Media General posts net loss of $85.5 MILLION dollars

RICHMOND, Va., Jan. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Media General, Inc. (NYSE: MEG - News) today reported a net loss for the fourth quarter of 2008 of $85.5 million, or $3.86 per diluted share, including a non-cash pre-tax impairment charge of $130.4 million ($83.1 million after-tax). This compares to net income in 2007 of $9.6 million, or 43 cents per diluted share. The impairment charge and a tax valuation allowance that affected the quarter are discussed in more detail below.
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Excluding the impairment charge, the tax valuation allowance, and $6.1 million of pre-tax severance expense, fourth-quarter income from continuing operations was $8.6 million, or 39 cents per diluted share. This compares to income from continuing operations, also adjusted for severance expense, in 2007 of $10.2 million, or 46 cents per diluted share.

Media General's fourth-quarter results reflected a decrease in divisional operating profits, the majority of which was in the Publishing segment, as a result of lower advertising revenues. Partially offsetting lower divisional profits were lower corporate expense, decreased intangibles amortization and reduced interest expense in 2008. Also affecting the quarterly comparisons were the absence of an insurance recovery, and losses and a write-down related to SP Newsprint, both of which were present in the 2007 results.

Dudes who take photos of boobs without permission

Obviously the outrage at men who take photos of women's breasts without their permission is growing. There's a whole website of perverts and poor, sorry, sickos who get their jollies off of photographing women's bodies and breasts without their permission. I'm sure some of these are among those who have never had a conversation with a woman without giving her their credit card number first. Here's a photo from this year's Burning Man.




The website with all the smelly offenders (easy to see why they have to go to an event and take photos of half-naked women. A telephoto lens is as close as they're going to get). http://dudeswhotakephotosofboobs.com/content/IMG_1716_large.html

It's official - I'm going to England and the TED conference

After frenzied voting and Seth Godin's endorsement - the Johnny Bunko race is over and I've officially won. My opponent, North Carolina Leadership guru, Ed Brenegar, was a worthy and wonderful challenge and we'll be working together to spread ideas about real leadership over the next year.

The comic book I produced with Marty Whitmore and Megan Morris made it to Slideshare, a world popular website for great ideas. The book has been posted on dozens of websites worldwide and over the coming months...thousands, if not millions of people will be tuning in to read this blog, to find out more about what's happening in Danville, VA and perhaps - to BUY the newspaper....we'll see. More changes are in store!! Thanks for your vote. I look forward to posting more as TED comes closer.

A world stage

The voting isn't over until tomorrow, but it looks like I'm going to England on an all-expense paid trip to attend the 2009 TED conference, thanks to Seth Godin's endorsement today. He is an amazing marketer and an even more amazing man. I've been a member of Triiibes.com for more than six months now. Triiibes is a social media network Seth established this year just prior to the launch of his book, "Tribes" - which is an INCREDIBLE book and you should definitely go buy it (see it on the right of this blog and click on it for more info).

Anyway - I recently became a finalist in the Johnny Bunko writing contest (one of three out of hundreds of entries). The winner is selected by popular vote. Go here to vote. Vote for "Stay Hungry".... The race was tied at 40% 40% 20% last night. Then this morning I got up and checked and wow! At last count, thanks to Seth's blog post below - I'm at 64% and climbing!! Looks like I'll attend the all-expense paid trip to England to the TED conference in July!! I know a LOT of you guys have voted for me and I thank you!! So, just wanted to pass along the good news that "Things get BETTER when you LEAVE the Register & Bee." You won't read the news about my trip in the paper - they're pretty lousy that way...so spread the word!! You read it here first!! P.S. Download the FREE comic book I wrote and my friend Martin Whitmore illustrated to help win this thing! by going to Seth's blog.



Traffic magnets

Here's a trick that's as old as the web: Run a popularity contest with public voting. It could be anything from a listing of the top blogs to a creative contest for best tagline or ad.

The nominees run around like crazy, hoping to get their friends to vote. Which of course brings you more traffic. This is a large part of the strategy behind Threadless.

I get invited to vote in these all the time, to participate as a nominee regularly and most vexing, to post them here as a way of helping this person or that person achieve some sort of nirvana.

My feeling is that most of the time the cause is too thin and the prize is too lame. If your blog gets picked as the most popular woodworking blog by some other blog, it's really unlikely that you'll find many benefits other than a nice smile for your ego. On the other hand, if you can offer a great prize and/or be useful and relevant, this is a permanent tool in the web toolbox for you.

As I've said, I don't promote these. But, just this one time, I'm breaking my rule for Becky, who didn't even ask me to mention this, and for my friend Dan Pink, who has written another terrific book. If you'd be so kind to visit Dan's site and vote for "stay hungry," it's quite likely that Becky will win a paid for trip to TED UK, which she deserves and will benefit from.(She's only a hundred votes out of first place as I write this).

I promise to do something like this no more than once a year, so wait unto 2010 before you send me a note about your contest! Thanks.


Oh - late breaking...one of the members of Triiibes.com put together this video and posted it on YouTube.com. It's GREAT to get such support!! And the comic book made the FEATURE page of SLIDESHOWS last night too!



Amazing what is possible when people are positive, focused and CARE about people rather than simply wanting to exploit them, ridicule them or treat them with disrespect isn't it?

Start your own newspaper

Seth Godin says it's "Time to start a newspaper"



What should not-so-busy real estate brokers do?

Why not start a local newspaper?

Here's how I would do it. Assume you've got six people in your office. Each person is responsible to do two things each day:

* Interview a local business, a local student or a local political activist. You can do it by phone, it can be very short and it might take you ten minutes.
* Get 20 households to 'subscribe' by giving you their email address and asking for a free subscription. You can use direct contact or flyers or speeches to get your list.

Twice a week, send out the 'newspaper' by email. After one week, it will have more than 500 subscribers and contain more than 20 interesting short articles or quotes about people in the neighborhood. Within a month, (if it's any good) every single person in town who matters will be reading it and forwarding it along to others.

It will cost you nothing. It will become your gift to the community. And it will be a long lasting asset that belongs to you, not to the competition. (And yes, you can do this if you're a plumber or a chiropractor. And yes, you can do this if 'local' isn't geographic for you, but vertical).

Own your Zip code. The next frontier is local, and this is a great way to start.

Begining of the end of the Register and Bee

What happens when one business can't deliver, treats its readers and advertisers poorly and runs roughshod over a town? People pull their ads and find some other business that will. Alan Lingerfelt, having been badgered by residents for months now to add news and events to his paper, is doing just that! The email below recently went out to residents all over Danville. The circulation of The Piedmont Shopper, Danville's most popular source for classified news, now exceeds that of The Danville Register & Bee. The free publication is packed with classified ads, jokes and business ads, but now Alan is pushing ahead with more. He appeared before Danville City Council several months ago to inform council. Now he's making his move. Once Alan is able to get news, sports and events and publish them on a weekly basis for at least six months, he'll be able to make the bid to become a paper of record. Being a paper of record will enable him to go after the "legal advertising."

For those of you not familiar with publishing, the cost of legal ads is a significant chunk of advertising revenue and is the life's blood of a newspaper - particularly when the car dealers have pulled their ads and the the realtors are seriously considering pulling theirs. So send your news and information, photos and things into Alan today!

Get onboard the CLUE Train Register & Bee....

First of all, thanks to all those who have written with support and encouragement about this blog. I'm pleased to say that even Al Tompkins at The Poynter Institute has acknowledged that blogs like this are the direction the country is moving in. I told him that six months ago when I sent him the link, but now that popular writers and other sources are whipping the band wagon into a trot he's on board. He wrote:

2009 Marks the Arrival of Feedback 3.0
I am a fan of a site called TrendWatching.com. From "rough luxury" to clothing that is designed for gadget users, the site defines megatrends that are emerging in business. One trend, called Feedback 3.0, really caught my eye and sent my mind racing.

The site identifies the history of feedback as:

* FEEDBACK 1.0 (one of those early Web phenomena) saw outraged individuals posting scathing reviews, feedback and complaints, often to the delight of other netizens. Brands remained unaware or chose not to listen, dismissing these outbursts the way they'd dismissed any kind of customer dissatisfaction for decades.
* FEEDBACK 2.0 (which we're in right now) is about these rants -- and some raves -- having gone 'mass' (no, make that MASS!). The long-predicted conversation is finally taking place, albeit amongst consumers and not, as intended, between corporations and consumers. Companies have started to take note, but to a large degree still choose to listen, not talk back, trying to 'learn' from the for-all-to-see review revolution. Which is surprising, to say the least, since a quick and honest reply or solution can defuse even the most damaging complaint.
* FEEDBACK 3.0 (which is building as we speak) will be all about companies joining the conversation, if only to get their side of the story in front of the mass audience that now scans reviews. Expect smart companies to be increasingly able (and to increasingly demand) to post their apologies and solutions, preferably directly alongside reviews from unhappy customers. Expect the same for candid rebuttals by companies who feel (and can prove) that a particular review is unfair or inaccurate, and want to share their side of the story.

As the website The ClueTrain Manifesto points out, companies that do not listen to and engage the audience/customers miss out because:

1. People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to commoditized products.
2. There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone.

Trendwatching.com goes on to show examples of emerging Feedback 3.0 in action:

* Tripadvisor's management response feature allows representatives of hotels, restaurants and attractions to respond to reviews written about their properties. Local business review site Yelp allows business owners to manage their own page with detailed information, and lets them respond privately to reviewers. The latter is also offered by product ratings and reviews provider Bazaarvoice, which allows owners direct contact with posters of negative reviews. HomeAway, the vacation rentals marketplace, has an owner-response feature that allows property owners to publicly post in response to reviews.
* There's also a self-organized 'right of reply': we've argued (for years, really) that setting up one's own conversation Web site for customers is the most amazing way to prevent damning reviews from popping up all over. It's been happening for quite a while on sites like Dell Ideastorm and My Starbucks Idea, where anyone can post suggestions, with Dell and Starbucks actually replying for all to see. Starbucks also Twitters about the latest happenings on My Starbucks Idea. Two conversation-expert firms that can get you started with this kind of FEEDBACK 3.0 are Feedback 2.0 and Salesforce Ideas, which powers Dell and Starbucks.
* Also, check out GM Facts and Fiction, a theoretically interesting approach by GM to tackling the many 'myths' about the company and its current problems. Pity they don't allow for any kind of real conversation… Last time we checked, the comments feature was turned off.

Do Ads work?

Do ads work?

Newspaper people believe they do. They've been taught to tell you what you want to hear in order to close the sale. Ask them about their degree in marketing. Do they have one? No. When's the last time the Register & Bee did a survey, one-on-one with their readers ASKING them about what ads they read? Never? uh-huh.

Now, I'll tell you what the studies show - it takes a MINIMUM of 12 ad views - that's right - 12 views for a reader to BEGIN to recognize your company/ad and that's IF they see the same ad. MOST people do not read the ads unless they are looking for a specific item. Many people will simply SCAN the ads looking for words like "SALE" or "40% OFF" or other items that indicate possible savings."

The ads that WORK are grocery store ads, car ads, real estate ads - ads that keep a constant presence in a publication that people read - not one that is printed and then the extra copies thrown in the recycle bin still bound from the printer.

The OLD way of advertising was to blanket as many newspapers, magazines and billboards as possible, and to buy as much television and radio air time as you could afford. That was BEFORE the internet. Now society is forming groups or "tribes" of people interested in certain things - like gardening magazines. If you sell gardening supplies do you think you'll get a better response placing ads where gardeners go for information (magazine or website) or in the local paper? You don't need to REACH 20,000 readers. You need to reach 2,000 or 200 readers who WANT TO BUY. See the difference? Would you rather try to sell 50 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to anyone walking into a hardware store or to people walking into a bakery or grocery store? Hint. The people walking into a bakery or grocery store are more likely to be in a cookie buying mindset. And the bakery may even be better than the grocery. Sure the bakery is smaller, but it's not size that counts. It's NUMBER OF POTENTIAL cookie buyers that count.


So - if YOU were a small business, what's your best advertising? Word-of-mouth, newsletters aimed at your customers, and the best return of all, permission marketing. What is permission marketing? Permission marketing is when you sign up to receive email or information from a company or business because you're interested in what they're selling. When we request a catalog from The Pottery Barn or The Gap, or LL Bean, we're giving them permission to send us ads.

They don't send their ads to people who don't buy their stuff and don't want to buy their stuff and save themselves millions of dollars that way. Why are YOU paying to put your ad in front of thousands of people who don't want to buy what you're selling?

If you sell hair care products, why not invest your ad dollars in a flyer with information about hair care (download the one I wrote/laid out/created here. IT'S FREE)

Put YOUR products in a flyer and leave the flyer at area hair salons. In exchange for leaving the flyer there (ie. what's in it for the hair salon) you put the names of the hair salons where YOUR product is available!!! The hair salon wins because they're not paying for advertising - they're just handing out your brochure! They're making their money from selling your product! So yeah - they're going to hand out the flyer.

NOW the people who use hair care products and come into salons are getting your "ad" and are MORE likely to buy. You haven't spent all your money in newspaper ads where people are only buying the paper for the grocery ads and the sports page. The money it costs to buy a half page ad in the Register & Bee that will run for ONE DAY is three times what it costs to have the flyer made. Add another $100 for printing and you have enough brochures for weeks - maybe months. And the brochures keep circulating. The newspaper doesn't. It's trash in a day or two. Why keep burning your money? Do you have that much to waste?

If you join Danville Business (joining is FREE), you can advertise for free on your page. No gimmicks. No tricks. As part of a social network you not only meet other people who get to know you and spread your name FOR FREE, you join the growing movement of new business practices - social media. What is social media? Watch this video.


And, as marketing guru Seth Godin writes in his business blog:

Do Ads work?

If the local bank were offering a sale on dollar bills, ninety cents each, how many would you buy?

Most rational people would say, "I'll take them all please." Especially if you had thirty days to pay for them.

So, why, precisely, do you have an ad budget?

If your ads work, if you can measure them and they return more profit than they cost, why not keep buying them until they stop working?

And if they don't work, why are you running them?

If you like advertising in a newspaper, it should be because it works, not because it feels good. Massages feel good. Winning at something feels good. But throwing money away on ads that DON'T work? HOW can that feel good?

Good management

With all the lay-offs around Danville a lot of people will be taking new jobs, any job they can get hired for. In the short term, the money is important right? But in the long run you can end up in a bad situation. Studies show that more than 67% of us quit our jobs because of a supervisor - a BAD supervisor. What's a bad supervisor? Well, when I was at The Register & Bee I had an evaluation - not early on when it might have been helpful, but more than a year after I'd worked there. What's that say about supervisors and management? BAD!! Clueless really.

During the evaluation I said I needed more feedback and that some appreciation wouldn't hurt. The pseudo-HR person, Ann Austin, and my supervisor, Bernard Baker, BOTH told me "We'd all like to be appreciated, but that doesn't happen around here so get used to it."

Wow. What's it take? Five minutes to say, "Thanks, I appreciate you staying late. Thanks, I appreciate your being willing to work a split shift and not have a life this week so we were covered." Doesn't cost them a dime, but by God! Appreciation is just something that doesn't happen there. Remember the toilets? Yeah...So when YOU are looking for your next job, and the person interviewing you asks if you have any questions for them, ask them, "How do you show appreciation for employees here?" If they can't give you examples, or look confused or even upset and WORSE if they're all cheery and say, "Oh! We love our employees, we're always appreciative," but the can't give you specifics, then keep looking. This goes for you newspaper carriers or would be carriers.

Oh, by the way, the law says if the carriers HAVE to pick up their papers at a certain time and HAVE to have them delivered by a certain time and are docked if they're late...that SOME lawyers - especially with the new laws passed recently, see that as EMPLOYMENT, not a contractor position...check with an attorney. You may be an employee of the Register & Bee - or so I've heard.

Back to appreciation. Take time this year to appreciate your people, especially those last two Register & Bee/Media General employees in this region who are still in the sights of the "convergence team" - I hear two more, I reported five, three down and two to go still....both supposedly in editorial...especially once they lose the real estate ads this year ;-D

Anyway....Happy New Year!

Great Ideas

Thursday, January 1, 2009
Great Ideas! How about social media? What is social media/social networking? Watch this and then read the story below!



DANVILLE - The Danville Register and Bee's editorial this week called for "Great Ideas,' but the newspaper is ignoring one of the best ideas to happen in Danville in a long time - "Danville Business."

Danville Business, a social media site for local businesses and individuals, is a free website with information, news, blogs and groups for anyone who wants to join. Small businesses often need support, help and information when they start-up and Danville Business is just the place for them to get that help and information FREE.

If you are a small business owner you can meet and talk with other small business owners about things like how to grow your business, how to advertise and how to start your own social media group to increase customer traffic.

Started by The Longwood Small Business Development Center (SBDC), the site has more than 60 members, with more joining every day.

Businesses may advertise and post free on their site, everyone has free email and a free blog where they can post ads, hours, menus and other information about their business. It's not a place for "hard selling" and in fact, that is discouraged. True sales take place through connecting with others. Watch the video below and see what social media is all about. Then consider joining Danville Business. Just call or email Diane Arnold or Dave Slayton at the SBDC:

Longwood SBDC
300 Ringgold Industrial Parkway
Danville, VA 24540

Telephone: 434.791.7321
Fax: 434.791.7341

Diane Arnold
Director
arnoldjd@longwood.edu

David Slayton
Program Coordinator & Business Counselor
slaytonjd@longwood.edu

Reasons why The Danville Register & Bee won't write about it? Because I set it up and play a part in making sure that small business don't waste their advertising dollars, that they understand the landscape of small business, even big business is changing and that social networking, not large expensive, worthless newspaper ads are the way things are going. Don't believe it? Then look around and ask yourself why so many newspapers are failing. The OLD way of marketing, selling and reaching customers is dying. The new wave is social networking and social media.

And if YOU and YOUR business want to learn HOW to do it effectively - FREE, without being charged an arm and a leg - then join Danville Business. No, you do not have to be from or in Danville to join. But is is invitation only. We promote NO hard sell and the kind of environment described in the video - one of people getting to know people. So check us out. You have nothing to lose...but don't expect to read about it in The Danville Register & Bee.

Remember, their idea of social interaction was filming......yeah..yeah...you know. Read the rest of this blog if you don't. They will NEVER apologize and will continue to insist nothing is wrong with hostile work places... so, our prayers go out to them.

Danville's Backyard Burgers closes for good

Backyard Burgers - MY favorite place in town to get a great sandwich, closed it's doors for good today at 3:00 p.m., according to readers who stopped by there for lunch.

I'm REALLY sorry to see them go. Rumor has it they won't be the last restaurant to leave.

Julian's Gift

Frank and Holly Henderson, would like to share a story with you -- Julian's story. At this time of year when so many of us are thinking of giving gifts to children, this seemed like a great opportunity to share how we can give to those who have lost theirs.

In 2006, we learned that we were pregnant with our second child. At 20 weeks, we were told that our unborn son had a genetic defect known as Trisomy 13, which can be fatal. As you can probably imagine, this news was devastating. The doctors did not expect me
to carry full term, but our little one was a fighter. After many sleepless nights and painstaking decisions, we had our son, Julian, at 38 weeks. Frank and I were blessed to have and hold him for a little over an hour before the Lord called Julian home.

During the weeks preceding Julian's birth, we tried to plan ahead for his funeral arrangements, however we found it to be extremely difficult. When the time came to finalize the arrangements we were shocked by the costs. We had to purchase a cemetery plot, a grave marker and pay the funeral home for their services (most of which
they discounted). Without financial assistance from our friends and family, I honestly do not know how we would have laid our son to rest.

This got me wondering. How do other parents do it? We had time to prepare for Julian's death, but not everyone does. How do families do it when a death is unexpected or when there are no friends and family members to offer assistance? That is when we came up with the plan to start a non-profit organization, aimed at assisting families who lose a child under 12 months old.

I cannot begin to tell you how comforted Frank and I were, knowing that Julian had a proper funeral and knowing that we could visit his grave any time we wanted to. And having been through the questions, disbelief, pain and sorrow, Frank and I wanted to be
able to give some peace and comfort to other parents in a similar situation. To lose a child during your life can be like losing a piece of your soul.

If, through this organization, we can help to relieve some of the stress a family feels in planning a funeral for their child, then we know Julian's life, though short, had a purpose. This is why we've decided to call this organization Julian's Gift.

Please see Julian's site for more details: http://www.juliansgift.org/index.html

My condolences to the recent layoffs at Register & Bee

Three more Register and Bee employees were laid off today. All in circulation. It's no secret circulation is down. But, as usual, layoffs come at Christmas and are devastating to those affected. But you're not alone. Media General is consolidating even more offices and trimming everything but Steve Kaylor's salary. Odd isn't it? How the managers who couldn't keep the paper from spiraling downward by providing value and content, don't suffer....

Several other Danville businesses are laying off as well. eToys, one of the beer distributorships and several other businesses are expected to be making announcements in the coming weeks. And - the rumor that a couple of reporter positions are on the chopping block is still circulating. More stories are being outsourced to free-lancers -including former Register & Bee reporter Susan Elzy - who is no longer with Showcase magazine, but is back at the Register & Bee as a freelancer.

With almost 60 members, Danville Business (by invitation only) is becoming the hot spot for businesses in Danville who want to advertise for free, network with other businesses and get the kind of value added help lacking at the local newspaper. Free to join, free to belong. Look for the new newspaper to come out in January 2009....watch for the launch date here.

With the Register & Bee on its last legs, it won't take much to put that beast out of its misery - a few good writers and the backing of some dissatisfied advertisers - definitely ought to do it!.

Perp walk or Professional?

When the Register & Bee lays people off, they put them through a sort of "perp" walk - shove a box at them, tell them to get their stuff and get out...making them parade through the workplace with their meager belongings in a box while everyone stares at them. Perp walk.

Last Christmas/holiday season, about a dozen employees - several of them with 30+ years of hard, loyal service, were laid off, given 15 minutes to get their stuff and shown the door. Their computers were locked down. They weren't able to get information and files that would have helped them get other jobs. Their jobs were moved to Lynchburg and they were never given the option of transferring to existing jobs at other papers. Temp employees were hired instead.

Thirty years of service and they were treated like criminals - given 15 minutes to get off the premises. I don't think they had police escorts, but other employees have had cops come in and walk them to the door, unnecessary humiliation and embarrassment. I didn't give Steve Kaylor the pleasure. He had to call me at home after I posted this blog and sent him the link. His voice quivered.

So, layoffs are inevitable. The question is, "Will you be a professional? Will you be compassionate?" Will you be kind and treat the employees you have to lay-off with some degree of respect and appreciation for the time they have worked for you? We all understand that layoffs are hard and frightening for everyone - particularly for people who may not be able to find another job. But you can do it with dignity. You can let people know you appreciate them and you can make it a not-so-public and not so criminal exercise, and by publicly acknowledging their contributions.

This year those same employees are remembering last year - and the way they were treated, embarrassed and cast off without a second thought. If you must lay an employee or employees off - do it with dignity and appreciation. Don't do it like the Register & Bee did it - with arrogance and paranoia and total disregard for its employees.

Merry Christmas to all those laid off, fired, abused and mistreated at The Register & Bee over the past year. Be glad you're not there any longer. Stock has plummeted from $75 to a couple of bucks....morale is low, quality is low, the few readers they have complain that it looks like children are laying out the paper....you escaped a sinking ship. Let's all be grateful. Advertisers are pulling out...notice there are no car ads....and it's only going to get worse.

What goes around, comes around.

Crafters will be forced out of business next year

If you make craft items, toys or any kind of item that could be construed as a toy, this may be your last Christmas with an income. H.R. 4040, signed into law by President George Bush last August, has just put you out of business.

A friend of mine in the toy industry wrote to tell me that the next industry to go under is the toy industry - not because of any problems in the industry....but because of a new regulation!

The thing is, Rob tells me that the toy industry is in pretty good shape. They're one of the few industries NOT laying people off. People have jobs - for now. But if you are a crafter or in the toy industry, or in an industry that supplies craft stores, lumber, paint or items TO toy manufacturers....get ready to be laid off next year when this regulation goes into effect.

Danville's economy will be affected adversely too. eToys carries a lot of toys made by smaller manufacturers who will be out of work because of this regulation. The Danville Farmer's market - a lot of crafters there will be affected. How many local layoffs or jobs will be impacted? If you sell your items on ebay or esty....you'll have to show proof of testing....How will craft shows all over the country be affected? Or state fairs? Vendors won't be able to manufacture or make their items nor sell them.

As one crafter says:

"So as a crafter this has hit home for me, last night my DH and I, and my mom on the phone.. sat down and read the 68 pages line by line, to see where I and my business fit into this. This affects anyone who sells goods to children under the age of 12, anyone who HAS children under the age of 12, anyone who MAKES goods for children under the age of 12, and anyone who buys things for children under the age of 12."

Rob said,

"I, along with thousands of companies in my industry are hoping just to stay alive past February....and, no, I am not the CEO of Ford or GM. I am not even in the auto or banking industry.

My industry, particularly the niche that I am in is relatively healthy compared to the rest of the economy. However, recent changes in government regulations are putting our $100bn+ industry at risk of complete collapse. I am in the Children's Products business. In particular, I sell toys. Not mass marketed, Chinese toys. Not the ones you read about in the news. Let me explain.

First, let me stress that I have been an avid supporter of strict toy standards. When the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act was signed into law I was pleased to have a stronger federal standard. However, like anything else, the devil is in the details. In this case, there are a number of issues that threatens the thousands of businesses, and over 100,000 jobs.

1. Testing Methods: In the coming weeks companies will be required to have new products tested by 3rd parties. Reasonable, right? Unfortunately the method is not so reasonable. A reasonable method would be to test the materials then make the products. If I produce jeans....I should test the materials (denim, buttons, zippers) then make as many different styles as appropriate. If I am a woodworker, I test the wood, test the paints, then make little wooden cows, pigs, lions, and tigers. However, the law says that I am required to test each sku or style of the finished product. At a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars per test, this can add up fast, especially for (1) small, innovative companies that are trying to get introduce new products, (2) larger companies with thousands of skus, and (3) in general companies that specialize in niche markets.

2. Markings: In August 09 new products will be required to have permanent marking on the actual product, indicating where, when, and by what company the product was manufactured. Sounds okay, but do you know how expensive that is for small companies? Did you know that small companies have a pretty good grasp on where and when their products were made. Not only that, if a recall were needed in such a case, you would be dealing with very low numbers...(ie. tens, or may be a few hundred)...not the tens or hundreds of thousands required by companies like Mattel.

3. Complexity & Penalties: The new law is extremely complex. It contains many requirements (few. if any, of which increases the safety of a single toy), requiring certificates for each product to be shipped with each item in a shipment, confusing rules about how often testing is required, and more. The more complex a set of rules, the more difficult it is to do it perfectly, all the time. This is not to say the safety would be jeopardized, more likely a t won't be crossed or an i dotted...but this can cause big problems when the penalties for non-compliance have also been raised in this law (from $5,000 per infraction to up to $100,000), plus possible civil penalties. Who wants to be in a business like that?

That leads me to my next point. Assuming, the small, interesting companies can survive these issues, who wants to? I have better, more interesting things, to do than worry about incredibly complicated and cumbersome rules that do not make my toys any safer. I would move into other markets. So where does that leave the children's products industry? Full of the few mass market toy manufacturers that can survive. Hey! Aren't those the guys that got us into this mess in the first place?"



Educational toys, niche market toys, all kinds of items that you, your kids and the school system depends on - will be impacted because smaller manufacturers can't afford that kind of testing. So - will your job be affected? Better start finding out now. Go to this web site to learn more! http://cpsia-central.ning.com/

Is your business next on the media hit list?

When the mayor of Bluff City couldn't afford to pay a $10,000 bill to a supplier, the supplier sued him to collect. There was no fraud. There was a bad economy and business projections fell. The mayor, who is also a businessman, is having financial problems like everyone else in this bad economy. But because he's the mayor, a simple civil issue has become front page news. Simply by putting this story of a legitimate business having legitimate problems in the paper, what was a civil case between businesses has become a very public embarassment. One reader responded to reporter Mac McLean's story. Mac, as you will recall, is the reporter who delighted in filming the breasts of local businesswomen in Danville and showing them around the newsroom. The reader wrote:

Mac Mclean has gone to far with this one. Why has Mclean and the Bristol Herald Courier picked Malone to exploit? Small business owners across the United States are really suffering with the bad economy. Articles like this should be viewed from a personal standpoint and not be made headline news. Mclean, what are you trying to prove picking on individuals that have good character that bad economic times
dealt a bad hand. Perhaps the Bristol Herald Courier will sell far less newspapers bringing a bad situation financially and then we can read about it in the Kingsport Times or the Johnson City Press. THe Herald Courier
needs to be more selective about what it prints pertaining to civil matters. This is no big deal considering the economy, the big deal is the 10.5 trillion the Fed has already given out in bailouts and should be called handouts. Mclean grabs for anything he can make a story from and the Bristol Herald Courier prints anything that can
help fill the pages of their skimpy newspaper.

Who is really served when a hometown newspaper starts making front page news of news that is already in the bankruptcies listings? If you fall behind, file bankruptcy, lose your job - is that really newsworthy? Apparently Media General thinks so. I'm not sure exactly how that benefits citizens or does anything more than generate fear mongering and sell newspapers. How sad a local paper does more to tear down businesses rather than help them find solutions.

What truly valuing your employees looks like!

Good companies, companies who value their employees, show it in word and in deed. When Zappos recently laid off 8% of their employees this is part of what they did, and said:


"...we are reducing our staff by 8%, but because we are being proactive instead of reactive about it, we are able to take care of our employees and offer them more than the standard 2 weeks severance (or no severance) that most other companies are giving.

We are offering to pay each laid-off employee through the end of the year(about 2 months), and offering an additional amount for employees that have been with us for 3 or more years.

In addition, because our regular health benefits cover 100% medical, dental, and vision for employees and 50% for spouses and dependents, we decided to offer to reimburse laid-off employees for up to 6 months of
COBRA payments.

In doing all of this to take care of laid-off employees, we expect that it will actually increase, not decrease, our costs for 2008, but we feel this is the right thing to do for our employees. It will put us in the position of having a lot more financial flexibility in being able to respond to potential changes in the economy in 2009.

Ecommerce growth has slowed compared to its growth rate a year ago, but the good news is that even in this tough economic environment, ecommerce overall is still growing.

Within the footwear category, we are the online market leader. When times are tough, the strongest players in any market have an opportunity to gain even more market share, even if overall growth may be slower. Historically, we have actually grown faster than the overall ecommerce market, and we anticipate for that to continue in 2009.

For the rest of 2008 as well as for 2009, we anticipate continuing to grow year over year. Our current forecasts are that we will continue to be profitable and cash flow positive, as long as we are proactive instead of reactive in managing our business and financials.

I know that many tears were shed today, both by laid-off and non-laid-off employees alike. Given our family culture, our layoffs are much tougher emotionally than they would be at many other companies.

I've been asked by some employees whether it's okay to twitter about what's going on. Our Twitter policy remains the same as it's always been: just be real, and use your best judgement.

These are tough times for everyone, and I'm sure there will be many follow up questions to this email. If you have any questions about your specific job or department, please talk to your department manager. For all other questions, comments, or thoughts, please feel free to email me.

* Tony Hsieh, CEO

Brilliantly written opinion piece in Star Tribue

If you like reading unedited opinion pieces, don't miss this one from Anne Cockrell in The Star Tribune. The Tribune tends not to hack up their editorial submissions to fit the amount of space that have. They care about content, not just butchering a letter to make it fit. Well written. Whatever side of the uranium mining in Virgina issue you're own, this is outstanding.


A Little Puff?' - a focus on the absurdity of uranium mining

Wednesday, November 26, 2008 10:08 AM EST

Patrick Wales, a Virginia Uranium Inc. geologist, has been often quoted in Virginia newspapers of late. Some of what he has said has been variations of the truth; some statements have been absolutely absurd.

Let's focus on the absurd, shall we?

Wales was quoted in the Danville Register & Bee (Report tackles lobbying efforts, J. R. Crane, November 24, 2008) as saying: "That's what we're up against as a small, locally-owned company... [VUI] has a very difficult, uphill battle."

Calling VUI a small, locally-owned company is laughable. Small in employee numbers, it may be, but it's a company incorporated in the Yukon Province of Canada that has millions of foreign-backed dollars to help achieve VUI's objective: overturn Virginia's moratorium on uranium mining and begin mining in Southside Virginia.

VUI's $100,000 payment to lobbyists was well within the company's financial means, and Wales knows this.

In fact, it paid off. Lobbyists were successful in getting the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission to go before the Richmond General Assembly (Nov. 6, 2008) and push through a uranium mining study for Southside Virginia - one that had died a legislative death in a House committee on March 3, 2008.

So much for "a very difficult uphill battle."

In the Martinsville Bulletin, an article ran following Wales' address to the Martinsville Rotary Club (Virginia Uranium geologist touts benefits of mining, K. Barto, Wednesday, November 19, 2008).

The article stated: "The Coles' property, which is a 'historic structure,' sits between the two uranium deposits, and the family plans to continue living there while mining goes on, Wales said."

I wonder if the Rotarians really believed Walter Coles (VUI's founder) and his family are going to live in a house between two operational uranium mines where there will be daily surface blasting of low-level radioactive bedrock.

Even if the miners bubble-wrapped the house and were able to save it from flying rock projectiles or, by some miracle, kept it standing post 30 years' endurance of surface-blast vibrations, it would still lose its allure when viewed through the chain-link fence which will one day surround the former Coles Hill homestead.

On the fence, the Department of Energy's radiation hazard signs will warn folks to stay away from this U.S. government-owned property. That's the only entity that will have any use for this land once all mining and milling of uranium ceases, and this is only because it will become a superfund site.

How can I make that assumption?

Wales spoke of the "worst-case scenario," the Canonsburg Mill site in Canonsburg, Pa.

Per the article: "In the mid-1980s, the Department of Energy cleaned up the site and contained the waste in a disposal area lined with soil and clay barriers. Since then, Wales said, 'Not one milling-related constituent has shown up in a nearby creek.'"

Now, this is the very same site that Walter Coles has previously touted to be a place where uranium was milled "successfully east of the Mississippi."

In reality, it's an 18.6 acre plat of acreage that is now a $48 million superfund site. Today, this site stores 376,000 cubic yards of contaminated material behind a fenced-in area. It will be monitored in perpetuity to protect Pennsylvanians from the radioactive wastes buried there.

Wales and VUI plans to mine uranium out of Walter Coles' 900-acre-property (plus annexing and mining additional acreage belonging to surrounding families) once the state's moratorium is lifted.

If it cost $48 million to remediate an 18.6-acre plat of land where uranium was milled, one has to wonder what the price tag will be for cleaning up over a thousand acres once uranium is both mined and milled at Coles Hill.

Big question: Who will pay the remediation costs?

Perhaps it's the "new technology" that gave Wales the confidence to make yet another absurd statement regarding mine tailings (the leftover mined rock that must be buried or submerged in holding ponds to try and contain its radioactivity.

Per the article: "He explained that tailings are contained in a pit underground, removing any interaction between the tailings and the atmosphere,' he said."

Well, isn't the low-level radioactive bedrock going to come in contact with the atmosphere when it is surface-blasted out of the ground over a period of 30 years? This is VUI's proposed timetable to mine at Coles Hill.

How about the milling process where mined rock will be ground into a fine powdery state for ore extraction?

Think it will all be done in a clean, sterile, indoor environment? No, open-pit/surface-blast mining implies just that.

The daily, successive explosive blasts and milling process will create a continuous low-level radioactive fallout which will be carried by the winds onto food and water sources and into the airways of man and all other animal life unfortunate enough to be downwind from the mine.

When asked in the article about how far dust would blow from the mining operations, Wales stated, "If you use underground mining, it's a moot point...even it other methods are used [surface-blast], there is very little dust. There may be a little puff when blasting."

A little puff?

Wales, VUI and anyone who believes surface-blast mining will create only "a little puff" should google and watch the Mountaintop Removal Movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPixjCneseE).



It's an eight-minute video with Woody Harrelson (sitcom actor of "Cheers") discussing the sad demise of 450 mountains along the Appalachian Mountain chain where surface-blast mining is being used for coal removal.

It clearly illustrates that surface-blast mining creates more than "a little puff" of dust. It also speaks of the enduring hardships of the people living adjacent to these mined areas.

Lastly, Wales stated: "We feel confident that there are many examples around the world of how it's [uranium mining] done safely."

Uranium mining opponents simply ask Wales and VUI to name five of these places where uranium mining and milling has not caused adverse effects to the surrounding people and environment.

Funny, Wales didn't offer up an example.

Stay tuned. Let's see him name even one.

Anne Cockrell,

Southside Concerned

Citizens member

Danville

Did you know? Shift happens...

How bad is the economy? These guys say, not so good

As a matter of fact, they think it's really, really bad. Here's a video interview with The Black Swan author Nasim Nicholas Taleb and his mentor, mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, who say the current economic situation could be worse than the great depression. From BoingBoing.com:

"The banking system, the way we have it, is a monstrous giant built on feet of clay. And if that topples, we're gone."

Maybe that's why the US Gov't has pledged $7.7 Trillion (half of America's annual GDP to fix this). I wonder if it'll work?