I was at a film premiere in NY a couple of months ago where Alan Horn got up and made a big pitch for his charity that supports environmental causes...the fact he flew to NY from LA with his daughter just for the premiere was not lost on anyone in attendance. #privatejets
A company with far-flung interests like Time Warner needs to retain corporate jets. It is nearly impossible to make an early tee time in Palm Springs flying commercial from New York. Have you tried to fly to Bono International recently? Impossible hassle.
I went to a 5K sponsored by Ted's restaurant last week and Captain Planet was there. In rollerblades. It was creepy and awesome at the same time. #tedturner
Well, as an investor-type, I can tell you that the reason these things are postponed is so that, when Newco is public, they can make this really positive-sounding announcement that there will be cost cuts (downsizing), and all the sell-side analysts will run to their models and raise their earnings targets because hey! a one-time charge for layoffs doesn't flow through your "normalized" earnings-per-share, but the benefits over time do.
So I'd say it's a bit of window-dressing and smoke and mirrors, as these spinoffs usually are.
@FormerEnglishMajor: and their year over year comparisons next year will be great because the first year will be burdened by the charge, right? so they'll make it look like, unburdened of Time Warner, they were finally able to unlock value.
@daveyjonesisdead: Yes. Not making the announcement isn't to prevent anything on Time Warner's part, but to put the finger on the scale on AOL's behalf. AOL doesn't have subscriber growth (quite the opposite), so the only way they can show earnings growth is by cutting costs, hard. Companies like Time Warner are "on the hook" for a bit after the spinoff (you don't want people suing you for fraudulent conveyance), so they try to save all the good news for the spinoff until after the company is on its own.
Time Warner doesn't want to compensate exiting employees. AOL can't afford a "deep restructuring" to be taking place during the sales process for the IPO to investors. Most importantly, I'd cynically state that the turd in the hand is worth way less than the birds in the bush here and that the sales process isn't exactly employing a frank appraisal of the company's future prospects.
With all due respect to the few wonderful teachers I had at Columbia, I can honestly say it would have been more productive for me to flush $50,000 down the toilet.
Coincidentally, I wrote this today.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lysandra-ohrstrom/jargon-for-jobless-journa_b_246576.html
For new media, broadcast, and print students who had no prior experience, it may have been helpful. Even then, most of the full-time faculty members who dominate your first semester are out-of-touch, bitterly nostalgic, and overly controlling. Every Monday for three hours, I had to listen to my RWI teacher say things like, "Journalism is the hardest job in the world. It's harder than brain surgery" or tell us how we will never understand the media because we don't know the sound that a printing press makes. Spare me.
@PaulAchilles: Hmm.. I got into Columbia J-school but picked USC/Annenberg because they gave me a free ride. Have second-guessed myself in my weakest moments, because I kept hearing that at Columbia you get a beat assigned at the beginning of the year, and you get graded on placing your actual stories in NYC dailies. That they throw you to the wolves and force you to get hands-on experience and clips.
I was chagrined at the time (this was in 2002) because OUR counselors kept rabbiting on and on about abstract "multi-media platform convergence" bulllsh*t, and how our "priorities should be: 1. classwork 2. TA-ship 3. internships/free-lance work, but only IF you still have time."
You're telling me I chose well. Much obliged.
I loved and respected almost all my teaches, they were all of them working journalists not academics. Plus: USC J-school also has a crazy-progressive work/study-abroad summer program in between the two MA years. They force you to live and work abroad as a journalist, and sink or swim in a seriously foreign environment.
Most of the shows on Food Network are pretty stupid. Let's be honest. For a network that's focused on various aspects of epicurean delights, they don't even have the best chef competition show. How many times can they broadcast competitions for the best chicken sandwich in the country?
@Nice Beaver: My team is doing so poorly this year, I can't muster up the enthusiasm to curse at you and say bad things about your mother. I'll just wait for hockey season to do that.
I'd understand the "crazy but optimistic" argument if we were talking about, say, clown or mime college. Going to a journalism school now (considering journalism as we know it will most likely change drastically not long after they graduate, possibly invalidating much of what they just learned) is just plain crazy.
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So I'd say it's a bit of window-dressing and smoke and mirrors, as these spinoffs usually are.
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07/29/09
Coincidentally, I wrote this today.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lysandra-ohrstrom/jargon-for-jobless-journa_b_246576.html
For new media, broadcast, and print students who had no prior experience, it may have been helpful. Even then, most of the full-time faculty members who dominate your first semester are out-of-touch, bitterly nostalgic, and overly controlling. Every Monday for three hours, I had to listen to my RWI teacher say things like, "Journalism is the hardest job in the world. It's harder than brain surgery" or tell us how we will never understand the media because we don't know the sound that a printing press makes. Spare me.
07/29/09
I was chagrined at the time (this was in 2002) because OUR counselors kept rabbiting on and on about abstract "multi-media platform convergence" bulllsh*t, and how our "priorities should be: 1. classwork 2. TA-ship 3. internships/free-lance work, but only IF you still have time."
You're telling me I chose well. Much obliged.
I loved and respected almost all my teaches, they were all of them working journalists not academics. Plus: USC J-school also has a crazy-progressive work/study-abroad summer program in between the two MA years. They force you to live and work abroad as a journalist, and sink or swim in a seriously foreign environment.
07/29/09
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