Talking Biz News

Information about business
journalism from the
Carolina Business News Initiative.

The Society of American Business Editors and Writers announced Friday that it had reached a key fundraising goal with the help of a former business journalist.

SABEW needed to raise $50,000 to match a $50,000 challenge grant from four donors — The Ford Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the McCormick Foundation and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. The organization neeeded to raise that amount by the end of July.

The organization got help from Kenneth Baldwin, a former business editor and executive at the Norfolk, Va.-based Landmark Communications, which owns daily newspapers in Norfolk and Roanoke, Va., as well as Greensboro, N.C. Baldwin gave a large, unspecified amount to the fundraising effort.

Earlier this year, Baldwin also gave a $500,000 gift to the University of South Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications to establish an endowment to teach business and financial journalism.

Another large donor to the SABEW challenge effort was former Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger, who gave $5,000.

The society plans to use the $100,000 from the foundations and its fund drive to revamp its technology. This upgrade will enable it to offer streaming and advanced resources for membership services, to manage its affairs more efficiently, to become more flexible and to incorporate a wide variety of other improvements.

SABEW, which is moving to Arizona State University later this summer after 25 years at the University of Missouri, is expected to soon announce a new executive director.

Diane Levick, who has covered the insurance industry for The Hartford Courant for more than two decades, has left the paper. Her last day was July 28.

Courant business editor Dan Haar wrote, “Diane started at The Courant in 1977. After breaking news of a New Britain corruption investigation, Diane moved to the world of finance, where she has survived 12 business editors. In that time, she had the first story in the nation on drive-through mastectomies — quoting Edith Prague about the ‘outrage’ (some things never change) — which led to national attention and state reforms.

“Diane also broke the story that insurers were using credit-scoring, setting the stage for a perennial battle, and the news of Travelers historic purchase of Aetna’s property-casualty business in 1995.

“Many victims of mental and physical illness owe Diane, as they benefited not only from her stories that led to coverage law changes, but also from her compassionate and dignified accounts of their struggles. From last year:

‘Young Kathryn Laudadio, already battling anorexia and various mental disorders, now has another demon crushing her — guilt that her parents had to pay thousands for a treatment program last summer because insurance wouldn’t cover it.’ The collected stories of that genre alone tell the story of a society, and an industry, evolving.

“And who will ever forget Diane’s interview with Aetna CEO Dick Huber about a $120 million judgment against the company in which he said: ‘You had a skillful ambulance-chasing lawyer, a politically motivated judge and a weeping widow. That’s no way to get justice and certainly no way to manage a trillion-dollar industry.’

“Diane is leaving on disability because of a progressive disorder. Her tireless and dedicated efforts in the face of that have been a lasting inspiration for all of us who have worked with her. Her last day is July 28.”

Read more here. I would add that I competed against Levick while covering the insurance industry for BusinessWeek in the 1990s. I did not win.

The Wall Street Journal, whose WSJ Community has flopped, is developing a new social network called WSJ Connect, writes Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.

Arrington writes, “And instead of building it internally, like they did with WSJ Community, they’ve enlisted the help of another arm of parent company News Corp. - Slingshot Labs. And yes, they call it ‘LinkedIn Killer’ internally.

“Slingshot Labs is the R&D arm of News Corp. and works on digital products. Their first product was Daily Fill, which launched earlier this year. They also built the MySpace Events product that we covered in March. They operate fairly independently, have their own funding and 40-50 staff, according to one person familiar with their operations.

“WSJ Connect is still in the planning/conceptual stages, says one source, but there is ’strong interest’ to move the project forward. Importantly, it would leverage the WSJ brand but would be a separate property and unencumbered by the need for a paid subscription to the newspaper.”

Read more here.

Data from Nielsen Media Research posted here shows that viewership for business news network CNBC is down in July compared to the same month in 2008 across almost all of its shows.

The one time slot where CNBC has improved is the 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. slot from Monday through Friday, which is up 99 percent overall and 89 percent in the 25 to 54 demographic.

“Squawk Box,” which airs before the market opens, is down 21 percent overall and 16 percent in the 25 to 54 age group. “Power Lunch” is off by similar numbers.

One of the biggest drops is for “Fast Money,” which is down 39 percent in viewers compared to July 2008 and 37 percent in viewers aged 25 to 54.

Jim Cramer’s “Mad Money” show is off 25 percent in total viewers and 10 percent in viewers between 25 and 54.

The biggest drop occurred in the 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. slot, which was down 42 percent in total viewers and 43 percent in 25- to 54-year-old viewers. Special CNBC Reports have aired during that time slot this month. Last year, it was the slot for Suze Orman’s show.

Former BusinessWeek reporter Gary Weiss comments Thursday on the financial data of the weekly business magazine disclosed in an item written by the publication’s own Jon Fine.

First, Fine reported that, “The financial data provided to potential buyers or partners are not for the faint of heart. While certain performance metrics detailed in the initial information provided by the company offer some positive signs—the average revenue figure BusinessWeek netted per print-ad page increased slightly from 2006 thru 2007 and 2008, and is forecast to grow again in 2009 — the ad revenue decline is severe.

“Print-ad revenue exceeded $109 million in 2006 but is projected to fall to $59.7 million in 2009, which represents a decline of more than 45% for BusinessWeek’s largest revenue stream. Total revenues, including those from BusinessWeek’s Web site and offshoot products such as its six-times-a-year magazine SmallBiz, will decline from $181.5 million in 2006 to a projected $135.6 million in 2009, according to the data.”

Weiss commented: “Aw, man. That, if you’ll pardon the expression, really blows. I wonder if maybe McGraw-Hill somehow accidentally switched its financials with those of the most recent repository for my scribblings, Portfolio. May it rest in peace.

“I don’t know what I would do if I were Terry McGraw. Guess I’d hold my nose and sell BW to a private equity house, 80 year history be damned. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night, but at least I could hum something like ‘protecting shareholder value’ as I wept bitter tears and, maybe, deep down, expressed regret that I hadn’t hired different people to run the magazine during the last four years. Might not have worked, but I guess we’ll never know.”

Read more here.

Jon Fine, who covers the media for BusinessWeek, reports Thursday that two more potential bidders, both private equity funds, have emerged for the McGraw-Hill business weekly, put up for sale earlier this month.

Fine writes, “Platinum Equity, the Beverly Hills-based private equity firm, is among the companies meeting with BusinessWeek management to view detailed presentations and financial data for the 80-year-old magazine. Earlier this week, executives familiar with the matter say, representatives from private equity firm Warburg Pincus met with management for such a presentation. Spokesmen from both companies declined to comment.

“Evercore Partners, the investment bank that is handling the sale exploration process for BusinessWeek’s owner, The McGraw-Hill Companies, earlier this year sold the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper to Platinum.

“More than half a dozen potential bidders are expected to meet with management, executives say. At least one is a non-U.S.-based company, though its identity remains unclear as of this writing.

“A McGraw-Hill spokesman declined to comment beyond a previous statement that the company is exploring strategic options for BusinessWeek. In an earnings call this week, McGraw-Hill Chairman and CEO Harold ‘Terry’ McGraw III similarly declined to elaborate on the company’s prior statements.”

Read more here.

The Knight Center for Specialized Journalism invites applications for a seminar: “After the Crisis: The New Shape of the Economy” from Sept. 13 to 18, 2009

This seminar will focus on covering the economy and multimedia reporting techniques. Participants will hear from experts on: the shape of future economic growth; changes in financial regulation; government spending, debt and fiscal policy; a nation of consumers: personal savings, investment and financial literacy; and the energy sector and green jobs.

The seminar will also include four days of hands-on multimedia training. Fellows will learn best-practices for using photos, audio slideshows and video in their reporting. First two days will be spent in the classroom learning the equipment and editing software, followed by a reporting field trip in the Washington, D.C. area, followed by a day of production.

Seminars are free. Fellowships cover all seminar costs including meals and lodging. Applications are invited from print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers and citizen journalists.

Visit this Web site for more details including how to apply. Applications must be received by Monday, Aug. 10.

Geraldine Baum of The Los Angeles Times writes Thursday about The Real Deal, the magazine that covers the New York real estate market like a sporting event.

Baum writes, “At a meeting this month in the Real Deal’s sparely (early-Ikea) decorated Manhattan office, Stuart Elliott, the executive editor, urged his tiny staff to keep tracking the behavior of developers trying to stave off meltdown — and opportunists positioning to take advantage of it.

“They’d already run a map of Manhattan apartment buildings with the highest concentrations of Bernie Madoff victims. They’d described ugly ‘divorce’ battles between developers and their marketers. And they’d reported on a developer who got whacked over the head with an ice bucket during a dispute with his partner over a failing property.

“Elliott also checked in with a reporter following up on an earlier story about lenders so reluctant to foreclose on developers with underwater loans that they ‘extend and pretend’ the loan isn’t in trouble.”

Read more here.

Luke Harding of The Guardian in London reports that the Economist has reached an out-of-court settlement with a Russian businessman who had alleged he was libeled by the magazine.

Harding writes, “The article, part of a Russia series, also mentioned Timchenko’s alleged links with Putin. Timchenko is a highly reclusive billionaire oil trader who lives in Geneva, Switzerland. He appeared for the first time last year in the Forbes annual rich list, as the list’s highest new entrant, with a fortune estimated at $2.5bn (£1.5bn).

“The Economist said today: ‘Gunvor, Mr Gennady Timchenko and the Economist are pleased to announce they have settled the libel litigation brought by Gunvor and Mr Timchenko over an article published in last November’s Economist.’ An agreed text will be published in tomorrow’s issue.

“Timchenko co-founded Gunvor more than 10 years ago. The company is the world’s third-largest oil trader and exports about a third of Russia’s seaborne oil. Timchenko has denied accusations that Gunvor had won favourable contracts with Russia’s state-oil companies because of his alleged friendship with Putin.”

Read more here.

Rick Munarriz of The Motley Fool writes about CNBC “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer and how he finds him both entertaining but frustrating to watch.

Munarriz writes, “Cramer is a polarizing figure. Some people love him. Some people hate him. Either way, everybody has an opinion on financial journalism’s reigning rock star.

“I’ll confess to being entertained — and on occasion enlightened — by the Mad Money star. However, there is nothing I hate more than when Cramer opens up the phones to kick off the Mad Money Lightning Round.

“In rat-a-tat-tat fashion, callers will swap booyahs and holler a ticker symbol Cramer’s way. They’ll get a snappy line or two in response, occasionally with a silly sound effect as an exclamation point.

“It may be entertaining to watch, but it’s the equivalent of nails against a chalkboard to me as an investor. After all, we’re all looking for stock ideas. It’s just not right to boil down due diligence to the ring of a cash register or a charging bull.”

Read more here.