Politicians and Their Personal Finances

For this weekend's Your Money column, I tried to profile the poorest members of Congress in all the land. Given the limited financial disclosures that our elected representatives must make, which the Center for Responsive Politics does a nice job of collecting in one place, it's hard to say for sure who has the lowest net worth.

But Representative Joe Walsh, who is in a tough re-election battle, is probably among the poorest. He has also had his personal finances laid bare in the last couple of years. Chicago-area reporters have revealed tax liens, driver's license suspensions, a child support dispute, a foreclosure and other issues.

At what point should politicians' financial troubles keep you from giving them your vote? Should a single foreclosure be disqualifying? An accusation of being behind in child support payments, even one that is later resolved, as Representative Walsh's was? And is a pattern of such problems over time evidence of a kind of irresponsi bility that simply goes too far? Or is it a sad sort of behavioral problem that may not transfer into how someone would handle the public's money?

Politicians and Their Personal Finances

For this weekend's Your Money column, I tried to profile the poorest members of Congress in all the land. Given the limited financial disclosures that our elected representatives must make, which the Center for Responsive Politics does a nice job of collecting in one place, it's hard to say for sure who has the lowest net worth.

But Representative Joe Walsh, who is in a tough re-election battle, is probably among the poorest. He has also had his personal finances laid bare in the last couple of years. Chicago-area reporters have revealed tax liens, driver's license suspensions, a child support dispute, a foreclosure and other issues.

At what point should politicians' financial troubles keep you from giving them your vote? Should a single foreclosure be disqualifying? An accusation of being behind in child support payments, even one that is later resolved, as Representative Walsh's was? And is a pattern of such problems over time evidence of a kind of irresponsi bility that simply goes too far? Or is it a sad sort of behavioral problem that may not transfer into how someone would handle the public's money?

Wired Magazine\'s Editor, Chris Anderson, to Step Down

Kevin Moloney for The New York Times Chris Anderson, who is leaving as the editor of Wired magazine, in 2011 with one of his airplane drones.

Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired magazine, is leaving to devote more time to the drone company he has been developing.

Mr. Anderson, who joined Wired in 2001, said Friday he would leave by the end of the year to work full time on running his start-up, the San Diego-based 3D Robotics. According to the company's Web site, it designs personal drones for private customers.

“This is an opportunity for me to pursue an entrepreneurial dream,” Mr. Anderson said in a st atement. “I'm confident that Wired's mission to influence and chronicle the digital revolution is stronger than ever and will continue to expand and evolve.”

In an interview last December with Tabitha Soren on Bloomberg, Mr. Anderson said he had been working on the company for three years. He expected that there would be plenty of demand in the private market for drones and that they ultimately could replace more costly helicopters.

Mr. Anderson said he personally used a drone to check out the Google campus. Drones, he said, “don't get bored. They don't charge overtime. They're not unionized.”

Wired has experienced some growth in advertising dollars and a steady rise in circulation as other magazines have been struggling. Anderson told Bloomberg that his company was profitable by its third year.

“We sell products for more than they cost,” said Mr. Anderson.

A Measure of Protection, Just in Case

In his Wealth Matters column this week, Paul Sullivan talks about protecting your assets in case you're sued. While he notes that you can never completely protect yourself, you can take steps to discourage people from pursuing you.

A big mistake that many people make, a wealth adviser told Paul, is that they assume the worst will never happen to them. But if nothing else, Hurricane Sandy - a storm that seemed to come out of nowhere - serves as a reminder that the worst can happen.

Tell us about your efforts to protect your assets for yourself or your heirs. What did you learn from the experience? And what advice can you offer to others?

So Far, Clear Channel\'s Digital Strategy Is Breaking Even

The digital future is coming to radio, eventually.

For now, Internet radio still represents a small portion of the radio listening audience. And, according to the latest earnings report from Clear Channel Communications, a radio giant that has been moving aggressively into the streaming world, its value is still unclear.

The Clear Channel all-purpose online music brand iHeartRadio attracted advertising in the latest quarter that helped offset losses from more traditional kinds of broadcasting. Yet the costs associated with streaming music weighed down what otherwise would have been savings on the terrestrial radio side.

In results reported Friday by CC Media Holdings, Clear Channel's parent company, the media and entertainment division, which includes radio, had $799 million in revenue for the third quarter, up 0.9 percent from the same period last year, and the division's earnings grew 2.6 percent to $310 million.

CC Media Holdings, which also inc ludes separate outdoor advertising divisions, had $1.59 billion in revenue over all, up only $4 million from last year, and its net loss narrowed to $39 million from $67 million. The holding company's operating income before depreciation, amortization and noncash compensation expenses, its preferred method of measuring earnings, was unchanged at $480 million.

In the radio division, small gains were partly canceled out by corresponding losses. Its radio revenue grew 3 percent from increased national advertising and from ads and sponsorship related to iHeartRadio; a two-day music festival in Las Vegas in September with Taylor Swift, Green Day and others drew an audience of 14 million across various platforms. But those gains were offset by losses from Clear Channel's newly acquired traffic reporting service.

Conversely, operating savings on the terrestrial side met rising costs related to streaming music. Clear Channel's media division had $12.9 million in operatin g cost savings for the quarter, including a $4.9 million reduction in music licensing fees as a result of new royalty agreements with the performing rights organizations Ascap and BMI. With all the iHeartRadio promotion, however, those savings were partly offset, the company said, by unspecified increases in streaming costs as a result of the growing online audience.

Only 5 percent of the listening to Clear Channel's various stations is done online. But that share is climbing fast, and the company has been preparing for a greater shift. It supports the Internet Radio Fairness Act, a bill in Congress that has been championed by Pandora, which could reduce royalty rates. (Music groups loudly oppose the bill.)

Along the same lines, Clear Channel has also begun making novel licensing deals with record companies. Only three of these deals have been made, with small independent labels, but for the music industry and Clear Channel they represent a potential breakthrough : the labels would for the first time make money when their songs were played on terrestrial radio as well as online, and Clear Channel would limit its growing royalty bills for online streaming.

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

Publishing Losses Weigh on Martha Stewart Earnings

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced a big third-quarter loss on Friday morning, driven largely by the poor performance of its publishing unit. The net loss was $50.8 million, or 85 cents a share, compared with $9.7 million, or 36 cents a share, in the same period the year before.

“Our performance in the quarter was in line with our expectations but not our ambitions for the company,” Lisa Gersh, the company's president and chief executive, said in a statement.

The company's three-pronged business, which depends on revenue from publishing, broadcasting and merchandising, benefited from a modest rise in revenue from its merchandising operation. But they were not enough to compensate for the losses incurred by its magazines. Revenue in the publishing division fell to $27.6 million, from $33.2 million in the same period last year, and operating losses totaled $51.3 million, including a $44.3 million noncash write-down.

The announcement capped a rou gh week for the company, which lost its power at its Manhattan offices and had to use phone and e-mail to inform the staff about layoffs and cutbacks at two of its four magazines. On Thursday afternoon, the company said it would lay off about 70 of its 600 employees. It also announced it would cut back publishing the magazine Everyday Food from 10 issues to five and no longer sell it as a standalone magazine. It is becoming a supplement that will be sold with Martha Stewart Living.

The company is also selling Whole Living Magazine. If it does not find a buyer, the company will stop printing Whole Living by the year's end.

Michael Kupinski, director of research for Noble Financial Capital Markets, said he was more optimistic because he had a clearer perspective of the company since “they've gotten rid of so many money-losing assets.”

He added: “The loss came in a little bit better that I was anticipating. To me this is probably one of the best opportun ities to take a good look at Martha Stewart.”

The Breakfast Meeting: Martha Stewart Retrenches, and Romney Stagecraft

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia on Thursday announced cuts to its business, Christine Haughney reported, laying off 70 people (12 percent of its staff) and scaling back two of its four magazines. The company's three divisions - publishing, merchandising and broadcasting - have all experienced declining income in recent years, but the latest cuts go to the heart of the company, its publishing division, which still provides 64 percent of total revenue, according to the latest public filings.

Government officials used social networking to get the message out about Hurricane Sandy as never before, reflecting the public's increasing reliance on smartphones to get news and information, Brian Stelter and Jennifer Preston reported. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York is data driven in his Twitter messages; Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey at times has turned wistful about the damage in his state. David Bednarz, a deputy communications manager for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy of Conne cticut, explained the changed media landscape: “We have found that many people do not own battery-operated radios anymore and can't listen to the governor's live news briefings. Using their cellphones, Twitter was the last resource they had available to them to find out what was happening while they were stuck in their homes with no power.”

• NBC networks, as well as HBO, plan to air a telethon Friday night for victims of Hurricane Sandy, Brian Stelter and Dave Itzkoff report, while ABC has taken a different tack: the network said it would turn Monday into a “Day of Giving,” starting with “Good Morning America” and ending with “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” to encourage donations to the American Red Cross.

In a case viewed as important test of press freedoms in Greece, a court on Friday acquitted an investigative journalist who was accused of breaking privacy laws by publishing the names of more than 2,000 Greeks believed to be holding Swiss bank a ccounts, Liz Alderman reports. The list published by the journalist, Kostas Vaxevanis, in his magazine, Hot Doc, had been handed to the Greek authorities to help crack down on tax evasion, to little effect. Mr. Vaxevanis quoted George Orwell in court, The Guardian reported: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations. As such it was my duty to reveal this list.”

The advance team for Mitt Romney has a daunting challenge, Ashley Parker writes: namely, to produce “Hollywood-caliber events with a fraction of a film director's time and budget.” The concerns can seem similar - trying to film when the light is golden, picking the music to score the event - but the number of moving parts can be daunting. For one appearance in Lancaster, Ohio, on an October Friday that Ms. Parker tracked from planning to execution, there was the high school football game to consider, as well as parking being used by a local fair a nd a combine demolition derby.

Noam Cohen edits and writes for the Media Decoder blog. Follow @noamcohen on Twitter.

Friday Reading: No SAT in Several States Due to Storm

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.

• Gasoline runs short, adding to woes after Hurricane Sandy. (N.Y./Region)
• In crisis, public officials embrace social media. (National)
• Little federal help for long-term unemployed. (Business)
• Westin hotels lend gear so travelers can exercise. (Business)
• Consumer confidence and spending are rising, reports show. (Business)
• Advocates work to save ex-racehorses from slaughter. (Sports)
• N.Y.C. Marathon presses on as backlash builds. (Sports)
• Hurricane puts big dent in auto business. (Wheels)
• What cellphone carriers say about hurricane recovery. (Bits)
• Headphones that blend fashion and performance. (Gadgetwise)
• How to keep electronics going with no power. (Pogue's Posts)
• How to bypass the nursing home-hospital revolving door. (The New Old Age)
• SAT canceled in several states due to storm. (The Choice)
• To book a hotel in New York call, don't surf. (In Transit)