.

Is Air Force One George W.'s equivalent of the Lincoln Bedroom? Symbolism in politics and the photo opp can't compete with this image of access to power but will it help in the elections? A San Francisco Chronicle story about the use of Air Force One by George W. to help Republican candidates in their election bids. But when's Bill Simon flight?

In the second Bush White House, Air Force One has become both a crucial presidential retreat and a potent political tool. Every president since John Kennedy has had a love affair with the jet's luxuries and ability to attract votes, but under Bush its lure has increased.

The change dates to Sept. 11, 2001, when Air Force One became the fortress- jet, carrying the president on a secret zigzag odyssey across the United States. If the flight projected an image that day of a commander-in-chief in retreat, it also fed the legend of one of the great icons of the American presidency.

...For midterm candidates who have never before run for office, a ride on the plane goes a long way toward eliminating what political consultants call the "stature gap" by showcasing access to the inner court.

"When you drop into your speech, 'When I flew back with President Bush on Air Force One, and he said to me,' everything else you say after that is 3,000 percent more important," said Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster.

Another News.com story confirming earlier suspicions -- a good marketing move on the part of Microsoft in ensuring that it will continue to ratchet up revenues next year between XP and the Office suite sales. May not be good for customers since they'll have to pay for it, although I have to admit that XP seems much more stable than anything I'd used by Microsoft in the past.

A representative acknowledged that Microsoft plans to offer the productivity suite, code-named Office 11, only for Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 and Windows XP.

Microsoft started beta testing Office 11 last week, but some early participants found that they had been dropped from the program if they had planned to use older versions of Windows. They were dropped because Microsoft doesn't plan to offer Office 11 for Windows 98, 98 Second Edition, Me or NT. The Redmond, Wash.-based company already dropped support for Windows 95 with the release of Office XP in May 2001.

While Salon has now signed up some 40,000+ subscribers it continues to have financial problems but according to his News.com story one of its existing investors has come to its rescue to provide "breathing room". What I still don't understand about Salon is what the difference is between its premium and regular content -- in fact, I seem to find enough of their good content without paying. This lack of differentiation may be hurting them.

Salon Media Group on Wednesday said it raised $200,000 in a loan from Adobe Systems founder and company director Dr. John Warnock. Issued as an unsecured promissory note, the loan gives the publisher of the Salon.com online news and commentary site breathing room as it seeks to put its history of losses behind it.

Like other Web publishers, the company has battled a tough advertising market, establishing a paid version and other premium services to bolster its bottom line. For now, however, its future appears to rely on the continued support of a handful of key backers, notably Warnock. The unsecured loan follows a $714,000 infusion from the Adobe founder and other private investors in July.