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E-mail marketers anxious to see that their opt-in mailings are not mistaken for spam are finally seeing brighter days, new research suggests. While the journey to the customer’s inbox is getting easier, however, passive marketers will face tough challenges from smart competitors who are quickly learning how to use e-mail tracking, metrics and customization for high returns.
ISPs and marketers are, more than ever, on the same page in terms of serving opt-in e-mail receivers. Both are focused on making sure that opt-ins get what they want. Nobody can deny that the opt-in’s inbox journey has been rocky — trampled on by spam-sniffing software unleashed to resolve the real junk-mail crisis. ISPs and marketing executives are now doing serious reality checks to figure out how to reach those who choose to get information while continuing the fight against spam.
“The ISPs have been incredibly forthcoming and cooperative working with industry groups such as the The Email Sender & Provider Coalition,” said David Daniels, research director, JupiterResearch. “Such efforts have improved the understanding — and, in some cases, the cooperative adoption — of things such as SPF, SenderID and Domainkeys.”
Spam as Foil
After all, e-mail as a marketing tool has, at least in theory, been unbeatable. If you are a marketer, why spend big bucks on a limited number of snail mail postings when you can send so many more by e-mail at a fraction of the cost? Why wait for snail-mail feedback when you get immediate feedback and orders online? Why put up with outdated mailing lists or depend on printers’ schedules that cannot keep up with new product announcements?
Sooner than you could say “click through,” opt-in lists were born and company newsletters were launched. Invitations for customer feedback, event signups and purchases took off.
So, what did go wrong with e-mail marketing in practice?
In a word, spam. Information overload and e-mail user fatigue have also come into play. E-mail broadcast campaigns going out to many faceless recipients with no real pulse on their segmented buying interests have not scored well. A countermovement grew up of software vendors promising to fight the e-mail deluge with e-mail filters.
The trouble is, marketers with lists of earnest opt-ins and their opt-in prospects both suffered. While anti-spam technology was a breakthrough, the false-positives — e-mail filtered incorrectly, sniffed out as spam and blocked — were a genuine headache for marketers.
Less Bounce to the Ounce
In 2006, however, the picture is changing. Deliverability rates in e-mail were looking better as of Q4 2005, found Lyris Technologies, an e-mail marketing software and services company. The combined average gross deliverability rate for permission-based e-mails rose by 2 percent, from 87 percent in the third quarter of 2005 to 89 percent in Q4.
Best-of-class ISPs are less likely to block opt-in mail, Lyris also learned. Users with one of the top ten U.S. service providers were 21 percent more likely to get their opt-in mail successfully than those using the bottom 10 providers: 97.5 percent versus 76.4 percent, according to the Lyris “ISP Deliverability Report Card” published in February. U.S. providers improved gross deliverability 1 percent in Q4 as opposed to Q3.
Delivery rates should continue to improve, Daniels told the E-Commerce Times. “JupiterResearch believes that deliverability rates will surpass 90 percent on average during the next few years,” he said.
It’s evident that anti-spam filtering has improved over the past several years, according to Teney Takahashi, market analyst, The Radicati Group. Instead of simply searching for keywords — Viagra, Rolex — today’s filters use statistical reasoning, Takahashi noted, potentially leading to “a higher degree of accuracy and therefore a lower rate of false positives.”
The increased sophistication of an application like EmailAdvisor is playing a “major role” in reducing blocked mail, according to Dave Dabbah, director of sales and marketing director at Lyris. As the name suggests, the EmailAdvisor system lets permission-based marketers know more about the content’s deliverability.
The marketer, in turn, is able to pay attention to changes that will improve deliverability. “The very concept of being able to test how an ISP will react to subject lines and content has played a role in reducing false positives,” said Dabbah.
Simply put, marketers are trying to do what they can to reduce the risk of opt-in e-mail not seeing the light of day. This makes good business sense, Dabbah believes. “The more testing that marketers do prior to delivering mass campaigns really goes a long way to improving their relationships with their customers and ISPs,” he remarked.
Fewer False Positives
In 2003, most filtering software had a false positive rate of between 1 percent and 10 percent, according to estimates, but that rate is lower today, Takahashi said. “I would say the rate today is below 1 percent. Having a 10 percent rate of false positives would be very high. Also, the large volume of blatant spam helps to push the false positive rate lower,” he pointed out.
Marketers have become better at staving off bounces, noted Shar VanBoskirk, senior analyst, Forrester Research. “Smart e-mailers are very diligent about their deliverability monitoring,” she told the E-Commerce Times. “They test each message before it goes out, so they know if it is likely to be delivered. They watch bounce rates after mailings. They really focus on creating relevant messages that their customers will want to receive.”
Marketers can’t get too comfortable just yet, however. There is ample room for improvement, says Daniels.
In the next four years, costs of erroneously blocked mail will drop by as much as US$15 million, but by 2010, these costs will reach an estimated $92 million — and this kind of money still represents a significant business cost, he cautioned, which marketers must try to further reduce. This year, the cost is an estimated $107 million.
Less Big-Band Razzle
“Marketers themselves are often the cause of incorrectly blocked mail,” Daniels commented. “We’ve seen marketers begin to move away from broadcast tactics, which can often be confused as those of a spammer.” Marketers are refining their tune in the form of tailored messages targeted to specific circles rather than to the universe.
Hewlett-Packard, a company that is aggressive in getting its e-mail marketing communications just right, wasn’t always at the top of its form.
“Our tendency was wanting to give it all at once to customers and hoping customers would be interested. We learned that with e-mail, it has got to be relevant,” said Karl Robertson, manager of HP’s U.S. eMail Marketing Program.
The working mantra now for Robertson and his team is to “touch the right customer with the right content at the right time. That’s always the goal.”
A case in point is HP’s “Technology at Work” newsletter program. Built over the last five years, TAW serves as a way to beat the company drums on news, product promotions and product updates. HP uses e-mail response data and Web site data to track direct-through e-mail sales, support and reader preferences.
“Not only do we track overall newsletter response,” said Robertson, “but we can also sort the data to look at other things, like article performance. Being able to report on article results helps to improve content quality by the different sections of the newsletter.”
Because TAW is personalized, not all articles are delivered to all customers.
A number of valuable lessons may be learned from e-mail marketers like HP, VanBoskirk said. “They talk to their customers regularly. They conduct quarterly surveys of their e-mail recipients about what e-mail content they value, and they do multi-variable testing on each e-mail they send to optimize the different sections of content in their newsletters — and also the layout and combination of content elements.”
Dabbah gave high marks to The Food Network as a “great example” of a company serving the right content to the right audience via two separate newsletter streams — ideas and product information — and special e-mail marketing programs that whet the appetites of varied readers, for example, a “newsletter event” for four weeks of great grillings or a newsletter for 12 days of great cookies.
Wells Fargo, fits JupiterResearch’s Daniels’ idea of an organization that uses e-mail cleverly across channels. The company optimizes each mailing, he said, so that it’s informative and relevant to customers.
Eyes on the Future
Are all those exercises in feedback and metrics really worth it? E-mail marketing represents solid revenue potential, but not all marketers are leveraging that potential, noted Daniels.
Only 33 percent of marketers segment and target their customers by click behavior in the e-mail, he stated. “The vast majority of marketers mail to the same subscribers over and over again, regardless of their engagement, without any attempt to target them in hopes of changing their behavior,” he observed.
“We’re just starting to scratch the surface,” said Daniels. “The fate and power of e-mail marketing are strong.”
The fate of e-mail marketing is in marketers’ hands, he believes. “It is up to them to use all of the tools and information at their disposal, which will make for more relevant, better performing mailings.”
HP’s Robertson has a similar view of how e-mail is maturing. “E-mail is just getting its legs,” he stated. The best thing to happen to e-mail, he added, was for the spotlight to move on to IMing (instant messaging), blogging and RSS, and for e-mail to mature into personalization. As a result, there’s a stronger focus on targeted touch, where quantity doesn’t matter as much as quality, and where the customer defines what is relevant.”
Numbers compiled by Forrester Research support general optimism that e-mail will not go away any time soon as a popular marketing tool. In its survey completed in Q4 of last year polling 247 marketers, 94 percent of respondents were either currently using e-mail, piloting e-mail or planning to pilot e-mail in 2006.
However, e-mail is in for a sea change, Forrester’s VanBoskirk says, at least for smart marketers who see beyond the inbox:
“I think e-mail will go away as a stand-alone channel, as marketers get better at integrating it with their other direct efforts. I think what we are going to see is that smart marketers no longer send out individual e-mail campaigns, but rather create e-mails that are part of marketing conversations. These may start with a direct-mail piece, followed up with an e-mail, and concluded with an SMS message or subsequent direct-mail drop.”
Dabbah pointed to a similar development: “Companies are increasingly integrating e-mail marketing results with the rest of their organization. The idea that a potential client clicked through on a specific link and 24 hours later received a FedEx package with marketing material promoting that product [suggests] integrating e-mail marketing with other marketing channels is the wave of the future.”
HP’s Robertson, similarly, is emphatic about seeing e-mail as “part of the whole, not the end unto itself.” E-mail, he explained, needs to play strongly with Web and other direct marketing tools. “Remember, the purpose of e-mail is to send a customer to the Web site or other marketing activities, such as events.”
If e-mail marketing is tougher than it’s ever been, it’s because the bar has been raised: With marketers getting smarter about tailoring their messages to whet interest, e-mail marketing experts say that it’s no longer enough to just use e-mail as a pipeline without thinking carefully about what type of message will be of high customer value and will bring a response. When e-mail marketing is done to HP’s exacting standards, Robertson’s observation about payback might be worth bearing in mind:
“We are able to measure revenue and costs to ensure powerful returns. If it costs only pennies to send, and you get the CIO of a Fortune 100 company responding to an article in the newsletter, writing back with his comments — not to mention the power of just getting this person to read it — you have something that is hitting home and providing return.”


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The metaverse is infrastructure. The idea of a virtual world that can be enjoyed in real time providing trillions of Dollars of brand-new GDP all depends on the deployment of digital real estate across the planet to ensure accessibility, speed and ultimate user experience. And Europe seems to be getting its house sorted for this digital evolutionary step. JSA Media Consultant João Marques Lima explains.
As Phillip Marangella, CMO at EdgeConneX has recently noted: “The [metaverse] vision cannot become reality without an infrastructure that extends from core to edge and sustainably scales to deliver this new kind of universe wherever humans choose to go.”
A real-time, immersive virtual world that will connect not only those already using online services but also those who are still disconnected will require a concentrated effort.
“The compute that you need to render a photo-realistic you of me or your environment needs to be continued anywhere,” he said. “That means that your PCs, your phones, your edge networks, your cell stations that have some compute, and your cloud computing needs to be kind of working in conjunction like an orchestra—between all of these three elements that deliver that kind of beautiful metaverse.
“It will take time. Facebook, Microsoft, Google, us, NVIDIA are getting this infrastructure to be kind of omnipresent, but it will take time and effort.”
He then continued: “For what we imagined in Snow Crash, what we imagined in Ready Player One, for those experiences to be delivered, the computational infrastructure that is needed is 1,000 times more than what we currently have.”
One thousand times more. Just think about that. The world’s current digital footprint multiplied by a four-digit percentage that will generate large sums of capital expenditure.
Economic studies have predicted that the global metaverse market will reach anywhere between €597.3 billion and $1.5 trillion by 2030, with the European continent set to enjoy a fair share of the pie.
Many companies have invested in the creation of the metaverse. Meta, for example, has announced annual investment of €8.8 billion in the metaverse. Microsoft has bought Activision Blizzard (a company owning online games such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft) for nearly €61.6 billion, with the perspective that gaming will be a big part of the development of the metaverse. Qualcomm has established a €88 million metaverse fund to further develop VR and AR technologies.
Europeans are also interested in the metaverse, and its possibilities as recent research has shown. Individuals in France and the UK in particular are the most curious about what it is, and what it means for their futures.
France tops the continental table for average online searches per million internet users, according to research by Walkme.com. The company utilised the latest data from online analytics tool SEMrush to establish which countries in Europe are most curious about the metaverse – and found that an average 1,020 in every million French internet users had searched for the metaverse. This is just ahead of UK users – at an average of 942.
The infrastructure world
With the economics, interest and clear path of opportunity clear, the metaverse really turns around to the question of how we will make it happen. And the answer is infrastructure.
“The ‘true believers’ of the metaverse seem to assume that the necessary infrastructure upgrades will simply fall into place as the natural result of technological progress,” according to Wellington Lordelo, Senior Manager, Segment Marketing at Equinix.
“I question this line of thinking: enterprises certainly have the opportunity to deploy a metaverse-ready digital infrastructure, but they need to be proactive about making it happen.”
The metaverse will need a strong terrestrial and subsea fibre network, connecting thousands of landing points on thousands of shores across the world. This will originate a boom in private networks deployments all around, something we are already witnessing in Europe with the latest announcements from, for example, EllaLink in Portugal, Bulk Networks in the Nordics, and Unidata in Italy.
These fibre routes will be supported by cell towers. Millions of them. This is also where 5G and future generations of connectivity networks will aid in further delivering this new zetta-economy.
As a kind of “history repeats itself” scenario, data centres will play a key role in the metaverse by closing the loop. Big or small, tier 1 or 4, these infrastructures will help store and process – making use of the latest AI and ML technologies – our metaverse and real life.
But there is one more aspect: edge computing facilities and nodes. These will become the pores of the metaverse, absorbing and sending out data as close to the source as possible.
Digital infrastructure really provides the foundation path to uplift efficiency, ease provisioning and enhance accessibility. And Europe has grasped this with the European Commission also getting involved in the metaverse from an early stage.
The Brussels’ take
Big economic opportunities always grab the attention of politics, and the metaverse is no exception. In Brussels, the European Commission has been quick to jump on the bandwagon and has begun works to foster metaverse infrastructure deployments as well as work on new legislation for this virtual age.
“In the new virtual spaces, the amount of data being exchanged – and harvested – through these technologies will be of greater magnitude than ever,” Thierry Breton, Commissioner for the Internal Market, has said. “Completely virtual commercial transactions are growing rapidly and will include new payment systems (digital, crypto or traditional) and forms of identification and ownership (unique identifiers, NFTs and blockchain).
“The new virtual worlds will put under even more intense pressure the connectivity infrastructure which is needed to allow all these developments to happen. The current situation, exacerbated during the Covid pandemic, shows a paradox of increasing volumes of data being carried on the infrastructures but decreasing revenues and appetite to invest to strengthen them and make them resilient. The current economic climate sees stagnating rewards for investment and increasing deployment costs for pure connectivity infrastructure.”
He continued adding that in Europe, all market players benefiting from the digital transformation should make a fair and proportionate contribution to public goods, services and infrastructures, for the benefit of all Europeans.
“We will launch a comprehensive reflection and consultation on the vision and business model of the infrastructure that we need to carry the volumes of data and the instant and continuous interactions which will happen in the metaverses,” Breton concluded.

domain: news


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Outdoor market coming to Washington Crossing Park June 21
UPPER MAKEFIELD — McConkey's Market will be setting up shop at Washington Crossing Historic Park from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 21.
The new outdoor market will feature more than 50 vendors selling artisan crafts, handmade jewelry, original art and photography, pottery, vintage clothing, reclaimed furniture and other items.
Admission is free and the market will be held rain or shine in the Upper Makefield part of the park in the field where the Christmas tree is lit every year.
Chris English; 215-949-4193; e-mail: email@example.com; Twitter: Twitter.com/courierc


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Why Korea Could Soon Dominate the Cosmetics Industry
March 24 -- South Korean cosmetic companies are enjoying a boom, benefiting from the rising popularity of the country's entertainment and cultures, especially in China. Bloomberg's Rosalind Chin reports.
Most Recent Videos
Nafta Talks Seek U.S., Canada, Mexico Trade Reset
34:11 - Talks are set to begin Wednesday on renegotiating the decades-old Nafta trade deal between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Bloomberg's Kevin Cirilli reports on "Bloomberg Surveillance." (Source: Bloomberg)


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I’ve been a customer of The Food Co-op bulk grocery store for several years, converted by their plastic-free products and astonishing range of lentils and whole grains.
The co-op has been known by a few different names in its long history, starting in 1976 as the ANU Nutrition Society and changing location multiple times before settling into its current home in Kingsley Street just over a decade ago.
It now straddles the divide between city and university, sitting under the Unilodge building, just off Barry Drive. What started as a bulk food store has since expanded into a cafe serving affordable lunches to office workers and university students. Weekday lunches are always vegan and gluten-free, and notoriously generous in their portion sizes.
In 2018, one of their volunteer members who works with refugee support organisations was able to secure employment for a number of refugee and migrant women as cooks – a move that has had considerable benefits for everyone.
“It’s such a privilege to have them working for us and providing us with their cuisine,” says Amie Illfield, a co-op member since 2008 who has since become its communications coordinator.
These talented migrant women share the role of weekday meals with other volunteers cooks but are really given a chance to shine during the Saturday lunches when they can showcase their home cuisines and be as creative as they like.
“For a recent Saturday lunch, one of the cooks, Saba Giday, served up a spicy and hearty vegetable stew with Ethiopian injera, a kind of sourdough flatbread,” says Amie.
Other weeks when Suiya is cooking, visitors can expect Sri Lankan dishes such as lentil curry with coconut samba and lemon pickles. Dishes are made with organic ingredients from the shop or the volunteer-run garden on the roof of the Unilodge building.
The co-op also runs regular Thursday night dinners (Tacos and vegan doughnuts? Yes, please!), and on Wednesday evenings, the space becomes a location for musicians and poets to perform at their Acoustic Soup events.
The heart of the co-op has always been the bulk food store, where customers bring their own containers (or grab a donated jar) and fill up on organic groceries. Recent years have seen a proliferation of bulk-food stores as more consumers become aware of the environmental impact of plastic packaging, but the big difference between these shops and the co-op is best summed up in the latter’s motto: food for people, not for profit.
“We are trying to put community back into our food supply … it’s not just about selling product, it’s about connection with each other, the source of our food, and hopefully understanding both the negative impacts and the positive investments our food choices can have,” says Amie.
Members are encouraged to volunteer their time: four hours a month earns them a 20 per cent discount. Volunteering could involve anything from restocking shelves, helping with the website, serving food, or just doing the washing up. Some members put in an hour a week, while others will do them all at once every month or two.
Flexibility in how people participate is an important way for the organisation to be more accessible for members. When I became a volunteer member of this Canberra institution in late 2019, I found the community to be a real anchor in the isolation and stress of 2020.
Whether you’re looking for a nourishing bowl of food, stocking up on vegetables, or simply looking for a great support network, Amie reckons the co-op is the place to come.
“There are people who find their home here who would otherwise really struggle to find connection … it’s a place people can easily find a meaningful way to participate and, hopefully, belong.”
The Food Co-Op store is open from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm weekdays, and 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on weekends. The cafe is open from midday to 2:00 pm on weekdays, Thursdays from 7:00 pm to 9.30 pm and Saturdays from midday to 2:00 pm.
Original Article published by Lucy Ridge on The RiotACT.


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Normani is looking to turn the volume up afresh on current single ‘Motivation.’
Because in a mere matter of hours, she’ll be unleashing a brand new remix of the Billboard hit.
The 23-year-old took to Instagram Stories to reveal that a reworked version featuring rapper 21 Savage will be arriving imminently today:
Originally released in August, the song was supported by a highly viral video, as well as a performance at the 2019 VMAs, and has thus far peaked at #33 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Will this remix gift it another boost? Stay tuned!


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has partnered with Singapore based Capillary Technologies
to strengthen its omnichannel CRM
strategies in the Philippines and Vietnam.
Capillary has been acting as Bata's CRM partner in six Asian countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India and Bangladesh, and three African countries, Kenya, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Capillary has powered Bata's loyalty program for over 2,000 stores in these markets. With the goal of providing a unified CRM platform across all its markets, Bata will be kicking off its game plan for the Philippines and Vietnam in the second half of 2018.
"We want to bring together exceptional products, and best-in-class retail technology to realise our passion for customer delight and deliver an exceptional customer experience. To really improve our brand-customer relationships, we feel it is imperative for us to find ways to walk and talk with our consumers across the various channels and touch points they use in their buying journey. The engagement had to be consistent, connected and seamless," said Roberto Longo, President - Asia Pacific, Bata.
"Capillary has helped us achieve this, having been our trusted partner across six countries in Asia. There was no doubt about banking on Capillary's expertise and innovative technology to take us ahead in Philippines and Vietnam," added Longo.
With Capillary, Bata has been able to achieve 2.2x higher returns from targeted campaigns in Singapore and as high as 57x ROI from Facebook campaigns in Malaysia. In other markets as well, the brand has seen 10x increase in ROI from its overall CRM investments.
"This year, we foresee that Capillary will continue to grow exponentially across the globe. Our association with leading brands like Bata reinforces the fact that the trajectory we have chosen for the company is the right one. We are definitely thrilled to help Bata in expanding its footprint in the Asia region," said Abhijeet Vijayvergiya, Capillary Technologies' President & Managing Director - Global Accounts and APAC.
In Southeast Asia
, Capillary is working with 14 million customers and has more than 1400 stores active on its platform, including Bata, Mitra10, Caring Pharmacy, TungLok Group and McDonald's.


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The Huntsville Times
A busy section of Bob Wallace Avenue will be under construction for the next few months.
Work is expected to start next week on a project to improve both traffic flow and drainage on Bob Wallace Avenue between Memorial Parkway and L&N Drive.
The road upgrades are part of an $8 million incentive package that Huntsville approved for The Shops at Merchants Walk, a new Whole-Foods anchored shopping center opening this fall.
Earlier this month, the Huntsville City Council voted to pay Midsouth Paving $529,605 for the Bob Wallace Avenue improvements.
City Project Engineer Toneka Dorsey-Lindsey said the work includes widening the road by 10 feet, replacing an existing water line, improving storm drainage and adding a new traffic light with left-turn lane at the shopping center entrance. The stretch between the Parkway and L&N Drive will also be repaved.
Dorsey-Lindsey said the contract requires Midsouth Paving to keep at least one lane open in each direction at all times.
The road construction is expected to start Monday or Tuesday; orange barrels are already piled up on the south side of Bob Wallace Avenue across from the shopping center.
The contract gives Midsouth until Aug. 18 to finish the job, Dorsey-Lindsey told AL.com.
The Shops at Merchants Walk will include a two-story parking deck being paid for by the developer, RCP Merchants Walk.
The City Council voted in February 2014 to lease the parking deck from the developer for 25 years. The deal called for Huntsville to pay $2 million when Whole Foods was issued a building permit, $1.3 million when the grocery store opens, and $1.3 million more when the additional restaurant and retail space is completed.


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Manufacturing & The Economy
- Published on Tuesday, 29 July 2014 14:09
- Written by
Texas factory activity increased again in July, according to business executives responding to the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey. The production index, a key measure of state manufacturing conditions, rose from 15.5 to 19.1, indicating output grew at a faster pace than in June.
Other measures of current manufacturing activity reflected significantly stronger growth in July. The new orders index doubled from 6.5 to 13. The capacity utilization index also posted a strong rise, moving to 18 from 9.2 in June. The shipments index rose 12 points to 22.8, reaching its highest level since January 2013. The July readings for these indexes were all more than twice their 10-year averages, suggesting notably robust manufacturing growth.
Perceptions of broader business conditions were more optimistic this month. The general business activity index edged up from 11.4 to 12.7, pushing to its highest level in 10 months. The company outlook index rose 3 points to 11.3.
- Published on Monday, 28 July 2014 11:22
- Written by
New orders for manufactured durable goods in June increased $1.8 billion or 0.7% to $239.9 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced Friday. This increase, up four of the last five months, followed a 1.0% May decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.8%. Excluding defense, new orders increased 0.7%.
Machinery, up following two consecutive monthly decreases, led the increase, $0.9 billion or 2.4% to $37.3 billion.
- Published on Monday, 28 July 2014 10:47
- Written by
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its latest World Economic Outlook last week. The report reflected slower growth rates in the United States and elsewhere for 2014 mostly because of disappointing figures during the first half of the year. The IMF now predicts that U.S. real GDP will grow 1.7 percent in 2014, down from the 2.8 percent forecast in April. Much of this downgrade stemmed from the dismal 2.9 percent decline in real GDP in the first quarter, with output contracting for the first time in three years. At the same time, the manufacturing sector provided a positive contribution to growth in the first quarter, according to new data, despite bleakness in other areas. Fortunately, manufacturers are more upbeat about activity during the second half of this year and for next year. The IMF’s outlook for 2015 is for real GDP growth of 3.0 percent in the United States, which is in line with other predictions.
News regarding manufacturing activity was mostly positive last week, with surveys from the Kansas City and Richmond Federal Reserve Banks both reflecting a pickup in shipments and employment in July. New orders continued to grow at a moderate pace in each region, and respondents were mostly upbeat about sales and production over the next six months. Nonetheless, raw material costs have accelerated a bit in the Richmond district, and new export orders have contracted in eight of the past 12 months in the Kansas City district. Meanwhile, new durable goods orders rebounded in June, with year-to-date growth at a reasonably healthy rate of 4.4 percent. This indicates that the sector has recovered for the most part from winter-related softness, even if some components, such as motor vehicle sales, were lower for the month. Similarly, the Markit Flash U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) reflected relatively strong growth in sales and output for the sector despite some easing in the headline number in July.
Overseas, the data indicate that the Chinese economy has continued to stabilize from weakness in the first five months of the year. The HSBC Flash China Manufacturing PMI expanded for the second straight month in July, with the pace of activity up for new orders, exports and output. The sales pace was the fastest since January 2011, suggesting that recent measures taken by the Chinese government to stimulate growth have had a positive impact. Likewise, Japanese manufacturers also reported expanding levels of sentiment for two consecutive months, but activity decelerated overall and output stagnated. Export sales from Japan, on the other hand, grew. In other news, the European manufacturing sector made marginal progress in July, particularly for production and exports, and the Eurozone has now expanded for 13 straight months. Yet, growth varied from country to country. For instance, German manufacturing activity picked up in July, while the French economy continued to contract.
The other highlights last week centered on housing and pricing. The housing market remains weaker than we would like, as illustrated by the sharp drop in new home sales in June. Still, the June figure was consistent with the annual paces in March and April, with May’s sales numbers appearing to be an outlier. With the slower pace of sales, inventories of homes have increased. In contrast, existing home sales improved for the third straight month, with some progress in the second quarter relative to the softer first quarter. Even in the existing home sales release, however, there were some discouraging findings, including the fact that sales remain below where they were last year and that first-time homebuyers are still having difficulties making purchases. Meanwhile, on the inflation front, the consumer price index increased in June, led by higher gasoline costs. Yet, pricing pressures remain mostly in check, with core inflation up 1.9 percent over the past 12 months.
This week, the focus will be on second-quarter GDP and jobs. The expectation is that output will rebound from the drop in the first quarter, with consensus forecasts ranging from 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent growth. My view is that real GDP in the second quarter should exceed 3.0 percent. Regarding hiring, manufacturers have added, on average, more than 12,500 each month since August, and I would anticipate seeing a comparable figure for July. Nonfarm payrolls should increase by at least the roughly 230,000 average so far in 2014. Other items to look for this week include manufacturing survey results from the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank and the latest numbers for construction spending, consumer sentiment, employment costs and personal income and spending.
Chad Moutray is the chief economist, National Association of Manufacturers
- Published on Thursday, 24 July 2014 14:46
- Written by
At 56.3 in July, down from 57.3 in June, the seasonally adjusted Markit Flash U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) signaled the slowest improvement in overall manufacturing business conditions for three months.
The latest survey indicated that manufacturing production growth eased in July, after reaching its strongest pace for over four years in June. Nonetheless, the output index reading in July (60.4) was well above the 50.0 no-change mark and still pointed to a historically strong rate of growth.
Companies that reported higher levels of production generally cited stronger demand from domestic markets and the launch of new products at their plants. July data signaled a steep pace of overall new business growth across the manufacturing sector, albeit a softer expansion than in the previous month.
- Published on Tuesday, 22 July 2014 12:05
- Written by
The Randstad Manufacturing & Logistics Employee Confidence Index, a measure of overall confidence among U.S. workers in this sector, hit an all-time high this quarter rising from 50.5 to 56.0 – a level not reached since Randstad began tracking the index in 2005. The quarterly survey, conducted by Harris Poll among 161 manufacturing and logistics workers on behalf of Randstad, also found workers' sense of economic strength, availability of jobs and their ability to find a new job all rose this quarter.
In addition, when it comes to job security, the majority (58%) of manufacturing and logistics workers feel it is not likely they will lose their jobs in the next 12 months. However, nearly four-in-10 (39%) workers say it is likely they will seek out new employment in the next year, increasing six points from last quarter.


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A new rumor has surfaced that suggests GSC Game World's cancelled PC-exclusive title STALKER 2 has been picked up by Bethesda, although other rumors conflict and say this isn't true
...of Apple's Watch, a naughty Android and an Elephone WinDroid
Running Windows 10 on the Surface 3
Our coverage of Windows 10 build 10061 release
Windows 10 logo
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The way things are shaping up, the South Bay boutique hotel wars of 2015 are going to be fierce, with Redondo's Shade Hotel under construction and a luxury hotel just proposed on Hermosa's Pier Avenue. Tonight Hermosa Beach is considering plans for a second new hotel there--a three-story, 30-room affair called Clash Boutique Hotel, slated to fill a long-vacant lot. With a name like Clash you might think this is destined to be a local hotspot, but that doesn't seem to be the case: there's no bar planned, in an effort to counter Hermosa Beach's party reputation. While there has been some local opposition to the plans (all together now: parking, traffic, and height), the city council seems to be pleased with how things are shaping up, according to the Daily Breeze. In fact, it's been the strategy to attract more nice hotels to town, with the thought that people who stay in expensive hotels probably have more money to spend around town than those who stay in cheap hotels. Genius.
· New boutique hotel angles for downtown Hermosa Beach [DB]


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Evan Bayh: Here's how we stop ruthless PPE middlemen from scamming America
With over 200,000 coronavirus deaths across America, our nation urgently needs a vaccine. As we await this breakthrough, however, we must rely on social distancing and personal protective equipment as our primary safeguards from this deadly disease.
American manufacturers have stepped up production to meet the surging demand for masks, respirators, and disinfectants, but even with heroic efforts supplies of legitimate equipment are tight.
They are doing what they can to quickly meet the demand for N95 masks needed to keep American citizens and health care workers safe. They have played an essential role in our defending America’s health from both the virus and shoddy imports.
Companies such as General Motors, 3M, and Honeywell have done their part by increasing production capacity to help meet the escalated demand. And they are helping our economy at this critical time, too, by driving revenue back into America.
In just my home state of Indiana, 3M’s plants in Hartford City and Indianapolis support over 500 employees and have brought in $262 million in Indiana-made exports.
Unfortunately, the good work of these manufacturers has been undermined by shameless middlemen seeking to take advantage of desperate consumers in the continuing tight market for quality supplies.
Many of these opportunistic companies, some new and some previously established in other industries, have posed as distributors of the coveted N95 mask and other products crucial to preventing the spread of COVID.
These fraudulent actors are approaching vulnerable buyers and offering high quantities of PPE at grossly inflated prices. Not to mention, in almost all of these situations, these middlemen have no relationship with the PPE manufacturers they proport to represent.
American manufacturers have been working tirelessly to put an end to this fraudulent counterfeit market, calling out unscrupulous distributors and working with law enforcement to put an end to their price gouging tactics.
Just last month, FBI investigators posing as investors arrested a Texas man claiming to have access to 1 trillion 3M N95 masks, a quantity so high 3M stated it would take 909 years to produce that amount. And this is only one of thousands of cases 3M has investigated since COVID distorted the market balance of supply and demand.
I am especially sad to say that Indiana has also been the target of such fraudulent schemes. In April, our government was contacted by a middleman company offering to sell 100 million N95 masks at a price double the market average.
I am proud of my state’s legal system for their work with 3M to catch and stop this illegitimate seller, saving Indiana from what would have been a $14.25 billion fraudulent sale.
However, while private companies are doing all they can to stop price gouging and fraud, they cannot succeed alone. Federal prosecutors must prioritize this threat to America’s public health and increase the sense of urgency around prosecuting illegitimate PPE sellers.
In every state, attorneys general should focus on putting an end to this fraudulent market and federal prosecutors should aggressively pursue these bad actors and anyone defrauding states, hospitals, and private companies.
Finally, Congress must step up and tighten federal laws with tougher penalties related to third-party, bogus companies’ claims of distribution rights for PPE.
Ripping off hospitals, doctors, patients, and taxpayers is unacceptable at any time, and unconscionable in the midst of a global pandemic. Our nation’s health depends on removing these pandemic profiteers so our manufacturers can continue to provide quality and affordable protection to millions of Americans. America deserves as much and should accept no less.
Evan Bayh served as a U.S. senator from Indiana from 1999 to 2011 and as the 46th governor of Indiana from 1989 to 1997.


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Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Regulatory Update: "Eh"
Unlike the gripping back and forth of the fight over Yahoogle last year, the approval process for the search and online advertising partnership of Microsoft and Yahoo is chugging along slowly but surely as the Justice Department has deepened its investigation by reaching out to a broad range of publishers, advertisers, public interest groups and rivals for comment recently.
A month ago, the government agency lobbed in a “second request” for information about the deal the pair struck earlier this summer.
This kind of regulatory review is typical in deals of this magnitude.
But so far, there is no significant external challenge to the MicroHoo deal, even–according to many sources BoomTown has interviewed over the last week–from Google, the likeliest company to try to scuttle or, at the very least, slow down the deal.
“Is it worth fighting a big fight over?” asked one person close to the thinking of Google (GOOG). “Not really.”
Said another source, surveying the state of play: “It’s eh, kind of inevitable and not that interesting on a lot of levels.”
While none of the key constituencies wanted to comment or make predictions about the outcome of the regulatory scrutiny, most seem to agree that MicroHoo is more likely to be approved than not.
At the time the partnership was announced in July, execs at both Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) said a lot of investigation was likely from Justice, although they said they were also confident that it would be allowed go through by year’s end.
So far, several sources said, the key issue raised by the Justice Department has been whether the argument Microsoft and Yahoo are making–that they need scale to compete with Google–is valid or not.
Currently, Google has just under 70 percent of the search market in the U.S., while Microsoft and Yahoo together have about 28 percent.
Google has been arguing that huge scale is not necessary to be successful in the search ad market, although its execs have often said bigger is better when it comes to natural search and in spurring more clicks on ads.
Meanwhile, Microsoft and Yahoo have said they need all the firepower they can muster together to battle Google’s hegemony.
In a related concern, some regulators are worried–as they were when Google and Yahoo were trying to get approval for a similar deal last year–that any hookup of big players in the market will effectively take Yahoo out of the search business.
“With only three big players, going to two is not desirable to the government,” said one source. “Yahoo has to reassure everyone that it is focused on a sustainable business model beyond search.”
In a blog post yesterday, in fact, Yahoo said it was committed to search innovation.
In any case, most expect another month of investigation at least, although the lack of any loud voice in opposition could shorten that time frame.
And, added some sources, unlike with Yahoogle, there is not likely to be any kind of Congressional hearing on the deal.
Nonetheless, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google remain concerned that deals like this will lead to more focus on privacy issues, specifically around behavioral targeting.
That would be more a matter for legislators or the Federal Trade Commission and would probably come well after the deal is cleared and as part of a bigger topic.
Rep. Rick Boucher (D., Va.), who chairs the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, said he will consider consumer privacy legislation this fall.
Boucher led hearings on the subject this summer, and there might be more, especially as Web companies garner a lot of personal information from consumers with little oversight of what they do with those data.
If Boucher does call for hearings, he might want to replay this particularly boneheaded (but funny!) video from Yahoo’s U.K. ad staff, which classifies various Yahoo customer types–such as “disco-dancing heart surgeons from Nantwich”–as farm animals:
Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.


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Shortlist allows people to connect at professional events and trade shows. Think of it as a real-time, local LinkedIn, as co-founder and CEO Jason Goodrich puts it, helping people to become more productive at meetings and conferences to optimize their time and opportunities.
Like many startup ideas before it, this one was born in a Starbucks, in 2009. Laid off from his news editor job at the Chicago Tribune, Mr. Goodrich spent a lot of time working in the coffee shop, sitting with the same people every day but never talking to them.
“I thought, ‘Why aren't these people talking to one another?' “ he recalls. “It was easier to connect with somebody in Japan than the person sitting next to you.”
So he created A Space Apart Inc., a location-based service that allows users to check in to places, see who else is there and buy something—like a cup of coffee—using a mobile device.
But it wasn't until Mr. Goodrich, 40, attended the South by Southwest conference in 2010 that he realized his idea translated well to the events and meetings industry, a $500 billion global business.
The conference “is teeming with people, and I thought, ‘How am I going to be able to connect with them?' “ he says.
Last summer, Mr. Goodrich and his co-founder and wife, Gretchen, 41, took A Space Apart to Chicago tech incubator Excelerate Labs, where they changed the name of the app and website to Shortlist and continued to refine the technology.
They also changed their business plan, marketing Shortlist as a free app instead of selling it to event organizers. Sponsorship will be Shortlist's main source of revenue.
Corporate meeting planners can give attendees the Shortlist event link, where users can enter their background information. Shortlist creates names of people you should meet and, after the event, helps you keep track of them.
“You'll see those connections across contexts, and that's really powerful,” Mr. Goodrich says.
He's hoping it is powerful enough to attract $700,000 in outside funding in the next few months.
The company is testing the app at local events to get feedback.
Says Mr. Goodrich: “We're starting to see the virtual worlds and the physical worlds combining, and really I think if you can use the best of both in each situation, then that's where the magic is and that's where it's going to be from now on. I don't think we're ever going to live in just the digital or the physical anymore.”


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Abercrombie & Fitch Co. chief executive officer Mike Jeffries is going to be dealing with a boardroom full of new faces — and one contemplating how the company will ultimately transition to a new leader.
The retailer said Wednesday that it would nominate four new independent directors at its annual meeting as part of a settlement agreement with activist investor Engaged Capital, which has been pushing the company for change.
The directors include Hudson’s Bay Co. vice chair Bonnie Brooks, Gap and Ralph Lauren veteran Sarah Gallagher, former Bath & Body Works ceo Diane Neal and former Ernst & Young retail leader Stephanie Shern.
Once these changes are made, Abercrombie’s board will be made up of 12 directors — 11 of them independent and seven of whom will have been added this year.
Non-executive chairman Arthur Martinez said, “These actions will further enhance the board and management team’s focus, including strengthening the business, executing on the company’s strategic plans and succession planning, as Abercrombie & Fitch moves into the next phase of its growth.”
This ratchets up the pressure on Jeffries, who is considered founder of the modern-day Abercrombie and is on the board, but has seen the company’s fortunes wane as of late. In January, he gave up the title of chairman after 18 years, with Martinez taking that role.
Jeffries still has plenty of skin in the game. Even after selling 50,000 shares of Abercrombie stock for $1.8 million Monday, the ceo continues to hold 857,856 shares of the firm, according to a regulatory filing.
Glenn Welling, founder and chief investment officer of Engaged Capital, which holds 0.6 percent of Abercrombie’s stock, said his company worked “constructively” with Abercrombie and withdrew its effort to nominate new directors to the board.
“Since January, the company has added seven new directors, appointed a new chairman of the board and terminated its shareholder rights plan,” Welling said. “These changes position the reconstituted board to set a new direction for the company and execute upon an agenda focused on shareholder value creation.”
@margotrobbie steps out onto the red carpet wearing @miumiu. The actress is nominated for “Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role” in “I, Tonya” at the #SagAwards. (📷: Stewart Cook) #wwdfashion
For @massimogiorgetti of @msgm, the Nineties are his favorite decade. “They had a huge impact on my personal growth. What I like of the Nineties is that they are not so precise in terms of style as other decades…there was actually a bit of everything,” he said. As seen on MSGM’s Spring 2018 show: tie-dye and a bit of grunge, two styles that are synonymous with the decade #wwdfashion #wwddecades (📷: @kukukuba)
Breaking News: @hedislimane joins @celine as its new artistic, creative and image director. One of fashion’s preeminent image-makers and trendsetters, Slimane is to join the LVMH brand on Feb. 1 and unveil his first fashion proposition for men and women next September during Paris Fashion Week. It marks a major homecoming for Slimane, who cemented his reputation – and influenced men’s tailoring for more than a decade – as the designer of Dior Homme between 2000 and 2007. He went on to reinvent and ignite the house of Yves Saint Laurent, which he rechristened Saint Laurent, between 2012 and 2016 – all the while maintaining a close relationship with the Arnault family, which controls LVMH and Dior. Read the full exclusive story on WWD.com. Link in bio. #wwdnews #wwdfashion
“Personally I believe the Eighties have been the richest and more vivacious period for international fashion,” Giorgio Armani said when asked what his favorite decade of fashion is. It was a moment of disruption and experimentation and only thinking back to the first years of that decade is always an emotion for me, for what they have meant to me and my work.” The influence is clear in @giorgioarmani spring 2018 collection, pictured here, which was full of bright colors and unexpected prints. Read more about which decades designers loved most on WWD.com #wwdfashion #wwddecades (📷: @aitorrosasphoto)
For Lady Gaga’s only Italian show on her “Joanne World Tour,” the singer wore a range of @versace_official outfits. The standout piece: this custom-made bodysuit inspired by the brand’s spring 2018 collection. #wwdfashion (RG: @ladygaga)
@_camillaruth_ is expanding on the wellness-craze concept with @westbourne – a new NYC restaurant that’s both a healthy-minded café as well as a business that gives back to the community. Marcus works with the Robin Hood foundation to give back to The Door, a non-profit providing youth development services, and also hires employees through The Door. Read our full interview with Marcus on giving back through food on WWD.com. #wwdeye (📷: @lexieblacklock)


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Bravo is launching a new reality TV show called "Silicon Valley," profiling the decadent lifestyles of young rich entrepreneurs. Some in the tech industry say they're nervous about being mischaracterized. We look at the tech industry lifestyle. What do you think of the culture of Silicon Valley?
Silicon Valley Culture
Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of All Things Digital
Jamis MacNiven, owner of Bucks of Woodside
Tasneem Raja, interactive editor for Mother Jones
Susan MacTavish Best, entrepreneur and formerly head of her own public relations firm for startups
Joseph Smarr, software engineer at Google and co-founder of Google Plus


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The payday loan sequence serve profit Express experienced a quick second of recognition in 2014, when an ill-advised example from an inside instruction guidebook tucked into general public viewpoint.
Astonishingly forthright, the visual represented the cycle of debt in which payday loan providers generally have criticise. They indicated that Irving, Texas-based ACE ended up being wanting to catch the consumers on a borrowing fitness treadmill.
Very nearly 24 months afterwards, as soon as yahoo banished advertising for U.S. debts with yearly percentage charge above 36percent, the technology giant reported the payday loaning credit bicycle as a key element reason.
Google’s 2016 bar attracted encouragement from market advocates and civil rights teams, and jeers from just one then-executive at ACE financial exhibit.
“Extremely unhappy,” said Manjush Varghese, who was simply then your vice-president of internet at ACE. “I was a long-standing, responsible advertiser on Google.”
But mainly because it proved, there was clearly reduced for the The Big G ban than to begin with satisfied the attention. Twelve months after it won influence, United states Banker realized various advertising on Google from ACE financial Convey and various other payday loan providers, commonly throughout the first page of search engine results.
Many of the advertisements seemed to be apparent infractions from the bing search engine’s policy. Additional advertisements looked like exploiting a loophole in Google’s advertising ban, that maybe not already been earlier claimed. This hole allowed payday loan providers to keep tactics on the website as long as both the ad itself in addition to the specific webpage the spot that the owner got after clicking on the advertisement didn’t point out high-cost financing.
Simply speaking, payday loan providers found many techniques for getting around Google’s year old offer ban. Similarly, the paycheck discipline have dodged the principles in numerous says wherein lawmakers have actually attempted to crack off. And after this market supporters assume high-cost lenders to probe for flaws into the customers economical safeguards Bureau’s new payday loaning rules, that have been unveiled the other day.
“Subterfuge is really as heart around the payday lenders’ business model as well as capturing individuals in a circuit of loans,” said Diane Standaert, manager of county strategy within Center for important Lending.
At the end of Sep, American Banker transferred screenshots of payday promotion found on online with the slopes viewpoint, Calif.-based business. After an internal examine, a Google spokeswoman asserted the advertising under consideration violated the business’s insurance policy.
“While we please do not comment on personal marketers, we certainly have analyzed and taken out the advertising in breach of your rules on financial products,” the spokeswoman believed in an e-mail.
Yahoo declined to resolve questions about the data of its pay day loan post bar, the measures the organization requires to impose it, as well as the ban’s efficiency.
Exploiting an ambiguity
Funding pro players in 2017 function primarily on line. As the net try borderless, firms can created shop offshore and make money to People in the us without regard to state and federal shoppers shelter laws.
Using the internet payday loan providers typically demand high rates of interest than in-store creditors, reported by a 2014 report from the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Pew learned that 30% of online payday loan applicants documented being confronted by a loan provider or a debt enthusiast. Additionally it identified that marketers comprise normally spending $5 to $13 per visit using the internet funding advertisements. That is a hefty rate, since a press cannot always result in financing.
Bing, which recovered an astonishing $79 billion in advertisement profits just the past year, made a pile of cash from clicks of cash-strapped clientele. So the browse giant would be working against a monetary self-interest whenever it launched intends to break upon pay day loan ads.
The policy, which had been launched following business consulted with customer organizations, got much the same reason because Silicon Valley giant’s laws against adverts for firearms, bullets, leisurely pills and tobacco smoking items.
“We don’t enable advertising for items that we think are excessively harmful,” Vijay Padmanabhan, an insurance plan adviser at yahoo, believed in June 2016.
The The Big G ban addresses all U.S. personal loans with yearly fraction prices of 36per cent or higher, a category that features both payday advances and high-cost installment personal loans. Signature loans that need payment completely in two months or fewer are likewise dependent on the bar.
“For payday creditors, targeting the exposed just any sort of accident, it’s a profitable business system,” Alvaro Bedoya, executive director of Center on confidentiality technological innovation at Georgetown rules University, explained when yahoo launched their coverage. “Today, the world’s largest google says, ‘We desire no part within.’ ”
Nevertheless the brand new guidelines are not because far-reaching when they at first seemed.
The hole in Google’s plan ended up being discussed by someone who saved notes from a discussion where The Big G authorities clarified the bar. This provider announced that the techie large accepted that their publishers’ web pages are permitted to highlight financial loans which don’t adhere to Google’s insurance policy — the companies only need to be sure that the high-cost financial loans are not talked about of the website the spot where the user basic places after hitting the offer.
“The proven fact that that you have noncompliant production on another web page seriously is not difficulty,” someone believed.
Google’s spokeswoman dropped to respond on the record.
ACE wealth present commercials that ran on the internet after the computer company enacted their payday loans post bar highlighted a website link to an altered form of they’s home page.
This squeeze page did not bring up pay day loans, but it conspicuously specified: “Money when you need it a large number of. serve can make it actually quite easy.” Users exactly who visited “Learn additional” were delivered to another page wherein they are able to find pay day loans, installment financial loans and auto headings financial products, all of which normally showcase APRs actually above 36per cent.
Unlike various web payday loan providers, ACE finances specific is definitely qualified to make loans in total on the claims exactly where the consumers are living. The privately held providers, which works well over 950 storage in 23 claims, decided not to answer requests https://speedyloan.net/payday-loans-ms/brookhaven/ for remark.
Gaming the insurance policy, or flouting it
The big g says that their bar on high-cost personal loans is applicable not solely limited to loan providers but to alleged direct turbines. These are typically companies that accumulate a raft of personal and monetary information from likely consumers and flip it to creditors.


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Adams Golf’s acquisition in January of Yes! Golf has been absent from the news pages in Britain but the new owners have not been idle.
As a show of confidence in the future for the brand in the UK & Ireland, Adams this week signalled its intention to keep in place the UK sales and service organization of Yes! Golf UK & Europe Ltd. as the official distributors for Yes! C-Groove Putters.
Yes! Golf has a great technology platform (C-Groove Technology) and has built a strong brand image since 2004, with over 100 professional tournaments (including several majors) having been won by players using Yes! Putters.
“Yes! Golf UK and Europe Ltd. have been instrumental to the success of the brand and we are pleased to continue that relationship,” said Jay Allen, Vice President, Sales and International Operations for Adams Golf.
According to Yes! Golf (UK) boss Peter Allison, Adams Golf soon established that the brand’s biggest competitive advantage in the UK & Ireland is built on service levels within the trade and high profile specialist revenue-generators like the Yes! Golf Custom-fitting Centres, first established in the UK and now an operation-under-licence with over 60 such facilities between Ireland and Belek in Turkey.
“Trade support continues to be really important to our business in the British Isles,” commented Peter Allison. “The uncertainty of recent months means that our 1600 retail accounts have needed a lot of reassurance and that’s perfectly understandable. But orders are picking up and we trained two new custom-fitting teams just last month from clubs in Yorkshire and Essex. Some continued decent weather now is all we need and that will be a perfect start of season.”
A new 8-putter range for 2011 has just landed in the UK too with a noticeably improved finish, courtesy of new manufacturing processes.
Yes! Golf www.yesgolf.co.uk


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Mulberry axes French chief Bruno Guillon after profit warning
Luxury goods firm Mulberry has axed chief executive Bruno Guillon, announcing the Frenchman is leaving ‘with immediate effect’.
His departure comes just two months after a festive profit warning wiped a quarter of the stock market value from the leather goods maker.
Guillon, who was recruited from fashion house Hermes two years ago, had presided over a string of earnings alerts after attempts to move the British brand upmarket failed to gain traction.
Shouldering the burden: Cara Delevingne with a bag from her collection
Embarrassingly, his departure prompted the shares to rise 5.26 per cent, or 33.5p to 670p.
Mulberry’s ten-month search to find a creative designer to replace Emma Hill, who left last year, has also failed to yield any successful candidates.
Non-executive chairman Godfrey Davis, who has previously stepped into the breach as both chief executive and executive chairman, will become executive chairman once again during the search to find a replacement for Guillon.
In a stock exchange announcement that did not include any parting words from Guillon, Davis said: ‘I…would like to thank Bruno for his hard work over the past two years.
‘He has helped improve the quality of the Mulberry offering and enabled the company to increase its international appeal and grown international retail sales. I am confident that Mulberry has the heritage, brand appeal and products to build on what has been achieved.’
The firm refused to say what pay-off has been agreed with Guillon, who last year received a remuneration package worth £807,000. This included a basic salary of £570,000, bonus of £125,000 and other benefits. Veteran retail analyst Nick Bubb, said: ‘Given all the profit warnings at Mulberry, it was debatable how long the core shareholders would keep faith with the embattled chief executive and his strategy.’
Guillon’s strategy to move Mulberry upmarket backfired after consumers flocked to cheaper brands.
The one-time stock market star had been trying to emulate rival Burberry in transforming itself into an international brand.
Over Christmas rivals slashed prices, resulting in a handbag war on the High Street, and Mulberry suffered from a fall in wholesale sales in the key South Korean market, as stores ordered less products in a bid to use up old stock.
The boss maintained the setbacks were just hiccups on the path to Mulberry catapulting into the same league as Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Gucci. But instead it was Guillon who was propelled out.
Mulberry is now worth just £383million – a far cry from a £1.5billion peak two years ago and the shares are down 45 per cent on the year.
Mulberry has also been trying to shake off concerns the company was a one-hit wonder, following the success of the Alexa satchel, which has fallen off the must-have shelf.
Named after model and broadcaster Alexa Chung, the bag went on sale in 2009 with prices starting at £525 and rising to £3,750.
Celebrity fans included Victoria Beckham, Kate Winslet, Sienna Miller and Claudia Schiffer.
Guillon previously said: ‘The Alexa was a hit but we cannot be reliant on just one line so we are investing more resources on new items. The sales are absolutely not good and we are not happy with that.’
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It’s one of the biggest displays of holiday lights in mid-Michigan and it’s set to open for the season in just a few day.
The Nite Lites Christmas Light Show returns to the Michigan International Speedway on Thanksgiving Day.
Every year people from all around mid-Michigan head to MIS in Brooklyn to drive through the 5-mile stretch of lighted tunnels and Christmas lights.
Organizers of the event tell us that visitors can expect to see more than 90 new displays this year.
The holiday display will open on Thanksgiving at 5:30 p.m. and will remain open until December 31.
The cost is $25 per car.


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Croatian tourism presented in Beijing
Croatian and Slovenian tourism officials and experts jointly presented their countries' tourist services in Beijing on Thursday as part of their joint promotion campaign in China, the Croatian Tourism Ministry said in a press release.
Croatia's and Slovenia's tourism was presented in Shanghai in the past two days.
Speaking to the press in Beijing, Croatian Tourism Minister Damir Bajs said the Croatian government supported Croatian-Chinese cooperation, notably in tourism.
As for measures to bring Chinese tourists to Croatia, Bajs said one should not expect quick results, adding that there were years of investing in that market ahead of Croatia.
Bajs said he was pleased with the cooperation between the Croatian and Chinese travel agencies.
The president of the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies, Boris Zgomba, said the first business agreements on bringing Chinese tourists to Croatia had been reached.
The Chinese reporters were interested in possibilities of arriving in Croatia, travel agencies' offers for honeymooners and pensioners, diving, and what Croatia is doing to protect the Adriatic Sea.


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Even as reports of forthcoming vaccines offer hope that 2021 will start to look even a little more like 2019, organizers of international trade shows, markets and fairs are struggling to come up with workable formats. In Europe, some shows are going entirely virtual, others are attempting live events, and still others are developing hybrid models. It’s unclear which (if any) of these solutions will prove to be viable in a future with so many unknowns.
The latest variation comes from Messe Frankfurt, the giant German trade show operator, considered the third-largest in the world, and one that is especially important to the home furnishings business, with fairs in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Its two big first-quarter shows in the home space, Heimtextil and Ambiente, are both being moved into the spring and will be combined with other events. The strategy seems designed to create some scale that smaller individual fairs will not be able to achieve in a world still ravaged by pandemic travel restrictions and concerns.
At a virtual press conference earlier this week, Messe Frankfurt officials presented details on the first of these events, the International Consumer Goods Show, scheduled for April 17 to 20. This fair will feature virtual and in-person components, and combines the tabletop, gift and housewares fair Ambiente with three other smaller, category-specific markets: Christmasworld, Paperworld and Creativeworld. The show’s slogan—“Nothing is forever and this is for now”—was part of emphatic messaging from organizers that this will be a one-time-only event.
“It will be a different show,” said Nicolette Naumann, vice president of Ambiente, in describing how the decision to combine the four fairs was made this fall as they realized that the first quarter of 2021 was not going to be business as usual. This year, she said, “could not be worse for us, but we’re optimistic that 2021 will be a good time to reopen.”
The physical portion of the show will be significantly smaller than when the fairs ran separately, occupying only the halls on the western end of the massive Messe Frankfurt complex in Frankfurt. (It boasts 4 million square feet of exhibition space inside, plus another 600,000 square feet outdoors.) About 63 countries are expected to send exhibitors, down from the usual 90-plus the fairs usually attract. No attendance projections were given.
On the virtual side, there will be three elements: livestreaming of physical displays, AI-driven matchmaking services, and Messe’s Nextrade ordering platform, which launched last year. Show officials—who noted that the four fairs were held together many years ago, but had been split up as they grew—said they fully expected to return to separate fairs in 2022. Right now, they say, “it’s the best of both worlds.”
The other major Messe Frankfurt home fair, Heimtextil, is being combined with other shows, and has been pushed back from its usual January slot to May 4 to 7. It is being “co-located” with Techtextil and Texprocess, two more industrial- and manufacturing-oriented textiles shows. No details have been released on numbers of exhibitors expected, nor on whether there will be a virtual side to the fair. (Interestingly, though, the website’s homepage says: “Feel textiles offline.”)
Other big European trade fairs for the home business are also adjusting their plans. Maison&Objet, the cross-category event held just outside of Paris, has pushed from January to March after canceling its fall show in September. The Cologne Furniture Fair, normally held in late January, has been completely canceled after organizers originally explored a hybrid format; they have not announced any replacement dates for 2021, and point to 2022 as the next show. And Salone del Mobile in Milan, considered perhaps the most avant-garde show for the furniture and furnishings industry, has moved its 2021 show from its usual April dates to September after canceling its 2020 event.
On this side of the Atlantic, show organizers are coming up with similar potential solutions, offering hybrid events, some truncated in-person shows and, in other cases, rescheduling to later in 2021 when things are expected to get better … probably.
Homepage photo: A scene from the most recent edition of Ambiente | Courtesy of Messe Frankfurt
Warren Shoulberg is the former editor in chief for several leading B2B publications. He has been a guest lecturer at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business; received honors from the International Furnishings and Design Association and the Fashion Institute of Technology; and been cited by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and other media as a leading industry expert. His Retail Watch columns offer deep industry insights on major markets and product categories.


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AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to millions of articles from top publications available through your library.
(From AFX Europe (Focus))
BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - Ford Motor (China) Ltd said it will open a research and engineering center in Nanjing in eastern China.
The center will support Ford Motor's product development for global operations, the company said in a statement.
"The plant will also work with technical development centers at Ford's joint ventures in China to support product development and procurement," said Ford Motor (China) Ltd CEO Mei Wei Cheng.
No timetable was gien for the opening of the center.
Ford also plans to launch its new S-MAX multi-purpose vehicle which is to …


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Nokia swallows Skype on tablet deal
N800 model coughs up wireless calls
Nokia has made Skype telephone services available via its N800 internet tablet.
The telephone maker said in a statement issued today that existing Nokia users will be able to download Skype for the N800 model from its website.
Read more: The Register


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A fresh space
Bank of Ireland is on a mission to help retailers get the best out of their business, by accompanying them every step of the way from conception to re-opening the doors and beyond. Sligo Centra owner Des Cosgrove recounts his journey from tired deli to futuristic destination
27 June 2018
All year round, retailers are keeping an eye on all their segments, exploring what works and what doesn’t, and taking appropriate action when necessary. In the case of retailer Des Cosgrove, the need for change manifested itself when he began to notice shrinking profits in the deli section of his Centra store in Maugheraboy, Co. Sligo.
“Through working with consumer panels,” Cosgrove recalls, “we found that the age profile of our customer had dropped. In particular, we established certain things that made us decide the shop was in real need of change.
“For example,” he says, “we saw that women weren’t using the deli counter any more. As well as that, parents – male and female – have become more health-conscious and so were not using the counters. In short, the deli simply wasn’t delivering.”
Through further research, he and his team were able to understand the cause of this fall-off; the store didn’t have the range that customers had become accustomed to through other stores. “The trend started in Dublin and has now spread across the country,” he says. “The customer is expecting more.
“A lot of this was confirming what we already suspected,” Cosgrove continues. “We saw something similar when I took over the store 12 or 13 years ago. I learned that as the generations of your customers move on, so do their thought processes and you have to move on too. The revitalisation of your premises is vital, because it’s going to cost you one way or another.”
It was at this time that the retailer decided it was time to give his 7,200sq ft store a total makeover.
In due course, and following close consultation with Musgrave, the entire Centra Maugheraboy store was revamped from top to bottom. “We spent just over €1m,” Cosgrove says. “We replaced the entire ceiling and floor and everything in between. In doing that, there was one fundamental difference, and that is we took the deli from the back of the shop and moved it right up to the front, so it’s the first thing you see in the door.
“In essence,” he adds, “we created a fresh food lane, and adjusted the flow of the store to capture customers’ attention with fresh produce much earlier when they come in.”
In adding a significant amount of floor space, Cosgrave says that did come at the cost of some grocery space, which caused other categories to take a hit, but it was a worthwhile trade-off.
“The deli and our whole fresh space is growing every weekend,” he says. “We are getting so much out of our Green Kitchen, healthy soups and sandwiches and so on.”
As the original research predicted, that customer profile transformed overnight with the evolution of the deli. Des Cosgrove says he is thrilled with the results, and stresses that his relationship with Bank of Ireland is what made it possible.
In speaking of Bank of Ireland, Cosgrove explains how he was seeking a partnership that would facilitate him to grow his business over the coming years. “I was with another bank for a number of years before that,” he recalls, “and despite us being a profitable company they simply weren’t in ‘the lending mind’.”
Eventually, he was able to move banks and after meeting with Bank of Ireland, and discussing a proposal, things were finally able to start moving. “They understood our categories and our expectations, and were able to make their own proposals, which was brilliant from my point of view.”
Another crucial element was the manner in which Bank of Ireland understood the store’s ongoing daily needs as retailers, Cosgrove adds. “That is ultimately why we went with them,” he says, “and the partnership has been superb.”
As for the future, Cosgrove says he is thrilled with how the Maugheraboy store is working now, and the optimism among retailers, consumers and indeed banks is a lesson to everyone. “We’ve all learned a lot over the past ten years,” he says, “so it’s time to be positive and move on. If you sit and wait, you might regret it. I didn’t want to wait any longer, which is why I moved banks.
“There’s work to do everywhere,” he adds, “but we’re very excited.”


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November 2005: Volume 47, Number 11
Suez income up 12.8 percent
Suez Group has released its economic report for the first half of 2005, highlighted by a 12.8 percent increase in net income to ¬ 1.5 billion and debt reduction of about ¬ 11 billion, a net reduction of 20 percent over the past year. The
first half of 2005 saw further improvements in the companys performance with an EBITDA organic growth of 6.4 percent that outpaced revenue growth by six percent. The improvement in our
2005 first-half results reflects the significant progress achieved in the operating performance of all Group business lines. Suez is now a simplified and fully integrated company that benefits from a clean and ambitious strategy as well as a host of competitive advantages, said Suez Chairman and CEO Gérard Mestrallet.


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Strikes in China are surging with the electronics and garment workers at the forefront, according to a report by the Chinese Labour Bulletin (CLB).
In an article published in Nikkei Asia, CLB reported that the workers’ strikes and protests increased sharply in 2023. Out of the total actions, 741 cases are during the first half of the year alone, compared to just 830 for the entire year of 2022. The monitoring organisation projects that protests by the end of 2023 could reach at least 1,300.
Factory shutdowns and relocations in regions including the Guangdong province have contributed to the massive increase. Record shows that 66 protests were held at electronics factories and 38 at garment and apparel factories during the first six months. The figures are more than half already of all manufacturing sector protests.
Many of the striking workers’ videos are uploaded in Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
Read more at here. You can also check the CLB’s Strike Map for the month of August in electronics industry.


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That’s what Patricia Ferri from Providence, RI wanted to find out: “I would like to know where the furnishings in his hotels and resorts and the clothing and other items he sells to support his empire are made. Are they made in America or are they outsourced and if outsourced to what countries,” she asked.
Here’s Trump’s response:
“Isn’t it sad? Isn’t it sad,” Trump responded immediately.
“When I go out to bid on furniture, on clothing, on lots-- because I do uniforms and I have lots of people. I buy thousands of television sets as an example,” he said.
“It’s a good question. I say I can’t get bids from American companies because China manipulates their currency and they can’t compete with Chinese companies…I said, ‘Does anybody make television in the United States?’ You know what the answer was. We can’t find anybody. They’re all from China, from Japan, from South Korea,” Trump told me.
“I order thousands of ‘em for hotels in Las Vegas and all over the place. Thousands. You can’t get ‘em. It’s pretty sad,” he said.
Another viewer, Michael Swaile from Toledo, OH asked how Trump, whose businesses have entered bankruptcy, can defend his fiscal policy?
Trump said he personally never went bankrupt - he used the bankruptcy laws to help his business.
“We’ll have the company. We’ll throw it into a chapter. We’ll negotiate with the banks. We’ll make a fantastic deal. We’ll use those. But they were never personal,” he told me.
“I’ve used the laws of this country to pare debt. In one case, with the casinos, which I don’t-- which I haven’t even run for many years…And what I did is reduce the debt from a billion eight to like $300 and some odd million, by using intelligently the laws of this country,” Trump said.
The “greatest businesspeople” have used these laws to get a better deal, he told me.


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The plan is to produce such a cyber defense device, a cyber security expert Pratama Persadha said.
On the sidelines of the security and defense technology exhibition, Indo Defense 2016, here on Thursday, Pratama welcomed PT Pindads plan, which has been popular as a weapons manufacturer, to start producing cyber defense devices.
"Of course this is a very good plan, let alone Pindad is widely known inside and outside the country. If the device is already built and operated, it will complement the cyber security devices made by the Indonesians," he said.
In fact, he said, PINDAD has already built a subsidiary to conduct research on cyber defense devices and the production processes.
Pindad sees that weapons, which are equipped with digital technology, will be needed and demanded during the next few years, especially in 2015, when there were 48.8 million reports of cyber attacks in Indonesia.
"If the plan goes well, I think the government should seriously encourage the development of cyber defense industry in the country. It is important, in addition to providing jobs, building a cyber defense system in the country will deliver us from dependence on foreign technology," he said.
In addition to PT Pindad, a local industry that develops cyber security devices is Indoguardika PT Indoguardika Cipta Kreasi (ICK).
ICK has been known as a manufacturer of the anti-dapping device; it already has branches in Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, Pratama said.


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SAO PAULO, June 16 (Reuters) – The world’s biggest beef processor JBS (JBSS3.SA) is under investigation by Brazil’s federal prosecutor’s office in a widespread corruption case that has targeted several companies in the beef industry.
Brazil is the world’s largest producer and exporter of beef, and its cattle industry has come under increasing criticism from environmentalists at home and abroad for its role in the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.
The beef recalls are FSIS Class I, meaning that “use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.”
Colorado Firm Expands Recall of Beef Products Due To Possible E. coli O157:H7 Contamination
Recall Release CLASS I RECALL
FSIS-RC-034-2009 HEALTH RISK: HIGH
Congressional and Public Affairs
Editors Note: This recall release is being reissued to expand the June 24 recall to include approximately 380,000 pounds of assorted beef primal products.
WASHINGTON, June 28, 2009 – JBS Swift Beef Company, a Greeley, Colo., establishment is voluntarily expanding its June 24 recall to include approximately 380,000 pounds of assorted beef primal products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today…


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The Netmarble Cultural Foundation held the 13th Netmarble Game Concert on the 25th through the meta bus platform ‘Gather Town’.
The second game concert this year under the theme of ‘Game &’ was attended by Kim Joo-han, director of Netmarble Metabus World Business Development Office, and Jeon Joo-yong, a professor of economics at Dongguk University.
Kim Joo-han, who lectured on the first part NFT & P2E, and Meta Bus, took a look at the concept of Metavus and NFT and P2E game trends, and had time to predict whether the meta bus era would arrive.
Kim Joo-han said, The direction of the blockchain content must be competitive and development of the content itself, not just mining, and each content should be easily adapted and intuitive. You should be able to enjoy it comfortably. He then said, We need to increase our accessibility so that everyone can enjoy the fun of the content and enjoy it.
In the second part, Professor Jeon Joo-yong gave a lecture on the theme of ‘The Future and Game of Cryptography’. In a game that is a typical virtual world, attempts to include cryptocurrency assets such as NFT and cryptocurrency as a game component, and the possibilities and problems of these challenges, and what kind of relationship between future games and cryptographic assets should be. I had time to think.
Professor Jeon Joo-yong said, Password assets and games have been in crisis, showing their limits to growth, and they can be a breakthrough that can complement each other’s weaknesses. If you provide it, game items and game money will have true assets.
The Netmarble Game Concert is an open forum format social contribution program that invites experts in various fields from 2019 to share the game industry trend and future vision and share experts with experts. Since last year, it has been online to prevent the spread of Corona 19.
For more information, please visit the official website of the Netmarble Cultural Foundation. The last game concert can be viewed on YouTube channel Netmarble TV.
Net marble held a fifth NTP in four years in the Guitar Heads on January 27, January 27.
In this day, the event, including the Chairman Bang Jun-hyuk, each of the Won Youngkin, the Diego Took, Self-assigned stakeholders, Vice President, and the CTO, and the executive, and Net marble Net Mao Park, Representative of Ann Park Won Minoan, Net marble Monster Kim, Gun, and the representatives of developer companies such as Notable F & Sea Seem won representative attended.
Last 2018, Bang Jun-hyuk, who is a single-phase in four years after NTP, was the subject of ‘Net marble’s business and new challenge’ on the subject of the event, and as a speech session, I revealed a new business blueprint.
◆ Won Youngest representative ‘Change in powerful self-IP secure company’ Examination
Won Youngest Net marble Representative
The Won Youngest, who was in charge of the opening of the event, has achieved a change of net marble, which is four years after NTP, and the future of change to a strong IP securing company.
“For four years from 2018 to 2021, Net marble launched 21 new Barton in Korea and global and announced 20 new major development lineups through today’s events,” heel.
“The own IP tribe, which was often referred to as Net marble weaknesses,” said Net marble, “there was a birth limit called the company that Net marble began in the publisher,” he said, Changes in a powerful IP retail company will be actively promoting. “
In addition to its own IP games in which notable development subsidiaries are preparing, Net marble develop subsidiaries, Net marble also includes plans to grow with Web novel, Webtoon, and content producers.
◆ Platform area expanded Main development new lineup 20 species… Self and joint development IP 15 kinds + external IP 5 kinds
Seven developers representatives, followed by Won Youngest’s keynote speech, announced the representative development lineups in which each company is being developed.
Net marble first introduced 20 kinds of multi-platform games currently being developed, including 15 kinds of IP games, including 15 kinds of IP games, and five external IP games.
▲ Notable Noble ” Throne’s Game ‘,’ BTS Dream: Tianna House ‘,’ I alone Level Up ‘, ▲ Netmarbonymsus’ Seven Knights Revolution ‘▲’ Seven Knights Revolution ‘▲ Euro’s Games’ ‘Mugged King JA Island’, ‘Marvel of All: Merle: Meta World’, ‘Squad Battle’, ‘New World’, ‘New World’, ‘RF Project’, ▲ Net marble Park ‘Net marble Pro Baseball 2022’ ▲ Net marble Monster ‘Raven : Arranging ‘,’ Monster Gil 2 ‘▲ Net marble F & A’ Seven Ridiculous Origin ‘,’ Pascal Chronicles’, ‘Grand Cross W’, ‘Grand Cross S’, ‘Grand Cross W’, ‘Champions: CHAMPIONS: Ascension’ and ‘DC Heroes & Villains’.
Net marble plans to actively expand the areas from the existing mobile as well as the existing mobile through platform diversification of various genres and joint development IP.
Net marble Won Young-dong, “Most of the games introduced are being developed as a multi-platform that can be simultaneously implemented on PC and mobile, and Action Battle Games ‘Squad Battle’ and ‘Overage’ are a PC platform through steam, ‘I said the mobile beyond mobile and the console will be released on the console. “
◆ Bang Jun-hyuk Chairman “Net marble’s new challenge is blocked, metabus… Challenge a new meta bus in an evolved form “
Bang Jun-hyuk Net marble Chair
Finally, Bang Jun-hyuk, who was on the podium, presented a new net marble challenge keyword such as blockchain and meta bus, and explained the detailed strategy.
First, Bang Jun-hyuk said, “Net marble will proceed with a blockchain with a target strategy,” Net marble pursues a model that combines a blockchain, centered on the game, and Net marble F & A is a blockchain centered on games and content “I will implement a model that combines.”
Net marble comes from March ‘A3: Still Live (Global)’, ‘Gold Bros’,’ The 2nd Country (Global) ‘,’ Monster Tail Arena ‘,’ Marvel of All: Meta World ‘,’ Champions: It is scheduled to expand the game, such as envy,
For the “Metabus”, Bang Jun-hyuk said, “The need for virtual reality has increased due to non-surfaces, and future industrialization will be active in the future,” said “Game companies already have the content of metabus through existing MMORPG games It was evaluated to implement a metaverse ecosystem. “
“Net marble will fuse the meta bus to the blockchain and create a second real world, not the virtual world,” said, “I will create a second real world, not a virtual world,” “I will use Metropolitan Medicine and Metropolitan Government” It was announced.
‘Economics’ is implemented through the Marvel: Meta World’ during Net marble’s new lineup. This game features a NFT game that builds a real estate-based metaverse platform to use virtual real estate to use virtual real estate to make economic activities.
‘Meta Human’ is a content that utilizes meta human, such as Jenna, Lina, and Ship, and Net marble actively utilizes detachment to various contents such as games, webtoons and web novels in the future, and ultimately, I aim to build ‘.
Bang Jun-hyuk said, “The blockchain game will be able to grow the game industry through the NFT,” and “Net marble will challenge the new meta bus that is evolved in the game, meta bus, and blocked. I said. “


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Roche named sales director at The Reporter
EmptyWayne Roche has been appointed director of sales, luxury brands, national retail and sponsorships at The Hollywood Reporter. He reports to Rose Einstein, vp and associate publisher, sales and marketing.
Roche will develop, execute and manage sales and marketing strategies of THR brands while supervising the bicoastal sales team as manager of the paper's New York office.
Roche was director of sales and marketing at University of Texas Student Media and has held vp positions at Marcoa Publishing and Stagebill Media. Before that, he was managing director of North America sales and associate director for consumer initiatives at Variety.


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Nintendo might release Android games in 2017
Nintendo has more or less missed much of the mobile revolution, but now the gaming giant has announced that it is preparing games for smart devices. These games will be released in 2017 and might include Android devices.
Nintendo reports in its financial statement:
...the game business is undergoing significant change. The spread of the Internet and social media has dramatically changed the lifestyles of people all over the world, and Nintendo is adjusting its strategic endeavors in line with the new market dynamics.
As we confirmed on March 17, all of our IP can be considered for a smart device game. On the other hand, since the game business on smart devices is already severely competitive, even with highly popular IP, the odds of success are quite low if consumers cannot appreciate the quality of a game. Also, if we were simply to port software that already has a track record on a dedicated game system, it would not match the play styles of smart devices, and the appropriate business models are different between the two, so we would not anticipate a great result.
Regarding the number of the titles, you may want to know that we will release approximately five titles by the end of the next fiscal year, which is the end of March 2017. You may think it is a small number, but when we aim to make each title a hit, and because we want to thoroughly operate every one of them for a significant amount of time after their releases, this is not a small number at all and should demonstrate our serious commitment to the smart device business.
The news about Nintendo releasing games for smart devices got a reaction from Android redditors:
Dampowell: "...if these were timed Android exclusives that would be a major thing...but I am pretty sure these will be cross platform."
Alcnaeon: "The whole reason they're even doing this is to get their hands on some IAP money, it is so obvious. That is where the money on mobile is made. Nintendo may be out of touch, but it's not out of touch enough to try to sell at console prices on mobile platforms."
Polezo: "Where'd you get "Android" from this? It says 5 games on "smart devices" by 2017. For all we know that could be only iOS. It doesn't mention the word Android or Google anywhere in the report."
Dakar-A: "Yes, but it says smart DEVICES, not iPhone. It's likely it'll be cross-platform."
Mashedbymachines: "A cross platform game where I can play on my WiiU and then continue my progress on my Android phone when I go away from home would be awesome!"