Mediaboss Marketing

By Marie Mawad, Jonathan Browning and Aaron Kirchfeld - 2012-05-30T07:24:50Z

Balint Porneczi/Bloomberg

An employee walks past banks of computer servers at the Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs facility in Villarceaux, France.

Balint Porneczi/Bloomberg

An employee checks wiring on the computer servers at the Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs facility in Villarceaux, France, on Thursday, 24 May, 2012.

An employee checks wiring on the computer servers at the Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs facility in Villarceaux, France, on Thursday, 24 May, 2012. Photographer: Balint Porneczi/Bloomberg

Ben Verwaayen, chief executive officer of Alcatel-Lucent SA.

Ben Verwaayen, chief executive officer of Alcatel-Lucent SA. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Alcatel-Lucent SA (ALU) Chief Executive Officer Ben Verwaayen said Europes phone companies risk turning the region into a digital desert by shying away from investing in networks, widening the gap with the U.S.

Five years ago in the U.S., you knew that leaving L.A. meant going into the desert, meanwhile Europe was ahead, Verwaayen, who took over almost four years ago as CEO of Frances largest phone network equipment maker, said in an interview in Bloombergs offices in London yesterday. Five years later that has reversed. The creation of value has come back to the U.S.

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Alcatel-Lucent Says Europe Risks Becoming Digital Desert

Enough.

I've had it with people and their smartphones, iPads, Kindles or whatever who are interrupting my experiences at the movies, during a play or while dining at restaurants. I'm fed up with the loud conversations over cellphones on buses and trains.

The one plus to my frustration is that I'm saving money. Because I can't stand to be disrupted by rude people talking, texting and playing games on their devices, I've cut back on going out.

I can't help but think about Verizon's advertising slogan, "Can you hear me now?"

Yes, we can all hear you, and it's extremely annoying. And it's surely going to get worse.

Virgin Atlantic recently announced that passengers flying between New York and London on its new Airbus A330-300 planes can make and receive phone calls while in the air. The airline said that the service is intended for use in exceptional situations and will be limited to six users at any time.

How soon will this "service" be expanded to other airlines like the checked-bag fee, which started with a few carriers and became a done deal for most of the industry? There will be people who will pay the premium price to talk while flying. And to be sure, fellow passengers, with no place to move, will be disturbed. As if flying isn't frustrating enough.

I don't go to the movies as often as I would like because I know I'll have to leave the feature to fetch a manager to tell some patron to shut off his or her cellphone. I refuse to spend my money for a movie that will be ruined by the glare of cellphones being constantly popped open to read and text or even make calls.

It's jarring to be sitting in a dark theater only to be jolted by a phone with a screen so bright it could be used to land an aircraft. One man's Bluetooth headpiece kept blinking a bright blue. I tried to ignore it, but every time it flashed, my head would snap in the direction of the light. When I asked the guy to remove the earpiece, he looked irritated. He glared at me when the movie was over.

I love taking the train and typically enjoy the ride. It can be so peaceful, and you don't have the stress that comes with flying. But if I don't get a seat in the "quiet car" that Amtrak has designated for those us who want peace, I'm privy to some conversations that should only be conducted in private.

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The Color of Money: Our digital devolvement

Its rare for trader Karen Finerman to call a bottom in a stock, so when she does, our ears perk up.

To make her call that much more intriguing, as a somewhat conservative investor, the stock that she picked Digital Generation

Shares have declined more than 70% in the period of a year. Typically this isnt the place where Finerman plays.

But not this time.

After such a prolonged decline the stock turned higher on Tuesday. Its gone down, down, down until now. This I believe is the bottom, she says.

Finerman points to a Reuters story as a catalyst; according to the report, the firm has hired Goldman Sachs and is weighing a potential sale.

The report also says Digital Generation has drawn interest from several private equity firms and rival companies.

I actually think it will get done, she says.

Posted by CNBC's Lee Brodie

Current DateTime: 04:58:31 29 May 2012 LinksList Documentid: 26256943

The rest is here:
Digital Generation Bottomed Out: Finerman

Originally published May 28, 2012 at 12:42 PM | Page modified May 28, 2012 at 12:55 PM

One question people want to ask the journalist-turned-Web-entrepreneur Larry Kramer is: Why would he take a job as publisher and president of the troubled USA Today?

He doesn't need money or success; the founder of MarketWatch sold that thriving financial website in 2005 for more than half a billion dollars (his share: about $20 million). He has won journalism prizes, run two local newspapers and served as a senior editor at The Washington Post.

He's comfortable, too, with posts on corporate boards and homes in tony Tiburon, Calif., and Manhattan's Upper West Side (although he's going to sell the one in Tiburon and buy something in Northern Virginia). And his wife, Myla, is dabbling in New York show business, sinking money and time into shows such as "End of the Rainbow," "Hair," and "Priscilla Queen of the Desert."

The answer, Kramer says, is he wanted to get back into the fray of digital journalism. "Being a board member and consultant is wonderful, but the one frustration about it is when you really want to get something done," he said in an interview. "You can give all the advice you want, but you can't say, 'Give me two weeks, and I'll get it done for you.' "

There's plenty to get done at USA Today, which announced Kramer's appointment last week. The national newspaper of Gannett, a chain of 82 U.S. dailies, "has been struggling mightily," says Doug Arthur, a media analyst at Evercore.

While it is a strong brand, Arthur says, "it needs a lot of work." Advertising has suffered during the recession, he adds. Although USA Today won a measure of respectability and is no longer ridiculed as the McPaper, or junk food of journalism, the paper has grown thin.

But in an industry enveloped by the gloom of dwindling circulation and sinking ad sales, the genial Kramer sees opportunity.

"This is like a Gutenberg moment," he said. "We're reinventing storytelling on a digital platform. Suddenly, we can use every form of storytelling in one place pictures, graphics, words. If we need an interactive map, show me the map. If it's a plane crash, show me the video. We see a new art form that's going to be a much more dominant form of storytelling. That's the exciting part for me."

Kramer says USA Today needs to distinguish itself. "We don't just need to have a voice," he says. "We need to be an orchestra of voices."

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In Person: Kramer will take USA Today into digital tomorrow

NEW YORK - Some elements of planning out your estate are obvious, others not so much.

Increasingly your digital assets, everything from online bank accounts to frequent flier and rewards programs to social media are becoming a consideration for estate planning.

Financial writer Catey Hill suggests designating a "digital executor" to handle wrapping up your online life.

"Say, 'Here's what I want to have happen with my Facebook account, here's what I want to have happen with whatever it is, my email, my Flicker', you need to lay all of that out for someone."

Which could mean setting up all the information for your digital accounts online in one place.

Websites such as LegacyLocker and SecureSafe offer digital estate planning help, or you can go the low tech, hard copy route.

"Make one document with the account name and the account number and another document with the passwords and keep them separate, so that someone can put them together if you died and figure that out," Hill suggests.

In some cases, even with that information, your digital executor may still need to provide legal documentation of your death to make sure your online life doesn't survive long after you do.

(Copyright 2012 NBC Universal, All Rights Reserved)

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Digital money management changing face of estate planning