The small, light, fill-in blog
I’ve been saying for a while that blogs are dead — certainly the one-person, one-voice blog, and also the big splashy expensive blog launched by a new or old-media company. Both I think had their heyday a few years ago. But as bloggish tendencies get incorporated into the broader news business, and as the sharing-and-linking part of the blogosphere moves to social media, something quite encouraging is happening: media organizations are finding it easy to set up small, light blogs which they’re not particularly invested in.
On the basis of 2=trend, I present to you: Overheard, the new blog from the WSJ’s Heard on the Street team; and Occupy Wall Street: The Wealth Debate, from Bloomberg Businessweek. Both are places where shorter-form quick hits can get published without laborious editing; neither are particularly important strategically; but both fill an empty niche in terms of their organization’s coverage in a cheap and effective manner.
This is a lot easier than having to re-architect the broader news outlet to make it more amenable to such materials. All websites have some kind of blog content, so if you need something fast, adding a new blog should be pretty easy. And it doesn’t involve lots of unreliable technology from outside vendors, either, which is always an advantage.
Well done, then, to the WSJ and Businessweek for seeing how blog technology is a good way of powering things which don’t need to last forever, or get lots of traffic — they’re just another part of the big package which the newsroom provides.
I doubt many people will bookmark either of these blogs, but that’s fine — individual posts will get shared socially and placed on the home page, the news will get covered effectively, and that’s all that’s needed. These aren’t throwaway microsites — they’re important to the broader function of the newsroom. But they’re also small enough to experiment and push the envelope with respect to voice and content type. And if certain ideas work well on these blogs, they can always percolate up to the rest of the site over time.
M & A wrap: Time to buy EMI?
Warner Music Group Chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr. has tried to buy rival record label EMI Group for the last six years. Now, his time may have come, reports Yinka Adegoke.
Communications equipment maker Comtech, under pressure from an activist investor to evaluate a sale, is attracting potential takeover interest from several government contractors, people familiar with the situation said.
âThis is the froth-filled rumor that just wonÂt die. Shares of SABMiller rose 5.5 percent today in London on a report that Anheuser-Busch Inbev is talking about a takeover of the brewer of Miller, Coors and Peroni,â reports the WSJ.
âIf anyone has a reason to bid for Yahoo, it is Microsoft. That still doesnât make it a good idea,â reports the WSJ.
Whoâs up for a private-equity backed deal for HP?
Treasury skeptical of plans to save Solyndra-emails
* Emails shed light on internal dissent on Solyndra loanBy Roberta RamptonWASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department
took a hard line on last-ditch government rescue efforts for
Solyndra in August, questioning the solar panel maker’s
financial projections and the motivations of private investors
who were offering new cash, emails released on Friday showed.New internal Treasury emails released by the House of
Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee on Friday showed
skepticism about two plans floated by the Energy Department as
it sought to help the company, which had run out of cash.The emails shed new light on internal dissent about the
$535 million loan to Solyndra, which filed for bankruptcy on
Sept. 6, and was raided by the FBI.Republicans have criticized the Obama administration over
the Solyndra loan and have noted that investors in the company
had contributed to President Barack Obama’s election campaign.The emails showed growing concern from officials outside
the Energy Department about the loan risk in July 2010, after
the company withdrew an initial public offering.By December, Solyndra had defaulted on one of the terms of
its loan guarantee, and the Energy Department agreed to a plan
to restructure its debt.That plan allowed $75 million in private investment to be
ranked ahead of the government in the event of bankruptcy.But by June and July, the company had run out of money and
was selling inventory and accounts receivable to its investors
to generate cash, documents in bankruptcy court show.A new restructuring plan was pitched, with a second
infusion of $75 million from unnamed private investors on the
condition that more of the government’s debt be subordinated.Treasury officials insisted the Justice Department weigh in
on whether the plan was legal.”The proposed restructuring is clearly favorable to the
other investors,” said an official from Treasury’s Office of
Environment and Energy in an Aug. 17 email to Mary Miller,
Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial markets.After that plan failed, top government officials from the
White House and the Treasury and Energy departments considered
a $10 million bailout by private investors on Aug. 28, days
before the company shut its doors.”I think DOE should be thinking through whether the
proposed deal is just giving the investors more time to extract
more value from the firm before bankruptcy,” a Treasury
official advised Miller, questioning the Aug. 28 plan.An Energy Department spokesman did not immediately respond
to a request for comment.ENOUGH SKIN IN THE GAME?At a fractious Capitol Hill hearing on Friday, where
Democrats and Republicans accused each other of creating a
media circus, two career Treasury officials said the department
had only limited involvement in decisions on Solyndra.Treasury first heard about the Solyndra project on March
10, 2009, when the Energy Department asked for its assessment.
Treasury provided the the low-interest loan to build a new
factory, but the Energy Department evaluated the project.The company provided only 27 percent of the money for the
project, but Treasury felt Solyndra should have at least a
35-percent stake, said Gary Burner, chief financial officer of
Treasury’s Federal Financing Bank.”It was felt that it was a better risk to the government if
there was more equity in the deal,” Burner told lawmakers.After Solyndra defaulted on one of the terms of its loan in
December, the Energy Department agreed to a restructuring plan,
saying it would be the best option for taxpayers.Energy Secretary Steven Chu has “broad authority to take
action,” according to the department’s legal justification.But Treasury officials felt the department should have
sought an outside opinion. “I thought it would have been wise
for them to go to the Department of Justice” to discuss the
legalities of the restructuring plan, Burner told lawmakers.At the hearing, Democrats accused Republicans of being
unfair by not inviting the Energy Department to tell its side
of the story. “This investigation is beginning to resemble a
kangaroo court,” said Henry Waxman, top Democrat on the House
Energy and Commerce Committee.Republicans assured the Democrats the panel will soon hear
from more Energy Department witnesses, including Chu.
UPDATE 1-Greek protesters walk off the job, block property tax
* Rebels in ruling party oppose austerity measuresBy Yiorgos Karahalis and Renee MaltezouATHENS, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Greek protesters halted public
transport in Athens on Thursday and moved to disrupt collection
of an unpopular new property tax in a growing wave of opposition
to harsh new austerity measures demanded by international
lenders.With the beleaguered Socialist government of Prime Minister
George Papandreou fighting to push new cuts through parliament,
protests have strengthened ahead of a planned general strike on
Oct. 19 which is expected to shut down much of the country.On Thursday, protesters occupied the printing offices of
Greek power utility PPC < DEHr.AT >, in a bid to stop
the production of electricity bills which will be used to
collect the tax on homes and other property.”We came here because we cannot allow electricity to be cut
to hundreds of thousands of poor citizens, because this is what
will happen with the law this government voted,” Nikos
Fotopoulos, president of GENOP-DEH union, told Skai television.Elsewhere, the ancient Acropolis, Greece’s most famous
monument, was closed to tourists for a second day as workers in
the archaeological service barred the entrance and Athens was
hit by strikes by garbage collectors and hospital workers.Thousands of bus drivers and metro staff marched on
parliament, angry at steep pay cuts and the growing threat of
redundancy in the traditionally protected public sector but the
protests went beyond the mass of lower paid workers.Lawyers refused to appear in court, doctors were due to
rally outside the health ministry, while a group of patients
suffering from kidney cancer rallied outside the finance
ministry, which was occupied by striking officials.The protests come as euro zone leaders scramble to put
together a new rescue plan to stave off bankruptcy and stop the
crisis spreading out of control with growing expectations that
banks will have to take steeper losses on their bond holdings.International lenders are demanding further painful reforms
but unions say the belt-tightening hurts only the poor and
middle-class and will drag Greece’s stricken economy further
into recession.”We are fully aware that this is very tough,” the European
Commission chief inspector for Greece, Matthias Mors, told the
daily Kathimerini in an interview.”But I would say that we are at a critical moment, where
Greece has to convince the international community and the other
euro area members that it is willing and able to reach the
objectives that it has committed itself to,” he said.RECESSIONAnalysts say Papandreou’s government, trailing in opinion
polls, will be able to push through parliament a package of new
austerity measures in time for a European Union summit on Oct.
23. But discontent is growing and the government is straining to
keep even its own deputies in line.”I have no intention of voting against the bill, but no one
can stop me criticising it,” said Leonidas Grigorakos, a deputy
in the ruling PASOK party. “What is taking place has no
precedent, society is in turmoil, there is huge insecurity. We
politicians must say where the country is heading.”Greece, trapped in deep recession and fighting to control a
public debt expected to reach 162 percent of gross domestic
product this year, has struggled to get on top of a crisis which
many economists now predict will end in default.Inspectors from the EU, the International Monetary Fund and
the European Central Bank “troika” ended a review of Greece’s
progress on a first, 110-billion-euro bailout plan on Tuesday.They gave the green light for the euro zone and the IMF to
release an 8-billion euro aid tranche Greece needs to keep
paying its bills past November but said Athens needed to take
more determined action on reform in addition to more cuts.But the bitter opposition aroused has squeezed the
government hard and made it much more difficult to implement
what amount to the deepest and most painful cuts in Greece’s
postwar history.The fact that much of the impact of the cuts will fall on
public servants has complicated implementation of the plan as
workers likely to be affected themselves resist cooperating.Tax officials are due to go on strike next week while
Thursday’s occupation of the PCC printing site could hit
collection of a property tax that will hurt many ordinary people
in a country with a high level of home ownership.PPC’s management said the bills would be printed anyway, in
another venue and at a greater cost but protesters said they
would continue their protest.
Thousands protest online after China’s Taobao Mall fee hike
The fee hike caused thousands of Taobao Mall shop owners to
protest online Tuesday night by buying up goods from bigger
stores and then asking for refunds, Xinhua said. Asking for
refunds would lower the rankings of the shops and prompted some
big outlets to temporarily stop selling products, it said.On Wednesday, 40,000 people claiming to be Taobao Mall
businessmen gathered in an online chat room to discuss more ways
of disrupting the website, the report said.Alibaba Group, which is 40 percent owned by Yahoo Inc
, could not be reached for comment.The business owners claimed that the fee increase would
cripple their businesses but will have little effect on the
bigger brands that have stores on the platform, Xinhua reported.A portion of the new fees will be returned to the shop
owners if they satisfy certain standards and criteria.Taobao Mall had 32.8 percent of China’s 54.2 billion yuan
B2C online marketplace in the second-quarter, according to data
from Analysys International. 360buy, Taobao Mall’s nearest
rival, had 12.4 percent of the market.
UPDATE 1-Cook stent keeps leg arteries open-FDA staff
* FDA panel of outside experts to review drug ThursdayOct 11 (Reuters) - U.S. medical device reviewers said a
Cook Medical stent coated with a common cancer-fighting drug
was safe and effective for treating clogged arteries in the
thighs.Zilver PTX, the first drug-coated stent to treat peripheral
arteries, kept the blood vessels free from plaque longer than
bare-metal stents, the Food and Drug Administration reviewers
said in documents released on Tuesday.Privately held Cook Medical competes against Boston
Scientific and Medtronic , which also make leg
stents, in a stent market estimated at $5 billion worldwide.Stents are tiny mesh-like tubes used to prop open arteries
that have been cleared of blockages.The most commonly used drug coated stents are placed in
heart arteries following angioplasty procedures.The Cook Medical stent is coated with paclitaxel, an
anti-cancer drug. The drug is used to help prevent reclogging
of the artery by inhibiting the growth of scar tissue.The FDA reviewers said Zilver PTX was better than the
control arm in a clinical trial, but the small trial size of
only 479 patients meant some safety risks could be hard to
detect.A panel of outside experts is scheduled to consider the
Cook Medical device at a meeting on Thursday. The FDA will
later make the final decision on whether to approve the stent
for sale in the United States.The device was approved for sale in Europe in 2009.The Zilver PTX is meant to treat peripheral arterial
disease, which affects about 30 million people annually, Cook
said.The disease develops when arteries outside the heart build
up cholesterol and scar tissue, causing them to narrow and
restrict blood flow.The most common symptom of the disease is leg pain when
walking, but only 33 percent of individuals with clogged
peripheral arteries have symptoms, Cook said, meaning patients
do not always know they have the disease.Zilver PTX, made of a super-elastic alloy of nickel and
titanium, is meant for use in clogged arteries above the knee,
which supply blood to the knee joint and muscles in the thigh
and calf.Cook said its Zilver self-expanding stent, which has no
drug coating, is already approved by the FDA for treating
lesions in arteries in the pelvis.Johnson & Johnson’s Cypher stent, which slowly
releases the anti-rejection drug sirolimus, was the first
drug-coated stent on the U.S. market. It was approved by the
FDA in 2003. In June, J&J said it would no longer sell its
drug-coated heart stents, which have lost market share to
rivals from Abbott Laboratories and Boston Scientific.
