Net beats papers as top news source

The Internet for the first time has beaten newspapers as a preferred destination for news, according to the Pew Research Center for People & the Press.“The Internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as a main source for national and international news,” Pew reported yesterday.Forty percent of those responding to a

How debt did in America’s newspapers

The stock of Lee Enterprises was worth about $1.5 billion when the company borrowed almost an identical amount of money to buy the Pulitzer newspaper group in the summer of 2005. Today, Lee’s shares are worth only $13.5 million.That’s right: $13.5 million. Thus, the stock in this once well regarded company has dropped by more than 99% in 3½ years, vaporizing more than $1.5 billion in value as

UGA gets $18.7M -largest medical grant in its history

UGA Research Foundation receives $18.7 million Gates Foundation grant to improve control of schistosomiasis, a debilitating and neglected tropical disease

The University of Georgia Research Foundation has received a five-year, $18.7 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to research ways to reduce morbidity from schistosomiasis in low- and middle-income countries in Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. Researchers will develop and evaluate research-based approaches and diagnostic tools to identify, control and even eliminate schistosomiasis where feasible
The five-year grant will fund research into ways to reduce morbidity from the disease, which is caused by several species of flatworms. Schistosomiasis can damage internal organs and impair physical and cognitive development in children.

Dan Colley, director of UGA's Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, is principal investigator for the project, which will provide critical tools and an evidence base for decisions about controlling schistosomiasis. Colley, a microbiologist and immunologist in UGA's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, has researched the disease for nearly 40 years.


"This grant significantly bolsters the University of Georgia's growing strength in public health and medical research," said UGA President Michael F. Adams. "It holds promise for great progress in eliminating a disease that causes suffering and economic hardship for millions around the world."


This is the largest grant UGA has received from the Gates Foundation, the first for medical research and the third-largest grant in UGA history.


The project grew out of a consensus research agenda developed in 2007 with broad input from the schistosomiasis research and control community. It focuses on operational research, and its overall goal is to answer key strategic questions about controlling schistosomiasis to ensure that future programs operate with increased efficacy, cost-effectiveness and sustainability.


"This grant will support and advance pioneering work on schistosomiasis under the technical guidance of Dan Colley," said UGA Vice-President for Research David Lee. "With his international leadership, this award will make great strides in addressing the widespread, debilitating impact of this infection. The University community is proud of Colley and others at the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases who work tirelessly to improve health conditions in the developing world."


Secondary goals for the project are to integrate global schistosomiasis control efforts with other programs, monitor the effectiveness of current treatments, develop survey and diagnostic tools and overcome barriers that currently prevent effective control.


Caused by several species of flatworms of the genus Schistosoma, this neglected tropical disease affects some 200 million people worldwide. It is most common in Africa, and to a lesser extent in Asia and South America. It is transmitted through a species of freshwater snails, which become infected through contaminated water and then multiply and release infected worms into the water. The worms enter through the skin as their human hosts wash clothes, swim, or fish.


While it has a relatively low mortality rate, schistosomiasis can damage internal organs and impair physical and cognitive development in children. Symptoms of infection include abdominal pain, cough, diarrhea, fever, fatigue, pulmonary hypertension and often an enlarged liver and spleen. The worms can live in the blood vessels of people for up to 40 years, leading to chronic illness.


"Mass drug control programs in several African countries already use the drug praziquantel to reduce mortality from schistosomiasis and to help stem the suffering," said Dan Colley, principal investigator on the grant and director of UGA's Center for Tropical and Global Emerging Diseases. "And while controlling schistosomiasis is a World Health Organization global priority, most endemic countries still lack adequate control programs, and the sustainability of existing programs is tenuous."


Colley will oversee a management team based at the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, University of Georgia, but the consortium will involve partners from around the world. Much of the research will be carried out through subgrants to investigators at several federal, state and private institutions and laboratories and field sites in North America, South America, Europe and Africa.

Engineers' new microfluidic device could help with drug development with 3-D cell growth

MIT engineers have built a device that gives them an unprecedented view of three-dimensional cell growth and migration, including the formation of blood vessels and the spread of tumor cells.
The microfluidic device, imprinted on a square inch of plastic, could be used to evaluate the potential side effects of drugs in development, or to test the effectiveness of cancer drugs in individual patients.
Roger Kamm, MIT professor of biological and mechanical engineering, and his colleagues reported their observations of angiogenesis -- the process by which blood vessels are formed -- in the Oct. 31 online issue of the journal Lab on a Chip.
Microfluidic devices have been widely used in recent years to study cells, but most only allow for the study of cells growing on a flat (two-dimensional) surface, or else lack the ability to observe and control cell behavior. With the new device, researchers can observe cells in real time as they grow in a three-dimensional collagen scaffold under precisely controlled chemical or physical conditions.
Observing angiogenesis and other types of cell growth in three dimensions is critical because that is how such growth normally occurs, said Kamm.
Working with researchers around MIT, Kamm has studied growth patterns of many types of cells, including liver cells, stem cells and neurons. He has also used the device to investigate the pressure buildup that causes glaucoma.
The device allows researchers to gain new insight into cell growth patterns. For example, the researchers observed that one type of breast cancer cell tends to migrate in a uniform mass and induces new capillaries to sprout aggressively toward the original tumor, while a type of brain cancer cell breaks from the primary tumor and migrates individually but does not promote capillary formation.
The system is configured so that researchers can manipulate and study mechanical and biochemical factors that influence cell growth and migration, including stiffness of the gel scaffold, concentration of growth factors and other chemicals, and pressure gradients.
Two or three channels imprinted onto the plastic square contain either a normal cell growth medium or a chemical under study, such as growth factor. Cells growing in the scaffold between the channels are bathed in chemicals from the channels, and the effect of the chemicals can be evaluated based on various measures of cell function.
Kamm and his colleagues first described their microfluidic device in a January 2007 paper in Lab on a Chip. Vernella Vickerman, a graduate student in chemical engineering, and Seok Chung, a postdoctoral fellow in biological engineering, played critical roles in developing the device, Kamm said.
The research was funded by Draper Laboratory

About:Draper Laboratory

Draper Laboratory Profile, Cambridge, MassachusettsHeadquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Draper Laboratory is a research and development laboratory, employing more than 750 engineers, scientists, and technicians on a broad array of programs for government and commercial sponsors among its 1,025 employees.Its sponsored work encompasses capabilities in the following business areas:
Strategic Systems
Space Systems
Tactical Systems
Special Operations
Biomedical Engineering
Geospacial Solutions
Energy Solutions
The Laboratory’s unparalleled expertise in the areas of guidance, navigation, and control systems remains its greatest resource. Draper is among the leaders in fault-tolerant computing, reliable software development, modeling and simulation, and MEMS technology. It applies its expertise to a broad range of domains, including autonomous air, land, sea, and space systems; information integration; distributed sensors and networks; precision-guided munitions; air traffic flow management; military logistics; and biomedical engineering and chemical/biological defense.
To this end, Draper has nurtured a highly skilled and motivated work force supported by a network of exceptional design, fabrication, and test facilities. This combination of highly trained technical talent and state-of-the-art facilities enables the Laboratory not only to deliver the design and development of first-of-a-kind systems incorporating innovative technology, but also to offer high-value-added engineering services to a broad range of government and commercial sponsors.
These efforts are enhanced by our robust Independent Research and Development (IR&D) program through which we invest more than $20 million each year, supporting both internal efforts and collaborative projects with the country’s leading universities. IR&D enables us to work on projects focused on technologies that we anticipate will meet the future near-term and long-term requirements of our sponsors, while allowing us to continuously refresh our core competencies.
PurposePioneer in the application of science and technology in the national interest
VisionNational center of excellence in the application of technology to the analysis, development, measurement, and control of complex, dynamic systems
Mission To serve the national interest in applied research, engineering development, education, and technology transfer by
Helping our sponsors clarify their requirements and conceptualize innovative solutions to their problems
Demonstrating those solutions through the design and development of fieldable engineering prototypes
Transitioning our products and processes to industry for production, and providing follow-on support
Promoting and supporting advanced technical education

Year 2020- Internet and interactivity-Pew

By the year 2020, marketing and manipulation will have merged on the Internet, encouraging consumers to trade privacy for discounts. Copyright will be "dead duck," virtual reality sanctuaries will provide an escape from cyberspace, and viciousness will prevail over civility.
These are some of the predictions offered by "experts" in "Future of the Internet III," a study released on Monday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

By 2020, the mobile phone will be the primary connection tool to the Internet and it will be so integrated into our daily lives that it will be difficult to imagine what life was like without one, according to new research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. In addition, respondents thought Sixty percent of the experts interviewed disagreed that content control through copyright-protection technology would dominate the Internet of 2012.
But the majority view appears to discount the popularity of the locked-down iPhone eco-system. Given the extent to which Apple's competitors in the mobile arena have committed to copying the iTunes App Store model, it wouldn't be surprising if mobile customers traded freedom for the promise of phone security. That might keep copyright alive until nano-assemblers make it feasible to copy objects on an atomic level

The Pew report expects continued blurring between work life and home life and between physical and virtual reality. Respondents were divided, 56% of whom think that future is okay, with the rest expressing some reservations about the potential added stress of being at work all the time.
The study includes a number of quotations from those who submitted their thoughts on what's to come. Their observations make other dystopian visions of the future, as seen in the 1982 film Blade Runner, look almost rosy.
"We will enter a time of mutually assured humiliation; we all live in glass houses," said Jeff Jarvis, a blogger and professor at City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.
"Viciousness will prevail over civility, fraternity, and tolerance as a general rule, despite the build-up of pockets or groups ruled by these virtues," said Alejandro Pisanty, ICANN and Internet Society leader and director of computer services at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. "Software will be unable to stop deeper and more hard-hitting intrusions into intimacy and privacy, and these will continue to happen."
"By 2020, the Internet will have enabled the monitoring and manipulation of people by businesses and governments on a scale never before imaginable," said writer and blogger Nicholas Carr. "Most people will have happily traded their privacy -- consciously or unconsciously

BLADE Network Technologies' -2009 Most Valuable Performers Award

BLADE Network Technologies' President and CEO, Vikram Mehta, With Technology Industry's 2009 Most Valuable Performers Award.

BLADE Network Technologies, Inc. (BLADE), the trusted leader in data center networking, announced today that Network Product Guide, a world leading publication on technologies and solutions, has honored BLADE President and CEO Vikram Mehta with the information technology industry's 2008 Most Valuable Performers (MVP) recognition. This prestigious industry award recognizes senior executives from around the world with the essential characteristics of leaders that exhibit the qualities of most valuable performers.
Vikram Mehta has been at the helm of BLADE since its inception. Through his passionate commitment to customer service and product innovation, BLADE has become the trusted leader in data center networking, the industry's leading supplier of blade server switch solutions and a pioneering provider of the new breed of 10 Gigabit Ethernet data center switches. Prior to establishing BLADE as a privately held company in 2006, Mehta held leadership and executive positions at Nortel Networks, Alteon Web Systems, Ensim and HP. Mehta is an electrical engineer from the Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, India.
Network Products Guide also has named BLADE as a 2009 Hot Companies finalist. Selected from a global industry analysis of information technology vendors that included established large companies, mid-size and new start-ups, BLADE has advanced to the finalists stage based on the "4Ps" selection criteria -- namely Products, People, Performance, and Potential. The coveted 2009 Hot Companies award criterion encompasses companies in all areas of information technologies including security, wireless, storage, networking, software and communications.
Over half of Fortune 500 companies rely on BLADE's Ethernet switches to equip their essential data center infrastructures. BLADE has shipped 5 million Ethernet switch ports to more than 5,000 customers worldwide. Through its partnerships with HP, IBM, NEC and Verari Systems, BLADE has delivered more than 220,000 Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches to enterprise data centers to connect over 1.1 million servers. BLADE's market share of data center switches for blade servers now stands in excess of 48.5 percent combined on HP and IBM blade servers and 66 percent on NEC blade servers. To date, BLADE's market share and Ethernet port shipments on both IBM and HP platforms are more than 2x greater than the nearest competitor's.
"The new economy leaders are essentially those that are adapting best in the current economic environment and will emerge with higher standards," said Rake Narang, editor-in-chief, Network Products Guide. "We are proud to honor Vikram Mehta with this year's 2008 Most Valuable Performers award and recognize BLADE as a 2009 Hot Companies Finalist."
Network Products Guide 2008 MVP leaders have a clear vision and mission, have set measurable goals and objectives for themselves, are selfless and mentors to others, and most importantly demonstrate respect and trust for their staff, employees and the high-technology industry. Senior executives were honored from companies around the world which include Ingres Corporation, Cisco Systems, Inc., IBM, AppGate Network Security, Crossroads Systems, Lumeta Corporation, SECNAP Network Security Corp., Dyadem International Ltd., Permabit Technology Corporation, M-CAT Enterprises, Google, Inc., BLADE Network Technologies, CaseCentral, ONStor, SolarWinds, BlueCat Networks, Inc., Rohati Systems, Inc., VirtualPBX, IBRIX, LogMeIn, Inc., GTB Technologies, Inc., Kazeon, Riverbed Technologies, Protegrity, Everyone.net and Xiotech Corporation.
The 2009 Hot Companies winners will be announced and honored at the 2009 "World Executive Alliance Summit" in San Francisco on March 26-27, 2009. BLADE will be among other key industry players at this event. CEOs of finalists will be presenting their company's 4Ps criteria live to an audience of leading entrepreneurs, IT companies, venture capitalists, corporate strategists and media. To see the complete list of finalists please visit http://www.networkproductsguide.com/hotcompanies/
About Network Products Guide Awards
Network Products Guide, published from the heart of Silicon Valley, is a leading provider of products, technologies and vendor related research and analysis. You will discover a wealth of information and tools in this guide including the best products and services, roadmaps, industry directions, technology advancements and independent product evaluations that facilitate in making the most pertinent technology decisions impacting business and personal goals. The guide follows conscientious research methodologies developed and enhanced by industry experts. To learn more, visit www.networkproductsguide.com
About BLADE Network Technologies
BLADE Network Technologies is the leading supplier of Gigabit and 10G Ethernet network infrastructure solutions that reside in blade servers and "scale-out" server and storage racks. BLADE's new "virtual, cooler and easier" RackSwitch family demonstrates the promise of "Rackonomics" -- a revolutionary approach for scaling out data center networks to drive down total cost of ownership. The company's customers include half of the Fortune 500 across 26 industry segments, and an installed base of over 220,000 network switches representing more than 1,100,000 servers and over 5 million switch ports. For more information, visit www.bladenetwork.net.
BLADE Network Technologies and the BLADE logo are trademarks of BLADE Network Technologies. All other names or marks are property of their respective owners. CONTACTS:
Tim Shaughnessy
BLADE Network Technologies
(408) 850-8963
Email Contact
Zee Zaballos
ZNA Communications
(831) 425-1581 x201
Email Contact

‘Shutdown’ was the alternative in Detroit

The decision to abandon seven-day home delivery in Detroit was not a bold strategic initiative but a last-ditch effort to save two failing newspapers, according to one former Gannett executive.“The choice was to shut down or to try to salvage the newspaper,” said the former executive, who was familiar with the months-long deliberations earlier this year that resulted in the decision to scrap home

Mine of 1,000 new species

The "dragon millipede" (pictured here) is one of more than 1,000 new species discovered around the Mekong River in Southeast Asia over the last 10 years. Scientists suggest the millipede uses its bright color to warn predators of its toxicity. According to a new report by conservation group World Wildlife Fund (WWF), between 1997 and 2007, at least 1,068 new species have been discovered in the Greater Mekong, at a rate of approximately two new species a week.

In all, roughly 25,000 species call the Mekong River basin home. On a species-per-mile basis, the region's waterways are richer in biodiversity than the Amazon, according to "First Contact in the Greater Mekong," a report released today by WWF International.
"This region is like what I read about as a child in the stories of Charles Darwin," Thomas Ziegler, curator at the Cologne Zoo in Germany, said in a news release. "It is a great feeling being in an unexplored area and to document its biodiversity for the first time ... both enigmatic and beautiful."
Nicole Frisina, communications officer for WWF's Greater Mekong Program, told me that "the rate of species discovery is quite prolific as you compare it with other areas of the world." The average works out to two new species every week - and if anything, the pace is accelerating.
From war to wonderThe Greater Mekong Program's director, Stuart Chapman, told me there are a couple of reasons for that quickening pace.

WWF
The colored areas represent different parts of Southeast Asia's Greater Mekong region, draining into Vietnam's Mekong Delta. Click on the map for a larger version.
First, the Greater Mekong region - which takes in areas of China's Yunnan Province as well as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam - includes some incredibly remote areas, such as the Annamite Mountains on the Lao-Vietnamese border.
Under the best of circumstances, traveling to these frontiers is difficult and expensive. And during the region's decades of conflict (including, of course, the Vietnam War and Cambodia's wars), scientific exploration was nearly unthinkable.
"In some regions, there haven't been a lot of scientific expeditions purely because there's been a lot of [unexploded] ordnance around," Chapman said.
That's all changing now: Many parts of Southeast Asia are undergoing intense economic development. Just to cite one example, more than 150 large hydroelectric dams are being planned in the region. And that raises a huge challenge for scientists scrambling to explore the Mekong's lost world.
The 'race against time'"This poorly understood biodiversity is facing unprecedented pressure ... for scientists, this means that almost every field survey yields new diversity, but documenting it is a race against time," Raoul Bain, a biodiversity specialist from New York's American Museum of Natural History, said in today's news release.
Rising populations and greater economic development are putting wildlife habitat in danger. The World Conservation Union has already added 10 species from Vietnam to its extinction list, and another 900 species are considered threatened.
The WWF (fomerly known as the World Wildlife Fund) issued today's report as part of its effort to preserve the region's biological riches even as the 320 million people living there reach for new economic riches. "You don't have to have people choose between the two," Chapman said. "You can have both, with careful planning."
The organization called on the region's six governments to work together on a conservation and management plan for 230,000 square miles (600,000 square kilometers) of transboundary and freshwater habitats. Chapman said the governments already have identified corridors of land in need of cross-border conservation.
However, he said, "having them identified on the map hasn't resulted in transboundary planning. ... That kind of thinking hasn't really taken hold yet."
Coming attractionsThe biological riches could eventually yield new medicines and sustainable food sources for the region's needy populations - or perhaps new attractions for the world's eco-tourists. And for scientists at least, there are plenty of attractions out there, hiding in plain sight.

ITN's Chris Rogers reports on the Greater Mekong's biological riches.
For example, a new rat species was discovered as a delicacy in a Laotian food market - and scientists traced its evolutionary lineage back to a group of rodents that were thought to have gone totally extinct 11 million years ago. It turned out that the Laotian rock rat (listed as Kha-nyou on the menu) was the sole survivor of that ancient group.
Another previously unknown species of pit viper was first seen by scientists as it slithered through the rafters of a restaurant in Thailand's Khao Yai National Park.

Get ready for some really cheesy TV

As the newly appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in 1961, Newton Minow gave a landmark speech decrying television as a “vast wasteland.”It didn’t help. TV programming got only worse in the intervening 47 years.Now, as difficult as this may be to contemplate, television is about to become even cheesier, thanks to NBC’s decision to slot Jay Leno into a 10 p.m. talk show on

A copycat in the Blagosphere

The artwork dominating the front page today of the Chicago Tribune wasn’t just weird. It was a badly executed knockoff of a clever graphc published a few days earlier in the New York Times.As you can see from the illustrations below, someone at the Trib superimposed a bar code over a profile of Gov. Rod Blagojevich for a story discussing political corruption in Illinois.But the arresting image of

Editorial cartoonists, endangered species

Editorial cartoonists, the last of the truly ink-stained practitioners of journalism, rank among the most endangered, too.Nearly a fifth of these uniquely talented newsfolk fell victim this year to staff cuts, reports Rob Tornoe of Politicker.Com, who believes he is the only full-time editorial cartoonist employed at any website.At least 16 full-time editorial cartoonists have departed American

Intel is to manufacture car battery

Intel the world leader company on technology is going to introduce battery for car ! Good news ,also its a alternative fuel innitiative ,"strategic objective is tackling big problems and turning them into big businesses." He said Intel, with its cash resources, can invest in battery technology and manufacturing to bring down the cost of car batteries, which would drive adoption of plug-in electric cars.
Intel is arguably the world's most important technology company ,Andy Grove former Intel chairman told Rebecca Smith and Don Clark that he has been urging the company to get into the business of making car batteries. Like so many in Silicon Valley, Grove is apparently an electric car booster, and he has been evangelizing car batteries as a potential growth industry—one that he'd like to see Intel get in on the ground floor of.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Friday, Grove said he is urging Intel to invest in battery manufacturing as a way to diversify from its core chip business.
Grove told the Journal that Intel's "strategic objective is tackling big problems and turning them into big businesses." He said Intel, with its cash resources, can invest in battery technology and manufacturing to bring down the cost of car batteries, which would drive adoption of plug-in electric cars.

Batteries are the most expensive component in plug-in electric vehicles, a market being pursued by a few U.S. companies.

General Motor's 2011 Volt is testing batteries from lithium-ion maker A123 Systems. Other U.S. companies include Ener1 and Valence Technology. Notebook battery maker Boston Power also intends to enter the auto market.

But battery makers and analysts say that U.S. manufacturers lack the financial means to meet the anticipated demand of electric cars.

"The technology exists today to put (electric drives) into an automobile," said Ener1 CEO Charles Gassenheimer at last week's Electric Drive Transportation Association's Conference & Exposition. "But it is not doable without the ability to drive down the cost of manufacturing."

Intel has invested in battery technology through its venture capital arm and other energy-related firms. Earlier this year, Intel also spun out SpectraWatt, which intends to lower the cost of manufacturing solar cells.

Grove has become an advocate for government policies that promote plug-in hybrid cars. This summer, he published a manifesto, called "Our Electric Future," in The American magazine, where he called for transitioning the American auto fleet to electricity for national security reasons.

"Because electricity is the stickiest form of energy, and because it is multi-sourced, it will give us the greatest degree of energy resilience. Our nation will be best served if we dedicate ourselves to increasing the amount of our energy that we use in the form of electricity," he wrote.

In a speech at the Plug-in 2008 conference in August, he called for a goal of putting 10 million plug-in vehicles on the road in 10 years.

Over here, or over there?
The WSJ piece leaves the reader with the impression that Grove might like to see Intel making batteries in the US. I'd love a transcript of the interview that underlies the piece, because it's not clear to me if this is the authors' takeaway, or if "let's make them in the US" was a point that Grove himself wanted to emphasize.

I bring this up because Intel doesn't actually make as many chips over here as they used to. Most of the company's sales are overseas (Asia is the biggest market), so that's where a large and growing percentage of its workforce is, as well. The company's pronounced shift in moving jobs abroad has been a sore spot for American Intel employees over the past decade, but I hear that, internally, the Intel top brass makes no bones about the fact that they have no qualms about moving the plants closer to the customers.

But regardless of where Grove wants to see these batteries made, Intel CEO Paul Otellini can't be too happy that his former chairman is exercised enough about this battery scheme that he's talking to the press about it and instigating a news cycle's worth of "should Intel make car batteries?" stories.

Questions about Decherd’s 140% raise

Not everyone in the newspaper business is suffering equally though the most difficult time in the industry’s history. Robert W. Decherd, for one, is doing pretty well.The chief executive of A.H. Belo Corp. recently got a 140% pay raise that will boost his base compensation to $600,000 a year from $250,000 in 2007, according to the Dallas Morning News, his flagship newspaper.Given that Bob’s

Motown madness: Home delivery cut

The reported plan to cut home delivery to just a few days a week at the Detroit dailies does not merely tweak the classic newspaper model. It eviscerates it, perhaps mortally.While this bold initiative may restore the short-term profitability of the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit News and the joint operating agency that serves them, the experiment in non-daily home delivery could well be

Attorney suing Tribune cites pension risks

It is not clear that all employee pension funds at the Tribune Co. emerged “unscathed” in the bankruptcy filing, said the attorney for a group of employees suing Sam Zell over the takeover and subsequent management of the company.Philip L. Gregory, who filed a class-action suit in September charging mismanagement of the employee stock ownership plan that was created to help fund the acquisition

Breaking out the wood for Blago

Newspapers went all out today to billboard the arrest of the goofball governor of Illinois, ginning up elaborate graphics and coining clever (but not always coherent) headlines.However, the traditional front-page treatment was the most effective in the state where Lincoln is feared to be rolling over in his grave.Reporting on the pre-dawn arrest of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the Rockford Register Star

‘No pressure on me,’ says Trib editorialist

John P. McCormick, today may have the most secure employment of anyone at the Tribune Co., or anywhere else in the newspaper business.He is the sole individual named in the affidavit charging that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich bluntly demanded the firing of certain editorial writers in return for the governor’s support of a plan to finance Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs. The plan

Can Tribune Co. survive bankruptcy?

The good news is that today’s bankruptcy filing won’t make things much worse for the Tribune Co. The bad news is that the filing won’t improve things, either.While bankruptcy protection in an ideal case enables a struggling company to restructure its debt, streamline its business and put itself on a sounder footing for the future, it’s hard to imagine how the newly unburdened Tribune Co. can

Randy Shilts, the conscience of Castro Street

If you see the new movie about Harvey Milk, the brave and talented man who became one of America’s first openly gay elected public official, take a moment to remember another San Francisco legend: Randy Shilts, the first openly gay reporter for a major American newspaper.Randy, who for 13 years was one of the stars of the San Francisco Chronicle, literally wrote the book on Harvey Milk, the

Tribune deal: Reckless from the very start

Less than a year after being taken private by Sam Zell, the Tribune Co. may be on the verge of filing for bankruptcy because it cannot service its massive $12 billion in debt, according to the Wall Street Journal.As discussed when the buyout was announced in 2007 (the full post is reproduced immediately below), the plan seemed reckless from the very start, because the newspaper industry back then

The outlook is rocky for The Rocky

Sad to say, the days of the Rocky Mountain News are numbered. And the number of days probably is about 90.In a toxic environment for newspapers exacerbated by the worst recession in two generations, it seems highly unlikely that a buyer will emerge to sustain the feisty tabloid put up for sale today by its owner, the E.W. Scripps Co.While Scripps and everyone else would be tickled if someone

Gannett Blog: Tour de force crowdsourcing

The waves of agonizing layoffs at Gannett this week showed the power of crowdsourcing in the hands of a skilled journalist.Jim Hopkins, the former USA Today staffer who is the proprietor of the terrific Gannett Blog, urged his readers to report on the details of the layoffs at their papers. Soon, he began posting a comprehensive, rolling update of the carnage that, at this writing, is in its

Tweets can’t be beat on breaking news

When the siege of Mumbai broke out, Paris-based journalist Frederic Filloux found himself far from home and struggling to learn what was happening. His experience provides a perfect example how our thoroughly wired world is reshaping the media business.The former editor of Liberation, the influential French daily, Frederic now develops new products for Schibsted, the innovative Norwegian media

Where extreme cuts may come at papers

Operating in an atmosphere of unprecedented uncertainty and growing dread, publishers are systematically reviewing every aspect of their businesses with an eye to saving a buck any way they can.They are preparing cascading contingency plans that can be implemented according to the degree that sales might decline. The industry’s revenue crisis is detailed here in the first installment of this

Newspapers eye extreme cuts as crisis grows

Fearing that newspaper sales may fall as deeply next year as the record plunge in prospect for 2008, publishers are preparing contingency plans for cutting costs in previously unimaginable ways.In the best of cases, publishers will continue aggressively nipping and tucking at staffing, benefits, newshole, and the footprint of their circulation areas. In the worst cases, some newspapers will be

Newspaper sales fell almost $2B in one quarter

Newspaper advertising sales dived by a record 18.1% in the third quarter in a historic, across-the-board rout paced by a nearly 31% plunge in classified revenues.Eking out $8.9 billion in print sales in the three months ended in September, the industry shed a bit less than $2 billion in revenues from the same period in the prior year, according to statistics published quietly on the afternoon

Newspaper sales fall in historic rout

This item has been replaced with updated post here. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Buyout Sex, the other severance benefit

Who knew layoffs could be a turn on?Mary F. Pols, a movie critic who accepted one of the scores of buyouts at the Contra Costa Times, made the best of a traumatic situation by having an affair with a fellow scribe at the California paper, she revealed in Modern Love, the most consistently delectable feature in the Sunday New York Times.“Buyout Sex,” as Mary (left) dubbed it, affords a journalist

One exec’s savvy take on the news biz

A nationally prominent investor offered a number of penetrating observations the other day about what ails the newspaper business. His rundown is worth a quick read.:: A monopoly mindset: “The newspaper business basically grew up as a monopoly, and like every other monopoly, it built processes and approaches that reflected its monopoly status.”:: Order taking vs. effective ad sales: “You need a

Out of kilter: Stock slide hits NYT activists

A chill wind may be blowing up the kilt these days of Scott Galloway, the colorful investment strategist who persuaded a giant private equity fund that he could show the New York Times a better way to run a newspaper company.A onetime Internet entrepreneur who earned an extra 1.5 minutes of fame a couple of years ago when he modeled a kilt at a New York charity gala, Scott is the guy who

Why feds won’t bail out newspapers

If a federal bailout for General Motors might be good for America, how about one for newspapers, too? Ain’t gonna happen. Here’s why:Like the Big Three domestic automakers, most newspapers are suffering from weak customer demand, falling sales, suffocating fixed operating costs and shrinking profitability that together are eating into their financial reserves. But the similarities end

It’s time to bust up Yahoo

With Yahoo’s disparate components worth more than the whole and its stock near a nine-year low, this would be a great time for a smart investor to buy the company and break it up.If Yahoo were sold off in pieces, it would mark the end of the first new media company that tried to act like an old one. And its fate would serve as a lesson to any old media company that still thinks a

Newspaper profits swoon, more cuts likely

Relentless expense reductions at America’s newspapers this year have failed to stay ahead of falling sales and uncontrollable fixed costs, eviscerating the industry’s profitability and suggesting that more drastic cuts may lie ahead.The average profitability of newspapers tumbled 18½ times faster than sales fell in the third quarter of this year, according to an analysis of a dozen companies that

Motown's meltdown, redux

With the idea of a multibillion-dollar bailout for the auto industry front and center in the news, here is a an encore presentation of a post originally produced two years ago. It is relevant not only to the auto industry but the media business, too. The hubris that led to the humiliation of the American auto industry was painfully evident 30 years ago, when I took a brief spin on the beat for

It’s time to rip the lid off

The mad rush among consumers to buy the historic editions proclaiming the Obama presidency is at once a validation of the power of newspapers and a reminder of what ails them.It is a welcome confirmation, because it shows people still value a newspaper as perhaps the most authoritative and tangible artifact of a memorable event. Last week’s papers are likely to be preserved more carefully over

How one paper solved its 'Monday problem'

The Lawrence (KS) Journal-World solved the problem of weak advertising on Monday by creating a themed edition for women that generated some $340,000 in revenues at launch from mostly new accounts.In the following guest article, Al Bonner, the general manager of the 20k-circulation daily, tells how the paper sold almost all the ad positions for a year within a matter of weeks.By Al Bonner Like

Campaign ’08: MSM’s last hurrah

The 2008 presidential election likely will go down in history as the last hurrah for the mainstream media when it comes to its influence over national politics.The once pre-eminent authority of newspapers and broadcast networks in national campaigns will be diminished sharply in the future by three major and seemingly unstoppable trends::: Shrinking audiences and decaying advertising revenues

Monitor move doesn’t spell end of print

Scrapping the print edition of the Christian Science Monitor may be the right thing to do for that publication, but the strategy would not be viable for most other newspapers. The plan to stop printing the Monitor this spring makes sense for it, because its audience is geographically dispersed and the continued cost of printing and mailing a physical paper is prohibitively high for a title whose

Circulation: Worse than you think

American newspapers have lost nearly a quarter of their subscribers since the industry's average daily circulation hit an all-time high of 63.3 million in 1984.Circulation has dropped by 23.6% over the last 24 years to 48.4 million today, according to the most recent figures provided by the Audit Bureau of Circulations and the Newspaper Association of America. In the same period, average Sunday

Voodoo newspaper economics

The formidable problems of the newspaper industry won’t get solved if industry leaders substitute voodoo economics for rational discourse. So, let’s dispense with some of the bad juju we have heard in the last couple of days.Voodoo Economics 101Not once, not twice but five times, Gary Pruitt, the chief executive at the McClatchy Co., told stock analysts that the sagging sales and profits at his

Fat newspaper profits are history

Despite mounting declines in sales and circulation in recent years, most newspapers today still generate profits surpassing those of many Fortune 500 companies. But the fat profits are coming to an end, because newspapers are running out of ways to cut costs.After producing operating earnings at an average rate of 27.3% between 2000 and 2007, the industry’s margin this year may average no better

Credit rescue too late for many advertisers

The global effort to revive the credit market isn’t working fast enough for newspapers, which are losing many traditional advertising accounts as retailers and auto dealers go out of business.Given the growing dominance of big-box merchants like Wal-Mart and Costco – which tend not to advertise in newspapers – it is highly doubtful that new merchants will emerge to replace the departing retailers

Online CPMs fell 46% since January

The average online advertising rate plunged by almost half in the first nine months of the year, according to an industry survey.Demonstrating that even interactive advertising is not immune to the deterioration of the economy, PubMatic, a company which helps publishers optimize their revenues, reports that the average rate for 1,000 ad impressions (also known as CPM for "cost per thousand") fell

$7.5B sales plunge forecast for newspapers

Unless the global economy miraculously turns around on a dime, newspaper advertising revenue may plunge some $7.5 billion in 2008, according to a new projection attempting to assess the impact of the meltdown on the industry.Should this forecast prove to be correct, sales would tumble by 16.5% to $37.9 billion from last year’ s depressed level and the industry will have lost a staggering 23.4% of

A way to stay alive on weak ad days

With desperate times demanding desperate measures, a growing number of newspapers are considering the most desperate measure of all: Skipping print editions on the days of the week when ad sales are the weakest.It already has happened in McPherson, KS; Mesa, AZ; Gilroy, CA, and Cambridge, MD, according to Peter Zollman, who has been tracking the trend at Advanced Interactive Media Group (formerly

Presidential picks, American Idol-style

For all the care newspapers put into their presidential endorsements, a mere three out of 10 people are likely to pay them any heed, according to the Pew Research Center for People and the Press.If editors and publishers can overlook this seeming repudiation of their wisdom, they can build valuable new engagement with their readers – and non-readers – by taking a cue from American Idol.Rather

Youth-inized ChiTrib jolts core readers

The new Chicago Tribune is a dumbed-down dud in the opinion of a passionate and dedicated group of core newspaper readers back in my hometown.There is an admitted bias to the critics, as each of the eight members of this impromptu focus group happens to be a journalist old enough to be a fellow alumnus of the Chicago Daily News, which ceased publication in 1978.But these friends and former

Beware false hope on newspaper sales

Do you think the economy will be better in 2009 than it was in 2007? Me neither.So, how could the Newspaper Association of America predict that total advertising sales for the industry will drop by “only” 5.5% next year when they fell by 7.9% in 2007?Assuming newspaper sales follow historic trends, revenues this year are on track to slide to $39.9 billion, an unprecedented 11.5% plunge that would

Strib default: What’s next

The sheriff is unlikely to show up soon to padlock the doors of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which reported today that bankruptcy is one of its options now that it failed for the second quarter in a row to pay the interest on its debt.As long as the newspaper generates enough sales to cover its operating expenses, it is safe to bet its lenders will forbear for one simple reason: They don’t have

It's not the stupid economy, newspapers

“The biggest thing we need right now is an improved economy, because at least 60% of the revenue problem we’re facing today is a good, old-fashioned economic recession,” says William Dean Singleton.We should be so lucky. But we’re not.The chief executive of the MediaNews Group was on the money when he told PaidContent.Org that an economic revival would be mighty welcome. But even the most robust

Drudge shows how to do news

As I scrambled from website to website this morning for the latest news while my retirement melted away, the place that consistently had the most complete, convenient and up-to-date information was the Drudge Report.For all the millions of dollars and thousands of people employed at the mainstream newspapers, broadcast networks and cable channels, Drudge had assembled the perfect mix of salient

‘Make or break’ time for newspapers

Newspapers have 18 months to prove themselves as valuable cross-media partners for retailers or the flow of advertising dollars away from them may accelerate, publishers were warned this week by their customers.“The next year to 18 months may be ‘make or break’ for the newspapers,” says David T. Clark of Deutsche Bank in a report summing up the NAA Retail Advertising Forum that just wrapped up in

The yin and yang of newspaper unions

Unions indeed are part of the problem for some of the newspapers struggling to survive the historic distress that has rocked their world. But unions, imperfect as they may be, help to level the playing field for workers. They are valuable and we need to protect them.The question of the proper role for unions at newspapers evoked vigorous comment at the prior post, which mentioned that a Chapter

Bankruptcy may be next at some papers

Bankruptcy court may be the next stop for some of the most precariously financed newspaper publishers.As awful as the prospect sounds, it actually could be a good thing for the newspapers, because a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing enables a struggling company to restructure its debt, streamline its business and potentially put itself on a sounder footing for the future. Not all Chapter 11 filings

How the shrewder CEO cashed out at MNI

The year 2007 was a tough one at the McClatchy Co., as it struggled to integrate the complex and costly acquisition of Knight Ridder at the same time a steady deterioration in advertising sales began picking up steam.But the company seemed to be in luck. It had not one, but two, experienced chief executives on its board of directors – the incumbent Gary Pruitt and former Knight Ridder boss Tony

What’s going on at McClatchy?

Seeking the meaning of Gary Pruitt’s sudden resignation from the family trusts that control McClatchy, the Wall Street Journal speculated that the move foreshadows an initiative to issue millions of new shares to pay off the company’s billions in debt.The Journal might be right. But I doubt it. Here’s why:MNI has $2.1 billion in debt. Its shares nowadays are trading at about $3.30 apiece (only 18

McClatchy preparing to go private?

The McClatchy family appears to be getting ready to take its company private again.The signal that something may be afoot is contained in a brief document filed at 5:01 p.m. yesterday at the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Friday night filing states chief executive Gary Pruitt resigned Wednesday as one of the four directors of the family trusts that collectively control 41% of MNI’s stock

Palin daughter pregnancy was valid news

Although the pregnancy of Sarah Palin’s daughter by rights should not have been news, the media had no choice but to report on it after the matter was injected into the maelstrom of the presidential campaignMy friend and former colleague Don Wycliff makes the case for why the press should have respected the privacy of the 17-year-old girl and ignored the fact the unwed high school student is

Newspaper sales headed below $40B

Newspaper advertising sales this year are on track to fall some $5.5 billion to less than $40 billion, which would make for the lowest volume since 1996.Based on the record $3 billion drop in sales in the first six months of this year, it appears that the industry’s combined print and online revenues will come in at $39.9 billion.The last time annual sales were below $40 billion was in 1996, when

Newspaper sales fall record $3B in 6 mos.

Total newspaper advertising revenues fell by $3 billion in the first six months of this year to $18.8 billion, the lowest level in a dozen years, according to data published today by the Newspaper Association of America.The record 14% sales plunge featured the first-ever drop in online sales. Interactive revenues slipped by 2.3% in the second quarter of this year to $776.6 million. For the entire

Free papers are fizzling, too

The global market for free newspapers is in a slump, too, according one authoritative industry analyst.After expanding explosively for a dozen years, the total circulation of free dailies around the world grew at an “all-time low” of 5% in the first eight months of this year, says Piet Bakker, a professor at Hogeschool Utrecht in the Netherlands.Piet, who blogs at Newspaper Innovation, says the

The high price of skinflint journalism

The idea of splitting news coverage among the three principal newspapers in south Florida is journalistically and commercially dangerous.As discussed previously here, it is clear why the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel and Palm Beach Post want to collaborate on “basic” local coverage, whatever that is. They want to save money by generating more content with fewer people. While this may seem like a

The true cost of the buyouts

A mind-numbing number of dedicated newspaper people have seen their careers brought to abrupt and premature halts as the result of the industry’s relentless budget cutting.But the true loss of these fine people to a newspaper – and their communities – typically isn’t conveyed in the rote announcements that most papers dutifully print when many of their most senior staffers are ushered out the

Mariotti didn’t have to be a jerk

Sports columnist Jay Mariotti is well within his rights to resign from the Chicago Sun-Times, but he didn’t have to be a jerk about it.Instead of quietly arranging his departure by giving his editors sufficient advance notice to manage a smooth transition, he boorishly announced his decision to the competing Chicago media by babbling into every microphone in sight that “I don't think either paper

Publishers need to invest in new plant

U.S. publishers could boost revenues and improve the competitiveness of their newspapers by investing in modern production facilities, says Peter Klaue. He is the founder of Peter Klaue Media Consultancy in Hamburg, Germany, which provides strategic consulting and M&A advisory services for the publishing industry.By Peter KlaueOne of the reasons U.S. newspapers are in a significantly worse spot

Obama end-runs the media

Barack Obama’s veep text blast is not only the greatest advance in political public relations since the fireside chat but also a more important wake-up call for the mainstream media than the one many reporters got at 3 a.m. Saturday.Just as Franklin Delano Roosevelt bypassed the press by directly addressing citizens over the radio, the savvy Obama media team has developed a direct connection to

Big Board set to boot GateHouse

GateHouse Media was warned late today that it must come up with a plan to raise the price of its stock or will be dropped from trading at the New York Stock Exchange.If GHS is kicked off the Big Board, it would become the third newspaper publisher this year to be delisted at the exchange. Journal Register Co. (JRCO) and Sun-Times Media Group (SUTM) previously withdrew from trading at the Big

How 2 mak room 4 mor nws

With newshole shrinking, one way to get more content in newspapers would be to bring back the streamlined spelling that was championed for 40 years by the Chicago Tribune until an un-foresighted editor scuttled it in 1974.The Tribune’s bold effort to rewrite the English language commenced in 1934, when Col. Robert R. McCormick, the publisher, tasked his staff to eliminate errant vowels, purge

Fourth publisher the charm for LAT?

The fourth publisher since 2000 could be the charm for the Los Angeles Times.Eddy Hartenstein has a shot at success, because, unlike his three predecessors, he has the decided advantage of not being a newspaper guy.Accordingly, he is under no professional or personal obligation to preserve, protect and defend his track record or the practices of an industry whose business model has not changed

Game-changing newspaper buyers

With a growing number of newspapers on the market at a time they most likely will fetch historically low prices, somebody is going to start buying some of them. But don’t count on the usual suspects.Start thinking, instead, about such unconventional potential purchasers as the multibillion-dollar investment funds created by countries like Singapore or the sheikhdoms of the United Arab

Trib value fell $20 million a day under Zell

Sam Zell may have set some kind of record in the speed he was forced to write down a significant portion of the value of the Tribune Co.Barely six months after acquiring Tribune at a value of $13.2 billion, the company charged off $3.8 billion in newspaper assets, trimming 29% of the value of the enterprise the Zellistas took over in an employee stock ownership plan on Dec. 20, 2007. The writeoff

A paper’s sad decline in debt’s grip

Advertising at the emaciated newspaper has shriveled to historically low levels. Its staff has shrunken to a fifth of its former size. Its readership has fallen by almost half. The presses have been shipped out. The building is up for sale.Welcome to the San Mateo County Times, a once vigorous, locally owned, independent, community paper in northern California that was purchased in 1996 by

Default-O-Matic update: TribCo at most risk

With the default last month of Journal Register Co., the Default-O-Matic now shows Tribune Co. as the publisher most likely to be unable to repay its debt in the future.The Default-O-Matic predicts a company’s risk of default by using ratings from Moody’s Investors Service, one of the three independent agencies hired by bond issuers to assess their ability to repay the money they borrow.Since the

Where’s the Edwards love-child story?

National Enquirer scoop or not, there appears to be way too much smoke here for the major mainstream media to continue ignoring the story about the out-of-wedlock child that John Edwards may have fathered.With everyone from Drudge to Leno to Wonkette riffing on a tale that began trickling out at Christmas, the MSM look foolishly out of touch by continuing to remain silent about the allegation

Getting local coverage in gear

A common theme among newspapers “reinventing” themselves is that they intend to concentrate on local news, the strongest and most defensible part of their franchises. But are they really walking the walk?Not in Denver, says Joe H. Bullard, the former managing editor of the Denver Post, who now operates a publication-design company in the Mile High city. Here’s how he would get local coverage in

Chilling sign: Private publisher exit plans

The intentions of Copley Press and Advance Publications to explore the sale of two of their signature properties represents a discouraging new lack of confidence in the future of metro newspapers.The potential sale of the San Diego Union-Tribune and Newark Star-Ledger at the worst time in the history of newspapering can mean only one thing: The publishers don’t think the business will get any

Who will feed AP the news?

Ironically, struggling newspapers and booming Google both count heavily on the same source for much of the news that fills their columns and populates their pixels: The Associated Press.But where does the AP get its news? Mostly, from the very newspapers that are trimming back their coverage as they shrink their staffs, according to a spot check of the stories moving on the AP wire last month.If

Why more newspaper cuts may lie ahead

For all the cost cutting that has traumatized the newspaper industry this year, profitability is falling far faster than sales, suggesting that deeper cuts may be necessary if the industry is to sustain its traditional operating margins.In the first part of the year, revenues have fallen by 9.4% in the newspaper divisions at half a dozen major publicly held companies, according to an analysis of

Correction: Billions, schmillions

“A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you are talking real money,” goes a famous quote attributed to Sen. Everett McKinley Dirksen, the late, gravel-voiced Republican leader from Illinois.The quote, which actually may not have been uttered by the great man, came to mind this morning when several sharp-eyed readers noted that I incorrectly stated here the price paid for the Minneapolis

Perilously funded papers hit the wall

The most precariously financed newspaper deals apparently are starting to hit the wall, wiping out equity investors and causing at least some lenders to try to sell their loans at distressed prices.The lenders who provided the bonds for the $530 million purchase of the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2006 have hired an investment bank to try to sell the loans at heavy discounts to either local

Why publicize newspaper job cuts?

A hundred chairs plastered with pink slips were set up in front of the Baltimore Sun today as the centerpiece of a protest against the latest staff cuts at the paper. It was a clever bit of street theater. But was it a good idea?I am as angry as anyone about what is happening at the Tribune Co. (and elsewhere) and I am as sympathetic as can be toward the people who are losing their jobs. But I

‘Private’ time for GCI, LEE, MNI and NYT?

The shares of Gannett, Lee Enterprises, McClatchy and New York Times Co. have fallen so low that the companies have become candidates for transactions that could convert them to private ownership.The companies could do it themselves, do it in partnership with private-equity funds — or potentially face unwanted takeovers from investors attracted by the bargain prices of their stock.A public

Just $3.6B: Total value of 10 news stocks

In a historic rout, newspaper shares have lost nearly $4 billion in value in the first 10 trading days of July, an amount greater than the combined market capitalization of all but the three largest publicly held publishing companies.The $3.9 billion plunge in the value of newspaper stocks since the first of this month – a period marked by successive new lows in the prices of several issues – has

5 newspaper stocks hit new lows - again

The shares of five newspaper publishers plunged to new lows in early trading today, including the shares of GateHouse Media, which fell to $1 per share, threatening its ability to remain listed on the New York Stock Exchange.Tumbling to new lows alongside GHS were Gannett (GCI at $16.43 per share), McClatchy (MNI, $4.58), News Corp. (NWS, $13.95) and New York Times Co. (NYT, $12.61). The

Online ad rates slid 14% since January

The average online advertising rate dropped 14.2% in the first six months of the year, according to a new industry survey.Demonstrating that even interactive advertising is not immune to the deterioration of the economy, PubMatic, a company which helps publishers optimize their revenues, reports that the average rate for 1,000 ad impressions fell to 36 cents in June from 42 cents in

Shorts socked newspaper stocks

Investor bets against Lee Enterprises and McClatchy were more than twice as big last month as those against the shares of Fannie Mae, one of the mortgage giants whose perceived instability jolted the financial markets.The wagers placed against a stock, which are known as short sales, give new insight into the long-running selloff that drove seven newspaper stocks to record lows in a single day on

7 newspaper stocks hit record lows in 1 day

The shares of seven publicly held newspaper companies today plunged to the lowest point in modern history in perhaps the worst single trading day ever for the industry.McClatchy (MNI), Lee Enterprises (LEE), and GateHouse Media (GHS) hit all-time lows when their shares skidded respectively to $4.85, $3.11 and $1.55 in the opening hours of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.Also hitting new

Tribune gets a ‘payday loan’

Sparing few efforts to raise cash to service its daunting $12.6 billion in debt, the Tribune Co. has taken a highly unusual step for a media company: Borrowing against its future ad revenues.While it is commonplace and legitimate for companies in many industries to borrow against the value of invoices that customers have yet to pay, most media companies never needed to do this, because their

Cuts nip traditional news-staff ratio

Upcoming cuts at a pair of Tribunes show how publishers are nibbling away at the long-held standard for the minimum number of journalists deemed necessary to staff a newsroom.The unwritten but widely honored rule of thumb in the industry always has been that a newspaper should employ one journalist for every 1,000 in daily circulation.But plans announced today to lighten the Chicago Tribune

Newspaper malaise chills M&A

If this is a bad time to be the in the newspaper business, it is a worse time to be trying to sell a publishing company.News Corp. conceded the weakness of the M&A market for newspapers last week, when it abandoned its efforts to sell the Ottaway division that it acquired when it bought Dow Jones last year. Ottaway operates eight dailies and 15 weeklies in seven states from New York to

What ails sales? One ad vet's view

In this guest commentary, advertising sales veteran Janet DeGeorge says "change" is a "dirty word" at most newspapers. She is the president of Classified Executive Training & Consulting. By Janet DeGeorgeNewspaper advertising revenue is down because most advertising departments have not changed the way they do business in 50 years. Well, probably 100 years.They have not changed the confusing and

Deeper staff cuts likely at newspapers

Tens of thousands of additional jobs may have to be eliminated at newspapers because the staff reductions that have taken place to date have not kept pace with the accelerating erosion of advertising.Even though 48.7% of the 102,120 jobs eliminated in the newspaper industry since 1990 were lost in the last three years, publishers since 2006 have failed to reduce headcount as aggressively as they

Newspaper shares slid $23B in 6 months

The value of 11 newspaper companies traded on the public market since 2005 dove a combined $23.7 billion in the first half of this year, falling almost as much in six months as they had in the three prior years put together.Wall Street’s intensifying repudiation of the industry means that the companies in the group have lost a cumulative $49.7 billion in market capitalization in 3½ years,

S.J. Merc staff gutted by 62.5%

The lightning-round layoffs due to cut the newsroom of the San Jose Mercury News by another nine employees by tomorrow night means the staff will have been pared by fully 62.5% from its peak strength in 2000.The newspaper was perhaps the primary beneficiary of the Internet Bubble, when aggressive competition for dot-comers pumped its want-ad revenues to stratospheric – and, as it proved –

Little ado over Orlando's redo

Fewer than 0.05% of the readers of the Orlando Sentinel are fussed about the bold redesign of their newspaper, according to statistics provided by management three days after the debut of the new look.The response could mean any of the following::: 99.95% of the readers like the colorful overhaul, which would be great news for the newspaper.:: 99.95% of the readers didn’t notice, which not only

How close to default is your paper?

The newspaper industry shuddered last week when Bloomberg News warned that several publishers are in danger of default. And some are. But there are many degrees of defaultness and not all publishers are in equal danger of going down the drain.So, I have created not only the word “defaultness” but also a simple tool called the “Default-O-Matic” to help you see at a glance the degree of financial

Reader Jason writes: Is it better to leave a computer on all the time or shut it off when you done? If I leave it on, what settings (like hibernate) should I use?

Years ago the conventional wisdom was that leaving your computer on all the time would allow it to last longer before a crash. The culprit: Your hard drive. Frequent starts and stops would cause your hard drive mechanism to wear out much faster than if the drive never spun down. An old saying (possibly apocryphal) was that stopping and restarting a hard drive was the same as eight hours of regular running time.

I talked to the good folks at Seagate to find out if things had changed. According to the company, starting and stopping is not a huge problem with drives any more, and they can be safely shut off and on in order to save power. According to Seagate, you can expect a drive to last for three to five years of running time before dying, though obviously many drives last longer.

What's the big factor that causes drives to die early? Heat, says Seagate. Ensuring your computer stays cool through the proper use of fans is far and away the best thing you can do to keep your drive healthy. I'd imagine that shutting it down when not in use will only help. Naturally, shutting down your computer will also conserve electricity, so unless there's a compelling reason to leave it on (as with a server), you should probably shut down at night.

So, how should you shut down properly? It's completely up to you, really. If you do a full "Shut Down" (or "Turn Off Computer") your computer will be completely off, using no power at all. "Hibernate" and "Standby" are lower-power states that allow you to resume quickly into the Windows desktop. Standby simply powers down hardware components like the hard drive, monitor, and peripherals, but continues to provide power to RAM, so everything you were doing stays active. Hibernate is closer to a shut down: It saves an exact image of your Windows desktop, then powers the PC down. When you awaken from hibernation, everything is back where you last had it. Personally I'm not a big fan of hibernate, because if I'm going to shut Windows down completely I like to reload everything fresh into RAM, which helps system stability. I tend to use both standby (for shorter times away from my PC) and shut down (for more than a few hours of downtime) instead.

The case for a JOA in Miami

As odd a couple as they might be, Gary Pruitt and Sam Zell may want to buddy up to figure out how to reduce expenses to make the most of the sagging revenues at their struggling newspapers in south Florida.If they can modify their loan covenants, appease federal antitrust-regulators and navigate the myriad other details associated with an undertaking of this sort, the heavily leveraged owners of

Shared presses will squeeze deadlines

Plans to print two McClatchy titles in the plants of neighboring newspapers almost certainly will force earlier deadlines in the newsrooms of all four papers, which could compromise the quality of their coverage.In a development likely to become increasingly commonplace among publishers eager to reduce operating costs, MNI and privately held Pioneer Newspapers announced plans to shift the

MNI cuts may not be deep enough

The savings McClatchy hopes to achieve by trimming 10% of its work force will not save enough money to offset even a quarter of the likely drop in the company’s advertising revenues this year, suggesting that more cuts may lie ahead.Barring an upturn in the newspaper business in the second half of this year that no one foresees, MNI’s ad sales for 2008 are likely to be $295 million lower than

Jocks plan shock for Trib Co. readers

Thanks to a terrific new blog published anonymously by someone who identifies herself or himself as an employee of the Los Angeles Times, we have the first reported sighting of the radical new format planned for the Tribune Co. newspapers. And it’s scary.Not because it represents an abrupt change, though it does. And not because it is unconventional, though it is. But because the combination of

A high-water mark in crisis coverage

The staffers of the Cedar Rapids Gazette brilliantly rose to the occasion this week when record flooding inundated not only much of the city but also the very building where they work.Resisting pleas from city officials to evacuate their downtown office, the staff produced an amazing body of multimedia work while cobbling together a generator grid that powered everything from laptops to bilge

ROP ads poised for a comeback?

In a potential bit of good news for newspapers, run-of-paper advertising may be making a comeback after a sustained period of decline.Large national retailers like Macy’s and Best Buy, which had shifted much of their budgets to free-standing color inserts over the years, are taking a fresh look at in-paper advertising as a way of eliminating the growing cost of producing the ad inserts they pay

Murdoch has a plan. Zell doesn’t.

While Rupert Murdoch has gotten busy building the Wall Street Journal into an even more powerful global brand, Sam Zell seems to have no plan at all for Tribune Co., unless you count flogging the hands until morale improves.The two companies have gone down distinctly divergent paths in the six months since Mr. Murdoch bought Dow Jones and Mr. Zell almost simultaneously acquired Tribune. Dow Jones

$4.7B ad drop feared for newspapers

Print newspaper sales this year appear to be on track to drop by some $4.7 billion to less than $37.5 billion, a level not seen since the mid-1990s.The prediction comes from Paul Ginocchio of Deutsche Bank at a time of growing dismay among media executives who, for the most part, have watched sales weaken every month this year.“We keep throwing more and more rope into the well, but we never seem

Get me an ethnographer, sweetheart

Forget rewrite, sweetheart. Get me an anthropologist.The crisis of confidence in the media business has gotten so bad that the Associated Press revealed today that it sent a team of ethnographers around the world to see if young folks consume news differently on their laptops and iPhones than their parents did in print and on TV. And, by golly, they do.After months of research in such exotic

Fresh fodder for your in-box

When you’re feeling sad and lonely,There's a service I can render.Newsosaur has just signed upTo be an email a-lert sender.Subscribe now. Don’t be afraid.Just subscribe now.It’s not too late. Just subscribe now.Using the box down below.It’ll be from GOOG’s Feedburner,You won’t be bugged by the sender.Your privacy will be respected;Quit at will, though I'll feel rejected.Subscribe now. Don’t be

Lies, damned lies, and SEO

A few weeks ago, a story ricocheted around the Internet about a 13-year-old boy who stole his father’s credit card to hire hookers to play videogames with him in a Texas motel. The problem is that the story wasn’t the least bit true.But the reaction to the widely discussed hoax was not outrage from many of the publishers and marketers who ply the web for fun and profit. Much to the contrary,

Newspaper war in Silicon Valley

An old-fashioned newspaper war is about to break out among a trio of free publications in the heart of one of the least print-centric places in the universe, Silicon Valley.The free-for-all may, repeat may, momentarily motivate some residents of the ultra-wired community to pry themselves away from their laptops, Blackberries and iPhones. If so, that would be great for local merchants seeking

Newspaper shares -35%, CEO pay -11%

Things were so tough last year that the top executives of eight of 12 publicly held newspaper companies suffered a pay cut. But things were even tougher for their stockholders.That’s because the shares of the dozen newspapers dived an average of 35.7% in 2007 at the same time the average compensation of the chief executives fell by a more moderate – but not insignificant – 11.7%.The incongruity

CNET, a welcome SOS for CBS

It took a decade and a half to get there, but CNET finally is making it big in the TV business. Now, the $1.8 billion question is whether CNET can help CBS make it bigger in the Internet business.On track to have its shares acquired for a juicy 45% premium by CBS, CNET originally was formed as CNET-TV in 1993 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie to create a technology channel for cable television

The inconvenient truth for publishers

Another shoe is about to drop on the battered newspaper industry and it is going to be a big, fat, green Birkenstock.With global warming and soaring gasoline prices focusing consumer, political and eventually regulatory interest on environmental sustainability and energy consumption, people looking to be kinder to Mother Earth are going to start wondering about the impact their daily paper makes

Cablevision overpaying for Newsday?

Cablevision is valuing Newsday at more than twice the amount Rupert Murdoch thought it was worth, according to a side-by-side comparison of the two deals.While the Cablevision offer for Newsday appears at first to be “only” $70 million more than the $580 million originally offered by News Corp., a proper comparison of the deals has to take into account the considerable benefit that News Corp.

Cablevision's rosy vision for Newsday

Cablevision’s bold plan to purchase Newsday will test as never before the concept – and the economics – of the hyper-consolidation of local media by a single company. Don’t count on it succeeding.By adding the dominant Long Island daily and the free amNewYork to the largest and most highly concentrated cluster of cable systems in the country, Cablevision has the potential to become nearly all

Why Tribune has to sell Newsday

If you can imagine your mortgage payment tripling at the same time your take-home pay is shrinking, then you can understand the financial pain forcing the Tribune Co. to sell Newsday.The first-quarter earnings release issued by the company late Friday, which touts a $1.82 billion “profit” based on an technical accounting adjustment, dances around the magnitude of the challenge the company faces

How the Net clobbered U.S. media

The abrupt decline of the newspaper business in the United States is strongly correlated with the rapid adoption of inexpensive broadband Internet service – a phenomenon that likely threatens most other media companies throughout the world.That’s the conclusion of a presentation I delivered today to the annual world congress of the International Newspaper Marketing Association, which is meeting

Will Murdoch be Zell's exit strategy?

Rupert Murdoch may be standing pat on his bid for Newsday, because he knows that Sam Zell knows that News Corp. is probably the only plausible acquirer if the highly leveraged Tribune Co. deal goes south.Like a pair of masters plotting several moves ahead in a chess game, Rupe and Sam may be using the Newsday transaction to see how News Corp. could come to the rescue in the event the Tribune Co.

AHC and NYT lost most circ

Circulation at the New York Times Co. and A.H. Belo fell considerably more than the reported industry average in the most recent six-month reporting period, according to an analysis by Deutsche Bank.While industry-wide daily circulation dropped an average of 3.5% and Sunday sales fell an average of 4.2%, daily circulation slid 8.3% at A.H. Belo and Sunday circulation plunged 7.8% at the New York

Newspaper circ at 62-year low

The accelerating decline in circulation has brought newspaper sales to the lowest point in more than 60 years.Based on the record 3.5% drop in daily circulation reported today for the nation’s largest newspapers, it appears that average daily circ this year will be no better than 50 million. If so, that would be the lowest level since 1946, when daily sales averaged 50.9 million, according to

Where mass media lost ad share in '07

The share of advertising sold by newspapers and local broadcasters last year slipped in favor of such targeted media as the Internet and cable television.As shown in the table below, local TV sales and print newspaper advertising suffered the deepest declines between 2006 and 2007, falling respectively 9.5% and 9.4%. Radio advertising, which is somewhat more targeted than that of newspapers and

Deadly duel for N.Y. tabs

Those saying Rupert Murdoch wants to buy Newsday to squeeze the New York Times are missing the point: His immediate goal is weakening the New York Daily News so he can, once and for all, dominate the Big Apple.While a beefed-up Murdoch presence in the New York market undoubtedly would cause new troubles for the already troubled New York Times Co., the publisher with even more heartburn than

Reading is so passé

Reading on the web could become almost as retro as, well, reading a newspaper. (Not that there’s anything wrong with reading a newspaper.)A pair of companies promoting beta versions of their technology this week at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco showed how they can create audio and video from simple text, thus obviating the need to read.After wrestling a bit with Dixero.Com, I got it to render

Web ad sales slump at newspapers

As if plunging print advertising sales weren’t bad enough, newspapers also suffered a significant slowdown in new media revenues in the first three months of this year.Nearly overshadowed by the double-digit print declines reported widely throughout the industry, the interactive slowdown results from the stubborn determination of most publishers to try to sell online advertising to the very same

Drive-by surfers peril news sites

While more people than ever may be visiting newspaper websites, they are sticking around less this year than they were in 2007.That’s the troubling problem the Newspaper Association of America failed to mention this week, when it reported that the number of unique visitors at its members’ websites increased 12.3% to an all-time high of 199.1 million in the first three months of the year.But an

ASNE's senselesss newsroom census

Although it’s finally pointing in the right direction, I wouldn’t put any faith in the annual newsroom census just released by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. In a confounding statistical mélange of apples, bananas and bowling bowls, the association – which ought to know better – would have us believe that only 1,000 journalists (less than 1.9% of the work force) lost their jobs at

What went wrong at JRC

Teetering near default on a tower of debt and days from being booted off the Big Board, Journal Register Co. shows how strategic missteps and bad luck can imperil even as good a business as this highly profitable chain of community newspapers.For all that’s wrong with JRC – and there is a quite lot, to be sure – the company’s 19.3% operating profit not only compares quite favorably with those of

Congrats, with an asterisk

Like the baseball Barry Bonds swatted into the stands to break the all-time homerun record, there ought to be an asterisk on the Pulitzer Prizes awarded to journalists this year and for the foreseeable future.Unlike Bonds, who has been accused of using illegal steroids to enhance his performance, the writers and photographers who earned the industry’s highest honor did nothing inappropriate to

Newspaper revenue crisis mounts

After suffering the worst sales decline in nearly 60 years in 2007, American newspapers could be heading to an even deeper drop in 2008, based on the industry's performance in the early months of this year.If sales continue deteriorating at the same dismaying rate for the balance of the year, the resulting revenue crisis will threaten the economic viability of the financially weakest and most

No hoax is a joke

With the Los Angeles cousins of the merry pranksters at the Chicago Tribune victimized by an embarrassing hoax, does deceiving a newspaper seem as funny today as it did last week?That’s what I would ask those who branded me a dour, old fuddy-duddy for criticizing the Tribune for deceptively entering a video in a contest sponsored by the Chicago Sun-Times. Adding injury to insult, the Tribune

Stealth journalism

Two events in the colorful annals of Chicago journalism will give you a sense of how undercover enterprise projects have evolved in the last 30 years. Sadly, it hasn’t been for the better.The first event occurred in 1977, when the Chicago Sun-Times surreptitiously purchased a tavern riddled with building-code violations, so it could document how many city inspectors and fire marshals could be

Hefty debt, sagging credit ratings

The continuing meltdown of newspaper stocks and bond ratings has provoked emails and calls from readers seeking a deeper understanding of the financial pressures facing publishers. This is the second of two posts (the first is here) answering the most common questions.Q. The ratings on newspaper bonds keep falling. What are bonds, anyway? And why are ratings dropping?A. Companies needing to

Sidelined at the Big Board

The continuing meltdown of newspaper stocks and bond ratings has provoked emails and calls from readers seeking a deeper understanding of the financial pressures facing publishers. In the first of two posts (second is here), these are answers to the most common questions.Q. Trading of Journal Register Co. (JRC, which closed Friday at $0.79) and the Sun-Times Media Group (SVN, $0.82) has been

So long again, Chicago Daily News

Thirty years ago, the presses fell silent for the last time at the Chicago Daily News, an iconic and crusading newspaper that was unable to adapt to changing times. The following article, which originally appeared here on March 4, 2005, is reprinted as a reminder of what happens when a paper runs out of readers, revenues and ideas at the same time. "It's fun being the publisher when things are

Pinpoint The Source Of Your Computer Problem

As time goes on, PCs continue to increase in complexity and our reliance upon them continues to grow. More often than not, both increases are perfectly complementary, as millions of people across the globe turn their computers on each day to use them for research, leisure, entertainment, or learning. But that paired reliance us relying on your PCs and our PCs relying on us for maintenance isn’t always a happy fairy tale; sometimes the experience breeds frustration, especially when the PC just doesn’t work, and we don’t know why.

Thankfully, however, troubleshooting a PC is largely an exercise in the process of elimination; following a standardized procedure with the right tools can go a long way toward diagnosing your computer’s ailment and getting you back on the right track. Knowing what is broken is the cornerstone of knowing how to fix it, so read on to become a pro at investigating your problem and discovering that crucial cornerstone.

Before You Dive In
Although it’s tempting to start troubleshooting your PC as soon as it displays symptoms, you’ll save yourself a potential headache if you back up your digital valuables first assuming that your PC’s problem doesn’t prevent you from doing so). Sure, the average software conflict, driver reinstallation, or loose monitor cord isn’t much of a threat to your files, but we’ve seen seemingly small problems turn into PC-crippling disasters before. If you’re in the “better safe than sorry” camp, jot down a quick list of the files you want to protect: documents, music or video files, emails, and maybe that list of Internet Explorer Favorites you’ve built up over the years (in Internet Explorer, click File, Import And Export to start the wizard that lets you back up Favorites). Move them to removable media or (if you don’t suspect that your PC has a virus) to another PC on your network. Now you can tackle your PC’s problem without worrying about losing your data.

Hardware Or Software?
It’s not always easy to determine whether your hardware or software is to blame, but it’s a good place to start troubleshooting:

If you’re fairly confident that the problem is one or the other, you’ve eliminated several troubleshooting steps.

Ruling out causes is the best path to troubleshooting success. Look for common hardware symptoms. Hardware problems, such as damaged components or loose cables, generally cause obvious, dramatic problems. For example, if your computer won’t power on at all, you’re looking at a hardware problem, rather than software. You should also suspect a hardware problem if your computer powers on, but no images appear on your monitor. If you can’t access any software (even the BIOS [Basic Input/Output System]), you’re not looking at a software issue. Of course, not all hardware issues display such obvious symptoms, and some hardware problems exhibit symptoms similar to those caused by software problems. For example, if your PC runs slowly, it may have too many unnecessary programs running at once or a virus or adware may be crippling your system; obviously, these are software problems. On the other hand, these same symptoms can be caused by an overheated processor, something that’s just as obviously a hardware issue. Look for common software symptoms. Whereas hardware problems often reduce your computer to an oversized paperweight, software issues are often more subtle, and usually let you access most parts of your computer. A conflict between two programs, for example, may prevent you from accessing certain applications, but may not crash Windows itself.

In many cases, the software that’s experiencing trouble will display an error message. Unfortunately, many error messages don’t offer much immediate help: The message will likely display a cryptic warning or a bunch of numbers and letters that don’t mean anything to anyone other than a programmer. Unless you receive an error message saying that hardware is to blame, the error message is a good indicator that you’re facing a software problem. If your problem doesn’t prevent you from accessing the Internet, try looking up the error message at Smart Computing’s Tech Support Center. The site offers an online database of error messages for hundreds of programs, including the Windows OS (operating system). To learn more about an error message, visit www.smartcomputing.com/techsupport and then click Browse Error Messages Alphabetically or Search By Error Message Text. If you choose the Search feature, enter the text of the error message word-for-word to get the best results. Each error message in the database includes an explanation of the message’s meaning and at least one potential solution. Consider recent events. If you call a tech support service, one of the first questions the tech will ask is, “What were the last things you did before the problem occurred?” Remembering any actions you’ve taken over the past few days may help you narrow down the problem. If you moved your computer to a different room and now find that it won’t power on, for example, you should kick off the troubleshooting by identifying the components that may have changed during the move. Check the wall outlet to make sure it is functioning properly, and check the power cord to make sure it is plugged firmly into the outlet and the PC’s PSU (power supply unit). (Don’t forget that transporting a computer any significant distance can result in video cards and other devices vibrating loose.)

This approach will also help you determine whether you have a software problem. If you installed a new program last night and now your Desktop doesn’t display the family photo you were using as a Desktop background, you’re probably not facing a hardware issue. The longer you own a PC, the more often you’ll find that the simplest explanation for the problem is often the right one.

Find The Source Of The Problem
Once you know (or think you know) whether you’re dealing with a hardware or software problem, you can really dig into the next question: Which hardware component or program is the source of the trouble? If you can answer this question, you won’t have any trouble finding an article in this issue that addresses your problem. Here are some tips for narrowing the troubleshooting field. Hardware problems. Once you suspect a hardware problem, list the components (internal or external) that might be the cause of the problem and then check each component, one at a time. In some cases, this may mean checking external and internal hardware. For example, if your print documents don’t reach the printer or you see error messages that say your printer isn’t connected to the computer, you’ll want to check the USB cable that runs from your computer to the printer to make sure neither of the connections is loose. You’ll also want to be sure that your computer’s

USB port is functioning. (You can test this by plugging another USB device, such as a USB flash drive, mouse, or external hard drive into that port.) In some cases, you may suspect that an internal component is damaged, but not be in a position to confirm the defect. If you think that your computer’s lost network connection is due to a damaged or incorrectly configured Ethernet NIC (Network Interface Card), you probably don’t have an extra Ethernet card that you can swap out. This is where the Device Manager, a built-in Windows tool, can help you identify problems without opening your PC or bumming spare parts from your friends. To open the Device Manager, right click the My Computer icon on the Desktop, and then click Properties. When the System Properties window appears, select the Hardware tab and then click the Device Manager button. The Device Manager displays a list of your PC’s components by category, such as Disk Drives (hard drives), Processors, DVD/CD-ROM Drive, and Display Adapters. By default, the list shows only the component categories, rather than the components themselves. If you want to see the names of your specific CD-RW and DVD-RW drives, for example, you’ll need to click the plus (+) sign next to DVD/CD-ROM Drives. The list will then expand to reveal all of the components in that category. The exception to this rule, however, is the component that is damaged. If Windows knows your NIC isn’t working, it will automatically expand the Network Adapters category to display any networking components in your PC. You’ll see a red X next to the damaged NIC. To learn more about the NIC’s problem, right click it and then select Properties. The General tab of the NIC’s Properties window includes a Device Status section that offers a brief explanation of the problem. You can also pinpoint certain problems, such as excessive heat, by checking the PC’s BIOS. All PCs have a BIOS, which is a very basic operating system that allows your system’s components to communicate. Most BIOSes have a PC Health or Status page that lists system fan speeds and system and processor temperatures.

Things To Check First
Although a list of things to check won’t catch every PC problem you encounter, you’ll be surprised at how often the simple steps below can lead to troubleshooting success. Whether you’re kicking off a troubleshooting session or at your wits’ end after hours of fruitless research, here are some good tips to try.

• Is the PC’s power supply switch turned on? Some PCs have a power switch at the back. Make sure it hasn’t been switched off.
• Are all cables connected? Loose connections regularly cause headaches. Remove and reconnect each plug firmly, even if you’re sure it’s connected.
• Are all peripherals turned on? Make sure a powered-off print server isn’t preventing your printer from working.
• Does the Device Manager display any problems? Check this tool for red Xs, which indicate a malfunctioning or disabled device.
• Is there a new driver? Updated drivers often fix hardware problems. If you can’t find new drivers (check the manufacturer’s Web site), try reinstalling your existing driver.
• Have you installed software updates? Software publishers sometimes release patches via their Web sites. Also, check to see if your software recently installed updates automatically. In rare cases, a software update may introduce problems.

Software problems. If you’re fairly certain you’re facing a software problem, but you haven’t been able to identify the offending program, your best bet may be to use Windows XP’s System Restore. This feature is especially useful if you’ve installed multiple programs recently. System Restore reverts your computer to the condition it was in few days or even a few weeks ago, without destroying any of the documents, emails, music, or video files you’ve created. Thanks to System Restore, any programs you installed after the Restore Point (the date in the past to which you restore Windows) won’t appear on your PC. Once you complete the restore, you can reinstall the applications one at a time and check your PC for problems after each installation. System Restore is enabled by default in Windows XP, which means that System Restore has already created Restore Points automatically, even if you’ve never used the System Restore feature before. To access System Restore, click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and System Restore. Once you click the Restore My Computer To An Earlier Time radio button and click Next, System Restore will display a small calendar with several of the dates in bold. All bold dates have at least one Restore Point. (Note that Windows refers to automatically created Restore Points as System Checkpoints; you can create your own labels for Restore Points that you create yourself.) Select the Restore Point and then follow System Restore’s instructions to restore your system to this earlier date. Finally, make sure your PC is operating without trouble. If it is, you’ve narrowed the problem to one of the programs that System Restore just uninstalled (or to another program on your PC that conflicted with one of these programs). Now you’re ready to hunt for the problem program.

Troubleshooting 101
As we mentioned earlier, troubleshooting is largely a matter of eliminating parts or programs that are working until you find the part that causes the problem. Consider this scenario: You pressed your PC’s power button this morning only to find that it didn’t start. The PC worked just fine last night, and you haven’t recently performed any maintenance on the system’s interior. If you start by making sure your PC truly isn’t powered on, you’ll save yourself several troubleshooting steps. Check the monitor’s light: Is the monitor on? If not, you’ll want to check its power cords. Once the monitor is on, take a second look at your PC. Do any lights appear when you try to power on the system? If you see lights, or if you can see or hear running fans at the back of the computer, the system doesn’t have a power problem. Instead, the PC may be having trouble sending an image to your monitor, which could indicate a problem with your motherboard, video card, or memory. If the PC doesn’t power on at all, check the power cord and the surge protector. Many surge protectors have switches that let you kill power to any of the devices that plug into them: Check to make sure your pet didn’t accidentally trip that switch. Next, check the wall outlet by plugging a different device into the socket your PC’s power cord occupied. If you’re certain that power is flowing to the PC, you’ve ruled out the most basic problems and can focus on more advanced troubleshooting tips, such as those discussed in “What To Do When: Your PC Won’t Start”

When All Else Fails
If you exhaust this issue’s troubleshooting tips without finding a solution, it’s time to turn to the Web or to contact tech support. You’ll find a searchable database of thousands of articles at Smart Computing’s online Tech Support Center. If you call your PC manufacturer’s tech support line, be sure to have some basic information about your system handy, including the model number and serial number. Many PCs display the model name and number on the front panel, whereas the serial number often resides on a side panel or the back of the computer.

Software To The Rescue
Whether you’re planning to download drivers for a device or simply want to search for information about it online, you’ll need its model number. In many cases, you can find this info via the Device Manager, but if you’re looking for your motherboard’s model number or the name of the motherboard’s chipset, you’ll probably need to download a third-party system information program, such as CPUID’s free PC Wizard 2006 (www.cpuid.com). Such programs scan your system and then display model numbers, chipset names, and other info.