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.
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The Impact on Clients When Financial Advisers Move On
Paul Sullivan writes in his Wealth Matters column this week about financial advisers who are moving to another firm or setting out on their own. The phenomenon, Paul says, has increased since the tumult of the financial crisis.
Many of these advisers' clients probably don't care much about the changes, Paul writes, as long as they continue to get the same service.
But clients really do have a choice. If they were happy with their investments, they may not necessarily have the same options at the new firm. Some clients, though, may have developed a good relationship with their advisers and are loathe to turn over their holdings to someone new. Either way, a time of change offers an opportunity for cl ients to rethink how their investments are handled.
Has your financial adviser ever moved on? What was your experience?
Housing, Divorce and Your Special Needs Relative
In this weekend's Your Money column, I try to get beyond the financial checklist items (like wills, trusts and government benefits) that you encounter when you have a family member with special needs, and talk about the issues that tend to weigh on people's emotions.
The first is the question of where a family member will live, and it's an expensive one if they do not qualify for Social Security or Medicaid or some other form of public assistance that foots the bill. The second is the fear of divorce - a possibility given the stress of raising a child with special needs. Divorce can be financially devastating even under normal circumstances, let alone when you have a child with long-term costs that you hope to help pay throughout that child's life.
For people who have family members with special needs, how did you decide whether to have them live with you? And what specific strategies did you use to try to keep your marriage or partnership strong?
The Breakfast Meeting: Raddatz Draws a Partisan Split and What Republicans and Democrats Watch
A moderate can't win the White House. Could a moderator? Martha Raddatz received rave reviews last night from one side of the aisle for her moderation of the vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. Much more active and probing than Jim Lehrer was in the first presidential debate, Ms. Raddatz drew widespread praise from people like Glenn Greenwald and Bill Maher and as Brian Stelter noted, the “Raddatz for President†started early on Twitter. On the other side of the aisle, critics accused her of coddling the vice-president and being rude to Mr. Ryan. “The worst moderator†tweeted Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, and Karl Rove simply tweeted, “I miss Jim Lehrer.â€
Some cliches p rove true. According to research released by TiVo, Republicans prefer watching golf; Democrats cartoons. The research looked at TiVo users across the country and correlated the results to voter registration. According to the findings, Republicans disproportionately watch gold, NASCAR, NCAA basketball and reality shows like “The Amazing Race,†“The Biggest Loser,†“Pawn Stars†and “Cool Pools.†Democrats favor cartoons like “American Dad,†“The Cleveland Show,†N.B.A. basketball, “Mad Man†and comedies, especially “30 Rock.†And needless to say, both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are on the Democratic list. Other research looked at the partisan split over news viewing and the takeaway: all three evening network newscasts draw Democrats disproportionately. CNN's biggest skew was among independents. No points for guessing how Fox News and MSNBC finished.
How did Big Bird become the Joe the Plumber of this election? After Mitt Romney advoc ated cutting the PBS budget in last week's debate, executives at the public broadcaster were suddenly thrust into the middle of a political maelstrom. There have been political attacks on PBS since its inception but, as Brian Stelter and Elizabeth Jensen write, “Paula A. Kerger, the PBS chief executive, however, said she could not recall a time when a presidential candidate had opposed the financing in so public a forum. ‘We sprang into action quickly,' said Ms. Kerger, who “dropped everything†the day after the debate to answer questions from the news media.†The Obama campaign seized on the issue, releasing this sarcastic video: “It's not Wall Street you have to worry about. It's Sesame Street.â€. In reply, Mr. Romney told The Des Moines Register, ““The people from ‘Sesame Street' have made it clear that Big Bird is quite profitable.â€
Erica Hill Moving to NBC for Weekend Edition of \'Today\'
Erica Hill, who was removed from the weekday morning show on CBS over the summer, is jumping to NBC.
Ms. Hill will soon be named a co-host of the weekend edition of “Today,†according to people with knowledge of the appointment, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about it ahead of time.
“Weekend Today†is currently hosted by Lester Holt on Saturday and Sunday and co-hosted by Jenna Wolfe on Sunday. Earlier this year the co-host on Saturday, Amy Robach, took a job at ABC.
A spokeswoman for “Today†declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for CBS News. Ms. Hill did not respond to a request for comment.
Ms. Hill joined CBS in 2010 from CNN, wher e she was a news anchor and correspondent for Anderson Cooper's nightly newscast. She was a co-host of “The Early Show†and the harder-edged morning show, “CBS This Morning,†that replaced it.
In July CBS executives replaced Ms. Hill with Norah O'Donnell, the network's chief White House correspondent (and a former news anchor of “Weekend Todayâ€). CBS tried to find a new role for Ms. Hill at the network, but expected that she might look elsewhere. Her expected hiring by NBC was reported by The New York Post earlier Friday.
A version of this article appeared in print on 10/13/2012, on page C2 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Erica Hill Is Moving to a New Job at NBC.
President Obama to Appear as Guest on \'The Daily Show\' on Oct. 18
5:33 p.m. | Updated Perhaps looking for another outlet to reach his base constituency, President Obama has agreed to appear as a guest with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's “The Daily Show†on Oct. 18.
The President can probably expect to have to fend off some comic assaults from Mr. Stewart about his first debate performance; like other late-night hosts Mr. Stewart has eviscerated Mr. Obama for that appearance last week.
But this guest appearance will come two days after the second presidential debate, and the story of the first may have been superseded by then â€" and will likely have been punctuated by other late-night comedy coverage tied to that perform ance.
This will be Mr. Obama's second time appearing as a guest on Mr. Stewart's show since he became president.
Talk at Ad Conference Turns to Risk, Failure and Mistakes
ORLANDO, Fla. - Advertising ought to be more of a risky business, according to some of the more interesting and best-received speakers at a major marketing conference.
The speakers addressed the 2012 annual conference of the Association of National Advertisers. More than 2,000 people are attending the conference, which began Wednesday and is to conclude Saturday.
Lisa Cochrane, senior vice president for marketing at the Allstate Insurance Company, praised the value of “a big disruptive idea†in describing how Allstate came to introduce a risk-taking campaign in 2010 that is centered on a dark character named Mayhem, who personifies what Allstate believes are the dangers of buying insurance sole ly on price.
“Very early on, Mayhem was nearly killed,†Ms. Cochrane said, by Allstate agents who were nervous about the premise of the campaign and concerned it would clash with the more mainstream “Good hands†ads featuring the actor Dennis Haysbert.
“There was a lot of internal pressure to kill it, but I knew Mayhem was the right idea at the right time,†she confided. “I bravely told everyone to calm down and back off and give us a couple of days.â€
The Mayhem ads, which feature the actor Dean Winters, were meant to help Allstate “take back the conversation†from insurers selling policies on price, Ms. Cochrane said, “and get people as uncomfortable with their insurance status quo as we were with our marketing status quo.â€
The campaign has been successful on several fronts, she added, including an increase in consumers seeking quotes from Allstate agents and the character's becoming part of the cultural vernacular. Even the 2013 calendar that agents will give to customers will feature Mayhem, Ms. Cochrane said.
As a surprise for the audience at the general session at which Ms. Cochrane appeared on Friday, Mr. Winters joined her for her presentation, behaving in character as Mayhem and wreaking havoc. And his 2013 Allstate calendars were stacked in the back of the room for the audience.
Ms. Cochrane's parting advice: “Don't be afraid to jump into the mayhem, and create your own.â€
Another speaker on Friday, Alison E. Lewis, senior vice president of marketing for North America at the Coca-Cola Company, outlined how the company began in 2005 to tackle the task of stimulating demand for the Coke brand in North America when soft drinks were under attack “from a health and wellness standpoint†and “we weren't delivering steady, predictable growth.â€
“We had to figure out how to make consumers fall in love with our brand again,†s he said.
Among the risky moves was “stepping back and focusing on fundamentals,†Ms. Lewis said, by simplifying logo and brand graphics, rethinking packaging, adjusting pricing and concentrating on “one central idea†in advertising, that “Coke brings joy.â€
One “huge risk†was an online promotion for the 2012 Super Bowl that asked consumers to watch the Coke polar bear characters at the same time they watched the game, she added, and another was changing the classic red Coke cans to white for a cause marketing effort to help polar bears in partnership with the World Wildlife Federation.
Both initiatives were deemed to be hits, Ms. Lewis said, but “we didn't succeed in all the things we tried.â€
“If you don't take bold risks, you don't break through,†she added.
Another speaker on Friday, James D. Farley, group vice president for global marketing, sales and service at the Ford Motor Company, also acknowledged that his com pany had made mistakes in marketing, but said he considered them learning experiences.
For instance, a campaign to encourage consumers to test-drive the new Ford Focus “didn't work at all,†Mr. Farley said, because it was global when it should have been done on a local level. “But we got it right with the next launch,†he added, of the Ford Ranger truck.
And a prime-time television series on NBC, “Escape Routes,†to promote the new Ford Escape “maybe wasn't the best idea,†Mr. Farley said, because it did such a good job of publicizing the new model that dealers were forced to discount old models to move them off their lots.
An initiative to build interest in a new Ford Fiesta before its United States introduction by giving it to 100 young drivers to try out before the official release, however, turned out to be a risk worth taking, he added.
“You can imagine†the concerns among senior managers, Mr. Farley said. “‘What if someon e smokes weed in the car?' ‘What if someone has an accident?'â€
“And we did have incidents,†he added, but the initiative helped generate a brand awareness level of 58 percent for Fiesta before its introduction, along with 52,000 test drives.
As a result of the initiative, Mr. Farley said, Ford even decided to add “a Red Bull-size cup holder in Fiesta†because the young drivers asked for it.
“Boy, did we learn from that,†he added.
Other speakers during the conference have been forthcoming about mistakes, too, among them Marc S. Pritchard, global marketing and brand building officer at Procter & Gamble, who talked about mishaps with marketing the Pantene line of hair care products, and Kimberly Kadlec, worldwide vice president for the global marketing group at Johnson & Johnson, who described an effort in Canada to mollify customers upset about a shortage of the company's O.B. tampons.
But mea culpas sometimes go only so far. For instance, Ms. Kadlec was silent on the continual problems with quality control that have kept Johnson & Johnson products like Tylenol and Pepcid off store shelves in the United States for months at a time.
Vice-Presidential Debate Draws More Than 50 Million Viewers
Thursday's televised debate between Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Representative Paul D. Ryan attracted well over 50 million people - a significant chunk of the public, but a smaller total than the debate between the presidential candidates last week.
Nielsen, a television ratings company, estimated Friday that 51.4 million viewers watched at home on one of the 12 rated networks that showed the debate. Nielsen's total did not include television viewers in offices, restaurants, bars, or other areas, nor did it include any Web viewers.
The Oct. 3 debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney garnered about 67.2 million viewers at home, according to Nielsen, and untold millions more via the W eb.
Unlike Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney, Mr. Biden and Mr. Ryan had stiff competition from two big sporting events: a baseball playoff game between the Yankees and the Orioles and an NFL match-up between the Steelers and the Titans. Both games were watched by between 5 and 6 million viewers, potentially deflating the vice presidential debate audience.
Back in 2008, Mr. Biden and the Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin attracted 69.9 million TV viewers at home - a record for any debate of vice presidential running mates.
Nielsen said in a news release Friday: “The 2008 Biden-Palin debate notwithstanding, last night's political tête-à -tête had the highest V.P. debate viewership since the George H.W. Bush-Geraldine Ferarro debate in 1984. That debate nabbed 56.7 million viewers.â€
The favored network for the debate on Thursday night was the Fox News Channel. It drew slightly more than 10 million viewers between 9 and 10:30 p.m., almost two million more than the next-highest-rated network, CBS. Among the cable news channels, MSNBC, with 4.4 million viewers, slightly outrated CNN.
TiVo, which makes digital video recorders, said that the most-rewound segment of the debate among its users was Mr. Biden and Mr. Ryan's 9:28 p.m. exchange about Mr. Romney's comment about the “47 percent.â€
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