Magazine Cover Draws Claims of Racism

A Bloomberg Businessweek magazine cover published Feb. 25 about the housing rebound in the United States â€" featuring cartoonish minorities holding fistfuls of money â€" has drawn intense criticism from readers and media critics, some of whom have described the cover as racist.

The Feb. 25 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek.

“Our cover illustration last week got strong reactions, which we regret,” Josh Tyrangiel, the magazine’s editor, said in a statement on Thursday. “Our intention was not to incite or offend. If we had to do it over again we’d do it differently.”

But his statement came too late to head off pointed criticism online. Some posts on Twitter called it a “non-apology,” and by Thursday afternon, a handful of people had signed an online petition urging the company to pull the cover. (A new issue, however, is already on newsstands.)

Matthew Yglesias, a business correspondent at Slate, prompted much of the online commentary after questioning the cover in a post on the Web site Thursday morning. While praising the publication for being “a genuinely great magazine that does an amazing job of making business and economics news accessible and interesting,” he said Bloomberg Businessweek “ought to be ashamed” for its cover choice.

Ryan Chittum, at the Columbia Journalism Review, said the cover was “clearly a mistakeâ! € because of “its cast of black and Hispanic caricatures with exaggerated features reminiscent of early 20th-century race cartoons.” What made it even more offensive, Mr. Chittum wrote, “is the fact that race has been a key backdrop to the subprime crisis.”

In a statement, Andres Guzman, the illustrator who created the cover, said, “The assignment was an illustration about housing. I simply drew the family like that because those are the kind of families I know. I am Latino and grew up around plenty of mixed families.” According to Mr. Guzman’s Tumblr page, he was born in Lima, Peru and lives in Minneapolis.

In an interview, Hugo Balta, the president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, said the cover “continues to speak to the insensitivity of how minorities, and in this case Latinos, are being portrayed in media.”

“I think it oversimplifies an issue that obviously has tremendous financial impact to he country, and it also puts a face to a community that is too often vulnerable to those types of attacks,” Mr. Balta said. “If we go with the old saying that a picture is worth a thousands words, the message in this picture is that it’s the minority’s fault.”

Mr. Balta said he planned to contact Bloomberg Businessweek to discuss the issue.

Gregory Lee Jr., the president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said in a statement, “The image that was published by Bloomberg Businessweek is just a microcosm of a bigger problem in the magazine industry â€" the lack of diversity.”

“The last presidential election demonstrated that our nation’s demographics are changing rapidly and it is essential that media companies should make the appropriate changes to welcome diversity in their newsrooms, specifically in managerial positions,” Mr. Lee said.

Dish Network Takes to Twitter in Battle With Broadcasters Over Ad-Skipping DVR

The Dish Network’s battle with broadcasters over a tricked-out digital video recorder called the Hopper has come to Twitter.

Dish on Thursday accused CBS of telling one of the network’s stars, Kaley Cuoco of “The Big Bang Theory,” to take down a Twitter message promoting the Hopper to her 1.2 million followers. For whatever reason, Ms. Cuoco deleted the message. The odd episode gave Dish’s chief executive, Joe Clayton, a chance to say on Twitter: “It’s disappointing that CBS â€" once the exemplar of editorial independence and innovation â€" continues to use its heavy hand to hold back progress from consumers.”

Arguably CBS won the quote war though, with this statement a few hours later: “Once again, Joe Clayton demonstrates his dubious gift for hyperbole and hucksterism. No demands were made, but it’s clear that Dish’s culture of fabrication is alive and well.”

Let’s pause right there. This isn’t really about Ms. Cuoco, it’s about copyright and consumer righs. Dish and broadcasters like CBS have been in court for months now, arguing over the legality of the Hopper, a digital video recorder that allows users to automatically skip all the ads on prime-time network television shows. The newest version of the Hopper uses technology from a company called Sling that lets customers wirelessly watch recorded shows away from home.

Dish says the Hopper is a legitimate response to changing consumer behavior. The broadcasters say it’s a violation of their copyrights, and perhaps a violation of their carriage contracts with Dish, too. They have, according to Dish, refused to sell the company any advertising time to promote the device.

Mr. Clayton brought up “editorial independence” in his statement on Thursday because it came to light last month that CBS prohibited one of its Web sites, CNET, from presenting an award! to the Hopper. CBS also refused to let the CNET staff disclose the details of its involvement. But the details leaked out a few days later, and Dish condemned the corporate interference. CBS said the case was “isolated and unique” and said “in terms of covering actual news, CNET maintains 100 percent editorial independence, and always will.”

With Twitter, Dish seized on another opportunity to criticize CBS. It said Ms. Cuoco’s Twitter message in support of the Hopper was a “sponsored tweet,” meaning that it paid to have the message placed there. “Amazing!” the message said, pointing to an online commercial for the device. “Watching live TV anywhere on the #Hopper looks pretty awesome!”

A Dish spokesman said that the company heard from Ms. Cuoco’s agent that CBS demanded that she delete the message. “No demands were made,” CBS said in response.

Ms. Cuoco’s show, by the way, is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the digital video recorder. On a typical week, aout 17 million people watch the sitcom either live or within a few hours of a new episode’s debut. Another four million people watch the show via a DVR within a week of the debut â€" a gain of 24 percent. Among 18- to 49-year-olds, the gain is even bigger â€" 35 percent.

Broadcasters don’t object to the DVR per se â€" they’ve learned to live with the ad-skipping technology. Just because people can skip ads doesn’t mean they always do. But the Hopper makes it easy to skip ads automatically â€" and that’s what the networks fear.

‘Duck Dynasty’ Premiere Soars in Ratings

The ducks have taken flight.

Wednesday night’s third-season premiere of A&E’s reality series “Duck Dynasty” was the most-watched nonfiction show on cable television so far this year, crushing much of the competition on the broadcast networks, especially among the younger viewers of most value to advertisers.

“Duck Dynasty” attracted a vast audience for cable, 8.6 million viewers, the most for any nonfiction show on cable in 2013. But the 10 p.m. half-hour of “Dynasty” also pulled in five million viewers in the 18- to 49-year-old age group, the one that most networks sell to their advertisers.

That topped every half-hour on broadcast television Wednesday night, except for the last half-hour of “American Idol” on Fox. Over all for its two hours, “Idol” finished behind, however, with 4.87 million.

The ducks even edged ahead of “Modern Family” on ABC, which had 4.98 million in that age group for its half-hour. In terms oftotal viewers, “Duck Dynasty” beat everything on ABC except “Modern Family” and it eclipsed all three shows on NBC.

Nothing on NBC came within two million viewers of “Duck Dynasty.” In fact, if the ducks were to have been shown on NBC, it would easily be the top show of the last two months on that network, and better than any entertainment show except “The Voice.”

The surge in ratings over last season’s premiere indicated just how hot a show A&E has on its hands. The “Duck Dynasty” premiere was up 132 percent from last year in total viewers, to 8.6 million from 3.7 million, and 127 percent in the 18-49 category, to 5 million from 2.2 million.

Universal Sells EMI Stake in Popular Music Series

The Universal Music Group has made the last of the divestitures ordered by European regulators as part of its $1.9 billion purchase of EMI’s recorded music division, closing a drawn-out process but significantly lowering Universal’s cost in the deal.

Universal announced on Wednesday that it had sold EMI’s share of the long-running pop compilation series “Now That’s What I Call Music!” to Sony Music. The price was not disclosed, but it has been reported at about $60 million.

Universal will retain its share of the “Now” brand, a joint venture by Sony, EMI and Universal, which began in Britain in 1983 and came to the United States in 1998. The series has sold more than 200 million albums around the world.

Universal, now by far the world€™s largest music company, made its deal for EMI in November 2011 with Citigroup.

After months of negotiations, European regulators approved the deal in September on the condition that Universal sell about a third of EMI’s recorded music assets. (In a parallel sale, an investor group led by Sony bought EMI’s music publishing side for $2.2 billion.)

Along with the sale of the Parlophone Label Group to the Warner Music Group for $765 million, the Sanctuary and Mute labels to BMG Rights Management for about $72 million, and a number of smaller deals, Universal has reaped just under $900 million on the sales. That is nearly half what it had paid for EMI, although some of the assets, like Sanctuary, were owned by Universal.

This week Universal’s parent company, the French conglomerate Vivendi, reported that Universal had just under $6 billion in revenue in 2012, up 8.3! percent from the year before; excluding revenue from EMI, the gain was 1.6 percent. Universal also had $694 million in earnings before interest, taxes and amortization for the year, up 3.6 percent from 2011, or 1.6 percent without EMI.

In its earnings report, Vivendi said it still expected more than $150 million in annual savings after absorbing EMI.

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

House of Cards: What Happens When a Reporter Becomes an Army of One

Welcome back to the “House of Cards” recap where Ashley Parker and David Carr tease apart Netflix’s Washington-based drama as a reflection of the world of politics and media. Spoilers abound, so read at your peril.

Episode Three
Rep. Frank Underwood is busy hammering out an education bill when a seemingly made-up controversy in his home district forces him to hop a plane. Meanwhile, the newspaper reporter Zoe Barnes enjoys her time in the spotlight and contemplates going rogue.

Carr: There are two parables embedded in this episode. The first is an old one, reminding us that all politics, no matter how important the players, are local. And the second seems to take on a more modern dilemma, suggesting that journalism, often thought of as a team sport, is actually morphing into a place where individuals shine. After all, there’s at least one “I” in journalism, right

Even as he’s dealing with the education bill, Frank returns to his istrict to deal with a crisis involving a teenage girl’s death. The dual responsibilities give the show the opportunity to show the tension between being a beltway player while keeping the home fires burning. For my money, though, the journalism leg of the episode three is the far more provocative strand of this show. Zoe Barnes, a newly minted It Girl of Beltway journalism, is ushered into the editor’s office and is met by the newspaper’s publisher, a doyenne played by Kathleen Chalfant and clearly meant to evoke Katharine Graham of The Washington Post.

She quizzes Zoe about her source for a story but Zoe refuses to give it up: “Do you want my source or my integrity” Zoe asks somewhat aphoristically. The publisher, charmed by her insouciance, orders the editor to put the young reporter’s story about a secretary of state nominee on the front page. Those kind of edicts might occur at some newspapers â€" not the one I work at â€" but they would never, ever be delivered in front of a ! reporter..

The publisher’s mandate only increases the friction between the upstart reporter and her very traditional editor, Tom Hammerschmidt. Played in the key of dour by Boris McGiver, Hammerschmidt does a slow burn as he watches Zoe do a television interview and making all manner of broadcast judgments about the state of journalism and The Washington Herald, her mythical paper.

“Your job is to cover the news, not be the news,” he says.

“I was promoting the paper,” she responds.

“You were were promoting Zoe Barnes,” he shoots back, before telling her to reign in her arrogance, along with her television appearances. “No TV for a month,” he says. When she complains, he threatens, “You make it no TV indefinitely” That conversation rings very true to the father of teenagers like me, but it would not go off that way in any professional setting I have ever worked in.

What say you, Ashley Did you like the episode And do you think that Ms. Barnes push-back agaist her boss flicked at the growing power of individuals within journalistic enterprises

Parker: The question of individual brands in journalism is an interesting one. When I graduated from college, in 2005, it was a legitimate question as to whether an aspiring journalist should try to get their foot in the door at the best place possible, or go out into the country and work for a smaller paper, learning the ropes by covering courts or cops for a few years. But now, when I’m occasionally asked to speak to high school or college journalism classes, my advice is totally different. I tell students to seriously consider a start-up or fully online enterprise; it wasn’t too long ago, after all, that places like the Huffington Post and BuzzFeed â€" now hubs of top-notch talent â€" seemed like upstart longshots.

Ignoring the larger question of what this means for journalism generally, a just-out-of-college reporter can now, for instance, cover a ! presidenti! al campaign, with the attendant rewards and risks: do a good job and watch your profile shoot up in a way it never could have just a decade ago, but make a mistake and it will be chronicled in every imaginable sphere (the blogosphere, the Twittersphere and on and on).

But yes, in this way, reporters can become individual brands. That concept is not necessarily a wholly positive development. For starters, it ignores all of the editing and collaboration that goes into almost any story, especially at a newspaper like ours.

What’s interesting to me is how Zoe seems to want to have it both ways, playing the sexism card when it suits her, while simultaneously using her sex appeal to land stories. After a dressing down by Hammerschmidt, she threatens, “So you think when a woman asks to be treated with respect, that’s arrogance” A fully admirable sentiment, though perhaps she’s not the most credible messenger.

Marin Cogan wrote a fantastic piece Wednesday in The New Republic â€" aptly titled “House of Cads” â€" chronicling, as the headline put it, “The psycho-sexual ordeal of reporting in Washington.” The fact that her essay was the buzz in the city today underscores that most female reporters, especially those covering politics, have encountered similarly uncomfortable situations â€" where professional interest was confused for something more … personal.

Do you think it would be possible for a show like this to explore the actual complexity of reporting while female Or do we, the viewing public, prefer our female reporters like Zoe â€" easy to pigeonhole in all the wrong ways

Carr: This show has as much chance of exploring those complexities as I do of running a marathon. “House of Cards” fans know without looking (ahead) that Zoe is going to make some epic bad choices. And not in the ditzy HBO “Girls” way of “Living the dream, one mistak! e at a ti! me.” Zoe is not so much bumping into things as running over them headlong. Her neediness, her entitlement, are manifest in all she does. She is all about the Zoe Barnes the brand, but as many of us have found out, the whole Army of One thing is great until you get in a jam and need backing.

But even though our business is full of talented, successful women, it’s a different challenge. On the Poynter site today, there was a post about things “Said to Lady Journos,” which laid out a depressing array of oafishness and sexism. Twitter was alive with the meme.

In the end, Zoe is a necessary figure for the “House of Cards” parable. She must seduce the congressman, less to possess him than to use him, so that she can declare dominion over her corner of the world.

So no, no teachable moments about the lot of working newsies who happen to be wmen, just two narcissists trying to make the world curve to their every need. Which isn’t bad television, by the way. And at the risk of prolonging a long chat, one last question for you, Ashley. Have you ever met a Zoe on the beat How did that approach work out for her

Parker: There is no one quite like Ms. Barnes, as Frank Underwood might say. But on the flip side of the same question, I do know a few political operatives who had a bad (and frankly sexist) habit of assuming a female reporter was pulling a Zoe Barnes, so to speak, when she emerged with a good, scoopy story. But that’s usually all there was to the story: A good scoop, which is plenty juicy enough.

Former G.M.A. Chief to Take Charge of CNN’s Planned Morning Show

Jim Murphy, who ran ABC’s “Good Morning America” for five years, will be in charge of CNN’s next attempt to reap morning television glory, people familiar with his hiring said Thursday.

Mr. Murphy will be the senior executive producer of whatever show replaces “Starting Point,” the network’s current morning show that is hosted by Soledad O’Brien. The network hasn’t said when exactly “Starting Point” will be retired, but Ms. O’Brien said last week that she expects to leave the time slot sometime this spring.

The network also hasn’t said who will host the new program, either. But last month it hired Chris Cuomo away from ABC with the expectation that he’ll be a co-anchor of it. Mr. Cuomo was the news anchor on “G.M.A.” for three years while Mr. Murphy was the top producer of that program.

The other possible co-anchor is Erin Burnett, who currently helms th 7 p.m. hour on CNN. Her name surfaced more than a month ago, but no deal has been announced yet.

The revamped morning show is a top priority for Jeff Zucker, who took over CNN Worldwide last month. Mr. Zucker is famous for, among other things, turning around the fortunes of NBC’s “Today” show in the 1990s, starting a 16-year winning streak in the ratings race. Mr. Zucker rose up the ranks of NBC in the 2000s, eventually becoming the chief executive of NBC Universal.

Mr. Murphy, after a six-year stint running the “CBS Evening News,” became the senior executive producer of “G.M.A.” in 2006. He was unable to break that “Today” show streak, though he brought “G.M.A” quite close to “Today” on several occasions.

In 2011 Mr. Murphy left “G.M.A.” and helped start “Anderson,” the daytime talk show hosted by the CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. Amid behind-the-scenes turmoil over the ratings of the talk show, he stepped down in early 2012.

A CNN spokeswoman! did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but other people familiar with Mr. Murphy’s hiring said it was announced internally on Thursday morning.

Barnes & Noble Reports Big Falloff in Nook Unit

Barnes & Noble suffered a drop in revenue in all three of its major divisions â€" retail, college and Nook â€" for its fiscal third quarter, the company reported Thursday morning. But the falloff in the Nook segment, which includes digital tablets and e-readers, was particularly steep, showing a 26 percent decline in revenues.

The company said earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the quarter ending Jan. 26 were $55 million, compared with $150 million for the same period a year ago. Consolidated net losses were $6.1 million, compared with net earnings of $52 million a year ago.

The nation’s largest bookstore chain had warned earlier in the month that sales of Nook were disappointing and executives had hinted that the company’s strategy of competing in the highly competitive tablet space had run its course.

On Monday, Leonard Riggio, the company’s largest stockholder and the architect of the company’s ferocious and successful retail expansion n the 1980s and 1990s, announced that he was considering buying Barnes & Noble’s retail operation. Some analysts cheered this announcement because they felt the digital unit, meant to be the company’s savior, was in fact dragging down the worth of the retail stores, which for now remain a viable operation.

That notion got some support with the earnings report. The company saw a decrease in retail sales of more than 10 percent, largely due to store closings. But Barnes & Noble had largely anticipated the lower revenue and despite the sales decline, retail earnings increased 7.3 percent, to $212 million, “resulting from a higher sales mix of higher margin core products and expense management,” the company said.

Meanwhile, revenues in the Nook unit plunged by 26 percent, to $316 million for the quarter, compared with $426 million last year. Losses more than doubled, to $190 million compared to $83 million a year ago. The losses were largely due to lower ! than anticipated sales, inventory charges and higher operating expenses because of advertising costs, the company said.

One bright note was that digital content sales through the Nook unit increased 6.8 percent over the previous year.

The company said that Nook was already implementing a cost reduction program.
“In terms of the NOOK Media business, we’ve taken significant actions to begin to right size our cost structure in the NOOK segment, while also taking a large markdown on NOOK devices in order to enhance our ability to achieve our estimated sales plans in subsequent quarters,” William Lynch, chief executive of Barnes & Noble, said in a written statement.

Still, Mr. Lynch emphasized that the company was not abandoning the Nook division or the digital devices. “NOOK Media has been financing itself since October of 2012 due to the strong investment partners we’ve been able to attract in Microsoft and Pearson,” he said. “Coming off the holiday shortfall, we’re in te process of making some adjustments to our strategy as we continue to pursue the exciting growth opportunities ahead for us in the consumer and digital education content markets.”

The Breakfast Meeting: A Video Campaign Pushes Paper, and Denmark’s Unexpected Advocates of Free Speech

A giant paper maker, Domtar Corporation, has added four video clips with commercials to a campaign called “Paper because” that emphasize paper’s importance in a digital world, Stuart Elliott writes. The first batch of videos was released in 2010 and featured over-the-top vignettes in an office where a crusade to go paperless becomes extreme. The latest releases expand the theme to other situations, like dealing with tech support at home or an overconfident waiter. The videos are only one part of the “Paper because” campaign, which includes, of course, print advertisements.

Suspicion fell on Denmark’s Muslim community shortly after an unsuccessful assassination attept of Lars Hedegaard, an anti-Islam polemicist, earlier this month, Andrew Higgins reports. But Muslim groups in Denmark took an unexpected stance after a man posing as a mail carrier shot at, and missed, Mr. Hedegaard: they condemned the attack and supported Mr. Hedegaard’s right to express himself, even though his views are a combination of conspiracies and anti-Muslim rhetoric. Defending a man they detest suggests a change in attitude, or at least strategy, for Muslim groups at the center of a debate on whether they can adapt to the values of their adopted home.

There is a critical filmmaking profession that remains snubbed in the Oscars ceremony: music supervisors, the people who choose existing music to augment films, are not eligible for an Academy Award, Steve Chagollan writes. Supervisors bemoaned this state of affairs at their third-annual awards ceremony a few weeks ago in West Hollywood, especially because outside music played an important role in films like “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Django Unchained.” The Academy might be given pause by the fact that directors often work with music supervisors to find the perfect fit, and that music supervisors do not exactly create anything. Charles Fox, the chairman of the Academy’s music branch, said originality was the Oscar’s foremost concern. “In all of our categories â€" best song, best score â€" music has to be created specifically for that motion picture,” he said.

It’s been a parlor game among Hollywood types to figure out why “Lincoln,” despite having all the hallmarks of an Oscar-dominating film, lost best picture to “Argo,” Melena Ryzik reports. Insiders said part of the reason may have been that the team behind “Lincoln” overcampaigned, and made voters feel as if they had been force-fed a history lesson. The same overreach could be seen in Sunday’s broadcast itself, Ms. Ryzik writes, which lost coherence in an attempt to push boundaries and appeal to a critical age demographic. The Oscar does not always go to the best movie and the funniest comedian is not always the best host. The also-rans must content themselves with other Hollywood prizes: record-breaking ticket sales and higher ratings.

A senior White House official yelled at journalist Bob Woodward for nearly half an hour last week after Mr. Woodward told him that he planned to question, in a Washington Post article, President Obama’s account of how the budget cuts known as sequestration came to be, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei write in Politico. The offic! ial later! sent an e-mail that offered apologies but also said Mr. Woodward would “regret staking out that claim.” Mr. Woodward saw the phrase as a veiled threat, though the White House later said none was intended. “They become defensive,” Mr. Woodward said. “This could be a huge issue if the economy takes a hit.”

New Bilingual Web Site to Focus on Latino Health

Add a new health and wellness Web site to the growing number of content portals dedicated to the bilingual, bicultural Latino reader. This site, called Vida Vibrante, will focus on health and wellness issues affecting Latinos.

“There’s a tremendous void in the Hispanic market,” for health resources that are culturally relevant, said Lonnie Jones, the chief executive and founder of the site, who also created a health Web site for African-Americans called BlackDoctor.org.

In order to address the high rates of diabetes among Latinos and how food choices are related to that, for example, “You have to talk about tamales, you have to talk about rice and beans,” Mr. Jones said. A slide show on the site this week, for instance, offers healthy options for Lent, including Mexican chicken enchiladas and Puerto Rican cod stew.

Helen Troncoso, who will contribute to the site, said many people seek content in a “relatable voice.” “Many people re just like me,” Dr. Troncoso wrote in an e-mail. “We are the gatekeepers, who are part of the second generation of Hispanics dealing with our own health struggles, and the struggles within our own families.”

Vida Vibrante, which means Vibrant Life in Spanish, has been available in a stripped-down beta version since October, but will make its official debut Thursday, adding a number of new features. Among them will be a national directory of bilingual doctors, videos, a mobile application and e-mail newsletters. The site will offer visitors the option to read the content in English or Spanish.

“By having a site that’s bilingual, this individual could be talking to their child and at the same time providing information to their abuela,” Mr. Jones said, using the Spanish word for grandmother.

Advertisers on the site will include Optimum Cable and the American Heart Association.