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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: altair19 who wrote (162615)	3/9/2009 5:53:58 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 361688

The 10 Major Newspapers That Will Either Fold or Go Digital Next news.yahoo.com Over the last few weeks, the newspaper industry has entered a new period of decline. The parent of the papers in Philadelphia declared bankruptcy as did the Journal Register chain. The Rocky Mountain News closed and the Seattle Post Intelligencer, owned by Hearst, will almost certainly close or only publish online. Hearst has said it will also close The San Francisco Chronicle if it cannot make massive cuts at the paper. The most recent rumor is that the company will fire half of the editorial staff. That action still may not be enough to make the property profitable. 24/7 Wall St. has created its list of the ten major daily papers that are most likely to fold or shut their print operations and only publish online. The properties were chosen based on the financial strength of their parent companies, the amount of direct competition that they face in their markets, and industry information on how much money they are losing. Based on this analysis, it is possible that eight of the fifty largest daily newspapers in the United States could cease publication in the next eighteen months. (Read: "The Race for a Better Read") 1. The Philadelphia Daily News. The smaller of the two papers owned by The Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, which recently filed for bankruptcy. The parent company says it will make money this year, but with newspaper advertising still falling sharply, the city cannot support two papers and the Daily News has a daily circulation of only about 100,000. The tabloid has a small staff, most of whom could probably stay on at Philly.com, the web operation for both of the city dailies. 2. The Minneapolis Star Tribune has filed for Chapter 11. The paper may not make money this year even without the costs of debt coverage. The company said it made $26 million last year, about half of what it made in 2007. The odds are that the Star Tribune will lose money this year if its ad revenue drops another 20%. There is no point for creditors to keep the paper open if it cannot generate cash. It could become an all-digital property, but supporting a daily circulation of over 300,000 is too much of a burden. It could survive if its rival the St. Paul Pioneer Press folds. A grim race. 3. The Miami Herald, which has a daily circulation of about 220,000. It is owned by McClatchy, a publicly traded company which could be the next chain to go into Chapter 11. The Herald has been on the market since December, and but no serious bidders have emerged. Newspaper advertising has been especially hard hit in Florida because of the tremendous loss in real estate advertising. The online version of the paper is already well-read in the Miami area and Latin America and the Caribbean. The Herald has strong competition north of it in Fort Lauderdale. There is a very small chance it could merge with the Sun-Sentinel, but it is more likely that the Herald will go online-only with two editions, one for English-speaking readers and one for Spanish. 4. The Detroit News is one of two daily papers in the big American city badly hit by the economic downturn. It is unlikely that it can merge with the larger Detroit Free Press which is owned by Gannett. It is hard to see what would be in it for Gannett. With the fortunes of Detroit getting worse each day, cutting back the number of days that the paper is delivered will not save enough money to keep the paper open. 5. The Boston Globe is, based on several accounts, losing $1 million a week. One investment bank recently said that the paper is only worth $20 million. The paper is the flagship of what the Globe's parent, The New York Times, calls the New England Media Group. NYT has substantial financial problems of its own. Last year, ad revenue for the New England properties was down 18%. That is likely to continue or get worse this year. Supporting larger losses at the Globe will become nearly impossible. Boston.com, the online site that includes the digital aspects of the Globe, will probably be all that will be left of the operation. 6. The San Francisco Chronicle. Parent company Hearst has already set a deadline for shutting the paper if it cannot make tremendous cost cuts. The Chronicle lost as much as $70 million last year. Even if the company could lower its costs, the northern California economy is in bad shape. The online version of the paper could be the only version by the middle of the 2009. 7. The Chicago Sun Times is the smaller of two newspapers in the city. Its parent company, Sun-Times Media Group trades for $.03 a share. Davidson Kempner, a large shareholder in the firm, has dumped the CEO and most of the board. The paper has no chance of competing with The Chicago Tribune. 8. NY Daily News is one of several large papers fighting for circulation and advertising in the New York City area. Unlike The New York Times, New York Post, Newsday, and Newark Star Ledger, the Daily News is not owned by a larger organization. Real estate billionaire Mort Zuckerman owns the paper. Based on figures from other big dailies it could easily lose $60 million or $70 million and has no chance of recovering from that level 9. The Fort Worth Star Telegram is another one of the big dailies that competes with a larger paper in a neighboring market - Dallas. The parent of The Dallas Morning News, Belo, is arguably a stronger company that the Star Telegram's parent, McClatchy. The Morning News has a circulation of about 350,000 and the Star Telegram has just over 200,000. The Star Telegram will have to shut down or become an edition of its rival. Putting them together would save tens of millions of dollars a year. 10. The Cleveland Plain Dealer is in one of the economically weakest markets in the country. Its parent, Advance Publications, has already threatened to close its paper in Newark. Employees gave up enough in terms of concessions to keep the paper open. Advance, owned by the Newhouse family, is carrying the burden of its paper plus Conde Nast, its magazine group which is losing advertising revenue. The Plain Dealer will be shut or go digital by the end of next year. - By Douglas A. McIntyre -- 24/7 WALL ST.

To: altair19 who wrote (162615)	3/10/2009 4:54:23 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361688

Taking a Depression Seriously ______________________________________________________________ By DAVID BROOKS Op-Ed Columnist The New York Times March 10, 2009 The Democratic response to the economic crisis has its problems, but let’s face it, the current Republican response is totally misguided. The House minority leader, John Boehner, has called for a federal spending freeze for the rest of the year. In other words, after a decade of profligacy, the Republicans have decided to demand a rigid fiscal straitjacket at the one moment in the past 70 years when it is completely inappropriate. The G.O.P. leaders have adopted a posture that allows the Democrats to make all the proposals while all the Republicans can say is “no.” They’ve apparently decided that it’s easier to repeat the familiar talking points than actually think through a response to the extraordinary crisis at hand. If the Republicans wanted to do the country some good, they’d embrace an entirely different approach. First, they’d take the current economic crisis more seriously than the Democrats. The Obama budget projects that the recession will be mild this year and the economy will come surging back in 2010. Democrats apparently think that dealing with the crisis is a part-time job, which leaves the afternoons free to work on long-range plans to reform education, health care, energy and a dozen smaller things. Democrats are counting on a quick recovery to help pay for these long-term projects. Republicans could point out that this crisis is not just an opportunity to do other things. It’s a bloomin’ emergency. Robert Barro of Harvard estimates that there is a 30 percent chance of a depression. Warren Buffett says economic activity “has fallen off a cliff” and is not coming back soon. Stock market declines are destroying $23 trillion in wealth, according to Lawrence Lindsey. Auto production is down by two-thirds since 2005. In China, 20 million migrant laborers have lost their jobs. Investment in developing countries has dropped from $929 billion in 2007 to $165 billion this year. Pension systems are fragile. Household balance sheets are still a wreck. Republicans could argue that it’s Nero-esque for Democrats to be plotting extensive renovations when the house is on fire. They could point out that history will judge this president harshly if he’s off chasing distant visions while the markets see a void where his banking policy should be. Second, Republicans could admit that they don’t know what the future holds, and they’re not going to try to make long-range plans based on assumptions that will be obsolete by summer. Unlike the Democrats, they’re not for making trillions of dollars in long-term spending commitments until they know where things stand. Instead, they’re going to focus obsessively on restoring equilibrium first, and they’re going to understand that there is a sharp distinction between crisis policy-making and noncrisis policy-making. In times like these, you’d do things you would never do normally. When it’s over, we can go back to our regularly scheduled debates. Third, Republicans could offer the public a realistic appraisal of the health of capitalism. Global capitalism is an innovative force, they could argue, but we have been reminded of its shortcomings. When exogenous forces like the rise of China and a flood of easy money hit the global marketplace, they can throw the entire system of out of whack, leading to a cascade of imbalances: higher debt, a grossly enlarged financial sector and unsustainable bubbles. If the free market party doesn’t offer the public an honest appraisal of capitalism’s weaknesses, the public will never trust it to address them. Power will inevitably slide over to those who believe this crisis is a repudiation of global capitalism as a whole. Fourth, Republicans could get out in front of this crisis for once. That would mean being out front with ideas to support the wealth-creating parts of the economy rather than merely propping up the fading parts. That would mean supporting President Obama’s plan for global stimulus coordination, because right now most of the world is free-riding off our expenditures. That would mean eliminating all this populist talk about letting Citigroup fail, because a cascade of insolvency would inevitably lead to full-scale nationalization. It would mean coming up with a bold banking plan, rather than just whining about whatever the Democrats have on offer. Finally, Republicans could make it clear that that the emergency has to be followed by an era of balance. This crisis was fueled by financial decadence, and public debt could be 80 percent of G.D.P. by the time it’s over. Republicans should be the party of restoring fiscal balance — whatever it takes — not trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. If Republicans were to treat this like a genuine emergency, with initiative-grabbing approaches, they may not get their plans enacted, but voters would at least give them another look. Do I expect them to shift course in this manner? Not really. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

To: altair19 who wrote (162615)	3/10/2009 7:09:07 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361688

EMC Will Gain ‘Significant’ Market Share in Slowdown (Update2) By Kevin Bell March 10 (Bloomberg) -- EMC Corp., the world’s biggest maker of storage computer products, will gain “significant” market share as the economy slows, Chief Executive Officer Joseph Tucci said. The shares advanced the most in six weeks. The company is planning an announcement on flash technology, Tucci said today at an investor conference in Boston. EMC also expects to ship new virtualization products this year, which allows computers to run multiple operating systems. EMC will maintain investments in research and development -- amounting to 12 percent of revenue, Tucci said. The company, with 33 percent of the network storage market, aims to boost sales from software and services, which are more profitable than storage computers. In November, EMC said it formed a new company to sell Internet services that help customers store and manage personal data. The changes will help the company through the recession “The weak will feel it more than the strong, and we do believe we are going into it strong,” Tucci said. “We are going to, across the board, make sure we gain share in this environment.” EMC, based in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, climbed 81 cents, or 8.2 percent, to $10.66 at 4:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, its biggest gain since Jan. 28. The shares have risen 1.8 percent this year. The recession led EMC in January to announce 2,400 job cuts, amounting to 7 percent of the workforce. The plan will bring savings of $350 million this year and $500 million in 2010, the company said. Tucci said today he’s resisting cutting sales people. “We’re doing everything we can to make sure we preserve the maximum number of people in the field around our customers.” To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Bell in Toronto at kbell2@bloomberg.net Last Updated: March 10, 2009 16:09 EDT

To: altair19 who wrote (162615)	3/11/2009 1:22:43 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 361688

...JUPITER, Fla -- Leyland had a late-night dinner with New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, good friend and St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley and other Tigers coaches and officials Monday night at The Capital Grille in Palm Beach Gardens. La Russa and Belichick are friends, and Leyland has wanted to meet him for some time. "I had a long conversation with Bill Belichick," Leyland said. "We talked about how you handle players, prepared for a game or a series and compared notes. He has some stars like (Tom) Brady, but he has some dirt balls, too. We talked about how a closer is like a field goal kicker. "He is really a bright guy." LaRussa also got a charge out of Leyland on Tuesday morning when he sent over his lineup. It included Stan Musial, Mark McGwire, Ozzie Smith, Ken Boyer, Ted Simmons and Jim Edmonds with Bob Gibson pitching. "If those guys come to bat today," Leyland said, "I know the world's coming to an end." Leyland, though, told La Russa, "It wasn't your idea. I did this 10 years ago." While managing the Pittsburgh Pirates, Leyland sent La Russa a lineup that included Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell. Posted by Steve Kornacki March 11, 2009 00:15AM

To: altair19 who wrote (162615)	3/11/2009 1:34:17 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361688

Another major university faces a shortfall in funds to operate... CORNELL UNIVERSITY, facing a budget deficit, will cut endowment spending by 15 percent and raise as much as $500 million from selling bonds. The university, in Ithaca, New York, authorized the sale of taxable bonds to provide working capital, President David Skorton said in a statement posted March 6 on the school’s Web site. The school faces a 10 percent budget shortfall, a deficit of more than $200 million. -Bloomberg 03-10-09

To: altair19 who wrote (162615)	3/11/2009 7:31:21 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361688

Boston's John Hancock Tower Scheduled For Foreclosure bostonherald.com Hancock owner likely eyeing bankruptcy to keep tower By Thomas Grillo Wednesday, March 11, 2009 The John Hancock tower is scheduled for a foreclosure auction later this month, but there’s speculation that its owner will file for bankruptcy to keep creditors at bay. “They’re seriously talking about it,” a source familiar with the situation told the Herald. “If a lender threatened to take your house and you had the ability to delay it and force the bank to do a workout, why not try it?” The Hancock building is scheduled to be sold to the highest bidder on March 31. The unloading of the 60-story iconic glass tower came about after its owner, Broadway Partners, defaulted on some debt payments on the building it bought in 2006 for $1.3 billion. At the time, Broadway gambled that rents in the city’s premier office tower would exceed $100 per square foot. But the slowing economy and falling rents made it impossible for the New York-based firm to earn enough income to meet its debt payments, and wary lenders were unwilling to refinance the massive mortgage. Today, real estate experts say the tower is worth an estimated $800 million. Harold Murphy - a bankruptcy attorney at Hanify & King who handled Chapter 11 proceedings for Donald Chiofaro, owner of International Place - said Broadway Partners has several options up until the auction. “They could make a deal, file for bankruptcy or sue in state or federal court alleging the lender did something wrong,” he said. In 2004, Chiofaro was in danger of losing International Place to Tishman Speyer Properties, a New York-based developer. But the scrappy developer filed for bankruptcy and convinced Prudential Real Estate Investors to refinance the project. Tishman Speyer profited from the deal and Chiofaro’s ownership was reduced, but the former Harvard linebacker retained his position at the 1.8-million-square-foot complex. A spokesman for Broadway Partners yesterday refused to speculate on the company’s plans. “We continue to negotiate with lenders, and hopefully something positive will take place before the auction,” said Steven Solomon.

To: altair19 who wrote (162615)	3/11/2009 8:33:18 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361688

Can Tiger tame in-form Ogilvy at Doral? ______________________________________________________________ Tue Mar 10, 2009 - MIAMI (Reuters) - World number one Tiger Woods will have to contend with the hottest player in the game when he continues his comeback from reconstructive knee surgery at this week's WGC-CA Championship. Australian Geoff Ogilvy is set to launch his title defense in Thursday's opening round at the Doral Golf Resort where he will be bidding for a fourth tournament win in eight starts. Ogilvy clinched his third World Golf Championships (WGC) crown at this month's Accenture Match Play Championship and is eager to return to Doral in pursuit of a fourth. "It's exciting to defend a golf tournament, to go back to where you've played well," said Ogilvy, who faces a strong field of 80 including the world's top 20 players. "I played well the year before too, so the last couple of years I've had a great time at Doral. "It's one of the biggest tournaments in the world and I'm really looking forward to it," the Australian told reporters after crushing Britain's Paul Casey 4&3 in the Accenture Match Play Championship final. Ogilvy, the world number four, has produced sparkling form since taking a six-week break from the game at the end of the 2008 U.S. season. He clinched his first title on home soil at the Australian PGA Championship in December before cruising to a six-stroke victory at the PGA Tour's season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship in Hawaii the following month. PACESETTING WOODS While Ogilvy's three WGC wins make him the second most successful player since the elite events were launched in 1999, the pacesetting Woods has piled up a remarkable 15 victories. In 27 WGC starts, the American world number one has recorded 24 top-10 finishes and earned nearly $20 million. This week, however, will be his first strokeplay tournament since his astonishing playoff win at the U.S. Open in June. Woods made his hotly anticipated return to the PGA Tour at the Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona where he was encouraged by his form, despite losing to South African Tim Clark in the second round. "I was very pleased with the way I hit the golf ball," he said. "After walking down the cart paths and playing, getting some rhythm of playing, I had no soreness, no pain. Now it's just a matter of getting back, and playing more rounds." Woods is a six-times winner of the WGC-CA Championship, clinching his first victory at Valderrama in Spain in 1999 and his most recent at Doral two years ago. The tournament had previously rotated venues around the world until it was given a permanent home at Doral in 2007. (Writing by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Rutherford) © Thomson Reuters 2008.