Why College Money Is the Best Baby Gift

By RON LIEBER

This week's Your Money column about the ins and outs of giving money as a gift to someone's 529 college savings account wasn't meant to be an etiquette lesson. But I do think giving money is totally defensible, even if it means pushing the parents to open a 529 or other savings account to use the gift.

Sure, toys are nice and clothes are useful until babies outgrow them in a few months. But many parents can afford the basics. All but a few families could use a head start on saving up the six-figure sum that will probably be necessary to send the child to college one day.

Have you given college money to a newborn? How did it go over with the parents?

Firestone Shows \'Drive\' in New Ad Campaign

By STUART ELLIOTT

Decades ago, cars made by De Soto with model names like Fireflite, Firedome and Firesweep roamed American highways. That may have been as close as anyone could have come to driving a Firestone â€" until now.

Firestone plans to begin running a campaign that takes a bit of poetic license by urging car owners to “Drive a Firestone.” The campaign posits that although Firestone builds no cars, it is nonetheless “a car company” because of the tires it sells and the automotive repair and maintenance services it offers at Firestone Complete Auto Care shops around the country.

The campaign will, according to executives, receive a significant increase in budget from previous Firestone campaigns.

The new campaign shines a bright spotlight on a longtime Firestone brand symbol, which is red and white and depicts the letter F inside a shield. That is because the symbol looks like it would not be out of place on the ho od of a car.

The campaign is to get under way on Sunday with a commercial on the NBC Sports Network that will be narrated by the country singer Trace Adkins. Plans call for radio, print and digital ads to follow.

The commercial features a fleet of cars and trucks that are older but look well taken care of â€" in other words, the types of older vehicles that may need new tires or repairs.

“We help trucks do more truckin',” Mr. Adkins intones. “We give muscle cars more muscle.”

“No, we don't build cars,” he says. “Make no mistake, we are a car company.” The spot ends with Mr. Adkins saying, “Whatever you are, drive a Firestone.”

The goal of the campaign is “to re-energize the Firestone brand,” said Philip Dobbs, chief marketing officer for the United States and Canadian consumer tire business at Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, part of the Bridgestone Corporation.

“The focus f or us had been on Bridgestone,” Mr. Dobbs said, and what Firestone advertising there was had concentrated on Firestone tires and “not the service aspects.”

But executives began thinking about “combining tires and service” in one campaign rather than considering them “separate business units,” he added.

“That was the genesis of the assignment” to create the campaign, Mr. Dobbs said, “to take advantage of the Firestone tire brand, our company-owned service network” and the auto care centers owned by individuals.

The campaign is being created by Leo Burnett USA in Chicago, part of the Leo Burnett unit of the Publicis Groupe. The agency was hired in April to handle the Firestone creative assignment, which had previously been handled by the Richards Group in Dallas. (Richards continues to create campaigns for the Bridgestone brand.)

The target for the campaign is what Charley Wickman, executive vice president and executive creative di rector at Leo Burnett USA, calls “high-stakes drivers.”

“They're the kind of drivers who don't wait for the red light to come on on the dashboard to get their cars serviced,” Mr. Wickman said. “They really care about their cars.”

Mr. Dobbs said he liked pursuing that audience because, according to research among drivers, there was a belief that “there's no one out there celebrating the everyday car, the average car.”

That is particularly important now because the economy means more drivers are keeping their cars longer, making them potential customers for Firestone tires or services.

Between the auto services and the tires, Firestone has “kept millions of cars on the road,” Mr. Wickman said. That led to the idea of presenting Firestone as “a car company,” he added, because “who says you have to make cars to be a car company?”

“When we hit that breakthrough, it all fell into place,” Mr. Wickman said, and playing up the shield in the ads helps sell the concept.

“Why shouldn't a great American brand like Firestone have something as powerful as a newer American brand like Target?” he asked. (Both logos are red and white.)

Mr. Dobbs said he did not believe the campaign would confuse consumers into mixing up Firestone and an actual carmaker.

“No, it'll make them pause and think,” he said.

John Neilson, vice president for brand marketing at Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, said the budget for Firestone advertising would be increased by 70 percent. He and Mr. Dobbs declined to give dollar amounts.

According to Kantar Media, a unit of WPP, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations spent $35.6 million last year to advertise Firestone in major media, compared with $44.6 million in 2010, $27 million in 2009 and $34.6 million in 2008.

Magazine Says: \'Eat, Drink and Be Fashionable\'

By STUART ELLIOTT

A food magazine is expanding its forays into the garment game with an elaborate promotion for the annual New York Fashion Week.

The magazine, Bon Appétit, is adding elements to the Fashion Week promotion it began last year, called Feast or Fashion, promising this time around, “Fashion all day, food all night.”

For this year's Fashion Week, the promotion will begin next Friday and run through Sept. 13. (Fashion Week, formally known as Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, begins next Thursday and runs through Sept. 13.)

More restaurants will participate in Bon Appétit Feast or Fashion than did last year, with the count climbing to about 45 from 10 or so. And eateries in cities outside New York will also take part.

There will also be more events, which will pair clothing designers with chefs and bartenders.

The magazine is also lining up more sponsors for the promotion than participated last year. The majo r sponsor for 2012, called the presenting sponsor, are the Chase Sapphire credit cards offered by JPMorgan Chase.

The other sponsors include Bombay Sapphire Gin, the Euphoria Calvin Klein fragrance, Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Elizabeth Arden, Santa Margherita wines and Seagram's seltzer water. (The twin Sapphires are apparently a coincidence.)

Information about the promotion will be available on the Web site, bafeastorfashion.com.

Bon Appétit has been actively seeking to tie itself to fashion for some time. Other recent examples include a joint promotion with Open Table and a Gap Inc. division, Banana Republic, to help sell a new Banana Republic clothing collection named Desk to Dinner.  (Open Table will be involved in Feast or Fashion, too.)

The idea behind the promotion is that “one tenth of 1 percent of the people” in New York for Fashion Week “get to go to the shows,” said Pamela Drucker Mann, vice pres ident and publisher at Bon Appétit, which is part of the Condé Nast Publications division of Advance Publications.

“What's everyone else doing?” she asked, then offered a reply: “Going out to dinner.”

“People can go to the restaurants by making reservations through Open Table,” Ms. Drucker Mann said, “and our staff will be outside the Fashion Week tents with iPads, making reservations on your behalf.”

“It's kind of ‘stunt-y,' ” she added, “but it's cool and fun.”

There will be advertising to help generate interest in Feast or Fashion, using social media that include Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as well as the magazine's Web site, bonappetit.com, and an ad in the magazine.

New Role Seen for Randy Jackson on \'Idol\'

By BRIAN STELTER

Randy Jackson, the lone judge still standing from the original incarnation of “American Idol,” may be moving into a lower-profile mentorship role as the Fox singing competition makes sweeping changes to its lineup.

Fox declined to comment on Friday on reports from TMZ and other Web sites that Mr. Jackson was leaving the judge's table. TMZ said he was expected to become a mentor to contestants on “Idol,” the television juggernaut that is entering its 12th season.

Mr. Jackson has been a judge on “Idol” since the series premiered in the United States in 2002. It quickly became the highest-rated entertainment show in the country and a major force in pop culture.

The other two original judges of “Idol,” Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell, left in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Since then a number of others have briefly sat in the seats, including Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, both of whom exited at the end of the 11th season last spring, leaving Mr. Jackson as the sole judge.

Fox and the producers of the show are now rebuilding the judge lineup person by person. Earlier this week, E! News reported that a former executive producer of “Idol,” Nigel Lythgoe, was going to return to produce the new season.

Like other shows entering their teenage years, “Idol” has suffered declines in the ratings in recent years. The decline was especially severe last spring.

In the months since the May finale, names of possible new judges have surfaced on a regular basis. Only one, Mariah Carey, has been confirmed by Fox.

The pop star Nicki Minaj and the country singer Keith Urban are also reported to be in the mix. But Fox and the producers have been mum about the possibilities, preferring only to comment once the deals are signed. They can't wait too much longer: singer auditions for the next season usually start at the end of Sep tember or the beginning of October, ahead of a January premiere.

Ways to Make Life Joyful

By BUCKS EDITORS

Paul Sullivan writes in his Wealth Matters column this week about a pursuit mainly for the wealthy - yachting.

While the market for yachts weakened significantly in the wake of the financial crisis, prices seem to have bottomed out and demand is rising again, Mr. Sullivan writes. Still, maintaining a yacht and paying for fuel remain expensive - a fact acknowledged by two owners Mr. Sullivan spoke to.

But both offered similar reasons for owning a yacht - the joy it adds to their lives.

While most of us could only dream of such an indulgence, there are many other ways to make life joyful, and they cost far less. We'll name a few - a day trip to the ocean, a week away from the office, a roller coaster ride, a meal meant to linger over. But we'd like to hear your suggestions.

Grooveshark App Removed From Google Store Again

August 31, 2012, 12:51 pm

By BEN SISARIO

Once again, Grooveshark just cannot seem to win.

Grooveshark, a digital music service that lets people stream millions of songs free, is facing multiple lawsuits from the major powers of the music industry, including two suits for copyright infringement and another one over royalty payments. Last year, Google and Apple both removed its app from their stores, and Grooveshark - which has 35 million users - suspected that complaints by the labels was the reason.

Earlier this week it seemed that Grooveshark and its parent company, Escape Media Group, had won a battle when its mobile app reappeared on Google's Android store, more than a year after being removed. But the victory was short lived. On Thursday afternoon, the app vanished once again.

Google did not announce a reason for the removal. But the company took the uncharacteristic step of rebutting a statement by Grooveshark.

On Tuesday, when its app reappeared on the Android store, Grooveshark suggested that the change was the result of cooperation with Google. “After working closely with Google to get rogue apps removed, we're delighted that the official Grooveshark app has been reinstated in the Android market,” the company, based in Gainesville, Fla., said in a statement.

A Google spokeswoman countered late Thursday that the company had not worked with Grooveshark to reinstate the app, and added that the program was removed for a violation of Google's policies for developers. Google did not specify which of those policies were violated, but the most likely reason, if only by process of elimination - violence and bullying, no; gambling, no; sexually explicit material , probably not - was copyright infringement.

On Friday morning, Grooveshark said it was not giving up, and noted that a version of its Android app is available on its own site.

“We have filed a counter-notice and are working with Google and their Google Play reinstatement process to get our our app back in the market,” the company said in a statement.

Whether Grooveshark infringes on music copyrights is in dispute. The company says it is legal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or D.M.C.A., a federal law that gives Internet companies “safe harbor” if they remove copyrighted material when asked. The major record labels argue that Grooveshark is ineligible for this protection, and that it needs licenses from labels and music publishers to use music.

But in Grooveshark's biggest victory so far, a New York state judge recently ruled in its favor about a detail of the D.M.C.A. The judge found that the law could be applied to music made bef ore 1972, when federal copyright law was first applied to sound recordings. To those fortunate enough not to follow the ins and outs of music copyright, this may sound like an academic point. But it's an important legal distinction, and the ruling gave Grooveshark and Escape Media a big advantage in the case, one of the two infringement suits against it.

As if ejection from Google's app store were not enough misfortune for one day, on Thursday Grooveshark and Escape Media were sued yet again. In a case filed in United States District Court in Manhattan, EMI Music accused Grooveshark of failing to pay royalties and, once again, of copyright infringement.

EMI had been the one major label to license its music to Grooveshark, as part of the settlement in an earlier infringement case. But those licenses were revoked when EMI sued again earlier this year.

“We have been sued and settled with EMI twice now over different issues,” Grooveshark said in a statement on Friday. “It is unfortunate that when disagreements arise, EMI resorts to these types of sue and settle tactics. At the end of the day, we are trying to help labels like EMI solve their problems.”

For Grooveshark, as with many technology startups that have run afoul of the music industry, its ultimate fate might depend less on whether it wins the suits than on whether it can survive the expenses of so much litigation. In May, MP3tunes, another music service being sued for infringement, filed for bankruptcy.

Ben Sisario writes about the music industry. Follow @sisario on Twitter.

Friday Reading: To Brief the Teacher, or Hold Your Tongue?

By ANN CARRNS

A variety of consumer-focused articles appears daily in The New York Times and on our blogs. Each weekday morning, we gather them together here so you can quickly scan the news that could hit you in your wallet.

Roberts Leaves \'Good Morning America\' for Medical Treatment

By BRIAN STELTER

Starting Friday, ABC's “Good Morning America” - which has surged ahead of the “Today” show in recent weeks to become the No. 1 morning television show in America - will be without its biggest star, Robin Roberts.

Ms. Roberts, who received a diagnosis of a rare bone marrow disorder in April, is about to undergo a bone marrow transplant that will leave her hospitalized or homebound for four months or more. The break presents clear challenges, not just for Ms. Roberts, who must regain her health, but also for ABC, which earns huge profits from the morning show. It will have to find a way to maintain its nascent winning streak without her.

Ms. Roberts signed off from the show on Thursday, a day earlier than expected, because she needed to visit her 88-year-old mother, who is ill, in Pass Christian, Miss. “I love you and I'll see you soon,” she told viewers, many of whom have gravitated to “Good Morning Americ a” because of her.

There are few if any precedents in the television industry for an extended leave of absence by a host, even on an ensemble show like “Good Morning America.” ABC thus finds itself in an extraordinarily difficult position: it has to keep viewers informed about Ms. Roberts's condition and encourage them to keep watching the program while she is away, but not appear to be exploitative or insensitive.

News coverage and public sympathy for Ms. Roberts could help “Good Morning America,” or her absence could lead viewers to try other morning shows. Ms. Roberts has been on the program for a decade, longer than any of her co-hosts; research by both ABC and NBC has indicated that she is widely admired by viewers.

“We are determined to maintain the momentum of the program, but we're also very realistic about the challenge we face,” Ben Sherwood, the president of ABC News, said in an interview on Thursday. Since Ms. Roberts's announcemen t in June, he has emphasized internally at ABC News that the co-host chair will remain hers. “Robin is irreplaceable,” he said.

In February, back when “Good Morning America” was No. 2, Ms. Roberts felt abnormally tired while covering the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. She followed up with doctors and, after some blood tests, underwent her first bone marrow test before a vacation at the end of March. (Katie Couric filled in for her, causing a media whirlwind.) When Ms. Roberts came home, the week of April 9, the doctors told her they suspected she had M.D.S., short for myelodysplastic syndromes, a rare blood and bone marrow disorder. She could barely pronounce it.

Further tests were done. On April 19, the same day the Nielsen ratings company confirmed that “Good Morning America” had defeated the NBC “Today” show for the first week in 17 years, Ms. Roberts's doctors confirmed the diagnosis.

A photo taken of Ms. Roberts and her co-hosts celebra ting the ratings victory on April 19 now sits, framed, in her dressing room.

“I look at that picture so differently than everybody else,” she said in an interview last month. “Because that is the day that it was like, ‘Yeah, it's M.D.S. Yes, you're going to have a bone marrow transplant. Yes, you're going to be out for a chunk of time. We don't know when.' It was all this - it was such a gray area. It was just maddening.”

Ms. Roberts kept the disorder a secret for weeks. Almost no one at ABC knew that she had been at the doctor's office when she was invited to interview President Obama in May - an interview that made international headlines for his changed view of gay marriage. On June 11, she told viewers of the diagnosis and said her older sister Sally-Ann, a television anchor in New Orleans, would be her bone marrow donor.

Morning television hosts have let viewers in on their personal struggles before. After her husband died in 1998, Ms. Couric , then at “Today,” drew attention to colorectal cancer and was credited by researchers with a nationwide increase in colonoscopies. (Ms. Roberts has similarly campaigned on behalf of Be The Match, a national marrow donation program.)

But the circumstances now are unique. Ms. Roberts's leave of absence is taking place in the age of social media, when she can post updates to Twitter and Facebook. And it's taking place at a time when “Good Morning America” has, for the first time in a generation, tasted victory over “Today.”

Since NBC removed Ann Curry from the co-host chair on “Today” at the end of June, that show has lost to “Good Morning America” every week with two big exceptions during the highly rated Summer Olympics, which were broadcast by NBC. Last week, “Good Morning America” had half a million viewers more than “Today,” one of its best performances to date. The two shows were effectively tied in the crucial demographic of viewe rs ages 25 to 54, with “Today” winning by just 5,000 last week. Two weeks ago, with Ms. Roberts on vacation, “Good Morning America” beat “Today” by about 200,000 viewers.

Neither Mr. Sherwood nor Tom Cibrowski, the senior executive producer of “Good Morning America,” would predict how the ratings race might change in the months to come. But Mr. Cibrowski said, “We feel that the show has a great amount of confidence and a great amount of buzz around it and that the viewers are going to keep coming.”

They have a detailed plan for fall and winter. Other female ABC News anchors will fill in for Ms. Roberts, one week at a time, beginning with Amy Robach on Friday and Elizabeth Vargas next week. Mr. Cibrowski said Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters and Ms. Couric would also fill in.

Many days, they will be joined by celebrity co-hosts in the 8 a.m. hour, including Oprah Winfrey and the cast of the ABC sitcom “Modern Family.” When Ms. Roberts is ready - though they know there is a risk of death from M.D.S., people at ABC never say “if” - she will call into the show via Skype, Mr. Cibrowski said, in a nod to new technology.

Ms. Roberts is scheduled to enter the hospital on Tuesday; the transplant is likely to take place the week after.

Inside the “Good Morning America” studio on Thursday, some members of the staff teared up as the singer Martina McBride played “I'm Gonna Love You Through It” for Ms. Roberts, who remained remarkably composed. After the show ended, Ms. Roberts stood up and said to the staff, “God bless, God speed, and I'll get back to you just as soon as I can,” emphasizing the word “soon.” Then she sought out Mr. Sherwood, who hugged her and wiped away a tear.

This Subway Series Is About Commerce, Not Baseball

By STUART ELLIOTT

A fast-food chain known for its ardent embrace of branded entertainment, embedding its products and restaurants in episodes of television series, is commissioning a series of its own, to be watched on a Web site where consumers watch TV shows.

Subway is introducing this week “4 to 9ers,” a scripted comedy series appearing on hulu.com. Plans call for six weekly online episodes, or webisodes, each running 10 or so minutes, with a new webisode to begin streaming each Tuesday.

The Subway series is branded entertainment in its purest form, with the focus of each show a Subway restaurant inside a shopping mall. The title “4 to 9ers” refers to the young employees of the restaurant, who work there from 4 to 9 p.m. after they finish high school for the day.

The first episode introduces the lead character, Mark (Ashton Moio), on his first day of his new after-school job at Subway. Other characters include a young woman who works at a wireless kiosk in the mall, who becomes a love interest for Mark; her obnoxious boyfriend; a dorky co-worker of Mark's; and a pompous mall cop.

If the characters sound sent from sitcom central casting, it is no accident. The series is being written, directed and produced by two longtime sitcom executives, James Widdoes of “Two and a Half Men” and Tim O'Donnell of “Dave's World,” through Content & Company in Los Angeles.

(Those with long memories may recall Mr. Widdoes played Hoover, the president of the fraternity in the movie “National Lampoon's Animal House.”)

The first episode of “4 to 9ers” reflects its creators' roots, moving along quickly, serving up tasty comic nuggets and including in the dialog references to cultural touchstones like Google and “Star Trek.”

There is also, reflecting a desire to appeal to a younger audience, a sardonic tone to the dialog that includes much irreverence toward authority figures. There is even at one point a mild oath that is sometimes heard in television sitcoms.

“As a quick service restaurant brand, an important audience to us is 18-to-24-year-olds,” said Tony Pace, senior vice president and global chief marketing officer at Subway, so a web series that depicts “what takes place after school” seemed like a worthwhile concept to explore.

Subway has sponsored webisodes before, Mr. Pace said, but none as polished and sitcom-like as “4 to 9ers.”

Marketers “need to be doing things like ‘4 to 9ers,'” he added, because such sponsored content is “the next manifestation” of the branded entertainment trend.

Among the television series with which Subway has made branded content deals are “Chuck” on NBC and “Hawaii Five-0” on CBS.

Although “4 to 9ers” is commissioned by an advertiser rather than a TV network, it is presented by Hulu as if it was a televis ion series, complete with this message on screen before a webisode begins: “The following program is brought to you with limited commercial interruptions by Subway.”

And before the first episode plays, there is, yes, a conventional commercial for Subway.

How Do You Say \'Abstract Expressionism\' in German?

By STUART ELLIOTT

A media agency has brought together two clients, an airline and a museum, for an unusual campaign.

The agency is Mindshare, part of the GroupM unit of WPP, and the clients are Lufthansa, the German airline,  and the Museum of Modern Art. At the heart of the campaign is an agreement for the museum to provide video content to the airline as the airline becomes a corporate member of the museum.

The campaign is scheduled to begin on Saturday as a 30-minute program, composed of video content supplied by the museum, that will play on the culture channel of the in-flight entertainment systems on Lufthansa planes. The videos will be narrated by David Rockefeller Jr., who is a trustee of the museum.

A 60-second video about MoMA will also be shown on Lufthansa flights, serving as an invitation to passengers to visit the museum while they are visiting New York City.

The campaign is coming at no cost to either the museum or the airline. MoMA provides the videos and the membership and Lufthansa provides an outlet where the videos can be watched. (Lufthansa will offer the benefits of the membership to its employees and the best customers among its frequent fliers.)

The campaign is indicative of efforts by media agencies to come up with new and different ideas for clients beyond traditional ad buys. These days, it seems, for a campaign to get noticed, the media part has to be as creative as the creative part.

The genesis of the campaign was asking a question on behalf of MoMA, “How do you reach international travelers before they get to New York?” said Mariya Kemper, a group planning director at Mindshare who works on both the Lufthansa and museum accounts at the agency.

“We're always thinking about different things MoMA can do to get that bigger international audience, with a finite budget,” she added.

In developing a medi a plan for Lufthansa, hitting on “passion points of customers,” Ms. Kemper said, one of the areas identified was culture and the arts.

That led to the museum, and to a thought that “if we can match these two clients we can try to create value for both brands,” she added.

Nicola Lange, director for marketing and customer relations for the Americas at Lufthansa, said the airline had tried “to set up a partnership with MoMA before.”

“We know from our customer demographics that they are very interested in art,” she added.

Ms. Lange praised Mindshare for putting “a lot of hard work into finding the right people who should be talking to each other.”

Kim Mitchell, chief communications officer at the museum, said that about 60 percent of the estimated 3 million visitors to MoMA each year are from overseas.

“We're always looking for ways to reach the international traveler,” Ms. Mitchell said.

The museum plans to refre sh the video content for the 30-minute program four times a year, she added.

Ms. Mitchell and Ms. Lange said the museum, and the airline, plan to evaluate the campaign as it proceeds during the coming year.

Which Bug Repellent Is Best?

By ANN CARRNS

If your family is like ours, you'll be spending time outdoors this Labor Day weekend. And if you're a mother like me (read: a worrier), you're well aware of news reports about the abundance of ticks this year, and about an increase in cases of West Nile virus in some parts of the country.

That means we'll be spraying ourselves and our children with bug repellent, to ward off both ticks and the pesky mosquitoes that carry West Nile. (Generally we avoid slathering our offspring with chemicals. But we make an exception in this case, if they're going to be out in nature for extended periods of time). But which repellent is best?

Consumer Reports has updated a test of widely available repellents that work on both deer ticks and mosquitoes that carry West Nile, along with cost information on a per-ounce basis. The six top-rated products are $2 an ounce or less. The data on costs is from 2010, according to Consumer Reports, but all the products are currently available.  (And a quick check online suggests prices are about the same, or in some cases, lower.)

Just how much chemical you are comfortable exposing yourself and your children to is up to you. The four top-ranked brands - Off Deep Woods Sportsmen II, Cutter Backwoods Unscented, Off Family Care Smooth & Dry, and 3M Ultrathon Insect Repellent - all contain DEET in varying concentrations from 15 percent to 30 percent, and were able to repel mosquitoes for at least eight hours.

DEET is effective, and the Environmental Protection Agency says it is safe when used as directed, but you shouldn't use it on babies under 2 months old. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises against using products with more than 30 percent DEET on children.

The fifth- and sixth-ranked products - Repel Plant Based Lemon Eucalyptus and Natrapel 8-hour with Picaridin - don't contain DEET, but provided long-lasting protec tion as well.

The lower-ranked products also repelled mosquitoes effectively, but generally for shorter periods of time, and some had other drawbacks, like a tendency to stain clothing.

The upshot, Consumer Report says, is that “most of the tested products will do the job if you're going to be outside for only a couple of hours, but look for a highly rated product to protect you on longer excursions.”

The E.P.A. has information on its Web site to help you choose a repellent based on your specific needs, although it doesn't include cost data. General information about West Nile is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Are you stepping up your use of bug repellent due to West Nile?

Which Bug Repellent Is Best?

By ANN CARRNS

If your family is like ours, you'll be spending time outdoors this Labor Day weekend. And if you're a mother like me (read: a worrier), you're well aware of news reports about the abundance of ticks this year, and about an increase in cases of West Nile virus in some parts of the country.

That means we'll be spraying ourselves and our children with bug repellent, to ward off both ticks and the pesky mosquitoes that carry West Nile. (Generally we avoid slathering our offspring with chemicals. But we make an exception in this case, if they're going to be out in nature for extended periods of time). But which repellent is best?

Consumer Reports has updated a test of widely available repellents that work on both deer ticks and mosquitoes that carry West Nile, along with cost information on a per-ounce basis. The six top-rated products are $2 an ounce or less. The data on costs is from 2010, according to Consumer Reports, but all the products are currently available.  (And a quick check online suggests prices are about the same, or in some cases, lower.)

Just how much chemical you are comfortable exposing yourself and your children to is up to you. The four top-ranked brands - Off Deep Woods Sportsmen II, Cutter Backwoods Unscented, Off Family Care Smooth & Dry, and 3M Ultrathon Insect Repellent - all contain DEET in varying concentrations from 15 percent to 30 percent, and were able to repel mosquitoes for at least eight hours.

DEET is effective, and the Environmental Protection Agency says it is safe when used as directed, but you shouldn't use it on babies under 2 months old. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises against using products with more than 30 percent DEET on children.

The fifth- and sixth-ranked products - Repel Plant Based Lemon Eucalyptus and Natrapel 8-hour with Picaridin - don't contain DEET, but provided long-lasting protec tion as well.

The lower-ranked products also repelled mosquitoes effectively, but generally for shorter periods of time, and some had other drawbacks, like a tendency to stain clothing.

The upshot, Consumer Report says, is that “most of the tested products will do the job if you're going to be outside for only a couple of hours, but look for a highly rated product to protect you on longer excursions.”

The E.P.A. has information on its Web site to help you choose a repellent based on your specific needs, although it doesn't include cost data. General information about West Nile is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Are you stepping up your use of bug repellent due to West Nile?

App From The A.P. Gets Ad Campaign

By STUART ELLIOTT

One of the most robust advertising categories these days is media, as companies like Time Warner, Viacom, News Corporation, Disney, CBS and Discovery Communications promote their television, film and other entertainment products and properties.

Now joining the ranks of those giants, albeit in a small way, is The Associated Press, the not-for-profit cooperative American news agency. The A.P. is, for what it believes to be the first time, running advertising aimed at consumers.

The ads, beginning to appear this week, are intended to promote The A.P.'s mobile news app, called A.P. Mobile. The app, which is free, can be downloaded from a Web site, getapmobile.com, as well as obtained from sources that include the app stores on Apple, Android, Blackberry and Windows phones.

The A.P. has run ads before that were aimed at journalists, saluting employees who have won press awards and honors; those ads appeared in newspa pers and on Web sites read by reporters and editors like poynter.org.

The ads for the app, by contrast, are intended for the general public. They are in the form of posters that are being displayed on the Metro-North New Haven, Harlem and Hudson lines.

“We have to think about a marketing strategy,” said Jim Kennedy, senior vice president for strategy and digital products at The A.P. in New York. “That's brand-new territory.”

“Mobile will be the place for breaking news,” he added, “and we've got to get our brand out there.”

The goal of the campaign is to help “build our base of usage” for the app, Mr. Kennedy said. “Just being in the App Store is not good enough.”

The A.P. introduced the initial version of the app in 2008, he added, and a redesigned version was brought out in March for devices like iPads and iPhones.

“There have been nearly 2 million downloads of the new app since March,” Mr. Kennedy said, and the app receivesd 60 million page views each month.

There are plans to upgrade the Android version in stages by the end of the year, he added.

The A.P. app is ad-supported, with the ads sold by a company named Verve Wireless. Recent advertisers have included Fidelity and Porsche, Mr. Kennedy said.

The ads for A.P. Mobile were created internally at The A.P. In keeping with the just-the-facts reputation of the news service, the ads are straightforward and free of glitz.

The posters depict three reasons why consumers would want the app: to get the latest news, sports information and entertainment coverage.

“A.P. Mobile. It's about getting it right,” says the ad for news, which shows a photograph of a riot in Cairo. The app offers “breaking global and local news at your fingertips,” the ad promises.

The ad for sports features a photograph of Eli Manning of the New York Giants. “A.P. Mobile. It's what' s in the moment,” the headline reads; the ad goes on to say the app provides “Every game. Every season. A.P. covers all the action.”

(“I just felt like we might as well have a New York team,” Mr. Kennedy said, and with the coming of football season it made sense to use a football player rather than a baseball player.)

The ad for entertainment coverage features a photo of the actress Charlize Theron. The headline reads: “A.P. Mobile. It's what's in the spotlight.” According to the ad, the app offers “All the names. All the glamour. A.P. covers entertainment.”

The budget for the campaign, which is to run through October, is in the low five figures, Mr. Kennedy said.

“We'll see how it goes,” he added. “It's a great test to see if people would respond.”

Is This Thing On? Yahoo Firing Proves the Perils of Feeding Many Platforms

August 30, 2012, 11:40 am

By DAVID CARR

David Chalian, the Washington bureau chief of Yahoo News, was fired in record time on Wednesday after he was overheard on a hot mic making a remark about Mitt Romney and his wife not caring about the African-American victims of Hurricane Isaac. The comment came during a webcast at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., where Yahoo is partnered with ABC News.

The fact that a journalist for a large digital news enterprise was fired for what is a classic television error is a reminder of how much things have changed. Webcasts have little of the audience of television, but all of the potential pitfalls. As digital enterprises move toward the complicated world of prompters, microphones and live commen tary, it's clear that some eggs are going to get broken in making this particular new media omelet.

It was not that long ago when a journalist had a single route to the ocean. If she or he was a print reporter, they did their reporting, wrote their stories and then went home. But now, instead being issued a hammer to make a story, reporters are handed a whole tool belt of power equipment to get the word out, which is great until it is not.

Reporters, especially in political realms, are supposed to be dervishes of content, writing stories, blogging items, doing updates on Facebook and Twitter, going on cable to serve as a talking head or making their own videos. The campaign bus has been replaced by a rolling, always-on and always hungry media apparatus.

But sometimes reporters fall into the crevices when trying to cross from one platform to the other. Television broadcasters end up in trouble for something they tweeted. A radio person can get the gate for s omething he popped off about on cable television. A print journalist, working in the high wire world of live television, ends up saying something dumb and ill-considered. Or journalists can get so jammed up feeding all manner of platforms that they end up cutting a corner or getting sloppy.

With new media moving into legacy media realms, and so-called old media adopting the tools of the insurgency, the possibility for pratfalls multiply.

Mr. Chalain was dismissed for making what many described as a bad joke during an online broadcast for Yahoo News. Certainly, if you are in the business of live-streaming coverage of events in a way that combines audio and video, it behooves participants to remember that they are working around pipes that head out into the world and you have to know when you are on “air,” or whatever it is called on the Web, and when you are not.

But working journalists have to punch in with the knowledge that someone is always poised, l ike crows on a wire, looking for evidence of bias or error. (Some suggested, on Twitter, of course, that given Mr. Chalain's history of fair-minded reporting and solid work, that Yahoo moved too precipitously.)

Media outlets want their reporters to be everywhere, creating a persistent media identity regardless of platform and developing news muscles as different routes to an audience open up. It's made for a golden age of sorts, a time when audiences have access to voices and thinking they crave on almost any medium they wish. But it makes a once simple task - find the news, report it out, make a story - far more complicated.

When news of his hot-mic miscue mushroomed, Mr. Chalian, a former broadcast editor and producer, took to Twitter and then Facebook to apologize.

I am profoundly sorry for making an inappropriate and thoughtless joke. Full statement here: http://t.co/Z2BrqCfq

- David Chalian (@DavidChalian) 29 Aug 12

Mr. Chalian said something really dumb and tasteless that suggested significant personal bias, so it is no surprise he ended up in trouble. But you get the feeling that the bold new world we operate in played a role in his demise. The answer to “Is this thing on?” is always yes.

Employers That Forbid You From Telling Others What You Make

August 30, 2012, 10:48 am

By RON LIEBER

My jaw hit the floor earlier this month when I tuned in to a Marketplace report that noted that there are employers that contractually forbid employees from telling anyone how much money they make.

It's a free country, and private employers can do what they wish in this respect, though plenty of companies (and many public employers) make a point of sharing salary data so there is no question about who is making the most (and, hopefully, why).

I doubt that a clause in an employment agreement mandating salary silence would be a deal killer for anyone in this economic environment. But doesn't this sort of mandated vow of silence raise suspicions in the eyes of people who work for these employers? What are they hoping to hide from their employees, and why?

If you work (or have worked) for such an employer, please name it below and tell us a bit about why you think the rule came to be and whether it was a good or bad thing.

Thursday Reading: Severe Diet May Not Prolong Life

By ANN CARRNS

A variety of consumer-focused articles appears daily in The New York Times and on our blogs. Each weekday morning, we gather them together here so you can quickly scan the news that could hit you in your wallet.

Thursday Reading: Severe Diet May Not Prolong Life

By ANN CARRNS

A variety of consumer-focused articles appears daily in The New York Times and on our blogs. Each weekday morning, we gather them together here so you can quickly scan the news that could hit you in your wallet.

Pandora Posts a Loss but Continues to Expand

By BEN SISARIO

A year after going public, the popular Internet radio service Pandora is still expanding rapidly, with growth in audience size and revenue. But Pandora Media, the company behind it, continues to post a loss, as its revenue has not kept up with music royalties and other costs.

Pandora, which lets users create free music streams tailored to their tastes, had $101.3 million in revenue for the three months that ended July 31, a 51 percent increase from the same period last year. That was slightly better than the $100.9 million that analysts had expected, according to Thomson Reuters.

Its results helped Pandora's shares rise 9 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday. The stock had closed at $10.08, down 1 percent for the day. The stock is down 37 percent from its opening price in July 2011.

Pandora now has 54.9 million listeners each month. In the last three months they listened to 3.3 billion hours of music, up 86 percent from last year.

dRevenue related to use of the service on mobile phones - which counts advertising as well as some revenue from paid subscriptions - was up 86 percent to $59.2 million. A majority of the listening to Pandora is done on mobile phones, although the company has struggled to increase the amount of money it can make from mobile advertising.

“This quarter demonstrated that our mobile monetization strategies are working,” Joe Kennedy, the company's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

But Pandora had a net loss of $5.4 million, or 3 cents a share, for the quarter, its sixth quarterly loss in two years. For the same period last year, the company lost $3.2 million, or 4 cents a share.

Pandora's largest expense is music royalties, which increase with each listener. For the quarter, it paid $60.5 million, or slightly less than 60 percent of its revenue, in royalties to record labels, artist s and music publishers. Its current fee structure is based on a negotiated discount to a rate set by federal statute. And although the next round of royalty negotiations is not expected to begin until 2014, Pandora has already begun lobbying in Washington over its rates.

To offset rising royalty costs, Pandora has been building up local advertising sales teams around the country, and also pushing to be included in ad networks that would put its service into direct competition with terrestrial radio stations.

After withdrawing from many foreign countries several years ago because of music licensing problems, it is now taking its first steps to return to overseas markets, starting with Australia and New Zealand. A regulatory filing last month suggested that Pandora is paying lower royalty rates there than it does in the United States.

“Our dream,” Mr. Kennedy said in a conference call with investors, “is to one day have billions of people listening to P andora around the world.”

Study Suggests a \'7 Percent Solution\' for Mobile Marketing

By STUART ELLIOTT

A consultancy that helps marketers improve the effectiveness of their advertising spending is proposing that they significantly increase the amount of money they spend in the United States on ads on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

The consultancy, Marketing Evolution, is offering its advice in a study that was released on Wednesday during a Webinar. The study recommends that an average of 7 percent of total ad spending be devoted to mobile marketing â€" a stark contrast to estimates that the current average mobile budget is 1 percent or less of total ad spending.

And in the next four years, the study said, “marketers should increase their investment in mobile to approximately 10 percent.”

“It's clear that marketers are spending significantly less than they should in mobile,” the summary to the study concluded, and by not devoting enough of their media mix to mobile they are “losing out o n sales and profits.”

The study is another example of how much attention is being paid on Madison Avenue to mobile marketing as the media consumption habits and patterns of consumers change quickly. Although many marketers have swiftly been increasing their spending for mobile ads, there is a widespread belief that they are lagging behind the shifts in consumer behavior.

On the other hand, there remain questions about the willingness of American consumers to look at or watch ads on mobile devices. That has been giving marketers pause because they do not want to irk or alienate potential customers.

However, that may be changing. The study found that “when surfing the mobile Web, people expect to see ads,” said Rex Briggs, chief executive at Marketing Evolution, “like when they are surfing a home computer.”

The study advised that for certain types of products like cars, the percentage of ad spending devoted to mobile media could reach as high as 9 percent. For packaged goods and entertainment products, the study said, the percentage could be as low as 5 percent.

The study was not completely positive for mobile media moguls. Mr. Briggs pointed to a finding that more than 90 percent of studies about mobile “exaggerate the impact of mobile advertising” by their methodology.

Those studies are flawed, he said, because they survey only those consumers who click on mobile ads rather than including those who do not click on the ads.

Marketers, media companies and advertising agencies were invited by Marketing Evolution to take part in the analytic process that produced the study as well as to review the recommendations.

Yahoo Fires Bureau Chief After a Live Mic Picked Up His Comments

By BRIAN STELTER

Yahoo on Wednesday said it had fired David Chalian, the Web site's Washington bureau chief, after he was recorded at the Republican National Convention saying that the convention officials were “happy to have a party with black people drowning.”

Yahoo said the reference Mr. Chalian made to the flooding caused by Hurricane Issac was “inappropriate and does not represent the views” of the company. “He has been terminated,” the company said in a statement.

Mr. Chalian did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

His “drowning” comment was made on Monday night during Yahoo's live Web video coverage of the convention. The coverage is being produced in partnership with ABC News, where Mr. Chalian worked as political director until 2010. After a little more than a year at PBS's “NewsHour,” he joined Yahoo in late 2011.

The comment was picked up by NewsBuster s, a conservative media watchdog Web site, which posted a short video clip of it on Wednesday morning. Mr. Chalian, who is heard but not seen in the clip, was apparently unaware that his words were being Webcast at the time.

He said to an unidentified guest, “Feel free to say, ‘They're not concerned at all. They are happy to have a party with black people drowning.' ” Laughter could then be heard in the background.

The context of Mr. Chalian's remarks - was he merely goading a guest to say something provocative, or was he expressing his own point of view? - was unclear in the audio clip. NewsBusters said it was a “perfect example of the pervasive anti-Republican bias Mitt Romney faces in his bid to unseat President Barack Obama.”

In its statement, Yahoo said, “We have already reached out to the Romney campaign, and we apologize to Mitt Romney, his staff, their supporters and anyone who was offended.”

JetBlue Sign Joins the New York Skyline

By STUART ELLIOTT

Look, up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. Actually, it's a sign to promote a company that owns a lot of planes.

JetBlue Airways plans to unveil on Wednesday evening a sign atop its headquarters in Long Island City. The sign, which sits on about the 10th story, depicts the airline's logo in 15-foot letters.

The sign was built by the Going Sign Company of Plainview, N.Y. A time-lapse video of the construction can be watched on YouTube. During the day, the sign is to be blue. At night, it will be lit white from within by LED light strips.

The idea that JetBlue could add its name to the New York skyline was a reason the airline decided in 2010 to keep its corporate headquarters in Queens rather than move to Orlando, Fla. JetBlue, which uses the slogan “New York's hometown airline,” had been based in Forest Hills before it moved to Long Island City.

There is to be a ceremony introducing the sign starting at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the JetBlue headquarters, 27-01 Queens Plaza North between 27th and 28th Streets.

Among those scheduled to attend the ceremony are Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; David Barger, president and chief executive at JetBlue; Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York; and Jimmy Van Bramer, a City Council member.

Although the city's two airports are in Queens, many airlines have located signs not in that borough but rather in Manhattan.

The logo of Pan American World Airways was atop the Pan Am Building in Midtown Manhattan for many years. (The MetLife logo replaced it in 1993.) In the 1950s, Trans World Airlines had a colorful neon sign in Times Square. Currently, Times Square is home to the American Airlines Theater.

Housing Market Improvements Lessen Consumer Distress

By ANN CARRNS

Improvement in the nation's housing markets has helped ease consumer financial woes, according to a quarterly report from a large credit counseling agency.

For the first time in nearly four years, the Consumer Distress Index, published by the nonprofit agency CredAbility, showed that  consumers nationally were inching their way out of financial distress.

The index tracks the financial condition of American households by measuring employment, housing, credit, household budget management and net worth. United States households scored a 71.3 on the 100-point index, an increase of 1.4 points from the first quarter. Scores below 70 indicate financial distress. The last time the index topped 70 was in the third quarter of 2008.

Housing was the main driver of consumers' improved financial condition this quarter, according to Mark Cole, the agency's executive vice president and chief operating officer. Late payments on mor tgages reached a three-year low, and housing costs dropped as many homeowners cut their payments by refinancing.

The average household also kept a tighter rein on its budget, which helped drive the savings rate to a one-year high in June. Net worth also ticked up.

The index's unemployment score improved by only a half-point, however, to 59.8 from 59.4, and continued to drag down the index. Although 381,000 jobs were added during the quarter, joblessness remained the same as more people who had given up looking began seeking work again.

Whether the overall gains persist, in light of continued economic uncertainty and the political headwinds of an election year, remains to be seen, Mr. Cole said. “This really is very fragile in nature.”

This quarter's report also includes information on metropolitan areas. Several large areas remain in distress. Orlando, Fla., suffering from both housing woes and stubborn unemployment, i s the most distressed city, followed by Tampa-St. Petersburg in Florida, Riverside-San Bernardino in California, Las Vegas and Miami-Fort Lauderdale. Among the 30 largest metropolitan areas, the healthiest cities are Boston, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis-St. Paul, Dallas-Fort Worth and Denver.

Are you feeling less distressed financially? Why or why not?

In Executive Shakeup, Nickelodeon Fires Its Animation Chief

By BROOKS BARNES

LOS ANGELES â€" Nickelodeon, under pressure to reverse sharp ratings declines, fired its president of animation and longtime head of pre-school programming on Wednesday amid a broader management shakeup.

Brown Johnson, who was responsible for groundbreaking hits like “Blue's Clues” and “Dora the Explorer,” is credited with Nickelodeon's entrance pre-school television, an area that it came to dominate â€" largely because of one of Ms. Johnson's innovations known as “the pause.”

Many of the shows she has helped nurture make use of a choreographed pause during the program, one long enough to let children actively respond to the television, solving puzzles and problems along with the characters, and allowing young viewers to feel like part of the story.

Nickelodeon also re-arranged its executive deck chairs on Wednesday, elevating Russell Hicks to the new position of president of content development and p roduction. Two other executives were given new roles: Margie Cohn will serve in the new role of president of content development; Paula Kaplan will now serve as executive vice president of current series.

The moves centralize animation and live-action programming. What they don't do is add fresh blood to Nickelodeon's management line-up â€" something that some analysts say is crucial to reviving the channel's creative spark and fending off  competition from Disney. Disney recently introduced an entire pre-school channel, with shows like “Doc McStuffins” showing early promise.

Ms. Johnson was based in Burbank, Calif.,and has most recently managed Nickelodeon's impending re-launch of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” franchise.

“She leaves an indelible impact on generations of kids for which we will always be incredibly grateful,” Cyma Zarghami, president of the Nickelodeon Group, said in a statement. Of Mr. Hi cks, she said, “Russell will ensure that our rich and diversified development slate, as well as our new and established producing partners, will all serve our creative vision for the network and deliver for our audiences.”

Katy Perry Wants Snackers to \'Dream\' of Popchips

By STUART ELLIOTT

Popchips hopes to put more, well, pop in its chips by adding the pop singer Katy Perry to its roster of celebrity endorsers.

Ms. Perry, known for songs like “California Gurls,” “Firework” and “Teenage Dream,” is also becoming a minority investor in Popchips Inc. as well as a spokeswoman. In those dual roles, she joins stars like Heidi Klum, Ashton Kutcher and Jillian Michaels.

Ads featuring Ms. Perry, created by an agency named Zambezi, are to begin running over the weekend. They feature colorful, portrait-style photographs of her in upbeat poses.

The ads will carry headlines like “Spare me the guilt chip,” “Love. Without the handles” and, accompanying an ad in which Ms. Perry poses with two bags of Popchips in front of her chest, “Nothing fake about 'em.”

The campaign is based “on the bigness and appeal of Katy's personality,” said Chris Raih, managing director at Zambezi in Lo s Angeles. The campaign, with a budget estimated at $2 million, will include the first national print ads for Popchips, to run in magazines like Cosmopolitan, Elle, People, Seventeen and US Weekly.

The national magazine ads reflect the growth of Popchips, said Keith Belling, chief executive at Popchips Inc. in San Francisco, as the brand is sold in the snack aisles of stores like Kroger, Safeway, Target and Walgreens.

There will also be digital banner ads, on Web sites like maxim.com and mtv.com. And there will be posters to appear outdoors and in malls in markets like Boston, Seattle and Toronto.

The arrival of Ms. Perry in the Popchips ads comes four months after the brand suffered a setback with a campaign by Zambezi that featured Mr. Kutcher playing four oddball characters.

Part of the campaign, in which he played an Indian named Raj, was abruptly withdrawn after widespread complaints in social media that his per formance was racist.  As Raj, Mr. Kutcher wore brown makeup and used a sing-song accent.

“We're certainly expecting we won't have the kind of controversy” with the Perry campaign, Mr. Belling said.

Booksellers Group Partners With Canadian E-Book Company

August 29, 2012, 12:42 pm

By JULIE BOSMAN

Nearly five months after Google said it would end a little-used program that allowed independent bookstores to sell its e-books, a Canadian e-reading company named Kobo has stepped in as a replacement.

The American Booksellers Association, a trade group for independents, said on Wednesday that it had formed a partnership with Kobo that would make the company's platform available to bookstores. The partnership will begin with 400 bookstores this fall.

“We are pleased to offer our A.B.A. members a competitive e-book retailing solution uniquely crafted to meet the needs of independent booksellers and their customers,” Oren Teicher, the chief executive of the American Booksellers Association, said in a statement.

“Through this partnership with Kobo,” he said, “indie bookstore customers will have access to a broad and diverse inventory of e-books.  Today's readers want a first-class shopping experience, both in-store and online, and this new partnership allows indie booksellers to meet the ever-changing needs of shoppers in a dynamic marketplace.”

Despite the efforts of booksellers and the prominence of the Google name, few e-books have been sold by participating bookstores in the two years since Google started the program. In April, Google said the program had “not gained the traction that we hoped it would.” It will end in January 2013.

Kobo said it would support the program with in-store merchandising and marketing.

Republican Officials Remove 2 Attendees For \'Deplorable Behavior\' Toward CNN Staffer

August 29, 2012, 12:10 pm

By BRIAN STELTER

Two attendees at the Republican National Convention were removed on Tuesday after they tossed peanuts at a black camera operator and reportedly said, “This is how we feed animals.”

The camera operator was working for CNN, which confirmed in a short statement that “there was an incident directed at an employee inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum,” the site of the convention, on Tuesday afternoon.

“CNN worked with convention officials to address this matter and will have no further comment,” the network said. The remarks were reported by a variety of news organizations, including CNN.com on Wednesday.

The CNN.com post described the incident as “taunting.” It said that “multiple wi tnesses observed the exchange and R.N.C. security and police immediately removed the two people.”

Convention officials said in a statement, “Two attendees tonight exhibited deplorable behavior. Their conduct was inexcusable and unacceptable. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated.” It was not immediately clear whether the attendees were allowed to return.

Through Wednesday morning, CNN had not mentioned the incident on its television channels.

Republican Officials Remove 2 Attendees For \'Deplorable Behavior\' Toward CNN Staffer

August 29, 2012, 12:10 pm

By BRIAN STELTER

Two attendees at the Republican National Convention were removed on Tuesday after they tossed peanuts at a black camera operator and reportedly said, “This is how we feed animals.”

The camera operator was working for CNN, which confirmed in a short statement that “there was an incident directed at an employee inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum,” the site of the convention, on Tuesday afternoon.

“CNN worked with convention officials to address this matter and will have no further comment,” the network said. The remarks were reported by a variety of news organizations, including CNN.com on Wednesday.

The CNN.com post described the incident as “taunting.” It said that “multiple wi tnesses observed the exchange and R.N.C. security and police immediately removed the two people.”

Convention officials said in a statement, “Two attendees tonight exhibited deplorable behavior. Their conduct was inexcusable and unacceptable. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated.” It was not immediately clear whether the attendees were allowed to return.

Through Wednesday morning, CNN had not mentioned the incident on its television channels.

Postponing Retirement Indefinitely

August 29, 2012, 11:07 am

By ANN CARRNS

More than a third of adults near retirement age - 35 percent - said last year that they simply don't expect to retire. That was up from just 29 percent two years earlier.

More than four in 10 of these “pre-retirees” who don't expect to retire say it is because they are financially unable to do so. They cite the need for extra income and the maintenance of employer benefits as the main reasons for continuing to work.

That was among the findings in the “2011 Risks and Process of Retirement Survey Report” from the Society of Actuaries.

“There is a core group of people earning a paycheck who feel, for whatever reason, they aren't going to be able to support themselves in their retirement ye ars,” said Carol Bogosian, an actuary and retirement expert.

The survey was conducted for the society by Mathew Greenwald and Associate and the Employee Benefit Research Institute in July 2011, using telephone interviews of 1,600 adults ages 45 to 80. Half were retirees and half were pre-retirees, who were still working. The margin of sampling error for the survey was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The findings suggest that Americans need to recalibrate their expectations about how long they can actually work, she said. While many pre-retirees say they expect to continue to work well past traditional retirement age, that may be “wishful thinking” - or an excuse for not saving and preparing, the report says. The reality is that many people actually retire earlier than they expect, whether because they lose their jobs and can't find new ones, or because of failing health.

Half of retirees (51 percent) report that they re tired before age 60. But just one in 10 pre-retirees (12 percent) think they will retire that early. Instead, half of pre-retirees who expect to retire say they will wait at least until age 65.

That gap, combined with the failure of many people to plan for a long enough retirement period, may indicate significant future financial problems for many, Ms. Bogosian notes.

A more realistic plan might be to work two or three years longer than you may originally have expected, to earn additional income and maximize your Social Security income, she said. And workers in their 50s need to think strategically about what skills they need to acquire to keep working longer, whether in their current career or a new line of work.

Are you planning on working longer in retirement? What sort of work do you expect to be doing?

The Breakfast Meeting: More Papers Cut and the Navy Seal Story Leaks Out

August 29, 2012, 10:58 am

By THE EDITORS

Newhouse has ended daily distribution of two more of its newspapers, The Post-Standard in Syracuse, and The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa., which won a Pulitzer Prize this year for its coverage of the Penn State sexual abuse scandal. Both papers will merge their content with Web sites and publish three times a week.

The conservative Web site Judicial Watch obtained documents showing that C.I.A. press officials discussed co-operating with the filmmakers Mark Boal and Kathryn Bigelow on their movie version of the killing of Osama Bin Laden. “I know we don't pick favorites but it makes sense to get behind a winning horse,” wrote one C.I.A. spokeswoman according to the emails. The documents can be found he re.

Marketers are licking their chops for the season kick-off of the National Football League, which has become not just the biggest thing on television but for many advertisers, the most efficient marketing delivery system, as well.

The cable powerhouse ESPN, which already owns its piece of the N.F.L. with its lucrative Monday night broadcasts and its seemingly neverending coverage of the league, doubled down on baseball, as well. The network has extended its deal with Major League Baseball until 2021 for about $700 million a season â€" double what it pays now.

Dutton has decided to move up publication of “No Easy Day” the first-person account of a Navy Seal member who participated in the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. The publisher, an imprint of Penguin, has also increased the first printing for the book, which is already No. 1 on the bestseller lists of Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The Associated Press obtained an early copy of the book, which sugg ests that Bin Laden did not present an imminent threat when he was killed, contrary to official accounts of the raid.

The New York Times found itself in the news twice Tuesday. First, it was revealed in the documents requested by Judicial Watch that the Times reporter Mark Mazzetti sent an advance copy of a Maureen Dowd column to a C.I.A. spokesperson.

Second, the company announced that Sally Singer, editor of the high-profile fashion magazine T, would be leaving the magazine and the company at the end of the month. The magazine had been struggling to maintain its luxury advertising revenue.

Wednesday Reading: A Great Time to Visit Martha\'s Vineyard

By ANN CARRNS

A variety of consumer-focused articles appears daily in The New York Times and on our blogs. Each weekday morning, we gather them together here so you can quickly scan the news that could hit you in your wallet.

Times Reporter Shared Maureen Dowd Column With C.I.A. Before Publication

By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY

A New York Times reporter provided a copy of a column written by the columnist Maureen Dowd to an official with the Central Intelligence Agency before it was published, a spokeswoman for the newspaper has confirmed.

The spokeswoman, Eileen Murphy, said the action by Mark Mazzetti, who covers national security issues from The Times's Washington bureau, was “a mistake that is not consistent with New York Times standards.”

Her statement offered some context: “Last August, Maureen Dowd asked Mark Mazzetti to help check a fact for her column,” she said. “In the course of doing so, he sent the entire column to a C.I.A. spokeswoman shortly before her deadline. He did this without the knowledge of Ms. Dowd.”

Both Ms. Dowd and Mr. Mazzetti declined to comment.

The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch discovered that Mr. Mazzetti had sent over the article before publication through a Freedom o f Information Act request.

The news site Politico reported the news on Tuesday. In an update to its post, Politico quoted The Times's managing editor, Dean Baquet, as saying: “I can't go into in detail. But I'm confident after talking to Mark that it's much ado about nothing.”

Reached via e-mail, Mr. Baquet referred questions to Ms. Murphy.

Sally Singer, Editor of The Times\'s T Magazine, Is Leaving

By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY

Sally Singer, the editor of The New York Times style magazine T for the last two years, is leaving.

Jill Abramson, the executive editor of The Times, said in a statement, “Sally's contributions are clear to anyone who's read the magazine during her tenure. Gorgeous visuals, interesting stories and enterprising features - both in print and online - have been hallmarks of her stewardship. We wish her every success.”

Ms. Singer joined the Times in 2010 from Vogue, where she worked for more than a decade and oversaw its fashion news and feature departments. She had also worked for New York Magazine and Elle.

In her editor's letter for the latest issue of T, dated Aug. 19, Ms. Singer thanked the three fashion editors who work for her. She wrote, “Without their eyes, the season's offerings could appear - even to me - to be just clothes and more clothes, a big, beautiful blur.”

Ms. Singer did not resp ond to a call and e-mail for comment.

Ms. Abramson said in her statement that The Times was looking to replace Ms. Singer immediately.

Negotiating Home Delivery of Your New Car

By ANN CARRNS

It might not be quite as easy as having a pizza delivered, but automotive site Edmunds.com advises that you can have your new car brought right to your home, instead of going to pick it up at the dealership.

Why would you want to do that? Buyers can spend hours on location at dealerships finalizing the purchase and delivery of a new car, Edmunds says. By having the car come to you, you can “eliminate waiting times and also the inevitable hard sell for additional products and services that takes place in the finance and insurance office,” the site advises.

Negotiating for a home delivery works best when you're shopping and bargaining for a car remotely-either online, or on the phone, says Philip Reed, senior consumer advice editor at Edmunds.com. But it could also be done if you're at the dealership, and it's particularly crowded and you don't want to wait around while the paperwork is finalized and the car is cleaned and otherwise readied for you.

The catch here is that you have to request delivery while you're in final stages of negotiations, Mr. Reed advises. You could negotiate the deal and then, before finally agreeing to it, say something like, “Well, I'd be happy to buy it today if you're willing to deliver it to my office or home. I just don't have time to get to the dealership.”

Why would a salesperson agree to this? He or she is eager to make a deal. “The dealership is looking to make you very happy,” he said.

Edmunds offers the following tips for getting home delivery:

1) There should be no additional cost for delivery within 50 miles of the dealership. If a car has to travel beyond that radius, consumers can expect a delivery fee of around $75.

2) When the car arrives, verify that the vehicle is the year, make and model you chose and that it has all the agreed-upon equipment. There should be no dings or scratch es and the odometer should read less than 100 miles.

3) Internet managers are increasingly more open to evaluating trade-ins sight unseen, so home delivery can be an option even if you're using a trade-in. A price range is often given to the buyer for the trade-in over the phone, and the final price is locked after an onsite inspection - at your home. (The dealership will send two people-usually, a salesperson and a porter, who runs errands for the dealership).

If you're skeptical that the trade-in portion of the delivery will go smoothly, Mr. Reed notes that online salespeople are getting quite savvy about pricing cars remotely, based on information like mileage (they can also get CarFax reports, showing the vehicle's history). You may be given a range for the trade in, rather than a hard price, subject to inspection, in case there are dings or scrapes you didn't mention.

Have you ever had a new car delivered to your home? How did it go?

Release of Book on Bin Laden Raid Is Moved Up a Week

By JULIE BOSMAN

In response to a crush of media attention, criticism and consumers clamoring to buy the book, the publisher behind the first-hand account of the Navy SEALs raid that killed Osama bin Laden has decided to move up the release date to next Tuesday.

Dutton, the imprint of Penguin that acquired the book in secret, said that “No Easy Day,” which will appear under the pseudonym Mark Owen, will go on sale Sept. 4, a week ahead of the planned date, Sept. 11.

“The publisher now feels it is important to put ‘No Easy Day' on sale and let the book speak for itself,” Dutton said in a statement.

The author defended himself in a statement to The Times on Tuesday. “ ‘No Easy Day' is a book that I'm proud to have written,” he said. “My hope is that it gives my fellow Americans a glimpse into how much of an honor it is to serve our country. It is written with respect for my fellow service members while adhering to my strict desire not to disclose confidential or sensitive information that would compromise national security in any way.”

The publisher and author have endured some public criticism for failing to provide a copy of the manuscript for government vetting before the book was announced. The Defense Department said last week that the author had violated department regulations requiring review of any official information intended for public release that relates to military matters, national security issues or subjects of significant concern to the department.

The Pentagon now has a copy of the book, a department spokesman said this week, but no immediate decisions will be made about the book.

Demand for the 336-page book has been enormous; it is currently No. 1 on the best-seller lists at Amazon.com and BN.com.

Christine Ball, a spokeswoman for Dutton, also said on Tuesday that the publisher had increased the planned print run to 575,000 hardcover copies from the original total, 300,000.

Less than 24 hours after the existence of the book was reported last Wednesday, the author, a former Navy SEAL who was present at Bin Laden's death, was revealed to be Matt Bissonnette, 36, who has been awarded five Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. Dutton declined to confirm his identity for security reasons.

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.

Magazines You Miss: From Skateboarder to Metropolitan Home, but Mainly Gourmet

By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY and NOAM COHEN

After more than 140 responses, what can we conclude from the answers of Media Decoder readers to the question, what magazine do you miss the most?

Gourmet, which published its last issue in November 2009, was the dearest of the dearly departed - appearing in more than a quarter of the comments left, a reaction that mirrored that huge response Media Decoder received when it reported the news about the magazine's closing.

Readers longed for the section that reviewed cookbooks and especially the holiday issues in November and December. One commenter, appearing under the journalistic nomme de plume Hildy Johnson, wrote, “I've tried filling the void with Bon Appetit or Saveur, but it's like eating nonfat yogurt instead of fresh custard.”

Other top contenders for most missed magazine included Spy, Talk, George, McCall's and House and Garden. (Bird Talk, which stopped printing this m onth prompting our question in the first place, got a few shout-outs as well.)

Readers wrote how they loved the way Spy used to rankle Donald Trump and how Talk Magazine was ahead of the curve on helicopter parenting. One vote for George, the magazine co-founded by John Kennedy Jr., appeared cynical: “Just because it was a great example of our media's navel-gazing and infatuation with celebrity in all its forms.”

Many readers took the question loosely, grieving over still-published magazines that commenters wrote had lost their way, stalwarts like The New Yorker (“which published really long, really substantive articles”), Rolling Stone (“when it mattered”), The New York Times magazine (“that used to be printed in a font size that was comfortably readable and wasn't the physical size of a comic book”) and Scientific American (when it “had a number of monthly columns like ‘The Amateur Scientist' that were gems of originality and laboratory crea tivity”).

With a similar looseness, some plainly “missed” magazines that they had only known in the past tense, like Alanis, who nominated The Masses, the radical magazine that was closed by the United States government in the red scare of 1917. Either that, or our readers are older than we thought.

A few commenters even listed catalogs, whether from B. Altman or Bonwitt Teller or more generally, as News Viewer wrote, “What kid didn't drool over the Christmas toy catalog?“

The comments often told a story. Some, sparingly, through a list of titles,like Erica's “Flair, Look, Gourmet, Connoisseur”; or Julie's “East-West Journal, Spy”; or JPL's “Premiere, Magazine of Invention and Technology, Biography, Psychotronic Film.”

Others, by telling of their experience following a single publication, as DennisD did: “I sorely miss Country Journal - a great magazine on rural living that I discovered in 1983, th en published by Blair & Ketchum. It had nice photos, informative how-to articles, and featured essayists such as Noel Perrin, Wendell Berry, Charles Elliott , etc. It later mutated into a suburbanite magazine, changed ownership and editors multiple times, and died a slow death by 2002. No magazine has ever filled its niche.”

The most intense reactions seemingly were for the magazines that had the smallest circulations.

Charlie Samuels wrote in a tribute to Skateboarder magazine, “It was our bible, our lifeline and our ONLY way of finding out what the rest of our microcosm was doing in the late '70's. I couldn't wait for my copy to come in the mail wrapped in brown paper. Its influence shaped the movement all the way to today and had incredible ads, writers and photographers â€" it inspired me to be one.”

The Tally

Gourmet: 40
Spy: 26
Domino: 12
House and Garden: 9
Premiere: 7
Brill's Content: 6
Life: 6
George: 5
Metropolitan Home: 5
Saturday Review: 5

Among the titles that gathered single votes were New Yorker Rocker, Grand Royal,  Big Brother and Suede. The polls are still open.

 

 

Is a Penny Rounded a Penny Lost? Ask Chipotle

By ANN CARRNS

My children are fans of the food at Chipotle Mexican Grill. Soft, fresh tacos; black beans; melted cheese - what's not to like? So I was intrigued when I read about a payment policy that the restaurant chain uses in some locations. It's called “rounding” (which, by coincidence, my daughter is learning about at elementary school).

The Consumerist recently riffed on a column in The Star-Ledger, which reported on Chipotle's practice of rounding the change in receipt totals for cash transactions at some restaurants. These locations do this so that cashiers don't have to handle lots of coins, which tends to slow the lines down. If you've ever been to Chipotle, you know that the food is dished out in assembly-line style, where you place your order and then walk along the counter, telling the staff that, yes, you'd like some guacamole, please, but hold the rice. You pay at the end of the line.

As The Consumerist pointed out, rounding to the nearest nickel isn't really a big deal, as long as the restaurant is rounding down. But if it rounds up, you pay extra - even if it's just a penny or two.

In one sense, this seems like a smart idea. Who wants excess change clogging up their pockets, anyway, especially if it means you'll get your food faster? But at least one customer objected to this “Chipotle-style math,” the New Jersey newspaper reported, and sent in his receipts for review:

“On the first, dated July 13, the nine items added up to $32.93. There was $2.31 in tax. The total should have been $35.24, but next to the ‘total' line on the receipt, it said $35.25. The next receipt, with the same sale date, showed a subtotal of $8.64. The tax was $0.60, so the grand total should have been $9.24. But no. With Chipotle-style math, the total was $9.25.”

I called a Chipotle spokesman, Chris Arnold, who said the chain uses rounding in a few “high vo lume” markets,  including New York, New Jersey and some locations in Boston. The idea is to reduce the time cashiers spend doling out pennies, to keep the lines moving quickly. (In some locations, he said, “there are lines out the door as soon as we open.”) The total, he said, was previously rounded either up or down, to the “nearest nickel.” The result generally was a wash for the restaurant, he said. And for most customers, he said, “I think generally it's been a nonissue.”

But a few penny-pinchers (my description, not Mr. Arnold's) did object. So as of August, he said, the chain is only rounding down. (Also, receipts should now have a line showing the impact of the rounding math.) He said he didn't know of other outlets that round receipts.

Do you think rounding of meal receipts - up or down - to eliminate pennies is a reasonable policy for a busy restaurant?

Newspapers in Syracuse and Harrisburg, Pa., to End Daily Distribution

August 28, 2012, 12:54 pm

By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY

Newhouse Newspapers, which earlier this spring announced that it would stop printing a daily paper at The New Orleans Times-Picayune and its Alabama newspapers, said it would end the daily distribution of two more of its newspapers, The Post-Standard in Syracuse, and The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa.

The papers will merge their content with local news Web sites and deliver the printed newspaper only three days a week.

Starting in January, The Post-Standard will publish on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The Syracuse Media Group, the company formed to oversee The Post-Standard, is still considering whether to publish a newspaper that it would not deliver to homes and businesses on the other f our days.

The news prompted more than 100 comments by readers on the Web site Syracuse.com who expressed their concerns about life without a daily newspaper.

One reader wrote: “If we lose the ‘fourth estate' which slowly appears to be diminishing, government at all levels will run wild. Hopefully, the new business model will work and I would be willing to pay a reasonable fee to retain local reporting.”

It's even less clear what the future publishing schedule looks like for The Patriot News. According to the Web site PennLive.com, executives still have not decided what days they will publish a newspaper (other than Sunday) and are doing more research on what are the best days to print. But they plan to introduce a new publishing schedule in January.

John Kirkpatrick, president and publisher of The Patriot-News, wrote in a letter to readers that he planned to increase the amount of online coverage and continue produ cing higher quality journalism. “The plan to reinvent ourselves into a digitally focused organization with a quality print product three days a week is aimed at making sure that kind of work continues long into the future,” Mr. Kirkpatrick wrote.

Sara Ganim, a Patriot-News crime reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of the Penn State scandal, shared details about the announcement from a live meeting for the newsroom on Twitter. She said the paper planned to keep just as many pages, only condensed into three days. But it appeared that many details still had to be worked out.

Ms. Ganim wrote: “There are unanswered? s. price of paper, which days will publish, no. of positions, organization mode.”

While readers lamented the end of their daily paper on PennLive.com, they also pleaded with executives at the new publishing company to improve the quality of the Web site.

One reader wrote, “I hope before this begins (January) that you do something about the bouncing when you scroll down a page, the LONG time for opening a page and general confusion on some pages. My PC is up-to-date and high-speed, so that's not the problem.”

David Farre, editor of PennLive.com, told readers that there will be improvements to the Web site soon.

The Breakfast Meeting: Isaac Still Stealing the Show, and Signs of Apple v. Google

By NOAM COHEN

Tropical Storm Isaac on Tuesday was fast becoming a hurricane, with landfall expected Tuesday evening along the Mississippi and Louisiana coastlines, Campbell Robertson reported, with officials warning that the greatest danger could be from flooding, rather than the winds. For now, the networks were leaving their anchors 700 miles away in Tampa to cover the Republican National Convention, Jeremy W. Peters reported. Still the networks said they were being flexible in their planning; for example, NBC said it was prepared to send Brian Williams to New Orleans if the storm strengthened to a strong Category 2 or 3 hurricane.

• The Republican convention may have been postponed, in deference to Isaac, which had been thought to be heading toward Tampa, but the media coverage continued, Alessandra Stanley writes. The reporters and anchors in skyboxes didn't have any convention activities to cover, so their comments frequently went to a storm that took almost the exact same path on almost the exact day seven years ago: Hurricane Katrina.
• While the storm has certainly complicated the Republicans' planning, it also raises questions for President Obama's re-election campaign, Michael D. Shear writes. The Obama campaign had planned an aggressive posture in response to Mitt Romney's official nomination, but, depending on the severity of the storm, such partisanship could come off badly.
• On his daily radio show, Rush Limbaugh focused in on the initial model projections that showed Tropical Storm Isaac as likely to strike Tampa, Politico reported. He insisted that he wasn't saying there was a conspiracy, but on Monday he noted that the projections had cast a pall on the proceedings even before they had started: “I'm not alleging conspiracies here. The Hurricane center is the regime; the Hurricane center is the Commerce Department. It's the government. It's Obama.”

For all the sig nificance of Apple's courtroom victory over Samsung, which led to a jury's $1 billion damage award for patent infringement, an even larger fight could be looming, Claire Cain Miller and Brian X. Chen report: Apple v. Google. The Samsung products that Apple challenged use Google's Android software, and as Google begins to develop its own hardware, it will potentially face the same kinds of allegations unless it makes important modifications in design. In the background are comments made by Steven P. Jobs to his biographer, Walter Isaacson, about Android, calling it a “stolen product,” and adding, “I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”

• On Monday Apple asked a federal judge to order eight Samsung products pulled off the shelves, in light of its courtroom victory. However, experts said that it was unlikely that a judge would grant the request.

Tuesday Reading: Treating Illness When The Mango Bites Back

By ANN CARRNS

A variety of consumer-focused articles appears daily in The New York Times and on our blogs. Each weekday morning, we gather them together here so you can quickly scan the news that could hit you in your wallet.

AMC Ad Uses Snarky Blog Post to Mock Dish Network

By STUART ELLIOTT

Does the snarkiness of a blog post translate for a mainstream, general audience? A cable company is hoping to find out.

The company, AMC Networks, ran an ad on the back cover of the Aug. 24-26 issue of USA Weekend that reprints excerpts from the Mediaite blog.

The ad is the most recent riposte from AMC Networks in a dispute with Dish Network, which began at the end of June.

As part of the dispute, Dish dropped three channels owned by AMC Networks - AMC, IFC and WE tv - and replaced them with HDNet Movies, HDNet and Style. The Mediaite post, which went up on July 2, was a sardonic take on the substitutions. “Don't Worry Dish Subscribers!” began the headline on the blog post. “Here Are Some Perfectly Good Shows You Can Watch Now That You Lost AMC.”

The post, by Jon Bershad, mockingly suggested “Bikini Barbershop: Jersey” on HDNet could replace “Mad Men” on AMC an d, tongue firmly in cheek, proposed “Tia & Tamera” on Style as an alternative to “Breaking Bad” on AMC.

Earlier Coverage of Dish Network-AMC Fight

Stuart Elliott has been the advertising columnist at The New York Times since 1991. Follow @stuartenyt on Twitter and sign up for In Advertising, his weekly e-mail newsletter by clicking here.

Don\'t Let the Original Price Haunt Your Decision to Sell

By CARL RICHARDS

Carl Richards is a certified financial planner in Park City, Utah, and is the director of investor education at BAM Advisor Services. His book, “The Behavior Gap,” was published this year. His sketches are archived on the Bucks blog.

Over the last few weeks, there has been a lot of chatter about Facebook stock. The headlines all seem to echo each other by focusing on the opening price:

• “Facebook gains after dropping under $19, half of initial public offering price” [Washington Post]
• “Facebook hits record low for third straight session, falls to less than half of IPO price” [Mercury News]
• “Facebook stock falls below half its IPO price” [Los Angeles Times]

These headlines are a prime example of our very human tendency to anchor to a number, and it's usually the first number we see. In this instance, they're referring to the number $38, Facebook's initial public offering p rice.

But here's the deal: the decision to buy, sell or skip Facebook stock shouldn't have much to do with its opening price of $38.

Because we're human and we like anchors, that $38 price is hard to ignore. Anchoring can lead us to make mistakes with other money decisions, too. For instance, Derek Thompson, writing for The Atlantic, highlighted how that first number can impact your buying decisions:

You walk into a high-end store, let's say it's Hermès, and you see a $7,000 bag. “Haha, that's so stupid!” you tell your friend. “Seven grand for a bag!” Then you spot an awesome watch for $367. Compared to a Timex, that's wildly overexpensive. But compared to the $7,000 price tag you just put to memory, it's a steal. In this way, stores can massage or “anchor” your expectations for spending.

It's common to see a version of anchoring when people are selling their homes. Not surprisingly, most sellers mentally start with the price they paid. Depending on the market and other factors, they may play around with that number a bit, but it's hard not to anchor to that original price.

Let's say a family bought a home for $300,000 back before the housing market crashed. Over time, the house climbed in value, but then the market came to a screeching halt, and the home's value dropped. Then the homeowners got a job offer in another city, so it's time to sell. Even though they know the market has gone down, it's hard to forget that they originally paid $300,000.

So they list the house for $300,000. A few weeks and then months go by, and finally there's an offer for $275,000. Because of anchoring, it can be incredibly hard for the homeowners to weigh the offer on its merits. After all, they already had a number in their heads.

We carry sets of numbers in our heads in so many ways, and without realizing it, those numbers can weigh down our decisions. In stead of acting in a way that best suits our needs, we get stuck because the numbers don't match. Maybe we bought a stock for $100, determined after a time that it didn't fit our goals anymore and decided to sell it. But the stock now sits at $75. Do you still sell or do you wait? You'll find it's incredibly tempting to wait in the hope the stock will get back to $100.

Numbers matter, but you need to avoid the trap of anchoring to a single number and making it the primary guidepost for your decision. The first number will rarely be the number that should matter the most to you. As I've discussed before, the only number that matters when you need to sell is the price today.

 

Why You Have 49 Different FICO Scores

August 27, 2012, 11:30 am

By ANN CARRNS

As a consumer, you hear a lot about the importance of maintaining a good credit “score.” Most often, that means your FICO score - the score developed by the company of the same name to help lenders evaluate the creditworthiness of a potential borrower. But it probably makes more sense to talk about your credit “scores,” plural.

That's because other outfits produce credit scores, too - and FICO itself has many different varieties of scores, depending on the type of loan you're seeking. In fact, John Ulzheimer, a credit expert, has worked with Creditsesame.com to create a snazzy infographic (which you can click on above, and then zoom in on) showing a total of 49 different versions of your credit score under the FICO umbrella.

That's right, more than four dozen. Why so many?

FICO created the basic formula - the general purpose FICO, if you will - that is used to crunch consumer credit data for all loan types. The credit data is collected by the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) and analyzed by FICO to create a single, three-digit score. So there's three versions of the basic score, just for starters.

But FICO also has several other versions, customized for the specific type of loan in question - say, an automobile loan, a mortgage or a credit card. Each is also offered by the credit bureaus, under their own brands. And each version may have multiple releases, as FICO's formula for crunching the data is updated. So you can see how the versions pretty quickly add up to nearly fifty.

All this can be very confusing for consumers, Mr. Ulzheimer says, who may wonder, “Why is the score I get here not the same as what they get there?”

That issue is currently under review by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, because consumers may pay for a credit score from various consumer Web sites but get a generic FICO or other score, which may differ from the actual score a lender is using to evaluate their creditworthiness.

For now, the main point to keep in mind, Mr. Ulzheimer says, is that the same general principal applies to keeping your scores attractive to lenders: Pay your bills on time, maintain low credit-card balances and apply for credit only when you really need it, “not to save 10 percent at the mall,” he said.

Have you paid for your credit score recently? Did you find it useful?