Tech CEO turns to trusted adviser on key decision; 10-year old daughter
Anyone who thinks the word “executive” in CEO stands for a person who actually executes decisions and strategy should think again, at least according to Technicolor CEO Frederic Rose.
“It’s very funny, you get a job as a CEO and everyone says you’ve got this absolute power,” Rose told the Reuters Global Media Summit in Paris.
“The reality is, the power you have, the authority you have is to basically guide and to give direction…and if people don’t want to follow, they’ll just forget to do it,”
Rose said that since he took the helm of the video technology specialist in September 2008 he really only took one decision on his own — but if you want to get technical someone else helped him along.
“The only true executive decision that I have taken all by myself was the choice of the logo,” Rose said, showing Technicolor’s logo.
“We had 35 choices, I asked people around me and there was no plurality…not only did they go for the 35, they actually came up with other things. So I came home and dumped everything, my (ten-year-old) daughter Zoe took it, went into her bedroom, came back and said she chose this one and I said OK.”
Sometimes big decisions are not made in the board room.
HP: Think before you ‘dis’ print(ing)
All those reminders to “think before you print” and the use of the email for most official correspondence might make you believe the office printer is no longer so important. The reality, however, is that we print more than ever, according to Vyomesh Joshi, Executive VP of Hewlett-Packard’s imaging and printing group, who sat down with the Reuters Global Technology Summit in San Francisco.
The truth is, even company executives don’t realize might be surprised much printing and printing-related is going on, he says.
IT managers will have absolutely no idea how much they spend on imaging and printing… On average, 6 percent of their revenue is spent on imaging and printing.
There are 50 trillion pages printed every year. A lot of people think we’re going to the paperless office… 1984 was the first article about the paperless office and the reality in 2010 is 10 times more paper is used than in 1984.
Which means workers everywhere still continue to struggle with paper jams.How many Paper Jams, you ask? According to Joshi:
Twenty-three percent of all the helpdesk calls are about printing.
(Photo: Reuters)
from Summit Notebook:
More or less fun in a recession? It’s a tough call
Still unsure whether economic recession is good or bad for video-games sales, more than a year in? If so, you're in good company -- neither does the world's biggest games publisher. Electronic Arts' head of European publishing says the company still hasn't figured out whether people cut spending on big items like housing and cars first, or whether those kinds of decisions are just too hard.
"We really wonder, hmm, in economically difficult times would people in order to have SOME fun actually play more games or less games, and then, would they spend more or less? It's really, it's impossible to say," Jens-Uwe Intat told the Reuters Global Technology Summit in Paris.
In the early days of the downturn, the industry was widely thought to be recession-proof as people chose cheap stay-at-home entertainment over pricey nights out. That assumption was later turned on its head.
EA, whose franchises include Need for Speed and The Sims, was flummoxed last year when it was hit with a 10 percent drop in the market for packaged games, instead of the 7 percent increase it had been expecting, Intat said. It has since become shy of making forecasts.
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Audience and the media: a shaky marriage
How can mainstream news organizations retain (or regain) their audience’s trust in skeptical world where almost anyone with an Internet connection can be a publisher? That’s the topic a panel of industry experts will address tonight at the Thomson Reuters heaquarters in Times Square. We’ll be live blogging the event here from 7pm ET.
The panel comprises: Andrew Alexander, ombudsman, The Washington Post; Michael Oreskes, senior managing editor, The Associated Press; Lisa Shepard, ombudsman, National Public Radio; and Dean Wright, global editor of ethics, innovation & news standards, Reuters. Jack Shafer, editor-at-large for Slate, is the moderator.
If you’d like to put a question to the panel, leave it in the comments box below and we’ll ask a selection on your behalf.
A media source called “Editor & Publisher” points out that all the American media fell for a politically correct lie and propagated it to the country. They reported “Second Cop — Not Kimberly Munley — Brought Down Fort Hood Killer.” It just sounded so much better to credit a woman instead of a black man for the deed. There was no checking internet sources for accuracy.
Friday media highlights
Here are some of the day’s stories on the media industry:
Movie studios try to harness “Twitter effect” (Reuters) “Audiences are voicing snap judgments on movies faster and to more people than ever before on Twitter, and their ability to create a box office hit or a flop is forcing major studios to revamp marketing campaigns. The stakes are especially high this summer season when big budget movies like “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” which opened on Wednesday, play to a core audience of young, plugged-in moviegoers,” writes Alex Dobuzinskis.
Sun-Times chief optimistic about sale of company (Chicago Tribune) But, Michael Oneal writes: “In a court filing last week, creditors in the Sun-Times’ bankruptcy case raised concerns about the sale efforts, noting that the company has “limited time” before it “can no longer sustain the losses being incurred from operations.” They warned that unless a buyer is found soon, “time could run out, or a buyer could be located that would only pay a fire-sale price.”
Goldman makes peace with blogger in trademark case (Reuters) “The agreement required blogger Michael Morgan to post a disclaimer on his goldmansachs666.com website, saying it has no affiliation with the financial firm. Morgan, a Florida investment adviser, uses his blog — whose name combines Goldman’s name with numbers used to evoke connotations with the devil — to criticize the bank and its large profits,” writes Martha Graybow.
Reuters Opens its Kimono (CJR) “Wright, Reuters’s global editor of ethics, innovation, and news standards, brandished the thick stack of paper to drive home the point that “we’ve moved beyond the time when people were carrying around books with style guides.” We’re also apparently beyond the time when all journalism organizations charge people for said style books,” writes Craig Silverman
Wednesday media highlights
Here are some of the day’s stories about the media industry:
Recession sends Americans to the Internet (Reuters) S. John Tilak writes: “More than two-thirds of American adults — or 88 percent of U.S. Internet users — went online for help with recession-induced personal economic issues and to gather information on national economic problems, a study released on Wednesday said.”
BBC and Government Fall Out Over Financing Plan (NYT) “The BBC and Britain’s Labour government, which has a history of support for the “Beeb,” have fallen out over a government plan to share some of the broadcaster’s £3.6 billion in public funding with its commercial television rivals,” writes Eric Pfanner.
USA Today introduces Newsdeck site for top headlines (Editors Weblogs) “To give visitors another way to view the news, USA Today has introduced a site it calls Newsdeck that compiles the top headlines in an easy-to-read format. Users can scroll through stories in eight categories, including News, Money and Sports, with the ability to switch back and forth between the latest news and the most popular articles.,” writes Liz Webber.
Bing’s First Month A Bust (Business Insider) Dan Frommer writes: “Microsoft’s U.S. search market share was 8.4% in June, up from 8.0% in May, according to comScore. It would have been a disaster if Bing didn’t grow at all with all that advertising and free promotion vianews coverage, so at least it’s up a little.”
In other news:
Thursday media highlights
Here are some of the day’s top stories in the media industry:
New York Times Asks Subscribers: Is It Wrong to Charge for Online Content? (Poynter) Bill Mitchell writes: “The New York Times is testing a price point of $5 a month for access to nytimes.com, with a 50 percent discount for print subscribers. The Times e-mailed a survey to print subscribers Thursday afternoon inviting their reaction to that pricing plan and asking a range of questions about online pricing.”
Murdoch papers paid £1m to gag phone-hacking victims (Guardian) “The payments secured secrecy over out-of-court settlements in three cases that threatened to expose evidence of Murdoch journalists using private investigators who illegally hacked into the mobile phone messages of numerous public figures to gain unlawful access to confidential personal data, including tax records, social security files, bank statements and itemised phone bills,” writes Nick Davies. > UK police won’t reopen Murdoch paper phonetap case (Reuters)
A is for abattoir; Z is for ZULU: All in the Handbook of Journalism (Reuters) Dean Wright writes: “The handbook is the guidance Reuters journalists live by — and we’re proud of it. Until now, it hasn’t been freely available to the public. In the early 1990s, a printed handbook was published and in 2006 the Reuters Foundation published a relatively short PDF online that gave some basic guidance to reporters. But it’s only now that we’re putting the full handbook online.”
As Gannett’s Newspapers Suffer, Digital Side Sees Growth, More Hiring And Acquisitions (paidContent) “As Gannett continues to be roiled with huge debt problems, an absent CEO, and hundreds more layoffs across its community newspapers, its digital division appears to be a sea of calm. In fact [...] things are going just fine on their respective ends,” writes David Kaplan.
Analyst Admits to Being ‘Dead Wrong’ After Disney’s ‘Up’ Is Big Earner (NYT) “Dead wrong” is how Richard Greenfield of Pali Research put his related analysis in a research note. “The recent success of Pixar’s ‘Up’ (well ahead of our forecasts) has renewed investor confidence in Disney’s creative capabilities,” he added. “Up” has so far sold $265.9 million in tickets in North America and $35.4 million overseas, where it has only begun to arrive in theaters,” writes Brooks Barnes.
TiVo, Best Buy Form Alliance To Boost DVRs Available In Stores (WSJ) David B. Wilkerson writes: “Best Buy also will use TiVo’s platform to market directly to consumers, offering tips and other information to help customers get more out of the two-way possibilities TV now offers. The company said it will ‘substantially increase the levels of marketing and merchandising of retail TiVo DVR devices, as well as other devices that may feature the TiVo user interface and platform in the future.’”
Monday media highlights
Here are some of the day’s stories on the media industry:
‘Tonight Show’ Audience a Decade Younger (NYT) “In Mr. O’Brien’s first month as host, the median age of “Tonight Show” viewers has fallen by a decade — to 45 from 55, a startling shift in such a short time. This audience composition means advertisers can now address almost exclusively young viewers on “Tonight,” and NBC is already contemplating a shift in how it sells the show,” writes Bill Carter.
Springer’s daily Welt dreams of going international – again (Reuters)
“German publisher Axel Springer plans to launch an international weekly edition of its flagship daily, Die Welt, in a 48-page tabloid format starting February 2010. Springer is still mulling distribution options but the paper will likely be available from airlines,” writes Nicola Leske.
Just the Messenger: Mediaite.com Focuses on Celebrity of Journalism (WP) On the newly launched website, Howard Kurtz writes: “Mediaite paints with a colorful palette, even if its hues will appeal mainly to journalists and those who obsess over them. By hiring bloggers who worked for Mediabistro and the Huffington Post, Abrams has put together a sassy critique of media missteps and foibles, an overall take not driven mainly by ideology.”
Cubs sale finalized for TribCo (Crain’s) “Tribune Co. has finalized a deal to sell the Chicago Cubs to a bidding group led by bond salesman Thomas Ricketts. Documents describing the fully financed deal were sent to Major League Baseball over the weekend, a source familiar with the negotiations said Monday. The value of the deal is between $850 million and $900 million, the source said.”
Food Network magazine is media’s next wave (MarketWatch) “Hearst executives are very pleased with the magazine’s progress. The company started out by printing 300,000 copies last fall. Hearst now projects the publication’s rate base, the circulation figure that publishers promise to advertisers, will climb to 900,000 later this year and to 1.1 million in 2010,” writes Jon Friedman.
Tuesday media wrapup
News about the media industry:
Google Makes a Case That It Isn’t So Big (NYT) “Google has begun this public-relations offensive because it is in the midst of a treacherous rite of passage for powerful technology companies — regulators are intensely scrutinizing its every move, as they once did with AT&T, I.B.M., Intel and Microsoft,” writes Miguel Helft. > Graphic about Google share of all ads and online ads (Lost Remote)
Media and cable now the riskiest sector (Reuters) “Default risk for the media and cable sector has risen from its already high levels a year ago, CreditSights said. Rising leverage, along with a protracted decline in advertising revenues that was accelerated by the U.S. recession, are behind the higher risk,” writes Dena Aubin.
Sun-Times seeks more time to reorganize (Crain’s) “Lawyers for Sun-Times Media are asking for three more months to come up with an exit strategy, a request they considered “neither surprising nor remarkable.” The publisher currently has until July 29 to submit a reorganization plan,” writes Lorene Yue.
Vibe magazine shutting down (Daily Finance) Jeff Bercovici writes: “Vibe enjoyed significant success in the late ’90s and early part of this decade as hip hop and R&B became the nation’s predominant forms of pop music. But in recent years the title has fallen on hard times under its new owner, the Wicks Group, which bought it in 2006.”
MSNBC Beat CNN on Weeknights in Second Quarter, Fox Still on Top (NYT) Bill Carter writes: “The trend of cable news viewers moving away from CNN continued in the second quarter of 2009 with MSNBC beating CNN in weeknights for the first time ever for a full quarter of a year.”
Really funny when us “little people” loose our jobs over a decision made by a 10 year old. I´m sick an tired of the attitude of the elite. Does this CEO really deserve his multimillion dollar salary if he can´t make decisions? Arent CEO´s supposed to be the “Decision Makers”.