EX-ITT STUDENTS WANT TO JOIN SUIT TO GET DEBT CANCELED

Original Story:

INDIANAPOLIS — They said they were defrauded, and now they want a seat at the table.

Last week, a group of former ITT Tech students moved to establish themselves as creditors in the school's bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana.

On Jan. 3, five former students filed a 109-page complaint, seeking to act as representatives for hundreds of thousands who say they have been defrauded by the Carmel, Ind.-based school. Their goal is to have the debt they owe the school canceled. A Newark class action lawyer is following this story closely.

ITT filed for bankruptcy last year after the Education Department cut off the company’s access to federal student aid.

By the time it declared bankruptcy in September, ITT Tech had been subject to lawsuits from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Massachusetts and New Mexico attorneys general.

ITT Tech students unsure about next step after closure Government agencies scrutinized the company over alleged failure to disclose bad loans to investors, inflated job placement numbers and aggressive recruiting tactics.

The students' complaint seeks to establish that ITT defrauded students who attended the school during the last 10 years.

The Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School is representing the students. Eileen Connor, director of litigation for the center's Project on Predatory Student Lending, is the lead attorney representing the students. She was unavailable for comment. A Los Angeles bankruptcy attorney is reviewing the details of this case.

Along with legal documents, the students filed more than a thousand pages of first-hand accounts from 541 fellow students who attended ITT, affidavits from several whistleblowers and evidence developed from state and federal law enforcement investigations.

Hundreds of unidentified Indiana students gave testimony about how the loans they racked up while attending the school ruined their credit scores, left them destitute and caused them mental health issues.

One student who was enrolled in the criminal justice program at the Carmel campus from September 2010 to January 2012 said, “I’ve been in financial hardship since then. I do not earn much in my current job. I work as a grocery stocker, and most of my check goes to paying off my loan. I had my hours cut about a year ago, and this led me to default on my loan, which has affected me greatly because I am not eligible for credit anywhere. My credit score is horrible because of this school. I cannot afford anything. I can barely make ends meet.”

Testimonials have come from throughout the U.S. One student who was enrolled in ITT's Network System Administration program at a Washington campus stated, "I joined the Army to pay for school, and ITT Tech mislead my dreams of higher education. Now I'm $10,000 in debt and have nothing to show for it. I'm constantly being harassed by collection agencies and it's making me depressed."

Students who have their pay garnished to satisfy loans are often struggling to support themselves with low-wage or minimum-wage jobs that are a far cry from the high-salary positions promised by ITT recruiters, according to the complaint.

ITT Tech was one of the country’s largest for-profit college chains. Over the last decade, it took in more than $11 billion in revenue, 98% of which came in the form of tuition, according to the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School. The center said 76% of the tuition was paid through federal student aid.

Originally part of the conglomerate ITT, the school spun off as its own publicly traded entity in 1999.

At the time of bankruptcy, the company operated 137 campuses in 39 states, providing career-oriented programs to 43,000 students under the names ITT Technical Institute and Daniel Webster College.

ITT's closure displaced more than 35,000 students and more than 8,000 employees.

ITT reported assets of $389 million and liabilities of $1.1 billion to the bankruptcy court. The company’s assets include almost $80 million owed by ITT students who were enrolled at the time of the bankruptcy filing.

The students request a court order certifying the case as a class action, an injunction ordering ITT from collecting on all private student loans administered by ITT, actual and compensatory damages against ITT in an amount to be determined and an order awarding disbursements, costs and attorney's fees.

Deborah J. Caruso, the Chapter 7 trustee appointed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to oversee the liquidation, responded to the students' lawsuit in an email.

“Since the filing of these Chapter 7 cases in September, we have been working with state regulators, the SEC, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the Department of Education to better understand and address the causes of ITT’s collapse and develop a path forward,” Caruso said.

MARISSA MAYER TO LEAVE YAHOO BOARD; YAHOO TO CHANGE NAME TO ALTABA

Original Story: www.wsj.com

Yahoo Inc. said Monday it will whittle down its board after completing its deal with Verizon Communications Inc., and several longtime directors, including Chief Executive Marissa Mayer and co-founder David Filo, will step down as directors.

After the sale of its core internet business, the company will change its name to Altaba Inc. from RemainCo, Yahoo said in a regulatory filing. Altaba’s remaining assets include Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Yahoo Japan. The name is a combination of the words “alternate” and “Alibaba,” a person familiar with the matter said.

Eric Brandt, who joined Yahoo’s board last March and is the former chief financial officer of Broadcom Corp., will become chairman of Altaba, according to the filing. He will be joined by four other directors who are currently on Yahoo’s board, including Thomas McInerney, who was part of the independent committee of Yahoo directors running the auction process last year.

The moves would happen after the closing of the roughly $4.8 billion sale to Verizon, which has been endangered by two huge hacks of Yahoo’s user data. In the filing, Yahoo said Verizon could terminate its purchase of Yahoo or renegotiate the terms because of the hacks. A New York cybersecurity lawyer is reviewing the details of this case.

Verizon has become less certain that the deal will go through after a second breach of one billion accounts was revealed last month. The breaches could be a material event that would allow Verizon to change the terms of the deal, executives have said.

Still, analysts say most of Yahoo’s value stems from its stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, not the core business sold to Verizon. The core business accounts for 10% of Yahoo’s market value, Evercore ISI analyst Ken Sena wrote in a Dec. 15 note. About 61% of Yahoo’s worth is tied to its stake in Alibaba, while 13% is linked to Yahoo Japan Corp., Mr. Sena wrote.

On Monday, Yahoo’s shares rose a penny to $41.35 in recent after-hours trading and Verizon’s are down three cents to $52.65.

Six Yahoo directors will be leaving after the Verizon sale, including Ms. Mayer, Mr. Filo and Maynard Webb Jr., a director since February 2012, who was named chairman in August 2013. Mr. Webb, as of Monday, became chairman emeritus.

Also leaving the board will be Jane Shaw, a former pharmaceutical industry executive who joined in 2014, as well as media executive Eddy Hartenstein and Richard Hill, former CEO of Novellus Systems Inc.

Ms. Mayer was named CEO of Yahoo after she came over from Google in 2012. She is expected to remain with Yahoo once it becomes part of Verizon. A New York truck accident lawyer is following this story closely.

Messrs. Hartenstein and Hill joined Yahoo’s board in early 2016 after being nominated by hedge fund Starboard Value LP. Two others nominated by Starboard, former banker Tor Braham and Starboard chief executive Jeffrey Smith, will stay on the board of Altaba.

At that time, the activist investor sought to replace the entire slate of directors, saying the board wasn’t making changes quickly enough.

Increase in people who watch on mobile devices has broadcasters worried

Story originally appeared on Freep.

Some people have had it with TV. They've had enough of the 100-plus channel universe. They're tired of $100-plus monthly bills.

A growing number of them have stopped paying for cable and satellite TV service, and don't even use an antenna to get free signals. These people are watching shows and movies on the Internet, sometimes via cell phone. Last month, Nielsen started labeling people in this group Zero TV households, because they fall outside the traditional definition of a TV home. There are 5 million of these residences in the U.S., up from 2 million in 2007.

While show creators and networks make money from this group's viewing habits through deals with online video providers and from advertising on their own websites and apps, broadcasters only get paid when they relay such programming in traditional ways. Unless broadcasters can adapt to modern platforms, their revenue from Zero TV viewers will be zero.

"Getting broadcast programming on all the gizmos and gadgets -- like tablets, the backseats of cars, and laptops -- is hugely important," says Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters.

Although Wharton says more than 130 TV stations in the U.S. are broadcasting live TV signals to mobile devices, few people have the tools to receive them. Most cell phones require an add-on device known as a dongle, but these gadgets are just starting to be sold.

Among this elusive group of consumers is Jeremy Carsen Young, a graphic designer, who is done with traditional TV. Young has a working antenna sitting unplugged on his back porch in Roanoke, Va., and he refuses to put it on the roof.

"I don't think we'd use it enough to justify having a big eyesore on the house," the 30-year-old says.

Nielsen is ready to count

Online video subscriptions from Netflix and Amazon -- which cost less than $15 a month combined -- have given him and his partner plenty to watch. They take in back episodes of AMC's "The Walking Dead" and the CW's "Supernatural," and they don't need more, he says.

For the first time, TV ratings giant Nielsen took a close look at this category of viewer in its quarterly video report released in March. It plans to measure their viewing of new TV shows starting this fall, with an eye toward incorporating the results in the formula used to calculate ad rates.

"Our commitment is to being able to measure the content, wherever it is," says Dounia Turrill, Nielsen's senior vice president of insights.

The Zero TV segment is increasingly important, because the number of people signing up for traditional TV service has ground to a standstill in the U.S.

Last year, the cable, satellite and telecoms providers added just 46,000 video customers collectively, according to research firm SNL Kagan. That is tiny when compared to the 974,000 new households created last year. While it's still 100.4 million homes, or 84.7% of all households, it's down from the peak of 87.3% in early 2010.

Nielsen's study suggests that this new group may have left traditional TV for good. While three-quarters actually have a physical TV set, only 18% are interested in hooking it up through a traditional pay TV subscription.

Zero TVers tend to be younger, single and without children. Nielsen's senior vice president of insights, Dounia Turrill, says part of the new monitoring regime is meant to help determine whether they'll change their behavior over time. "As these homes change life stage, what will happen to them?"

The TV industry has a host of buzz words to describe these non-traditionalist viewers. There are cord-cutters, who stop paying for TV completely and make do with online video and sometimes an antenna. There are cord-shavers, who reduce the number of channels they subscribe to, or the number of rooms pay TV is in, to save money.

Never connected

Then there are the cord-nevers, young people who move out on their own and never set up a landline phone connection or a TV subscription. They usually make do with a broadband Internet connection, a computer, a cell phone and possibly a TV set that is not hooked up the traditional way.

That's the label given to the group by Richard Schneider, the president and founder of the online retailer Antennas Direct. The site is doing great business selling antennas capable of accepting free digital signals since the nation's transition to digital over-the-air broadcasts in 2009, and is on pace to sell nearly 600,000 units this year, up from a few dozen when it started in 2003.

That brings us to truck driver James Weitze. The 31-year-old satisfies his video fix with an iPhone. He often sleeps in his truck, and has no apartment. To be sure, he's an extreme case who doesn't fit into Nielsen's definition of a household in the first place. But he's watching Netflix enough to keep up with shows like "Weeds," "30 Rock," "Arrested Development," "Breaking Bad," "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "Sons of Anarchy."

He's not opposed to TV per se and misses some ESPN sports programs like the "X Games."

But he's so divorced from the traditional TV ecosystem, it could be hard to go back. It's become easier for him to navigate his smartphone than to figure out how to use a TV set-top box and the button-laden remote control.

"I'm pretty tech savvy, but the TV industry with the cable and the television and the boxes, you don't know how to use their equipment," he says. "I try to go over to my grandma's place and teach her how to do it. I can't even figure it out myself."

Michael Roarty dies at 84; marketer helped build Anheuser-Busch brand

Michael J. Roarty, a retired marketing executive who helped build Anheuser-Busch beer brands into international powerhouses, died at a hospital in a St. Louis suburb Saturday, a day after suffering a heart attack. He was 84.

Roarty had been debilitated by strokes in recent years and had been in poor health.

As vice president and director of marketing from 1977 to 1990, Roarty was credited with helping St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch more than double its U.S. market share to 43% from 21%.

Roarty oversaw famous advertising campaigns, including "Weekends were made for Michelob," "This Bud's for you," "Head for the mountains of Busch," and Bud Light's canine mascot Spuds McKenzie. He was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 1994.

"He could spot the ideas, guide the creative process and navigate it through the difficult approval process within a complicated corporate structure," said Bob Lachky, a former chief creative officer at Anheuser-Busch.

Roarty was also considered a pioneer of sports marketing, branching out Anheuser-Busch's advertising complex from stadium signage to include race car sponsorship and the made-for-Super Bowl Sunday Bud Bowl.

He also is the executive who persuaded the brewer in 1980 to give financial support to a then-struggling all-sports TV network, ESPN.

"We gave them $1 million that first year. And if we hadn't, they'd have gone under," Roarty told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch a few months before he retired in 1994. "I believed the beer drinker was a sports lover.

"The next year we gave them $5 million. I think it turned out to be the best investment we've ever made."

In 1993, the Sporting News named him the sixth-most powerful figure in American sports.

Born Aug. 24, 1928, in Detroit, Roarty was the son of Irish immigrants. His father, John, was active in Sinn Fein, the political party closely associated with the Irish Republican Army.

In 1953, when he was a student at the University of Detroit, Roarty had a job selling and promoting beer in Detroit's East Side taverns and stores. He became such a familiar figure to saloonkeepers and other neighborhood characters that many called him "Mr. Budweiser."

He worked as a brand manager for Anheuser-Busch in Detroit, Chicago, Denver and Kansas City on his way up the corporate ladder.

Roarty, who first visited Ireland with his family in 1936, remained active in the Irish American community throughout his life. In 1991, he was named Irish-American of the Year by Irish America magazine. In 1994, Roarty was grand marshal of Dublin's St. Patrick's Day Parade; at the time, he was only the fourth American to have that honor.

He is survived by his wife of more than 58 years, Lillian; a son, a daughter, four grandchildren and a brother.

Kohler writes for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and McClatchy Newspapers.

No More Dollar Menu?

Story first appeared on usatoday.com.

Wendy's no longer thinks a hamburger has to be 99 cents to be a deal.

The fast-food company known for its Frosty shakes and square burgers has replaced its 99-cent value menu with a beefed-up array of options called "Right Price Right Size," with items ranging from 99 cents to $1.99.

At a time when costs for meat, cheese and other ingredients are rising, the revamped menu is intended to give budget-minded diners more options, while giving Wendy's more flexibility on pricing.

The switch to the "Right Price Right Size" value menu reflects the cost pressures faced by fast-food chains. Burger King and McDonald's have already moved past the $1 price point, offering tiered value menus that go up to around $2.

When it was introduced a decade ago, for example, McDonald's Dollar Menu included the Big 'N Tasty burger made with a quarter-pound beef patty. But the Dollar Menu has gradually gotten skimpier, with small fries being taken off the roster last year.

To ensure the profitability of its new value menu, Wendy's tinkered with the lineup and in some cases, raised prices. The Junior Cheeseburger Deluxe now costs $1.19 instead of 99 cents. And for 99 cents, customers now get four chicken nuggets instead of five. The plain Junior Cheeseburger, which had been taken off the menu, is back at 99 cents.

In all, there are now seven items that cost 99 cents on the new value menu, down from nine.

Although items on value menus tend to be less profitable, they play an important role in attracting customers who often end up spending more on other items. In testing in the past year, the "Right Price Right Size" menu not only boosted customer traffic, but also increased the average check size.

It grew because those customers tend to buy multiple products, noting that the vast majority of customers who ordered off the value menu bought items from the regular menu as well.

Wendy's isn't the only chain to tinker with its value offerings. McDonald's last year introduced its "Extra Value Menu," which offers items closer to the $2 price range. But after sales flagged, the company quickly went back to touting the Dollar Menu in advertising, noting that customers are focused on value in the uncertain economy.

Wendy's revamped approach also reflects the twin challenges facing traditional fast-food chains, which are scrambling to improve the reputation of their food even as they cater to budget-minded diners. As the popularity of chains such as Panera Bread and Chipotle Mexican Grill have raised expectations for food quality, traditional fast-food chains have stepped up their offerings.

Burger King made its french fries thicker and uses a different kind of bacon on its burgers. Taco Bell — known for its cheap eats — introduced a line of Cantina Bell bowls last year intended to appeal to a slightly more upscale crowd.

Wendy's, which is based in Dublin, Ohio, has in recent years introduced natural-cut french fries and premium offerings such as Dave's Hot 'N Juicy burger. Even as it touts its new value menu, Wendy's won't let up on that premium front. For example, executives have said the chain will introduce new breads for its sandwiches intended to improve perceptions about its food in the year ahead.

California newspaper defies trend to shrink costs

originally appeared in The Associated Press:


New and expanded sections to cover business, automobiles and food. A nearly five-fold increase in community news pages and more investigative reporting. Even daily color comics.

It feels like a throwback to an earlier era at the Orange County Register, where a first-time newspaper owner is defying conventional wisdom by spending heavily to expand the printed edition and playing down digital formats.

The head of an investor group added about 75 journalists and, with 25 more coming, will have expanded the newsroom by half since his group bought the nation's 20th-largest newspaper by circulation in July.

Changes also include thicker pages with triple the number of colors to produce razor-sharp photos and graphics. By the end of March, the newspaper will have 40 percent more space than under previous owners, Freedom Communications Inc.

The investor group chief believes people will pay for high-quality news. His bet is remarkable in an industry where newspapers have shrunk their way to profits for years, slashing costs while seeking clicks on often-free websites to attract online advertising.

As more newspapers begin charging for online access, Kushner's spending spree is drawing close attention.

If he's successful, it's going to show the way for other papers to follow, according to the publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and an early advocate of charging readers for online access.

Seated behind his large, clutter-free desk near shelves stacked with newspapers, the former Stanford University gymnast said his lack of industry experience may be a plus because he hasn't been through the tough times in newspapering.

So when we sit down and look at what's possible, our view of the world is different, he said. We're a little crazy in that we really do believe that we can grow this particular newspaper.

It's too early to know whether he's right. he said advertising revenues have grown, though he won't say how much.

Average daily circulation rose 5.3 percent as of Sept. 30 from a year earlier to 285,088 on weekdays and 387,547 on Sundays, bucking an industry decline of 0.2 percent, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

One key test will be when the Register begins charging for online access sometime before the end of March. He said readers will pay the same as the print edition - a contrast to publications that charge online subscribers substantially less.

If you have a wonderful restaurant and it cost $10 to come in the front door, I've never understood why it should cost anything less to come through a side door, he said.

The value of the journalism isn't any less. The reporter isn't paid any less. The photographer isn't paid any less.

The investor group president who has a master's degree in organizational analysis, founded a business in the 1990s that allowed people to change their addresses online and later owned and managed a greeting-card company for seven years.

In 2010, he started an investors group, 2100 Trust LLC, to scout for newspapers, flirting with The Boston Globe and later with MaineToday Media Inc., publisher of The Portland Press Herald.

The president of The Portland Newspaper Guild, said the group chief presented the union with 50 demands, including a longer work week and increases in employee health care contributions.

We got off to such a bad start that it was hard to recover, according to the Newspaper Guild president, who is skeptical that the investor group's print bet will succeed.

The investor group president settled on Freedom and its 107-year-old flagship paper, the Register, for an undisclosed sum. The newspaper serves affluent, growing, well-educated and ethnically diverse communities near Los Angeles, bolstered by 24 community publications.

He became Freedom's chief executive and the Register's publisher, working five days a week at the company's Santa Ana headquarters and flying cross-country to his wife and three children in the Boston area.

Many executives stayed put, including the top editor, who joined the Register in 1989.

The newsroom is nearing 300 employees, including about 40 year-round interns who are paid $10 an hour and provided housing. The new owners eliminated 401(k) matches at the non-union newspaper and have resisted pay raises.

Like other newspapers, the Register experimented over the last decade as its circulation tumbled 40 percent and the newsroom shrank in half. A tabloid paper featuring snappier stories failed, as did a weekly entertainment publication.

Reporters got ever-rising numerical targets to generate Web traffic, with constant reminders of how they fared against peers. It was more like a sales floor than a newsroom, one columnist wrote in a recent piece hailing the Register's reawakening.

To focus more on the print edition, the Register slashed the number of blogs from around 40 to less than a dozen. It scrapped an iPad application for news, traffic and weather.

The new owners have introduced a daily page for coverage of a major development, began sending a reporter and photographer to every one of the region's 50 high school football games on Fridays and doubled editorial pages.

Reporters have been encouraged to dig deeper and expand sources. It's a new experience for (a publisher) to say, Are you sure you have enough investigative reporters? I think you ought to hire more, he said.

The Register's editorial page - once a strong libertarian voice - didn't endorse for president in November. The new owner has contributed to Democrats such as Barack Obama and Joe Biden and moderate Republicans, including Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.

He declined to discuss his political views and said they are separate from his work at the Register.

He is looking to buy more newspapers, telling Register staff last year that he had a list of 15 that fit his criteria. In an interview, he expressed interest in Tribune Co. newspapers, which include the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun.

Some readers and employees question how much the new owners will stomach if growth stalls. The owner insisted he is committed, saying the Register has a strong balance sheet and doesn't answer to shareholders seeking quick returns.

If you don't have a clear tangible way to grow revenue you only have one alternative and that's to cut costs, he said. That path may well work. That's not the path that we're on here.

FDA Scrutinizes Effects of Energy Drinks

Story first appeared on nytimes.com.

Iced tea and sports drinks are out sold by energy drinks.  These are the fastest-growing part of the beverage industry, with sales in the United States reaching more than $10 billion in 2012.

Their rising popularity represents a generational shift in what people drink, and reflects a successful campaign to convince consumers, particularly teenagers, that the drinks provide a mental and physical edge.

The drinks are now under scrutiny by the Food and Drug Administration after reports of deaths and serious injuries that may be linked to their high caffeine levels. But however that review ends, one thing is clear, interviews with researchers and a review of scientific studies show: the energy drink industry is based on a brew of ingredients that, apart from caffeine, have little, if any benefit for consumers.


Energy drink companies have promoted their products not as caffeine-fueled concoctions but as specially engineered blends that provide something more. For example, producers claim that “Red Bull gives you wings,” that Rockstar Energy is “scientifically formulated” and Monster Energy is a “killer energy brew.” Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, a Democrat, has asked the government to investigate the industry’s marketing claims.

Promoting a message beyond caffeine has enabled the beverage makers to charge premium prices. A 16-ounce energy drink that sells for $2.99 a can contains about the same amount of caffeine as a tablet of NoDoz that costs 30 cents. Even Starbucks coffee is cheap by comparison; a 12-ounce cup that costs $1.85 has even more caffeine.

As with earlier elixirs, a dearth of evidence underlies such claims. Only a few human studies of energy drinks or the ingredients in them have been performed and they point to a similar conclusion, researchers say — that the beverages are mainly about caffeine.

Caffeine is called the world’s most widely used drug. A stimulant, it increases alertness, awareness and, if taken at the right time, improves athletic performance, studies show. Energy drink users feel its kick faster because the beverages are typically swallowed quickly or are sold as concentrates.

A scientist at the University of Wisconsin became puzzled as he researched an ingredient used in energy drinks like Red Bull, 5-Hour Energy and Monster Energy. The researcher could not find any trials in humans of the additive, a substance with the tongue-twisting name of glucuronolactone that is related to glucose, a sugar. But the scientist who had studied other energy drink ingredients, eventually found two 40-year-old studies from Japan that had examined it.

In the experiments, scientists injected large doses of the substance into laboratory rats. Afterward, the rats swam better.

Energy drink manufacturers say it is their proprietary formulas, rather than specific ingredients, that provide users with physical and mental benefits. But that has not prevented them from implying otherwise.

Consider the case of taurine, an additive used in most energy products.

On its Web site, the producer of Red Bull, for example, states that more than 2,500 reports have been published about taurine and its physiological effects, including acting as a detoxifying agent. In addition, that company, Red Bull of Austria, points to a 2009 safety study by a European regulatory group that gave it a clean bill of health.

But Red Bull’s Web site does not mention reports by that same group, the European Food Safety Authority, which concluded that claims about the benefits in energy drinks lacked scientific support. Based on those findings, the European Commission has refused to approve claims that taurine helps maintain mental function and heart health and reduces muscle fatigue.

Taurine, an amino acidlike substance that got its name because it was first found in the bile of bulls, does play a role in bodily functions, and recent research suggests it might help prevent heart attacks in women with high cholesterol. However, most people get more than adequate amounts from foods like meat, experts said. And researchers added that those with heart problems who may need supplements would find far better sources than energy drinks.

A spokeswoman for Red Bull did not respond directly to the European marketing claims report but said that the company did not make claims for individual ingredients but rather for the product in its entirety.

To woo consumers, companies have also used another tactic — including huge amounts of well-known nutrients that make for eye-catching numbers on labels.

For example, a two-ounce bottle of 5-Hour Energy contains 500 micrograms of Vitamin B12, or 8,333 percent of the recommended daily allowance. The energy shot also has 20 times the recommended intake of Vitamin B6.

B-group vitamins serve many functions, such as in the digestion of food. But several experts said that healthy people get adequate amounts of them from food and that huge added dosages do not provide benefits.

The sugar found in some drinks does provide a quick source of energy. But as for glucuronolactone, the additive that made rats swim better, the authors of a recent report in a scientific journal, Nutrition Reviews, said they were clueless as to why it was used in the products or what it did.

The roots of the energy drink phenomenon — and the claims surrounding ingredient mixes — can be traced to Japan. Those origins appear tied to the emergence of supposed cure-alls after World War II, a time when drugs there were in short supply.

In the late 1940s, Taisho Pharmaceuticals, a Japanese drug maker, began selling taurine extract, apparently drawn to it by accounts citing its wartime use by the Japanese Imperial Navy to reduce fatigue among sailors and sharpen their vision at night, a history of the drug company states. A formula that is so effective in treating unexplained fevers, neuralgia, fatigue, whooping cough and other conditions for which there is no drug is very rare indeed, an advertisement for the extract declared.

But around 1960, Taisho executives decided to use taurine in a new product, one that helped start the energy drink industry — Lipovitan D.

Lipovitan D, which was sold in a small vial, contained 50 milligrams of caffeine, 1,000 milligrams of taurine, various B vitamins and flavorings. The product, which was sold cold in drugstores, was a huge success during Japan’s economic boom years, particularly with overworked office employees.

However, 50 years and 34 billion bottles later, Taisho officials acknowledged they had not run a single clinical study involving Lipovitan D.

Taurine is added to Lipovitan D not so much for specific medicinal benefits but for its multifaceted functions, said a Taisho executive.

It was also in the 1960s that a product appeared in Thailand that was similar to Lipovitan D in its ingredient mix. It was called Krating Daeng (pronounced grating deng), or Red Bull. An Austrian businessman reportedly discovered it when trying to cure a case of jet lag and, in 1987, he and the drink’s Thai creator founded Red Bull.

Red Bull quickly became popular in Europe with truck drivers and students and as a mixer for alcoholic drinks. It arrived in the United States in the late 1990s and soon inspired hundreds of competitors. In 2002, for example, Monster Energy was marketed in a 16-ounce can, twice as large as Red Bull’s 8-ounce can and with twice as much caffeine.

Over the years, some producers have financed scientific studies to try to bolster performance claims. A British researcher, Dr. Chris Alford, said that Red Bull approached him about a decade ago while he was doing work on the ability of stimulants to reduce fatigue in drivers.

In 2001, Dr. Alford, a psychologist at the University of the West of England in Bristol who has received financing from Red Bull, published a study that found test participants given the energy drink had better reaction times, were more alert and showed increased physical endurance than test subjects given a placebo like flavored water. But studies like Dr. Alford’s, researchers say, only underscore caffeine’s known benefits. And more recent attempts to tease out the impacts of drink ingredients have produced mixed results.

Last August, Scottish researchers reported that 1,000 milligrams of taurine taken as a supplement appeared to improve the performance of middle-distance runners. But other taurine studies have been negative or inconclusive. We found it difficult to make any conclusions about what taurine was doing, said a graduate researcher at Tufts University, who headed a study that ran participants through a battery of mental reaction and memory tests.

A University of Wisconsin researcher, said he believed there was a reason for such equivocal results. The scientist, who works at the school’s college of veterinary medicine, said that laboratory animals, like mice or rats, must be given huge dosages of taurine to see an effect.

What may qualify as the strangest trial in the annals of energy drink studies was financed by Living Essentials, the distributor of 5-Hour Energy. The office of a proctologist in a small Maine town apparently served as a setting for the 2007 study, the results of which were never published. But its findings and other details about it, like its location, emerged in a 2008 lawsuit filed by the maker of Monster Energy against Living Essentials.

The study found that test subjects given 5-Hour Energy experienced “energy” for about 40 minutes longer than when given Red Bull or Monster Energy, though it was not clear from court papers whether that difference reflected the energy shot’s higher levels of caffeine.

But another finding from that study sheds an interesting light on one of 5-Hour Energy’s central claims — that the energy shot, unlike competitors', produces No Crash Later.

According to the study, 24 percent of test participants who received 5-Hour Energy had reactions similar to a moderately severe crash that left them extremely tired and in need of rest, another drink or some other action, lawsuit filings show.

The Living Essentials spokeswoman, said the bold “No Crash Later” statement on product labels was followed by a special mark. That mark, which also appears on the back label, explains in fine print that no crash means no sugar crash.

That is hardly surprising, because 5-Hour Energy does not contain sugar.

Asked whether consumers mistakenly believe that the shot does not produce a caffeine-related crash, she said that the use of the special mark and its explanation were clear.

She added that another study showing the benefits of 5-Hour Energy was undergoing peer review for possible publication in a scientific journal. But she declined to say why the results of the study, which was apparently conducted five years ago, had not yet appeared. That study found a benefit when 5-Hour Energy was compared to a placebo like flavored water, she said.

Whatever the case, the energy drink boom has come full circle in Asia, the region where it started. Over the last decade, sales of Lipovitan D have fallen and its maker, Taisho Pharmaceuticals, has tried various strategies to revitalize the brand. Among them: bringing out Lipovitan Junior, a caffeine-free version for children.

In Thailand, Krating Daeng has suffered a similar fate. Its producer has tried to freshen up that brand by proclaiming that the Vitamin B12 in it helps the functions of the nervous system and brain.

Last year, the Foundation for Consumers in Thailand, an advocacy group, started a publicity campaign against energy drinks like Krating Daeng, arguing that producers were promoting unfounded health claims to push caffeine.

Urban Outfitters catalog gets naughty

originally appeared in USA Today:

At Urban Outfitters, the choice of being naughty or nice in its 2012 Christmas holiday catalog was easy: naughty wins.

The edgy apparel seller has shipped out a holiday catalog that's chock-full of naughtiness, including a $16 "It was f---ing awesome" photo album and a block candle that boldly spells out the f-word in wax. There's even an $18 "Let's f---ing reminisce" book.

Just a few years ago, Urban Outfitters might have received some serious, verbal raps on the knuckles from parents and protesters angered by the ultra-spicy language. But in today's social-media environment, along with those verbal raps, it's also receiving some surprising kudos from brand and marketing gurus.

It's brilliant, explosive, short-term marketing that generates buzz, it's the right voice for the teen markets according to the CEO of Havas PR and national trend-spotter.

Over the years, many of the most successful fashion brands -- from Calvin Klein to Benetton to Abercrombie & Fitch -- have relied upon racy imagery in their ads and catalogs to generate buzz, PR and sales. In a social-media age, however, such efforts appear to be emboldened.

Shocking imagery sells according to a senior fashion editor at Women's Wear Daily. On Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook, this is a way to get buzz.

Not everyone is impressed.

According to a leading brand guru it's all about getting up on Instagram or someone's Facebook page. This kind of marketing really isn't so rebellious. It's just kind of stupid.

Worse than that, says the director of the activist Christian group One Million Moms, it's tasteless and vulgar.  Her organization, which is affiliated with the American Family Association, isn't calling for a boycott but is asking its members to think hard before purchasing any Urban Outfitter products, she feels they'll be losing business from conservative families.

Executives from Urban Outfitters declined to return phone calls or respond to e-mails for this story. But one catalog guru says the company clearly knows its audience.

According to the president of Direct Marketing Insights, a catalog consulting firm, good marketing requires that you communicate with your customers on their same wavelength, they're speaking the language of their customers.

Specifically, to today's teens, the f-word doesn't even mean what it means to most adults, it no longer even has sexual connotations. It's almost a synonym for 'give me a break.'

Zimmerman sues NBC and reporters

George Zimmerman sued NBC on Thursday, claiming he was defamed when the network edited his 911 call to police after the shooting of Trayvon Martin to make it sound like he was racist.

The former neighborhood watch volunteer filed the lawsuit seeking an undisclosed amount of money in Seminole County, outside Orlando. Also named in the complaint were three reporters covering the story for NBC or an NBC-owned television station.

The complaint said the airing of the edited call has inflicted emotional distress on Zimmerman, making him fear for his life and causing him to suffer nausea, insomnia and anxiety.

The lawsuit claims NBC edited his phone call to a dispatcher last February. In the call, Zimmerman describes following Martin in the gated community where he lived, just moments before he fatally shot the 17-year-old teen during a confrontation.

The lawsuit claims NBC saw the death of Trayvon Martin not as a tragedy but as an opportunity to increase ratings, and so set about to create a myth that George Zimmerman was a racist and predatory villain.

An NBC spokeswoman said the network strongly disagreed with the accusations made in the complaint.

There was no intent to portray Mr. Zimmerman unfairly," the network said. NBC intends to vigorously defend their position in court.

Three employees of the network or its Miami affiliate lost their jobs because of the changes.

Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder but has pleaded not guilty, claiming self-defense under Florida's "stand your ground law."

The call viewers heard was trimmed to suggest that Zimmerman volunteered to police, with no prompting, that Martin was black, according to what NBC broadcast, he said [Martin] looks like he's up to no good. He looks black.

But the portion of the tape that was deleted had the 911 dispatcher asking Zimmerman if the person who had raised his suspicion was black, white or Hispanic, to which Zimmerman responded that he looks black.

The More Pandora Sells, the More It Loses

originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal:

Pandora Media Inc.'s 18% stock drop Wednesday is a sobering reminder that fractions add up, a tenth of a cent might not sound like a lot of money, except when advertising sales don't keep pace.

Pandora projected slower revenue growth and red ink in the current quarter, triggering a 19% plunge in the shares of the Internet radio company.

Pandora's music royalty costs, typically paid in tenths of a cent, are skyrocketing. At the same time, the more people who listen to Pandora via mobile devices, such as on smartphones, tablets or through car dashboards, the less advertisers pay to reach those listeners, compared to the ones listening on desktop or laptop computers.

In other words, the more successful Pandora becomes, the more it loses. And those through-the-looking-glass economics of Internet radio set off the drop in Pandora shares.

Pandora's audience statistics would be the envy of many media companies: In the most recent quarter, it had 59.2 million active users who listened to nearly 3.6 billion hours of music. And they appear highly loyal: its giant 47% uptick in active users was outpaced by a 67% increase in the amount of music served, meaning more people are using the service to listen to more music than ever.

Yet because Pandora must pay record companies and music publishers for every one of those "listens," its "content acquisition" costs—the price it pays the owners of all that music—rose nearly 75%. At $65.7 million, those costs ate up nearly 55% of Pandora's revenue for the three months ended Oct. 31.

Pandora's ad revenue totaled $106.3 million in the quarter, up 61%. It also brought in $13.7 million in subscription fees from users who pay $3 a month to listen without ads.

They are in many ways a victim of their own success according to Triton Research LLC, which analyzes startup companies for investors. (The firm is unrelated to Triton Digital, which audits Pandora's usage.)

While the company's audience and related costs have ballooned, 77% of its listening hours now take place on mobile devices, which generate less ad-sales revenue for the company than laptop and desktop listening.

The company sold $21.56 worth of ads per 1,000 hours of mobile listening in the past year—a slight uptick but less than half what it made from the same amount of desktop listening. The company made $55.18 in ad sales per thousand hours of desktop listening in the same period.

According to Pandora's CFO, if a TV network had to pay the production house more for every viewer of 'Breaking Bad'—and they didn't have a real ad-sales force in place—they would hate it if they had a big audience.

After their fall Wednesday, Pandora shares now trade at $7.80, close to their 52-week lows. The stock debuted in June, 2011 at $16 per share.

The company is making efforts to turn the situation around. Pandora's advertising sales force is 75% larger than a year earlier.

Pandora's CEO said they've demonstrated in Q3 that in mobile we can grow revenue faster than listener hours. We think we can continue that trend and that is what defines our success.

But the big issue facing the company is the cost of the music it plays, which is dictated by a blanket agreement between online radio companies and record labels, represented by an arm of their lobbying group called SoundExchange.

Under that agreement, which lasts through 2015, the rate goes up gradually each year. The rate paid per song will rise to 0.14 cent in 2015 from 0.11 cent this year. The rate schedule was negotiated in 2009, when Pandora was not the behemoth it is today.

Pandora has aggressively lobbied Congress for a law that would significantly cut those royalties. The Internet Radio Fairness Act, as the proposed legislation is known, may be the company's only chance at robust profits, says Triton's chief research officer.

He feels that from a strategy perspective it's the best single thing they could do for their business, without that, if they run their business perfectly, they are a low-margin business.

Pandora argues it has been paying disproportionate fees to artists, and that the legislation would put it on an equal footing with rivals. It also says whatever artists lose in the short term will be made up for in the future, because more attractive royalty rates would create a boom in Internet radio.

The Internet Radio Fairness Act would establish the same criteria for setting Internet radio royalty rates that is now applied to satellite radio company Sirius XM Radio Inc., SIRI +1.08% which pays significantly less than Pandora and other webcasters.

Not surprisingly, many artists, who stand to have their royalties cut sharply, object to the legislation, especially as Internet radio promises to catch on.

Jonatha Brooke, a singer with several albums released both on major labels and independently, estimates that one million plays of her work on Pandora nets her a bit less than $500. If the legislation passes, she believes proceeds from the same number of plays could be less than $100.

She says that these streams are becoming more and more important. The idea of Pandora crying the blues and wanting an 85% cut in what they have to pay me is just galling.

Ms. Brooke's name appeared with hundreds of other artists in an ad in Billboard magazine last month, criticizing Pandora's efforts on behalf of the bill.

Pandora's CEO will pay about $250 million in royalties to SoundExchange this year. He declined to speculate on how that amount may change in the future should the Internet Radio Fairness Act pass.

Pandora's founder says he has been trying to make personal contact with musicians about the issue. His hope and belief is that after this wave of rhetoric and mercenary type of PR, there will be a discussion based on the facts.

New York Times Sells Papers

First appeared on Yahoo! News
The New York Times Co said it will sell 16 regional newspapers spread across the U.S. Southeast and California to Halifax Media Holdings for $143 million in cash as it looks to cut costs and focus on its most important papers and their websites.
Regional newspapers have struggled recently because of weak local retail and national advertising, partly reflecting the economy's broader travails.
The company said it will record an after-tax gain of $150 million on the sale -- expected to close in a few weeks -- in the first quarter of 2012.
"I think that it's toward the low end of what we expected. I was expecting $150-$200 million," Evercore Partners analyst Douglas Arthur told Reuters.
"What it implies is that margins on regional newspapers were not as high as we thought, but the underlying profitability of the main New York Times is higher."
The analyst, however, said pension obligation will stay with the company and that could be one of the uses of the proceeds.
The group to be hived off has a weekday circulation of about 430,000, with newspapers such as Sarasota Herald-Tribune, The Ledger, in Florida; Herald-Journal in South Carolina; and The Press Democrat in California in its stable.
Last week, the Times Co said it will sell its regional newspapers days after Chief Executive Janet Robinson announced her sudden retirement.
The group's revenue -- more than a tenth of Times Co's overall sales -- fell about 7 percent to $190 million in the first nine months of this year.
"These newspapers have been a drag on overall results due to heavier reliance on local advertising which lags national advertising growth," Morningstar's Joscelyn Mackay said.
"Without these papers, the firm will be able to focus on its flagship The New York Times and monetize its digital content."
Halifax Media owns The Daytona-Beach News Journal, among other papers and media businesses across the south.
Times Co shares, which have lost a fifth of their value this year, closed at $7.76 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

New Western Has Big Hopes To Reach Audiences

Story first appeared in USA TODAY.

A few miles down a dirt road from a tribal casino, a lush green valley dotted with dandelions has been transformed into 1865 Nebraska.

Caked with inches-deep mud from spring rains, a tent city has sprung, populated with horse-drawn wagons, chickens, several hundred feet of railroad track to nowhere and a locomotive made from steel, Styrofoam and wood.

It's the world of AMC's Hell on Wheels, a story of greed, corruption and revenge framed by the building of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Premiering Sunday (10 ET/PT), the 10-episode drama is the cable network's latest twist on Westerns, after earlier success with 2006 miniseries Broken Trail. And coupled with a comeback in critically acclaimed films (True Grit, There Will Be Blood) it marks the latest chapter in an effort to revive the timeworn genre, which dominated the early days of television but has been seen only sporadically since. But old-time Westerns were both literally and figuratively black and white: Good guys against evildoers. The new model focuses on flawed antiheroes with impure motives.

Wheels spins around Cullen Bohannon (Anson Mount), a former slave owner who, just after the Civil War, finds work on a railroad crew purely to seek revenge on the former members of Gen. Sherman's army responsible for murdering his wife. Rap singer Common plays Elam Ferguson, a former slave who forms an uneasy bond with Bohannon on the prairie.

Construction of the railroad, touted as healing the rift between north and south by linking east to west, hasn't been explored much in fiction, says Tony Gayton (Faster), who created the show with his brother Joe. Their idea is to have 'hell on wheels' — that's the movable tent city — to feel like an urban development, and to juxtapose that with the big wide-open western vistas (and) the Native Americans.

Mount, a Tennessee native, says, it's not a show about the creation of a railroad, it's a show about the building of a nation. It's a group of people from different backgrounds, different cultures, different races, who have a shared dream of creating something that's seemingly impossible.

Connecting the coasts was like saying we're going to put a man on the moon, and it's not a pretty story: There's a lot of graft, a lot of corruption, a lot of hatred. Cullen is a guy who's hellbent on revenge, and he keeps losing that battle because he gets distracted by a sense of obligation and duty elsewhere.

Distinctly American themes

At the set on the grounds of the Tsuu T'ina Nation (ironic, given the scalpings in Sunday's premiere), extras clad in mud-caked canvas mingle with crew members incongruously dressed in jeans and rubber boots. One actor, dressed as a hobo, rolls a cigarette off camera. And plenty of old-timey slurs slip off tongues, from "copperheads" and "graybacks" to "darkies" and "bogtrotters." Irish, Germans and a Swede or two are part of the melting pot.

Thomas "Doc" Durant (Colm Meaney) is the only character based on a historic figure, simply because "he was too good not to use. A corrupt railroad promoter who stood to profit from government subsidies, he manipulated the stock market by misleading investors about which railroad he planned to connect with. And though desperate to build the first 40 miles of track so he could begin claiming a $16,000-a-mile subsidy, he insisted on a snake-like path to make more money.

Dominique McElligott plays Lily Bell, widowed by the murder of her surveyor husband, who spends early episodes trying to survive in the wilderness. But she's not a damsel in distress. She's sort of badass. (McElligott struggled too, having spent an entire day lying in the rain and submerged in mud. The mosquitoes would come later.)

For some scenes shot at night or in bad weather, cameras roll in a former airplane hangar a few miles away, using replicas of tents and other props.

For AMC, Hell is the latest move in its strategy to develop companion series for its top movie draws: Fans of horror films marched to its biggest hit, The Walking Dead. Despite its recent success with original series.

Original programming chief Joel Stillerman says the search yielded a lot of traditional Westerns, but none had the scope and emotional intensity of Hell on Wheels. These stories have great universal themes that are distinctly American.

Executive producer Jeremy Gold says the cost of progress is very much an ongoing theme of the show, (and) the brutality of imposing civilization where it shouldn't be.

Producers and actors cite There Will Be Blood, Unforgiven and True Grit as inspirations.

Old genre, new 'flavor'

Though scarce on TV in recent years, the notion of frontier justice has been appealing to TV programmers almost since the medium started.


In the 1960s, modernism was much more in vogue, and current generations wanted to see themselves reflected on TV, and they weren't on horses. And newly available demographic data revealed that Western fans were an older crowd that was less appealing to advertisers.

And though Gunsmoke and Bonanza endured until the '70s, subsequent efforts to revive the genre were met with disdain. Brooks recalls working as a researcher for legendary NBC programmer Brandon Tartikoff, who — exasperated by relentless pitches — printed up T-shirts picturing a horse covered with an X. "They were really run out of TV," he says.

And yet struggling NBC — in a quest for something original, says the network's entertainment president Jennifer Salke — is now developing three Western-themed projects, including a drama about Dust Bowl pioneers in which a couple goes missing, and another reminiscent of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with a strong female character added in. (ABC also has one in the works.)

Salke, who's looking for a postmodern version in which the setting provides a specific kind of flavor. NBC passed last spring on Reconstruction, a pilot also set just after the Civil War. But the difficulty of launching new dramas, not just at NBC, has pushed programmers to the frontier.

Writers are incredibly challenged in drama to come up with something unique that's going to excite people, Salke says. Fans of the genre will be interested, but it's her job to come up with something that's more modern and accessible and has appeal to a broader audience. If it's a doctor and family on the range, she is already asleep in her chair.

Of course, cable has the luxury of appealing to a specific niche audience. HBO's acclaimed Deadwood had a loyal following and a three-year run. And though Elmore Leonard stopped writing Westerns, his Fire in the Hole, adapted for FX's Justified, embodies the Western tradition, and they don't shy away from it, says executive producer Graham Yost. He is a marshal and he's got a star and he gets bad guys, but it's complicated because it's 2011, not 1952. Our heroes have more dimensions, flaws and foibles.

The modern-day allegory is unavoidable: Brooks says Westerns mark a pushback on the urbanization of TV" and gives voice to a populist focus on the "other America." The symbolism, says AMC's Stillerman, is almost too good to be true.

CBS Fined for Janet Jackson Exposure

Story first appeared in USA TODAY.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld its finding that the Federal Communications Commissions acted improperly in fining CBS over the fleeting exposure of Janet Jackson's breast during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.

A three-judge panel from 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled that the FCC improperly assessed a $550,000 fine against the network for the so-called "wardrobe malfunction" that lasted just over half a second.

During the Super Bowl performance in Houston, Justin Timberlake ripped off Jackson's bustier, briefly exposing her breast and a silver sunburst "shield" covering her nipple. In arguments last year, the FCC argued that CBS should have been aware the performers might add shock value to the act.

CBS had a duty to investigate, FCC lawyer Jack Lewis argued.

The network countered that regulators were now trying to apply different standards to words and images despite previously excusing fleeting instances of both.

The Supreme Court last year ordered the appeals panel to reconsider its 2008 decision, citing a ruling in a Fox television-led challenge, when it said the FCC could threaten fines over the use of a single curse word on live TV.

In the majority opinion, 3rd Circuit Judge Marjorie Rendell wrote that the Fox opinion did nothing to undermine the earlier decision on the CBS fine and, in fact, confirms the appeals panel's ruling.

The FCC "arbitrarily and capriciously departed from its prior policy excepting fleeting broadcast material" in assessing the fine, Rendell wrote.

The same panel initially sided with the network in 2008.

The Spread of Malicious Internet Ads

Story first appeared in USA TODAY.

The online-advertising industry is scrambling to quell a long-standing problem that has taken a turn for the worse: the spread of malicious ads on the Internet's top commercial websites.

Several new twists have made so-called malvertisements a fast-rising threat to consumers — and a big headache for publishers, advertisers and ad networks, say technologists and security researchers.

The spread of infected online ads has spiked tenfold over the past year, according to research disclosed by security intelligence firm RiskIQ at a recent Online Trust Alliance conference in Washington, D.C.

RiskIQ documented a peak of 14,694 occurences of malvertisements in May of this year, up from 1,533 in May 2010. Each corrupted ad could have infected the PCs of thousands or millions of website visitors, based on how long the ad ran, says Elias Manousos, CEO of RiskIQ.


Organized crime gangs have streamlined the process of sneaking viral ads into the distribution system run by advertising networks, causing billions of tainted ad impressions to appear on the top 500 websites over the past 12 months, say technologists and security researchers.


Website security firm Armorize recently discovered criminals selling tutorials, tool kits and ad placement services to anyone who wants to get into the malvertising game. "There is a whole ecosystem designed to do this," says Matt Huang, Armorize's chief operating officer.

A recent rash of infections have been triggering bogus security warnings, followed by an offer for fake antivirus protection.

Last month, SpeedTest.net, a site that measures home broadband connection speeds, began displaying legit ads carrying instructions to load pitches for Security Sphere 2012. Simply navigating to the site launched the promos, which locked up the visitor's PC until he or she purchased worthless "protection" for $35.

Doug Suttles, chief operating officer of Web diagnostics firm Ookla, SpeedTest's parent, says his engineers spotted the attack and cleaned it up within three hours. The criminals, in this case, pioneered a novel technique. They corrupted legit advertisements as they arrived in the ad-handling program, called OpenX, used by the SpeedTest site.


However, tens of thousands of other websites that use the free OpenX ad-handling platform are wide open to this new type of attack, says Armorize's Huang.

In another twist, consumers bedeviled by bogus anti-virus pitches have started bad-mouthing websites they believe triggered the fake promos. Armorize has documented numerous consumer complaints that have gone viral on Twitter and other social networks, causing a drop in visits to the sites in question.


Some ad networks have begun participating in a working group discussing "information-sharing about malvertisers and their ads," says Steve Sullivan, the Interactive Advertising Board's vice president of digital supply chain solutions.

The Online Publishers Association, the industry group of major website publishers, has yet to closely examine malvertising. Obviously, stuff like this is disconcerting to the industry, says Pam Horan, OPA's president. They haven't done any research in this area, and she has not specifically heard anything from the members about this.

Even so, validating ads has become a major conundrum. Web publishers trust the ad networks to continually rotate ads to their Web pages. Meanwhile, the big ad networks, such as Google, Adobe, Microsoft and Yahoo, use automation to pull ads into rotation from a series of smaller networks and agencies.


Malvertisements are also used to spread stealthy infections that quietly take full control of the victim's PC, which is then used to steal data, probe deeper into corporate networks and pilfer from online financial accounts.

Consumers can protect themselves by making sure anti-virus programs and all updates for their Web browsers and popular applications, especially Adobe Flash and Adobe PDF, are current. Consumers who want to protect themselves further can use browser plug-ins, such as NoScript and AdBlock, that block all online ads.

Craig Spiezle, the Online Trust Association's executive director, says publishers, advertisers and the ad networks realize what's at stake.

The good news there is growing interest of some of the key stakeholders — including Yahoo, Microsoft and Google — on the need to employ countermeasures. It's clear that validating the ads everyone depends on is a shared responsibility. If consumers don't trust ads, they may not go to the site, or they'll start running ad blockers, and that will compromise everyone's ability to monetize.

Andy Rooney Dies

Story first appeared in USA TODAY.

Andy Rooney, television's most celebrated curmudgeon, died Friday night, about one month after ending his 33-year run as the closing essayist on CBS' top-rated newsmagazine 60 Minutes.
He died in a New York City hospital of complications after minor surgery, according to a CBS statement released on Saturday.

Rooney was 92. In a 2010 interview with USA TODAY, he was asked about retiring and shot back his own question: "Retire? From what? Life?"

He allowed that "I suppose the time may come." It did on Oct. 2, when he delivered his 1,097th and final essay, telling his viewers, "I've done a lot of complaining here, but of all the things I've complained about, I can't complain about my life."

60 Minutes didn't replace him with another essayist — perhaps the ultimate compliment.

A former war correspondent, he wrote 16 books — from Air Gunner (1944), an account of the air war against Germany, to Andy Rooney: 60 Year of Wisdom and Wit (2009). And until last year, he wrote a syndicated newspaper column.


Jeff Fager, chairman of CBS News and the executive producer of 60 Minutes, wouldn't discuss why Rooney wasn't replaced, but said, it's a sad day at 60 Minutes and for everybody here at CBS News. It's hard to imagine not having Andy around. He loved his life and he lived it on his own terms.

In the 2010 interview, Rooney was asked if he did retire, who might replace him? With a straight face, he suggested another CBS legend, Charles Kuralt, who died in 1997.

Rooney liked to think of himself not as a TV personality but as a writer who merely appeared on television. With his whiny, sing-song oratory style and rumpled demeanor, his observation was a bit more than wry self-deprecation.

He could be grouchy, rude, funny, mischievous and occasionally out-of-touch and controversial. As he put it, "There's an awful lot of nonsense in this world. I'm not shy about expressing a dislike when I feel it."

In his first 60 Minutes essay, on July 2, 1978, he contended the Fourth of July weekend was "one of the safest of the year to be going someplace," and that since "fewer people are watching television over the Fourth, I suppose fewer die of boredom."

Few topics were off-limits. He debunked celebrities, consumer products, companies, hair styles, holiday traditions and human behavior with wit and a sly arch of his trademark bushy eyebrows. One of his Emmy Awards was for an essay pondering if there was a real Mrs. Smith behind Mrs. Smith's Pies.

Rooney's TV career began in 1949 as a writer for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, but took off in the late '60s as a writer/producer for correspondent Harry Reasoner. In an interview with Morley Safer that accompanied his final essay for 60 Minutes, Rooney said the late Reasoner was a good writer but lazy.

No one ever said that about Rooney. "The single luckiest thing that ever happened to me," he said, was as an Army private in 1942 landing a job as a reporter for the Armed Forces' newspaper, Stars and Stripes. In 1943, he was one of six correspondents who flew on the first American bombing raid over Germany. Near war's end, he was one of the first American journalists to report atrocities from recently liberated concentration camps.

During the war, he met Walter Cronkite, who would become his closest friend at CBS, and Don Hewitt, who would start 60 Minutes and have the idea in 1978 of closing each Sunday night's edition of 60 Minutes with a Rooney essay.

"I never had a great desire to have my face on TV," Rooney told USA TODAY. "I don't mind it. It means more money. … I like that part of it."

Before 60 Minutes, he wrote and appeared in several prime-time specials, including In Praise of New York City (1974), Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington (1975), Mr. Rooney Goes to Dinner (1978), and Mr. Rooney Goes to Work (1977).

He didn't always get along with his bosses. In 1970, in the midst of the Vietnam War, he quit CBS — returning two years later — when the network refused to air his morally questioning "An Essay on War." It aired on PBS instead.

In 1990, he was suspended for three months after making remarks seen as homophobic to a gay newspaper. He was rehired four weeks later after 60 Minutes ratings had fallen 20%.

In 1992, he angered Native Indians when he wrote in a column that it was silly for them to complain about team nicknames such as the Redskins: "The real problem is, we took the country away from the Indians, they want it back and we're not going to give it to them. We feel guilty and we'll do what we can for them within reason, but they can't have their country back. Next question."

In 1994, he complained that Kurt Cobain's suicide at 27 got more attention that Richard Nixon's death. He said he had never heard of Cobain or his band Nirvana and that "a lot of people would like to have the years left that he threw away." A week later, he apologized on air, saying he should have taken Cobain's depression into account, and read critical comments from viewers.

The same year, he blasted the French for not supporting the war with Iraq: "You can't beat the French when it comes to food, fashion, wine or perfume, but they lost their license to have an opinion on world affairs years ago," he said. "The French lost World War II to the Germans in about 20 minutes."

But he also said, "I am proud to say that no CBS executive has ever stopped me from saying anything, no matter how dumb it was."

CBS released a statement Saturday that praised Rooney's contribution to journalism.

His wry wit, his unique ability to capture the essence of any issue, and his larger-than-life personality made him an icon, not only within the industry but among readers and viewers around the globe, said Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation.

Rooney also won admiration from colleagues at CBS.

"Underneath that gruff exterior, was a prickly interior … and deeper down was a sweet and gentle man, a patriot with a love of all things American, like good bourbon and a delicious hatred for prejudice and hypocrisy," Morley Safer said.

In Rooney's cluttered office at CBS, one of his treasured possessions was a framed, handwritten note that said simply, "WOW," from the acclaimed essayist and children's author E.B. White, about Rooney's 1957 TV adaptation of White's famous essay, "Here is New York."

"He was the best there was," Rooney said. When White died in 1985, Rooney noted, "Seems terribly wrong, but I'm probably better known than he was. As the phrase goes in the newspaper business, I couldn't carry his typewriter."

Rooney was often viewed as an American "everyman," but he acknowledged that when he encountered fans who "want to be your best friend, I'm rude. I don't like that in myself, but I can't stop it."

He once wrote, "I'm average in so many ways that it eliminates any chance I ever had of being considered a brooding, introspective intellectual." In fact, Rooney was a bit of an elitist who drove expensive cars, dined at fine French restaurants in Manhattan, was a member of several private clubs and a regular on the New York black-tie media circuit.

Rooney is survived by one son, Brian, a former ABC correspondent, and three daughters: Emily, who hosts a public-TV talk show in Boston; Martha, who works at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Md.; and Ellen, a photographer in London.

In an introduction to the 2009 collection of his father's writings, Brian Rooney wrote: "As a father, he was the product of his time. He never said, 'I love you,' and never asked about my feelings."

But, he added, "His gruffness hides sentimentality. … When my mother (Marguerite) died (in 2004, after 62 years of marriage), he curled up on the bed like a child, crying her name. He loves life and wishes it would never end."

College Students Reach Out About Debt and Job Prospects

Story first appeared in the Traverse City Record-Eagle.

Students rallying around issues of debt, job prospects.

Mo Tarafa stood before students at a small, outdoor concrete auditorium at Florida International University and called for volunteers to sit in the 10 chairs before her. Each chair, represented 10 percent of the wealth in the united States and 10 percent of the population.

The students, mostly in their 20s and wearing jeans and T-shirts on a balmy fall Thursday afternoon in Miami, took their places. Then Tarafa asked nine of the students to squeeze together into five of the chairs. This, she said, was the distribution of wealth in 1996.

Next she asked nine students to fit into three of the chairs. This, she said, is the distribution of wealth today.

She asked how they were filling and one student said "uncomfortable" as they sat piled up on one another.

The exercise was part of a teach-in that took place recently at FIU and dozens of other campuses across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. As the protests have grown to cities across the United States. they've also taken root at the nation's universities, where students have staged rallies and walk-outs from classes.

On Thursday, students were among the thousands who took part in protest across the country. At the University of California, Berkeley, where 40 people were arrested in a violent confrontation with police last week, officers removed 20 tents on Thursday.
At Harvard University, dozens of students have set up tents in the middle of campus.

The student's concerns:the rising costs of tuition, seemingly insurmountable student debt and weak job prospects- issues unique to them, but which student organizers see as directly connected to the larger issues being raised by the Occupy protests.

Natalia Abrams, a recent UCLA graduate who has been helping organize students through Occupy Colleges said she loved her education and things that is was valuable, however, she fells she is not using it on a daily basis. Occupy College is a loose coalition of universities across the country. Whether the protest mark a rejuvenation of student activism in the United States is yet to be seen but already some important distinctions are being made from their involvement in politics and society over the last few decades.

In the 1960s, students held sit-ins to protest racial segregation and marched against the Vietnam War. Since then, activism on campus has tended to focus on specific issues, like rape awareness, anti-sweatshop campaigns, and equality for gays and lesbians.

There has not for a long time been a single issue like the civil rights or the war in Vietnam that brings a whole generation together.

Students at more than 120 university have participated in protest so far. They range from students from Ivy League colleges, many who come from middle and upper-class families, to those who work and attend state or community college.

Debt from college loans and poor job prospects after graduation are two of the main points of contention for student protesters. The unemployment rate for students who graduated from college in 2010 was 9.1 percent, among the highest levels i recent history, according to the Project on Student Debt, a nonprofit research and policy organization dedicated to making college more affordable. Student graduated with an average of $25,250 debt, 5 percent higher than a year before.

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Reebok Settles Toning Shoes Case

Story first appeared in USA TODAY.
The Federal Trade Commission announced a $25 million settlement with Reebok on Wednesday over what it said were unsubstantiated claims about the exercise benefits of its "toning shoes."
But the issue may not be limited to Reebok. Skechers said in a Securities & Exchange Commission filing last month that the FTC is investigating its advertising and claims about its toning sneakers. A Los Angeles attorney filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status in January against New Balance, alleging its claims about the toning and calorie-burning potential of its toning shoes were false and misleading.
Toning sneakers have rounded heels and other features that purportedly require more energy for walking. Sales of toning shoes hit about $1 billion last year, the FTC said.
The FTC said Reebok made "unsupported" claims in advertisements that walking and running in its shoes strengthen and tone key leg and buttock muscles more than regular shoes. The FTC said these claims included that EasyTone shoes had been proved to lead to strength and tone improvements of: 28% in buttock muscles, 11% in hamstrings and 11% in calf muscles over regular walking shoes.
The American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine has taken a cautious stance against toning shoes, which it says can provide benefits for some users but may have consequences, especially for those with balance problems.
As is typical in advertising, some manufacturers greatly overstate the benefits and do not fully disclose the risks associated with toning shoes.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission's complaint database has more than 20 complaints about toning shoes, including two about Reebok versions. Consumers wrote about pain and injuries including stress fractures.
Under the settlement, Reebok is barred from making any claims that its products strengthen muscles unless they are backed by scientific evidence. Consumers who bought Reebok toning shoes or EasyTone apparel on or after Dec. 5, 2008, are eligible for refunds.
The FTC wants national advertisers to understand that they must exercise some responsibility and ensure that their claims for fitness gear are supported by sound science.

Murdoch Family Business?

Story first appeared in the Wall Street Journal.
Youngest son James, 38 years old, has been groomed as heir apparent. But people close to the company say his future has been clouded by questions about his role in the scandal, which has shaken the media giant's U.K. newspaper unit and led to the closure of the 168-year-old tabloid News of the World.
A U.K. parliamentary panel said Tuesday it has asked him to come back for a second round of testimony over events at News of the World, where voice mails were intercepted in the pursuit of scoops. His earlier appearance in July set off a crossfire of conflicting accounts over what he was told and when.
James, currently News Corp.'s deputy chief operating officer, has said he became aware of evidence late last year that phone hacking went beyond the former News of the World royals correspondent and a private investigator on the paper's payroll. Contradicting him, though, the tabloid's former editor and former top lawyer say they told him in 2008 about evidence suggesting that phone-hacking extended beyond one reporter.
With no hard evidence yet to support those allegations, some people inside News Corp. feel the threat to James's career has diminished. But many accept that he still faces a challenge ahead to clear his name and preserve his path to the top.
A News Corp. spokeswoman said James, who has said he stands by his testimony, is happy to appear in front of the committee again to answer any further questions that members might have.
The questions facing James Murdoch are the latest hiccups in a succession strategy orchestrated—and often improvised—by his father. James's older siblings, Lachlan and Elisabeth, long ago left the company, although Elisabeth rejoined this year. The family controls the company through its 40% voting stake.
In August, Rupert Murdoch, age 80, told analysts that if he were hit by a bus, chief operating officer Chase Carey would succeed him. It was the first time the plan was publicly clarified. Mr. Murdoch had discussed that short-term succession scenario internally before, including earlier this year, as a likely interim step to one of the Murdoch children taking the role, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Murdoch also said he and Mr. Carey have full confidence in James but in the end, it's a matter for the board.
Mr. Murdoch has since continued to defend James in conversations with executives and advisers, according to a person familiar with the matter.
News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal, declined to comment.
Over the years, Mr. Murdoch tried not to show favoritism toward Lachlan, James or Elisabeth, all children of his second marriage. Oldest son Lachlan, the original front-runner, quit six years ago in part because his father sided with other News Corp. executives in disagreements over strategic moves. Lachlan, who now lives in Australia, has advised the company recently on the scandal, and his father has in the past discussed finding a way to get him to return, say people familiar with the matter.
The children have at times bristled under a patriarch who is easily frustrated and difficult to please. In some ways it's easier to be a Murdoch outside News [Corp.] than inside, said Elisabeth Murdoch in an interview in 2004, four years after she left News Corp. to start her own production company.
She rejoined the fold this year when News Corp. bought her production company, Shine, and Mr. Murdoch has envisioned her one day running an array of News Corp.'s television properties, according to a person who has spoken to him about it. But Ms. Murdoch recently shelved plans to join the board, and her husband has told her News Corp. colleagues she has no plans to leave the U.K. right now, according to a person familiar with the matter.
His siblings' departures created an opening for James, who joined News Corp. when it bought his hip-hop label, Rawkus, in the mid-1990s. He has earned respect among executives for overseeing growth at News Corp.'s Asian satellite business Star TV and then British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC. But he has had a sometimes disruptive effect as he tried to put his stamp on the company, say people close the matter.
In one instance in 2007, James, based in London, pressed for a series of new hires in News Corp.'s headquarters in New York, where his father is based. The elder Mr. Murdoch felt James was over-reaching.
The two quickly put the episode behind them, the executive added. News Corp. declined to comment.
Stylistically, James has been a contrast to his father—deliberately so, say some people close to him. While Rupert Murdoch famously shuns textbook management practices like focus groups, James is known for fluency in business jargon like ARPU, the average revenue per user. He rehearses earnings calls and takes copious notes during meetings.
Cautiously navigating his roles of son and scion, James sometimes calls his father "Dad" or "Pop," other times "the boss," the term used by other News Corp. executives. He argues with his father openly. At a strategy session for a since-scrapped digital subscription service in early 2010, the two debated how content from various News Corp. properties should be packaged, interrupting each other and finishing each other's sentences, say people familiar with the discussion.
After running News Corp.'s Internet division, James became CEO of News Corp.-controlled BSkyB in 2003. There, he made his name, transforming the company from a satellite business to a phone, Internet and TV company. Analysts feared his target of reaching 10 million subscribers would sacrifice profits. But he kept earnings steady and, in 2010, the company reached that goal.
In December 2007, he rose to become chairman and CEO of Europe and Asia. James, who inherited little of his father's sentimentality toward newspapers, focused on TV. In 2008, he helped persuade his reluctant father to enter Germany, known as a risky market for pay TV, by acquiring a 15% stake in Premiere for $423 million, according to people familiar with the matter. The company, now called Sky Deutschland and 50% owned by News Corp., still isn't profitable but has started to increase subscribers.
From his London base, James pushed a corporate image makeover for the entire company. Executives in New York questioned the need for the campaign, say people familiar with the matter, while James argued the company ought to take corporate reputation more seriously. Ads featuring a timeline of News Corp. milestones that stirred things up, like acquiring 20th Century Fox studio, ran in papers in the U.K and U.S. immediately after the company's acquisition of Dow Jones & Co. in December 2007. But a next phase with video and new logos was killed, as James and executives in New York fought over how it should proceed, say people familiar with the matter.
This past March, James was named deputy chief operating officer, a move widely perceived as a stepping stone closer to the top, though it was also aimed at bridging two increasingly separate power centers—James's in London and News Corp. headquarters in New York.
A few months ago, James appeared on the verge of capping his crowning achievement. News Corp. was poised to buy the rest of BSkyB. But in July, just as U.K. officials were expected to sign off on the deal, allegations of phone-hacking and police bribery at News of the World escalated with the accusation that a former reporter hacked into the phone of a murdered schoolgirl in 2002.
As a political firestorm erupted, James proposed to his father the idea of closing the 168-year-old tabloid. Rupert Murdoch agreed. The July 10 edition was its last. In a note to staff, James said News International didn't have "full possession of the facts" when it made earlier statements to Parliament and when James signed off on out-of-court settlements to victims of phone-hacking. "That was wrong and is a matter of serious regret," James said.
James turned his focus to BSkyB as politicians urged News Corp. to abandon the deal. In July, James agreed with other executives that News Corp. should pull out.
It was a blow for James, who would have played a major role in consolidating the company he once ran and exploring integrations with other News Corp. properties, says a person familiar with the matter.

‘Today’ Promotes Curry to Hot Seat as Surging ABC Closes Gap

Story first appeared in the Bloomberg News

Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- NBC’s “Today” show, making its biggest talent change since Katie Couric left in 2006, heads into the new television season with its 15-year dominance of morning TV challenged by a resurgent ABC.

Ann Curry, 54, joined Matt Lauer as “Today” co-host in June, moving from news reader to replace Meredith Vieira, who held the job since Couric left. While both “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” attract more viewers than a year ago, NBC’s lead has shrunk to a four-year-low, Nielsen Co. data show.

“That’s a little bit of a P-R blackeye,” according to Horizon Media, a New York-based advertising company. He predicts NBC will promote “Today” and Curry more heavily with the new season, when viewers return from summer vacations. “She didn’t start at an optimal time.”

The shows are significant profit contributors for both networks because their audience of 25-to-54-year-olds attracts ads from automakers, drugmakers and foodmakers. according to Shari Anne Brill, an advertising consultant. ABC and NBC are third and fourth in prime- time ratings, respectively, putting more of the profit burden on the rest of their schedules.

Since Curry became co-host, “Today” is averaging 5.03 million viewers daily, up 6.7 percent from a year earlier, according to Nielsen data through Aug. 14. “Good Morning America” is averaging
4.46 million, up 15 percent, according to ABC, which is owned by Walt Disney Co. That puts NBC’s year-to- date lead at its smallest in four years.

News Audience

NBC, part of Comcast Corp., has done a better job protecting its lead in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic group targeted by news advertisers. “Good Morning America” is up 8.2 percent in that group and “Today” is up 7.1 percent. With a larger audience base, NBC has widened its advantage by 22,000 viewers since June.

“Ann wasn’t a big change in co-anchor chair,” says an investment officer at Omnicom Group Inc.’s PHD USA media planning and buying unit in New York. “It wasn’t as big of a switch as Katie Couric leaving and Meredith Vieira coming in.” As news anchor since 1997, “Curry was already known to the ‘Today’ show viewer,”.

The gains by “Good Morning America” have been driven by its guests, including President Barack Obama, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Donald Trump, according to Keeshan, whose clients include Safeway Inc. and HBO.

On July 11, the show outdrew “Today” by airing parts of Diane Sawyer’s interview with Jaycee Dugard, the Northern California woman who was kidnapped as a child and held for 18 years as a sex slave.

“It’s all about the ‘gets,’ and who has the best musical guests,”.

Revamped Show

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts, hosts of “Good Morning America,” are connecting with audiences after the show’s long-tenured hosts, Charles Gibson and Sawyer, left in 2006 and 2009, according to James Goldston, who took over as executive producer five months ago.

Goldston said “Good Morning America” has revamped its cooking segments and other standing features to make them less predictable and more distinctive. The program has also introduced a daily entertainment segment.

Ad Rates

NBC, with a half-million more viewers in total and a similar advantage in the age demographic, commands higher ad rates. A 30-second “Today” spot was priced at an average of $67,900 in May compared with $41,400 for ABC, according to Nielsen data supplied by Adgate.

“Today” has seen its lead dwindle with past talent changes, only to recover later. The show will enjoy a unique promotional opportunity next July when NBC airs the Olympics from London, according to Adgate.

“The only number that matters is the demo,” reports an executive producer of “Today,” in an interview. “Our advantage over our competitors since Ann joined has only grown. I’m not sure what further evidence we’d need. That’s a resounding endorsement.”