Novelty gag gift industry

Here's a neat article on fake vomit--it actually contains quite a bit of industry data. The Chicago Tribune covered a local company who is a leader in this gag gift market:

"The building holds a secret.

A vile and totally eeeewwwww secret, one that brings together 12-year-olds and 12-year-olds at heart.
From the outside, it is another two-story brick warehouse on Chicago's West Side. Step inside, and visitors return to a certain back-of-the-comic-books kind of American childhood.

The secret is this: It's the world capital of fake vomit, where it's still made the old-fashioned American way, ladle by ladle, formed and coagulated for the next generation of pranksters and troublemakers.

Helping put the ick in America since 1941, Fun Inc. is a repository of practical jokes, magic tricks and gag items -- from chattering teeth to hot pepper gum, oversize sunglasses to oversize toothbrushes to oversize anything. The building, near Grand and Major Avenues in the industrial Hansen Park neighborhood, is where springs were once manufactured and, later, Cracker Jack prizes.

Guests walking into the office of Fun Inc. President Graham Putnam might expect to be greeted by a joy-buzzer handshake or a whoopee cushion planted beneath a chair seat. But it is surprisingly bare bones, a room he shares with his wife, Kathryn, the company's corporate secretary and a clutter of paperwork and faux wood paneling. Fake vomit, it turns out, is serious business..."

Read the whole article HERE

Empty Bottle is looking for interns

Looking for a cool internship? The Empty Bottle, a hip nightspot and band showcase located on the West Side, is looking for a few good people. Check it out:

Interns
The Empty Bottle is looking for you… especially if you are looking for an internship. We would like to bring two interns on board to work with us here in the Bottle office. Internships run 5-20 hours per week, and cover a wide array of tasks and responsibilities. That said, we do need responsible and industrious folks who are interested in learning more about the concert industry. Internships are unpaid, but man alive, you want to talk about perks? Free shows are just the tip of the iceberg. School credit is preferred, but certainly not necessary. If you are interested, please send a resume to morgan@emptybottle.com or fax it to 773.276.3607.

Behind the scenes on the Hollywood picket lines

From yesterday's New York Times: When the 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America decided on Nov. 4 to strike, Hollywood wondered how hard the white-collar group would fight. The guild addressed the worry before the first pickets hit the streets.

"In years past, our picketing schedule has gone, 'Picket on Mondays for two hours and then meet at a bar until the following Monday,'" said David Young, the union's director, early this month. "That's not how we're going to do it this time."

Read the whole article HERE

Deadline Hollywood Daily: Alternative news source or Hollywood power broker?

From yesterday's New York Times: When some striking members of the Writers Guild of America created a series of videos depicting speechless actors in support of the writers' cause, they did not post them on the guild's Web site or on YouTube. Instead, the videos made their premiere exclusively on Deadline Hollywood Daily, a Web site owned and operated by Nikki Finke, a columnist for the alternative newspaper LA Weekly.

Since she began the site in 2006, Ms. Finke's Web site has become a critical forum for Hollywood news and gossip, known for analyzing (in sometimes insulting terms) the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of moguls.
But it has been the screenwriters' strike that may have finally solidified her position as a Hollywood power broker. For this article, more than a dozen executive producers, writers and agents offered to attest to her influence. But with those plaudits also come complaints -- only anonymous ones -- that Ms. Finke plays favorites.

"Like it or not, everyone in Hollywood reads her," said Brad Grey, the chief executive of Paramount and, like many executives, an occasional target of Ms. Finke's scathing reports. "You must respect her reach."

For many of her readers, Ms. Finke's Web site has supplanted traditional media as a primary source of strike news. Before the strike, Ms. Finke said Deadline Hollywood Daily averaged 350,000 page views a day. Since the beginning of the strike, she said the daily average had soared to about a million.

Read the whole NYT article HERE

Bloomberg News also covered Deadline Hollywood Daily. You can read the article HERE, but note that Ms. Finke has commented that there are some errors in this (although she doesn't provide details).

A new model for online entertainment sales

From today's New York Times: LOS ANGELES, Nov. 19 — Amway, the door-to-door peddler of vitamins and soap, wants to reinvent how Hollywood sells entertainment. The owners of the multilevel marketing company are pouring millions of dollars into a new online store called Fanista (pronounced fa-NEE-sta). The Web site, set to make its public debut this week, will initially sell DVDs and CDs...In the coming months it plans to add video games, digital downloads and books.

People can simply use Fanista as a place to shop. But the company hopes most consumers will join as members — signing up is free — and then recruit their friends.

The carrot: If your friend joins and buys something, identifying you as the reason for joining, you get 5 percent of the sale in cash or credit.

Read the whole article HERE

Stagehands and writers: What are the differences between their strikes?

From yesterday's New York Times: It was a good weekend for the labor that is organized around the creative arts.

Yesterday, Local 1, which represents the striking stagehands of Broadway, was in the midst of intensive talks with theater owners that seem destined to get the "Grinch" and other Broadway productions back in time for the holidays.
Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since Nov. 5, agreed to go back to the bargaining table with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, although not until Nov. 26.

On the surface, the writers would seem to have all the cards, and the stagehands few. Hollywood writers fuel a much larger enterprise owned by publicly traded companies, have creative expertise and they even had Ron Howard walking a picket in front of Viacom in New York last Thursday. (When you're riding with Opie, your cause must be just.)

But the stagehands, who began striking almost a week after the writers, are most likely the ones who will be heading back to work first. The writers still confront the stalemate over distribution of revenues from digital content. So how will 400 or so (mostly) beefy guys in Manhattan accomplish what currently seems beyond the reach of the 12,000 members of the writers' guild?...

Read the whole article HERE

Behind the scenes look at producer Brian Grazer

From yesterday's New York Times: Brian Grazer, one of the most successful producers in Hollywood, would seem to be a memorable guest, with his energetic manner and elaborately spiked hair. But to make sure he is not forgotten, he will often leave behind a small photo of himself in an inexpensive heart-shaped frame after attending a dinner or party, hiding it among his host's family photographs...There is another level to the joke: despite Mr. Grazer's enormous success in the movie business, his public profile remains relatively slight when compared with his Hollywood peers. Imagine Entertainment, founded 20 years ago by Mr. Grazer and the director Ron Howard, has produced a strong slate of films, including "Liar Liar," "Eight Mile," "Inside Man," "A Beautiful Mind" and "The Da Vinci Code." His latest, "American Gangster," opened two weeks ago as the top film in the country, taking in more than $43 million at the box office its first weekend.

Read the whole article HERE

The strike is on!

Hollywood screenwriters have officially gone on strike. What will this mean for network TV shows and the viewing audience? Networks and advertisers are paying close attention.

Read the New York Times' coverage from today HERE

Bridges to Success Clothing Drive

Here's an opportunity to clean out your closets *and* help others:

A message from Fashion Retail Management:
COLUMBIA COLLEGE COMMUNITY: MAKE FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT!

Is your closet ready to EXPLODE?
Why don't you clean out the back of your closets and help put those clothes in the front of someone else's future?

WHO WE ARE
We are Fashion Retail Management seniors who are engaged in a service-learning project with Bridge To Success. Bridge to Success is a partner of Heartland Alliance and a program of Heartland Human Care Services.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

ALL sizes (especially large sizes) of men’s and women's business appropriate attire
Shoes & Handbags
Jewelry
Ties & Belts

DONATIONS MUST BE ON HANGERS (sorry no folded donations except sweaters)!
Donations must also be CLEAN AND READY TO WEAR

WHEN
Donations will be accepted October 29th through November 9th.

WHERE

1104 S. Wabash Suite 301 Mike Bright, Film Office

1006 S. Michigan Suite 400 Chris Peak, Fashion / Retail Management Office

600 S. Michigan Suite 907C Allison Ratliff, SFPA Dean’s Office

624 S. Michigan Suite 700 Naomi Couch, AEMM Office

623 S. Wabash Suite 703A Lynda Roddy, Fashion Design Office


Have a question? Contact Dana Connell, dconnell@colum.edu

WHY
Donations help Bridge To Success maintain a clothing inventory large enough to wardrobe over 2,000 individuals annually.

Bridge to Success is currently the only workforce training program that offers services to both men and women in the Chicagoland area.

The Fashion Management students and Bridge Success appreciate your help.

"HHCS's mission is to achieve freedom from want, fear, and injustice for people marginalized by poverty, displacement, or situations of vulnerability by developing and providing a continuum of services that meet basic needs, build strengths, safeguard human rights, and provide opportunity for positive change."

THANK YOU FOR MAKING A DIFFERENCE!

And many thanks to our Columbia building partners who are accepting the donations in their offices!

Dana D. Connell, Faculty Fashion/Retail
Arts, Entertainment and Media Management

Screenwriters eyeing walkout?

Unions representing 12,000 screenwriters asked members on Monday to authorize a strike at any time after their contract expires at the end of this month. If granted, authorization would set the stage for Hollywood's first industrywide walkout since writers struck in 1988...Negotiations between the guilds and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the makers of films and television programs, have been stalled over issues including the payment of residuals for the use of movies and shows after their initial screening.

Check out the New York Times coverage here: Movie Writers Eye Early Walkout and here: Guilds Ask Screenwriters For a Strike Authorization

Listen to NPR coverage from this morning HERE

Local tea company profile

An interesting profile of Argo Tea, a local Chicago chain, from yesterday's NYT. You'll see that you can find market and company information throughout the article:

It isn't every cafe in America that responds to the complaint "I'm thirsty" with a glass of iced tea. But here in the nation's third-largest city, a fast-growing chain called Argo Tea is selling just that notion.
Argo Tea, a four-year-old homegrown company, has developed a distinctive brand that has captured the palate of young professionals. From its novel recipes for sweetened iced teas -- Bubble Tea, a mix of Indian black tea and coconut pearls from the Philippines, is very popular -- to its signature interiors of greens, reds and browns, the brand has become so well known that this month the company opened its eighth cafe, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. It plans two more by the end of the year.

Along with hot and iced tea -- and Illy coffee -- the cafes sell sandwiches and pastries, some baked on the premises.

Sales are expected to reach $5 million this year and nearly $10 million in 2008, company executives say. The concept has proved so successful that Argo Tea is planning cafes in other cities, starting with Boston or Washington in 2009.

Read the whole article HERE

Update: Job Fair employers announced

Don't forget! Tomorrow is the Fall Job Fair. More info from the Student Employment Office HERE

Here's a list of the employers who will be eager to interview our students for regular part-time and seasonal jobs:

American Girl
AVID Tutoring Program for Chicago Public Schools
Bank of America
Club Monaco
Chicago Bears Retail
DuSable Museum of African-American History
EXPRESS
Garmin International
Grassroots Campaigns, Inc.
Hamilton Communications
Mad Science of Chicago
NIKETOWN
Nordstrom
Photogenic, Inc.
TEFL Institute
The CAPS Group
The Chicago Theatre
University Center Conference Chicago
UPS
YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago

Job fair next week!

Spread the word (and work!): Next Wednesday, September 12th, the Student Employment Office will be hosting a job fair. See this page for more information.

The ups and downs of movie distribution

This article from today's NYTimes details how a movie that was made over three years ago is just now being released. A behind-the-scenes look at the challenges of movie distribution: Anton Yelchin’s voice was still changing when, at barely 15 years old, he starred alongside Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland in “Fierce People,” an offbeat, surprisingly dark coming-of-age movie that Griffin Dunne directed in the spring of 2004... That a film with such a pedigree could sit on the shelf for so long (it’s already available on DVD in Argentina, Finland, Greece and Hungary) is one of the vagaries of a business in which too many movies from too many distributors are vying for too few weekends, good ones that are released theatrically often fail to attract an audience, and countless others go straight to video.

That “Fierce People” did not ultimately get tossed in the celluloid waste bin is a testament both to the persistence of its backers — among them the No. 2 executive at Lionsgate — and to the importance to a film’s marketing of not just money but attention. Read the whole article HERE.

Entertainment marketing

From today's NYT: FIRST, television presented real news. Then came fake news on parody programs like “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” This weekend, Fox Broadcasting will send fake news vans onto the streets of four cities to promote a real show...In addition to the vans, the agency behind the campaign to publicize “Back to You,” A.D.D. Marketing and Advertising in Los Angeles (note from Celia: ADD is hiring), will put up a Web site that creates humorous images of users as news anchors, seated at a desk between Ms. Heaton and Mr. Grammer. The images, which can be sent by e-mail, will be at www.backtoyouanchorizer.com, which is to go live this weekend.

The “anchorizer” is arriving weeks after a corporate sibling of Fox Broadcasting, 20th Century Fox, promoted “The Simpsons Movie” with www.simpsonizeme.com, which creates images of users in the mode of characters from “The Simpsons.”

Read the whole article HERE

Founder of CBGB dies

(click the image above for CBGB’s : thirty years from the home of underground rock )
From today's NY Times: Hilly Kristal, who founded CBGB, the Bowery bar that became the cradle of punk and art-rock in New York in the 1970s and served as the inspiration for musician-friendly rock dives throughout the world, died in Manhattan on Tuesday. He was 75. Read the whole NYT obituary HERE

Read a profile of Hilly Kristal from Billboard magazine in 2002 HERE

Chief of Universal Finds Success at the Back of the Pack

I'm on an "out of hiatus" roll!

From today's NYT:

The hilltop theme park outside the 14th floor office of Ron Meyer, president of the Universal Studios Group, anchored by past glories like its "Jurassic Park" and "Backdraft" rides, could stand a makeover.

An attraction based on "Transformers," the smash hit from Universal's former ally, DreamWorks SKG, might add a little pizazz. But "Transformers" went to Paramount in a deal made many months ago, and DreamWorks soon followed.
Meanwhile, Mr. Meyer, 62 years old and the longest-serving chief of a major movie company, had to rent a hit with his recent deal to feature Warner Brothers' "Harry Potter" series in Universal's Florida park.

So it goes at Hollywood's sixth-place studio. Though profitable for the last nine years, Universal has been noticeably short on blockbusters to call its own.

That is largely by design...Read the whole article HERE

Producer Versus Studio

From yesterday's NYT: Another article that was hiatus-interrupting worthy. This one details a battle that is underway between Alan Ladd, Jr. and Warner Bros. Studios. The article gives some behind-the-scenes looks at how licensing and royalty payments work. If this case goes to court (every similar case in the past has been settled), it may impact studio accounting across the board. Stay tuned and read the whole article HERE

Concert promotion strategies

Had to come out of hiatus to post this article--a great example of how you can find info about vaguely-defined industries (like concert promotion) and get clues to help with the rest of your research.

From today's NYT: The music industry may seem like a broken record of bad news these days, with plunging album sales and confusion over the digital future. But in the concert business at least one corner is booming: clubs.

In New York heated competition among concert promoters has driven a building spree of small and midsize spaces over the last two years. And a pivotal player in this behind-the-scenes contest has emerged in the Bowery Presents, a promoter that has grown steadily from crowded downtown boites to the big leagues of the concert industry...

Click HERE to read the whole article

Summer hiatus for AEMM News

Some of you may have noticed that posting to AEMM News lately has been sporadic at best. Save for the flurry of posts I entered today, there hasn't been much activity here over the last few weeks. It will likely remain like this throughout the summer. In the meantime, as you enjoy your time teaching a summer AEMM class or resting up in preparation for AEMM Fall 2007, please know that I am available to assist you with any library or other research needs you might have. Please feel free to contact me anytime (my contact info is linked in the sidebar to the right).

Happy Summer!

Local retail chain profile: Uncle Dan's

This article is a great example of how digging through local papers can help you turn up a wealth of information on a private company (or, if you don't hit the jackpot with a profile on the exact company you're researching, on a similar company)
From today's Chicago Tribune:

Brent Weiss makes a habit of strolling through shopping malls for ideas of what not to do with his Uncle Dan's outdoor specialty stores.

Chain stores with an identical look from one location to the next are a turn-off, he said. So are sales clerks who spend more time chatting with one another than striking up conversations with customers. Then there are crazy store policies that discourage sales, like a senior discount that cannot be used if the shopper is accompanied by a non-senior who helps choose what to buy.

"Why don't they just say, 'Don't come in and spend money,'" said Weiss, co-owner with his father, Alvin Weiss, of Uncle Dan's, a 35-year-old Chicago-area retailer with more than $7 million in annual revenue.

Read the whole article HERE

Hollywood's Detective to the Stars is under investigation

From today's NYTimes...They all went to Mr. Pellicano when their situations seemed too complex, or the stakes too high, to leave anything to chance: executives and actors, studio bosses and their jilted spouses, the hottest and the has-been. In nearly 20 years in Los Angeles, he had made himself into the rightful owner of that breathless title, "Detective to the Stars," the one man who would, and seemingly could, do anything to clean up any mess.

So when federal agents raided Mr. Pellicano's office in November 2002, his case became a local obsession: who would be fingered next, people wondered anxiously, as investigators gathered evidence and listened to Mr. Pellicano's wiretap tapes.

Read the whole article HERE

Try to figure out the web of connections and accusations with the NYT graphic HERE

EMI going private?

Even after becoming the first major label to drop the digital rights to their song catalog in favor of a higher per song price, EMI hasn't kept the financial wolves at bay and has announced it is considering a buy-out offer from the private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners.

Read the Wired blog article about it HERE.

Read about EMI's foray into a brave, new non-DRM world HERE (from Wired Magazine)

CEO 2.0 aka "the Naked CEO" or "the See-Through CEO"

Think that a CEO is too high up in the corporate food chain to care about transparency and "radical trust?" Think again.

From last month's Wired magazine: Pretend for a second that you're a CEO. Would you reveal your deepest, darkest secrets online? Would you confess that you're an indecisive weakling, that your colleagues are inept, that you're not really sure if you can meet payroll? Sounds crazy, right? After all, Coke doesn't tell Pepsi what's in the formula. Nobody sane strips down naked in front of their peers. But that's exactly what Glenn Kelman did. And he thinks it saved his business.

Read the whole article HERE

Read the writer's (Clive Thomson's) blog (which he used to solicit input while writing the above article): http://www.collisiondetection.net

What’s Really Squeezing Middle Class Workers?

From today's NYT: There are two different stories people tend to tell when they're trying to explain why the middle class is feeling squeezed.

The first one is about inequality. The top 0.1 percent of earners -- that's one taxpayer out of every 1,000 -- now brings in 11 percent of the nation's total income, triple the share that they did just a generation ago. This has happened because the rich have grown ever richer, while the pay of rank-and-file workers hasn't risen much faster than inflation.

The second, related story is about instability. Layoffs seem to happen more frequently than they once did, and these job losses -- combined with the spread of bonus pay -- have caused workers' incomes to bounce around a lot more than in the past. So not only have middle-class families been getting meager raises, their finances have also become more volatile.

The story about inequality is indisputably true. But we're starting to learn that the second story, the one about instability, is more complicated. It may even end up being wrong...Read the whole story HERE.

Tomorrow! Chicago Creative Expo

From the Portfolio Center's News page: Chicago Creative Expo | April 21
Something for all creatives is the motto of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs/Chicago Artist Resource's annual Chicago Creative Expo. On Saturday, April 21, from 10AM-4PM at the Chicago Cultural Center, venders and seminars will be a plenty with resources on issues such as affordable housing, creating a business plan, protecting intellectual property, insurance and the list goes on. The event seeks to connect artists with tool and services available to them in Chicago. So go and get connected...it's FREE!

Next Gold Mine: Web Searching By Cellphone

From today's NYT: Searching the Web on a mobile phone has been a lot like getting online via dial-up modem circa 1995: slow, tedious and not terribly useful. Typing on tiny buttons, squinting at a list of links and clicking through to a page that won't display properly is enough to test anyone's patience.

But that is beginning to change. Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have all trained their sights on cellphones, which they see as the next great battleground in the Internet search wars. They have thrown tens of millions of dollars and armies of programmers at the problem, seeking to develop tools that people on the move can actually use.

In recent months, the three search giants have introduced a new breed of search services that emphasize quick answers to urgent questions: Where is the best local pizzeria? How did the Yankees do against the A's? What's the fastest way to get to the airport?

The services are beginning to carry small ads related to searches like those that have turned desktop Internet search into a gold mine...Read the whole article HERE

Auditioning in a Video Résumé

From tomorrow's NYT (online today): ...“Today’s executives not only have to be photogenic, but also telegenic for anything from basic blogs to podcasts,” said Rachel Weingarten, author of the coming book “Career and Corporate Cool” (Wiley, July 2007). “Since this information is also more widely available and accessible, there’s less of a chance to impress people, and the concern is that the immediate sound bite, video loop or MP3 be dazzling.”

Vault Inc., a career consulting firm, informally asked employers if they would watch a video résumé if it were submitted to them, and most said yes."...

Read the whole article HERE

Stock prices are dropping, so...start spying on staff?

From today's NYT: ..."paranoia has set in at Wal-Mart. The otherwise cost-conscious company spent millions to spy on employees and critics.

First we learned that a Wal-Mart employee taped phone calls between Michael Barbaro, a New York Times reporter, and Wal-Mart officials. This came after The Times reported on a Wal-Mart memo that suggested such clever tactics as forcing all shop clerks to spend some time hauling shopping carts in from the parking lot -- the better to weed out unhealthy workers who might submit health insurance claims.

Wal-Mart fired the employee it said was responsible for taping the calls, a man named Bruce Gabbard, and said his actions were unauthorized. Then Mr. Gabbard started talking to The Wall Street Journal, saying the department he worked for had spied on critics. Wal-Mart quickly issued apologies to the critics and got a judge to order Mr. Gabbard to stop talking.

Mr. Gabbard said he told a Wal-Mart lawyer that "I'm the guy listening to the board of directors when Lee Scott is excused from the room."

Read the whole article HERE

Not all is well with the Weinstein Company

From today's NYT: As last weekend’s box-office take for the heavily promoted “Grindhouse” tumbled in at just $11.6 million, a chilly realization came with the numbers: Not all is well with the Weinstein Company.

Indeed, the namesake entertainment boutique founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein as they acrimoniously left Miramax and the Walt Disney Company two years ago has seen its highly visible movie operation suffer humiliations that might have sunk a less tenacious start-up...Read the whole article HERE.

A brief side note: Celia went to high school with Troy Duffy who was (in)famously given a chance to live the Hollywood dream when Harvey Weinstein gave him a million dollars for a screenplay (not to mention buying him the bar where he was working when "discovered"). The subsequent crashing and burning of Troy's career was made into a documentary called Overnight. Here's an article from the NYT about this cautionary tale of "False Hope, Hubris and Tinseltown. Fans of schadenfreude and/or comeuppance, Google "troy duffy" and "usa today" for more reading

Cruise’s Studio Hires a Disney Executive

United Artists, the boutique film studio being revived under Tom Cruise and his producing partner, Paula Wagner, said yesterday that it had recruited a top executive from the film operation of the Walt Disney Company, Dennis Rice, as its president for worldwide marketing and publicity...Read the brief NYT article HERE

Read about this recruitment in the Hollywood Reporter or Variety

Want help to quit smoking, go green or spend more quality time with your family? Work at Wal-mart.

From today's NYT: A New Program to Offer White-Collar Perks To Chain's Workers: In the last year, Wal-Mart has quietly introduced an ambitious program in the United States -- in equal parts self-help class, corporate retreat and tent revival -- that tries to turn its 1.3 million workers into a model for its 200 million customers on issues ranging from personal health to the environment.

The program, to be announced today, tests the assumption, if not conventional wisdom, that environmentalism and fitness are luxuries of the well-off, inaccessible to a vast number of the nation's working class because of hectic schedules, stretched budgets and bad habits.

At the same time, it thrusts Wal-Mart, the nation's largest employer, far deeper into workers' personal lives than the company -- and perhaps any retailer -- has ever reached before.

In extensive workshops held nationwide, the company is teaching its employees the benefits of carpooling to work with three colleagues (for a savings of $400 a year on gas), quitting cigarette smoking ($1,500 a year) and turning off a television ($40 a year in electricity, plus more time to spend with family).

The program, called the personal sustainability project, is voluntary, but it is proving popular, with roughly 50 percent of employees in a dozen states signing up so far...Read the whole article HERE

Automatic wage increases over time--what happens when you're laid off?

From today's NYT: Over the years, American companies have built a pretty extensive social safety net for their workers. The clearest examples of it are pensions and health insurance, which became popular during the wage freeze of World War II, when employers were looking for creative ways to give raises. Today, the United States is the only major country in the world where the private sector plays such a big role in caring for the old and the sick.

But the corporate version of the welfare state is not just about retirement and health care. Another, much less obvious, piece of it is the steadily increasing pay that most workers receive over the course of their careers. All else equal, a typical worker in his early 60s makes about 50 percent more than a worker in his early 30s.

This arrangement produces some enormous benefits for society...Read the whole article HERE

The (non) coverage of layoffs

An essay from today's NYT: When executives at Circuit City decided last Wednesday to cut costs by laying off 3,400 of their most experienced salesclerks, they undoubtedly went through a number of calculations: that they could save $250 million over two years; that consumers are inured to bad service; and that the layoffs would be a one-day blip in the news.

They were right about the last part...Read the whole article HERE

Pushing a New Writer Upstream

Increasing numbers of aspiring authors are embarking on pre-publication book tours:

From today's NYT: "Unlike the postpublication book tour, which focuses on publicity and public appearances, the pre-publication tour is meant to win the hearts of the front-line soldiers in the bookselling trenches, and more and more publishers are finding it an indispensable part of their marketing plan." Read the whole article HERE

What's in your students' AEMM portfolios?

What? They don't have one? Well, they've missed the March 15th workshop, but you can still recommend that they take advantage of the great services offered by the Portfolio Center. Check out a description of their AEMM Portfolio services HERE

Favorite Author Not on Tour? See the Movie

From today's NYT: Can video save the literary star?

Ask the tastemakers at Powell’s Books, the venerable independent bookstore in Portland, Ore., who are planning a new series of short films featuring authors, to be shown at bookstores, movie-premiere style.

The British author Ian McEwan is the star of the first film, which is planned to run 23 minutes and will feature snippets from an on-camera interview with Mr. McEwan, as well as commentary from peers, fans and critics.

Such films could eventually take the place of in-store book readings, which attract fewer attendees all the time, many booksellers say. “Some authors go to events and are really captivating personalities,” said Dave Weich, the marketing manager at Powell’s Books. “That does not describe most of them.”

Read the whole article HERE

Blockbuster Chief Agrees to Exit Deal

From today's NYT: John F. Antioco, the chief executive of Blockbuster who has been locked in a dispute with company directors over the size of his bonus, has agreed to leave his job at the end of the year. Mr. Antioco will exit with far less than he initially wanted and two years before his contract expires.

Blockbuster said yesterday that Mr. Antioco would receive about $3.1 million for his 2006 bonus — less than half the amount he said he was entitled to, but $772,500 more than the board offered him in January.

He will also receive a severance payout of just under $5 million, Blockbuster said.

The agreement effectively ends a two-year battle of egos and management styles that began when the financier Carl C. Icahn, a Blockbuster director and one of its largest shareholders, objected to Mr. Antioco’s $51.6 million compensation package. At the time, the company was facing a crippling financial crisis...

Read the whole article HERE

Columbia's Central Box Office Opens

In case you hadn't already heard: The college's new central box office, developed to handle ticket sales for performing arts events campus-wide, opened March 1...The college's ticket system, called Tessitura, was chosen based on research conducted through the department of Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management. At the request of Mark Lloyd, the college's chief marketing officer, AEMM faculty member Philippe Ravanas engaged ten graduate students in his fall 2005 Box Office Management class to conduct a comprehensive survey of every system commercially available, with the goal of selecting a box office software for Columbia's presenting activities. After a comprehensive needs assessment for all departments involved and a thorough evaluation of all the products considered, they concluded that Tessitura software-developed by the Metropolitan Opera and used by other Chicago venues such as the Steppenwolf, Harris, and Goodman theaters-was by far the best system of its kind.

Read all about it in the March 9th ColumbiaOnline newsletter HERE

Tilting Hollywood's Balance of Power to Talent Agency Clients

From today's NYT: LOS ANGELES, March 18 — Almost six years ago, big thinkers at Hollywood’s Endeavor talent agency, best known as the players behind the industry satire “Entourage” on HBO, drilled into a bothersome question: Why should a star or director work for low pay on a labor of love only to see a film studio or foreign sales company strike it rich if the movie thrives in worldwide theatrical and video markets?

Far better, they reckoned, would be to put those dollars in the pockets of clients and, not incidentally, of the agents who represent them.

By late 2003, a young agent, Mordecai Wiczyk, under the wing of the Endeavor partners Ariel Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, joined with a Harvard Business School classmate, Asif Satchu, to do just that by creating Media Rights Capital.

Read the whole article HERE

Managing tickets and fan sites on the web

From today's Tennessean.com: Ticketmaster is announcing a deal today to purchase Echomusic, a Nashville-based entertainment marketing company that powers fan Web sites for more than 300 clients, including Kelly Clarkson, Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban..."At Ticketmaster, we've been very interested in expanding the offerings we provide to our clients," said Sean Moriarty, president and CEO of West Hollywood, Calif.-based Ticketmaster, part of Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp, which also owns online services such as Match.com and Citysearch.

Read the whole article HERE

Friday, March 9th: Marketing the Peformer & Career Expo

Check out the Performarket followed by a Career Expo. Both events are sponsored by the Advising Center, the Portfolio Center and Alumni Relations. Here's info from their website (and check out the web site to see the full list of guests attending the Expo including REAL TALENT, Inc. and Aware Records / A-Squared Management):

Marketing the Performer

@ 10am "Marketing the Performer" in the Hokin Annex, 623 S Wabash

It takes more than a good looks and talent. Industry bigwigs will discuss the best ways for emerging performers to market their work and themselves.

Bigwigs: Andrea Shipp, Musical Theater/Dance Talent Agent with Lily's Talent; Wade Childress, Talent Agent with Stewart Talent; Jazz Singer Erin McDougald; music label impresario Seven from Chocolate Industries.

Career Salon & Expo

@ 11am The Career Salon & Expo at the HotHouse, 31 E Balbo

Guests from agencies, theaters, dance companies, music venues, associations, and guilds will be giving out information about their organizations, announcing casting calls, taking resumes, interviewing for internships, soliciting portfolios, and more. There will also be drop-in, performing arts-specific, career advice supplied by some of Chicago's finest actors, musicians, dancers and artist reps. Pull up a chair and have an informal chat with an industry professional about where you are, where you want to be, and how to get there.

Two business obituaries: A Gallo brother and a Pottery Barn founder

From today's NYT:

Ernest Gallo, a founding brother of the wine powerhouse E & J Gallo Winery died yesterday. Read the full obituary HERE.

Paul Secon, a founding brother of Pottery Barn, died last week. Read the full obituary HERE.

Interested in reading more about the Gallo wine empire? Check out the library's copy of Blood & Wine: the unauthorized story of the Gallo wine empire

No one can spend that much...can they?

From yesterday's NYT: For voyeurs of billionaires, a brief period from mid-February to mid-March serves up two of the juiciest glimpses they will get all year. In February, the Slate 60 list of the year's biggest philanthropic gifts comes out, followed in March by the Forbes magazine list of the world's richest people. This time, one name -- Warren E. Buffett -- will appear conspicuously on both. His fortune will probably rank second in the world behind only Bill Gates's, as it has for some years. In philanthropy, however, Mr. Buffett is No. 1 by a wide margin. Last year, he shook the world of billionaires by pledging more than $42 billion for charity -- by far the largest philanthropic donation in history and close to the total of all the Slate 60 donations for the last six years combined. You could almost see the editors at Forbes airbrushing the perplexed and stricken looks off the faces of their other billionaires. He's giving away $42 billion? Is he crazy? Certainly that is not what most of them had in mind for their fortunes.

But the move by Mr. Buffett raises the question of exactly what the other billionaires do have in mind for their money...Read the whole article HERE

New Hot Properties: YouTube Celebrities

From today's NYT: No one would mistake the Ask a Jew guy for Lonelygirl15, but these days YouTube contributor Shmuel Tennenhaus is feeling like a hot commodity.

Mr. Tennenhaus, an aspiring comedy writer who gained a modest following on YouTube for his droll question-and-answer clips and other spots featuring his grandmother “Bubby,” is being wooed by the site’s competitors, including Metacafe, ManiaTV and others, with promises of guaranteed exposure, a share of advertising money, or both.

Read the whole article HERE

Battle for production credits continues

Exclusive Oscar festivities raise the stakes for getting your producer credits acknowledged...From today's NYT:

In Hollywood, a town full of prerogatives, there remains one significant privilege: collecting an Oscar and attending the elite Governor's Ball for the winners, guests and Tinseltown royalty. And as long as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has its way, it will remain a privilege.

But everyone in Hollywood has the right to sue. And that's just what Robert Yari, an independent film producer who worked on last year's best picture, "Crash," but was disallowed from receiving an Oscar, has done. His suit was viewed as both a challenge to the primacy of the academy to bestow recognition where it sees fit and a breach of show business manners.

Read the whole article HERE

New NBC Universal CEO faces challenges

From today's NYT: When Jeff Zucker is named the new chief executive of NBC Universal today, succeeding Bob Wright, he will be completing one of the most spectacular ascents of any recent media executive: from part-time sports researcher in 1986 to corporate C.E.O two decades later. And now for the hard part.

According to NBC executives, Hollywood producers and agents, and many of the financial analysts who follow NBC, Mr. Zucker, 41, faces many pressing issues. Foremost among them: how he will deal with the rapid technological and financial changes that are throwing many traditional media businesses into upheaval. He will also have to choose a team of executives to back his efforts as he sets a new direction for the company.

Read the whole article HERE

Walmart poised for big video deal

From today's NYT: Wal-Mart Stores may have lost the online DVD rental battle, but it has no plans to lose the higher-stakes video downloading war. Today the company will introduce a partnership with all of the six major Hollywood studios -- Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Universal -- to sell digital movies and television shows on its Web site(www.walmart.com/videodownloads), becoming the first traditional retailer to do so. Read the whole article HERE

Television Ratings Go to College

From the New York Times, Monday January 29th: For decades, Nielsen Media Research has affixed the same value to every college student watching television while away at school: zero. As a result, industry executives have complained for years that shows appealing to a younger audience have been underrated. But, starting today, college students count...Read the whole article HERE (you'll be prompted for your OASIS login)

Library website redesign coming!

Hello AEMM folks and fans out there--Next week or shortly after, you'll notice that the library web site is going to get a new look. Same great access to all sorts of proprietary databases and then some, just an updated interface and a few more features. We hope you like it and will visit often!

A work in progress...

You may have noticed that the AEMM News blog is very bare bones in its design. You might also notice a few broken links or other hiccups as you poke around...please know that the site will improve as it grows. If you see errors as you browse or *don't* see some content that you'd like, email me (contact info is linked on the right). This site is for you, AEMM folks!

For now, know that every time you visit you'll see fresh content from Variety, ASCAP and TVNewser as well as the occasional post from me. Visit often to see how the site evolves...better yet, subscribe to us using an RSS feed reader (not sure how? Ask me and I can show you).

Happy reading!