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Disappointing Fall for ‘Rock Center,’ a News Program With Big Ambitions

June 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The ambitious NBC newsmagazine was scheduled to be shown for the final time on Friday night. Within NBC News, employees expressed a sense of disappointment — not so much in the quality of the program, but that it was not rated highly enough to remain on the network schedule. To those who invested much in producing the show, its demise raises doubts about whether any new newsmagazine can succeed on network television these days.

To that point, Rome Hartman, the founding producer of “Rock Center,” said in an interview: “I hope that’s not true. I sure hope that somebody figures it out.”

“Rock Center” was the first new prime-time newsmagazine to be introduced by any network since CBS added “60 Minutes II” in 1998. Mr. Williams, the anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” had been eager to try something in prime time, and when Comcast took control of NBCUniversal in 2011, he got his chance. For Comcast, giving the go-ahead to “Rock Center” was, among other things, a way to provide clear support to the network news division it had just acquired.

The newsmagazine had its premiere on Halloween. Unlike CBS’s “48 Hours” and NBC’s “Dateline,” which are mainly about crimes and court cases, “Rock Center” presented a wide array of stories each week and was closer to the “60 Minutes” model than anything else on television. But the comparisons to “60 Minutes” were rarely complimentary; “It’s a very hard standard to match,” Mr. Hartman said.

More important, “60 Minutes” was able to find its footing four decades ago, before the days of cable and Internet competition. It has a protected Sunday night time slot that often gets a big ratings lift from sporting events that are shown beforehand.

“60 Minutes II,” on the other hand, was canceled in 2005. And “Rock Center” was canceled in May, shortly before NBC announced its schedule for the television season that starts in September. With an audience that sometimes slipped below three million people, the network could not justify another season of “Rock Center.”

At a time when audiences have far more choices than ever before, online as well as on TV, the people involved with “Rock Center” may have simply overestimated the public’s appetite for taped news stories in prime time. Said one former NBC executive: “You can’t launch a serious newsmagazine anymore. Those potential viewers, if they’re around, they’re watching cable news.”

There is no shortage of niche news and information programming on cable. CNN, for instance, will show a new documentary series from Morgan Spurlock this Sunday. HBO recently granted a second season to a youthful newsmagazine, “Vice,” and OWN has “Our America,” hosted by Lisa Ling. These programs, though, do not have the sweep of a network newsmagazine.

If the decision to cancel “Rock Center” was not surprising, it was still dismaying to Mr. Williams and to others on the staff, some of whom will lose their jobs after Friday’s final broadcast. (Many others will be absorbed by other NBC News programs.) One staff member said Mr. Williams felt insulted by the network’s decision; another said what pained Mr. Williams most were the layoffs. Staff members were told not to talk to the news media, so those who did speak did so on condition of anonymity.

An NBC spokeswoman said on Thursday that Mr. Williams was not available for an interview about the program’s accomplishments. Patricia Fili-Krushel, the chairwoman of the NBCUniversal News Group, declined through a spokeswoman to comment on the end of “Rock Center.”

Staff members expressed pride in the program, asserting that it was a rare outlet for interviews and investigations that lasted longer than a few minutes. (Typically the program had three to five stories an hour. Once in a while the hour was devoted to a single subject, like one show titled “Mormon in America.”)

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/22/business/media/demise-of-rock-center-shows-difficulty-of-creating-a-newsmagazine.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Media Business Tagged With: , ,

DealBook: Earnings Rise at Bank of America but Fall Short of Forecasts

April 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment

A Bank of America branch in Manhattan.Andrew Gombert/European Pressphoto AgencyA Bank of America branch in Manhattan.

Bank of America reported first-quarter earnings on Wednesday that fell well short of Wall Street’s expectations but were substantially higher than in the period a year earlier.

The bank made 20 cents a share in the first quarter, compared with 3 cents in the year-ago period. Analysts were expecting a profit of 23 cents a share. Bank of America, the nation’s second-largest bank when measured by assets, had revenue of $23.5 billion in the first quarter.

Since the financial crisis, Bank of America’s performance has been hurt by large mortgage-related losses, but in recent months investors have been betting the bank would regain its footing. Its shares have risen nearly 40 percent in the last 12 months. And earlier this year, regulators approved the bank’s plan to buy back stock, a clear sign they felt the lender was on firmer ground.

In a statement, Brian T. Moynihan, Bank of America’s chief executive, said, “Our strategy of connecting our customers to all we can do for them is working.”

The question is whether the latest earnings will add to the recent optimism surrounding the bank, which lends to individuals and companies and has a large Wall Street presence through its Merrill Lynch unit.

Other large banks have reported earnings that exceeded analysts’ estimates this quarter, so Bank of America’s failure to do so may unnerve some investors. That said, some of the weakness in the quarter resulted from the types of losses that could cause less pain in the future, like litigation expenses relating to bad mortgages.

The bank said it had made headway in cutting expenses, something investors are watching closely. As banks struggle to increase revenue, they can improve earnings by reducing costs.

“There were many examples of progress this quarter,” said its chief financial officer, Bruce R. Thompson. “We reduced noninterest expense by nearly $1 billion year-over-year, and credit costs continued to decline.”

Notably, the bank’s earnings were lower in this year’s first quarter, after excluding accounting charges related to the bank’s own debt, a measure investors often ignore. Absent those charges in the first quarter of 2012, the bank made 31 cents a share.

This year’s first quarter contained very little effect from such charges, so the 20 cents a share the bank reported Wednesday should be compared with the 31 cents a share from the period a year earlier.

Article source: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/bank-of-america-earnings-rise-but-fall-short-of-forecasts/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Global Business Tagged With: , ,

Debt Ceiling Clash Nears for Lawmakers

January 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Even as Republicans vow to leverage a needed increase in the federal debt limit to make headway on their demands for deep spending cuts, Mr. Obama — who reluctantly negotiated a deal like that 18 months ago — says he has no intention of ever getting pulled into another round of charged talks on the issue with Republicans on Capitol Hill.

“I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they’ve already racked up through the laws that they passed,” the president said Tuesday night after he successfully pushed Republicans to allow tax increases on wealthy Americans.

The president’s position is sure to appeal to his liberal allies, who fear another round of compromises by Mr. Obama. But it once again sets the stage for a nail-biting standoff that economists warn could lead to a damaging financial default and doubt from investors about the ability of the country to pay its obligations.

Moody’s, the rating agency, warned on Wednesday that the looming political battles over the nation’s debt could lower the group’s rating of American debt.

“We’re in for another round of brinkmanship and uncertainty,” said Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, who predicted weeks of “angst, discussion and hand-wringing” in Washington. “I don’t think the economy can really find its footing and jump to a higher level of growth until we get to the other side of this.”

Joel Prakken, senior managing director of Macroeconomic Advisers, an economics forecasting firm, said bluntly, “This is kind of a mess.”

The financial imperative for an increase in the debt limit comes at a time of increasingly sour relations between the president and his Republican adversaries in the House. To secure a deal to avert automatic tax increases and spending cuts on Jan. 1, Mr. Obama was forced into last-minute talks with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, after weeks of negotiations with Speaker John A. Boehner in the House collapsed amid acrimony and internal Republican dissension.

Now, the president and Mr. Boehner are both signaling a fresh round of take-it-or-leave it stands that are in sharp opposition: The president says increasing the borrowing limit is nonnegotiable, while Republicans say the House is all but certain to pass a bill that raises the debt limit only in exchange for significant cuts — a challenge to both Mr. Obama and the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Smarting from the president’s victory on taxes over the New Year’s holiday, Republicans in Congress are betting that their refusal to raise the $16.4 trillion debt ceiling will force Mr. Obama to the bargaining table on spending cuts and issues like changes in Medicare and Social Security.

But doing so would inevitably reprise the bitter debate over the debt ceiling that took place in the summer of 2011, when the government came close to defaulting on its debt before lawmakers and the president agreed to a 10-year package of spending cuts in exchange for Republican agreement to raise the debt ceiling by about the same amount.

And that is exactly what Republicans want — again.

“If they want to get the debt limit raised, they are going to have to engage and accept that reality,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner. “The president knows that.”

Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, said flatly that his party should risk the possibility of default — including interruptions in federal benefit checks and paychecks for government workers — if it was the only way to compel the president to support deep spending cuts that will reduce the deficit.

“That’s disruptive, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the path that we’re on,” Mr. Toomey said Wednesday on MSNBC. “We absolutely have to have this fight over the debt limit.”

The Republican Party’s caucus in the House will discuss a debt ceiling strategy at a private retreat in Williamsburg, Va., this month, according to a top Republican aide, who said they were determined to insist again on spending cuts that equal the amount of increase in how much the country can borrow.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/us/politics/for-obama-no-clear-path-to-avoid-a-debt-ceiling-fight.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Economy News Tagged With: , ,

Letters: Letters: The Vital Importance of Manufacturing

September 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment

To the Editor:

Woe is us if the headline on your recent article, “Is Manufacturing Falling Off the Radar?” (Sept. 11), is answered in the affirmative.

If the economic downturn has revealed anything, it is that true, sustainable wealth creation — and the jobs that come along with it — will not arise from the gambling casinos of Wall Street. The key to a healthy economy, and the viability of a middle class, can only be found in an innovative manufacturing sector.

While many Americans believe in manufacturing’s importance to the economy, many also have an outdated view of manufacturing as a sweaty, grimy business. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth, as productivity gains in our increasingly high-tech manufacturing sector attest.

This perception problem is at the root of the article’s provocative question. Many industry executives and associations have been working hard to change this unfortunate view, but without leadership at the national level, the problem has persisted.

That is why I and others have suggested a cabinet-level Department of Manufacturing. This agency would help put industry on the strategic footing it needs — in the federal government, in the industry itself and in the hearts and minds of all Americans. It would help drive home the idea that manufacturing is the bedrock of the economy.

David R. Brousell

Manhattan, Sept. 11

The writer is editor in chief of Manufacturing Executive.

•

To the Editor:

As for the financial sector replacing manufacturing in its effect on the economy, do we really need more derivative products and the like?

Obviously, one benefit of the manufacturing sector, besides jobs, is the income it generates for the middle class. In my experience, the decreasing size of the manufacturing sector is directly responsible for increasing income disparities, which in turn has a direct economic impact in the form of anemic overall growth. Robert E. Anderson

Allendale, N.J., Sept. 11

Tax Cuts for Business?

To the Editor:

In “How to Make Business Want to Invest Again” (Economic View, Sept. 11), N. Gregory Mankiw suggested a cut in corporate taxation as a first step toward encouraging companies to investment in the economy. Other business columnists have made similar recommendations, all despite news reports that some major corporations have paid either minimal or no taxes for years.

Business organizations clamor for tax cuts as the solution to any problem they face. But when you ask individual business owners about their lack of investment, they often cite a lack of orders and customers. The current tax rates, especially when rarely paid, are no more a hindrance to investment than they were during the boom decade preceding the downturn.

Arthur D. Aptowitz

Forest Hills, Queens, Sept. 12

•

To the Editor:

As one possible way to encourage the economy’s long-term growth, Professor Mankiw suggested “tax reform that reduced the burden on capital income and shifted it toward consumption.”

But such a view appears antithetical to any theory for responsible government policy during an economic slowdown. Consumer spending, not corporate investment, is the main driver of the economy, and depressing it further with new tax burdens would be counterproductive to any recovery.

Moreover, the cost of capital is not the main impediment to new capital investment today; instead, it is lack of demand for the additional goods that might be produced. Corporate capital costs are already subsidized with historically low interest rates from the government’s aggressive monetary policy.

Jeffery L. Hart

Austin, Tex., Sept. 11

The writer is a partner at the law firm of Cardwell Hart Bennett.

Sales Pitches on Campus

To the Editor:

In “On Campus, It’s One Big Commercial” (Sept. 11), we learn that students are working as brand representatives at their schools, promoting products and assisting on corporate-sponsored field trips for late-night shopping sprees.

What has happened to the long-established function of a university as a marketplace of ideas? Oh well, a plain old marketplace will have to do.

David Charak

Boca Raton, Fla., Sept. 12

•

To the Editor:

Your article on campus commercialization makes me wonder: Why not take the idea an absurd step further?

Seeing that the cost of college education is growing rapidly, and that online education is still derided because a student will lose the “college experience,” I propose the following:

Offer all classes online but conduct exams only at the store that bids the most for that class. It’s win-win-win: Students can go to school at a greatly reduced price, university coffers are filled and companies can ruthlessly market their wares to teenagers.

And if students and the administrators want to do a little dance in the aisles on the way out from the first exam, all the better — for the store, at least.

M. Adrian Mattocks, Ph.D.

Worcester, Mass., Sept. 11

Letters for Sunday Business may be sent to sunbiz@nytimes.com.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=e3a0b65895481109ed6a7d4cd3c1c274

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: ,