Don't Miss Trump Day on July 4

WASHINGTON (July 4, 2017)-- Tickets are still available for Trump Day today in the huge circus tent erected on the White House lawn. The very beautiful extravaganza aimed straight at the heart of American democracy was produced and directed by White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.

The U.S. General Services Administration will be screening videos of Trump properties around the world that are for sale, for short-sale, for lease, or for daily party rentals. There is growing availability of these venues and all offers will be considered. The previously announced performance by the Supremes (SCOTUS) has been canceled due to a dispute over the art of the deal.

The “world's longest ever” row of slot machines will celebrate the Interior Department's order that transferred title of all Native American casinos to the Trump Organization, along with the National Parks. Sideshows will include The Incredible Transparent Man (yes, you can see right through him) and the Broken Snake (sad). Midway games of chance will include “Tweet You $@#&!,” the fastest-trending, biggest-rating phenomenon not reported by the media, and winners will be automatically nominated for the hundreds of unfilled Executive Branch jobs and guaranteed Senate confirmation. No experience required.

The State Department stand will sell actual limited edition canceled Green Cards as souvenirs. The “Believe Me” booth from Trump Bookstore (formerly the Library of Congress) will auction real authenticated original copies of the U.S. Constitution personally signed by the President, including his handwritten redactions of inappropriate content. Trump family products will be promoted by Russian Supermodels during the swimsuit competition and the after-party in the VIP room (additional charge).

At the closing Trump Day gala dinner, reunited at last as the Trump Family Singers, the family will reprise their breathless performances in Mel Brook's musical “The Producers,” as well as their uncannily life-like portrayals in Elia Kazan's 1957 film “A Face In The Crowd.” (If that was before your time, you can just Google it.)

Pilots ignore Phoenix's new flight-path rules

The Arizona Republic, Letter to the Editor, Sept. 22, 2016

Two years ago this month, the FAA arrived saying, "We are from the government and we are here to help." Their help was new flight patterns for Sky Harbor Airport that would save the environment, save the airlines fuel and perhaps even save us money when the savings were passed on to passengers.

But the only result has been extreme noise over long-established Valley neighborhoods. The airports, airlines, private pilots, flight schools, business jets, local and national politicians all say they can do nothing because they must follow the FAA rules. This week we learned the truth.

Most Sky Harbor flights ignore the FAA routes, according to reporting by KJZZ and the Phoenix Business Journal. They quoted Phoenix's assistant aviation director: "The FAA published these new routes — and according to our measurements they’re hardly even flying on them."

So, 65,000 noise complaints later, at least half of Sky Harbor's 1,200 daily flights choose to deviate from the very rules that bureaucrats, politicians and the aviation industry claimed could not be broken. Sounds like time for voters to make some noise, too.

— John Polich, Scottsdale

There's Opportunity In The Air Over Scottsdale And The Valley

By JOHN POLICH
Scottsdale Independent, Sept. 19, 2016

The proliferation of loud, low-flying aircraft over Scottsdale is usually a subject for complaint, not opportunity. But I see opportunity-- opportunity for aircraft owners, pilots, flight schools, airlines, and Valley airport officials.

Sure, I know their first response will be to blame their own bad flying manners on the FAA and its decision two years ago this month to alter flight paths at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.

But that's like claiming "The Devil made me do it" every time you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar. Fact is operators of many flights can request different routing from Air Traffic Control, or use their own discretion to avoid giving Scottsdale residents repeated buzz-cuts.

Here is the opportunity: What if just one airport director or flight school owner or business jet operator chose to be the leader who convenes a meeting of their peers to resolve the problems? They would be a hero with the public and they would be a hero with the aviation industry for ameliorating the widespread voter opposition to expanding airport operations.

Consider the agenda.

• Do student pilots and their instructors really need to use Camelback Mountain as a way point for the scores of daily flights back and forth over Scottsdale between Mesa Falcon Field Municipal Airport and Phoenix Deer Valley Airport? 
• Do dawn patrol "alarm clock" flights by Fedex and other regional couriers really need to climb over Scottsdale neighborhoods instead of the desert? 
• Do advertising cum news helicopters really have to operate at gratuitously low altitudes to show repetitive images of freeways and sunsets? 
• Is flying at FAA minimum altitudes over densely populated Scottsdale the most prudent decision when there are other choices?

The most fascinating agenda item is why many airliners approaching Sky Harbor fly south over Scottsdale homes and then far to the east to enter the landing pattern, a dog leg that is longer and takes more time and fuel than the diagonal approach over desert that existed before the FAA's abrupt changes in 2014.

The FAA bureaucracy has rejected public outcry. Our politicians' intervention has failed. This makes it even more important for visionaries in the Valley's vast, profitable aviation business to take the lead in resolving as many of these issues as possible.

Will the industry seize the opportunity? Last month I mailed a letter to the registered owners and operators of a business jet I tracked, asking why their pilot chose to fly from Sky Harbor to its home base at Scottsdale Airport by traversing the length of Scottsdale's residential and commercial neighborhoods.

Had the pilot waited a  minute or two before turning north, the jet would have made the noisy low-altitude trip over sparsely populated desert, not Scottsdale's core.

My letter suggested the operators have an opportunity to address the public's concerns. I sent a copy to the Sky Harbor and Scottsdale Airport administrators and was pleased to receive a phone call in response from Scottsdale.

Have I heard from Sky Harbor or the aircraft's owners and operators?

Police Reporting: It's A 'Crime'

Last century covering the public safety beat was hands on journalism. Hands on a pencil and a wad of blank newsprint. Hands on the steering wheel racing to the scene. Hands on the clipboard with carbon copies of all the day's police reports. Hands on the knobs of police radios. Hands on your home phone when it rings at 2 a.m. with a tip. And hands on the ground when you and the police around you all try to dive under the same squad car to avoid sudden gunfire.

Two auto salesmen captured a heavily armed juvenile rape and kidnapping suspect after chasing him down Scottsdale Road in their high-powered demonstrator late yesterday. Copyright (c) John Polich, April 4, 1965.

This century the "crime" often seems to be the reporting

This century the "crime" often seems to be the reporting, not the armed robbery or shooting. It is as if there is a check list on the wall of all newsrooms:

1. Wait for an official government Tweet.
2. Re-Tweet the official government Tweet.
3. Repeat.
4. Wait for the image from the "news" helicopter.
5. Wait behind the crime scene tape.

Behind the tape? This century too often the first question from journalists is "Where is the media staging area," not "What, who, when, where, why?" Last century the concept of a holding pen for reporters and photographers hardly existed, even for the visit of a President, as my arms-length photograph illustrates:

LBJ at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, Oct 11, 1964 Copyright (c) John Polich

A pen was something journalists wrote with, not a cage to contain them. I am reminded of this every day by incidents ignored by most local media, except for a belated rehash of a government Tweet.

One recent afternoon medics were dispatched to a traffic collision, a routine call that in itself was not news. What was news was the report from the first unit on the scene: send five helicopters for immediate evacuation of the critically injured; two other occupants of the vehicles were already dead.

Although this alarm went out from the Regional Dispatch Center on in-the-clear radio frequencies, there was no significant media follow up. Instead, here was the important highway news that very same evening:

'Transformers' movie closes Loop 303 for filming. Autobots and Decepticons are transforming the way Valley drivers will travel for the next few days.

This hole in daily journalism is important for three reasons.

First, traffic collisions are not accidents

The first reason this story is important to everyone is that traffic collisions are not "accidents" and should be widely reported in the hope that it will encourage people to drive more alertly and defensively. This brings to mind another recent headline:

ADOT: 2015 was deadliest on Arizona roads in 7 years

Second, the sum of little events is often the big story

The second reason this story is important is that the sum of isolated events is often the bigger news. In this case, it is a reminder that despite seat belts and later safety improvements, drivers still kill or are killed on the road, often by inattention and impairment behind the wheel. That is something citizens can address through their own behavior and through pressure on government for better education, enforcement, prosecution, car design and highway engineering.

Third, it's not just the police beat we should worry about

The third reason this story is important is that the media's inattention to the police beat should make us wonder what other beats-- the legislature, education, real estate, you name it-- reply on the good faith of official Tweeters rather than original reporting. 

One thing that's not news: Many leaders in every field prefer to "put their best foot forward" in a Tweet rather than answer a journalist's objective questions face-to-face.

In Arizona's Valley of the Sun, desert & mountain rescues put us all in danger

By JOHN POLICH The Arizona Republic, Scottsdale Republic, June 25, 2016

The recent rash of mountain rescues reduces the availability of first responders for other emergencies and puts us all at greater risk.

Some officials try to dismiss the price to taxpayers of these rescues as just another cost of living in paradise. Perhaps that rings true when folks hike into the desert during temperate months with temperatures below, say, 90 degrees. Under those conditions we can excuse an experienced local with all the right gear who twists an ankle, or maybe even a winter visitor who burns out halfway up Camelback Mountain.

But recent rescues on 100 degree-plus days cry out for a different approach to people who defiantly take on the summer desert in the face of excessive heat warnings and unhealthy air.

The risk is potentially much greater than an individual hiker's life. Next in line are the 20 or more firefighters who typically respond due to the danger and complexity of a mountain rescue.

And you and I are at risk because a mountain rescue pulls first responders away from their initial coverage areas. This is true even though the Valley has one of the best mutual aid systems in the United States, one that automatically shares fire department resources across most all cities. As more and more units are dispatched across greater distances, response times increase for the rest of us, whether for a heart attack or a fire.

It is fair to ask if we would all be safer if desert preserves were officially closed during our predictably hottest weather and the real cost of search and rescue billed to wayward hikers.

Scottsdale's Entertainment District Gets More Welcome & Unwelcome Publicity

The Arizona Republic, April 22, 2016, page 17A:

Rundown of pool parties around

town helpful for another reason

To The Editor:

Thanks to The Arizona Republic for identifying hotel and club pool parties in metro Phoenix ("Make a splash at 5 pool parties around Phoenix," April 21). The article gives authorities exact dates and times to set up checkpoints for impaired drivers and public drunkenness, bar underage drinkers, issue citations for noise pollution, and shut down overcrowded venues and pools. Existing laws and regulations enable enforcement, although Valley communities often seem reluctant to act. Meanwhile, the rest of your readers have learned what venues to avoid.

     --John Polich, Scottsdale

Your Words Are Your Bonds: Traffic School for Scottsdale’s Leadership

By JOHN POLICH The Arizona Republic, Scottsdale Republic, Jan. 9, 2016

A few days before Scottsdale taxpayers voted for or against new bond obligations in November, City Hall launched two trial balloons that may have affected that vote and definitely will affect the future of the West’s Most Western Town.

First, there was the proposal to improve traffic on Scottsdale Road BY NARROWING IT to one lane each way in the downtown shopping area. Please explain that to me again.

Second, there was the proposal to improve traffic on Chaparral Road BY WIDENING IT to two lanes each way. This would sacrifice an historically quiet and protected residential area to the appetites of merchants and landlords surrounding Fashion Square.

Bumper to Bumper on Chaparral Road Dec. 12 2015 with
heavy truck in "Strictly Enforced" No Trucks zone of 50
residential driveways. Photo Copyright (c) John Polich 2015

The city floated these ideas with indifference or ignorance of the convoluted history of these stretches of blacktop. Scottsdale Road has suffered several indignities at the hands of lawmakers. These included a bizarre realignment at the failed original Galleria, later undone, and the mis-named “express” bypasses that direct speeding traffic through the calm of the Civic Center on the East and the congestion of Fashion Square and new high-density apartments on the West.

CHAPARRAL ROAD BECAME A COMMUTER HIGHWAY

There is a connection between the tortuous Scottsdale Road bypasses and Chaparral Road traffic. This resulted from the decision of an earlier City Council and state officials to place Loop 101 on/off ramps at Chaparral Road rather than Camelback Road. Apparently this was done because there once were schools along Camelback Road, but the decision ignored the undeniable fact that Chaparral Road dead-ends at Camelback Mountain.

Scottsdale’s solution was to divert westbound traffic from Loop 101 along residential Chaparral Road until it reaches Scottsdale Road and a S-curve bottleneck to the “express” bypass. Thus, Chaparral Road has become a highway serving commuters and Fashion Square shoppers at the expense of residents. Police clocked at least one driver over 70 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone. That zone between Hayden Road and Miller Road includes about 50 residential driveways of the Villa Monterey subdivision, listed on the Scottsdale Historic Register.

PROPOSAL COLLIDES WITH HISTORIC DISTRICT

The proposal to double lanes and therefore multiply vehicles and noise on Chaparral would obviously subvert the intent of the Scottsdale Historic Register and potentially lead to endless lawsuits by residents and preservationists. The expansion would be only a transitory boon to area businesses because the density would eventually drive away shoppers who cannot find a convenient route or a parking space.

Very Few Cars on Roosevelt St. Dec. 12 2015 with
"Traffic Calming" along about 50 residential driveways.
Photo Copyright (c) 2015 John Polich

But it would be a long-term disaster for residents because the chockablock construction encouraged by the City Council around Fashion Square will create unprecedented traffic congestion and demands on infrastructure, from utilities to first responders who are already stretched to tame the entertainment district.

Solution: Force westbound through traffic from Chaparral along Hayden to Camelback Road and then west to Fashion Square, the entertainment and arts districts, and beyond..

And Chaparral? Preserve two lanes between Hayden and Miller, place intrusive traffic calming medians and bumps, erect a stop sign at 78th St., cut the speed limit to 25 from 30 miles per hour. This would mimic the successful implementation on Roosevelt St. between Miller and Scottsdale Roads, which coincidentally has roughly 50 residential driveways.

The City Council will make itself proud by stepping back and remembering it is Scottsdale's roots that attract commerce and not vice versa.

This Just In: Airlines and Hotels Are Disemboweling Loyalty Programs

In a stunning revelatory article Sunday, The New York Times warned readers that airlines are emasculating their affinity programs: “Loyalty Programs: Playing the New Game.”

I immediately flashed on a Page One headline from 1978 when I was research director of The New York Times: 

An Exotic Drug, ‘Cocaine,’ Appears Popular

The inside-journalism joke, of course, is that The Times is always a decade behind in its discovery of trends. The coke story appeared in “Not The New York Times,” a faux one-off newspaper published during the 1978 New York newspaper strike. 

Executive Editor Abe Rosenthal and Arthur Gelb in the
deserted New York Times newsroom during the 1978 strike.
Photo By John Polich. Copyright (c) 1978, 2015

The Times management at the time, self-obsessed but not self-aware, did not laugh. The newspaper graciously renewed the joke in 2008 when an excellent piece by Jim Dwyer reminisced about the 30 year old phenomenon. His column, “In 1978, a Faux Paper Was Real Genius,” recalled other headlines:

Pope Dies Yet Again;

Reign is Briefest Ever

Cardinals Return from Airport  

and

Insulating With Pate:

Winter Warmth

With Good Taste

To The Times credit, the loyalty story offers good advice to travelers on how to game what’s left of the goodwill once nurtured by the airlines, a withering trend that is, well, a decade old. The online title is a little more respectful to the travel industry than the print edition:  “Making the Most of Evolving Airline and Hotel Reward Programs.”

Is a storm rolling in or is the FAA buzzing the Valley?

By John Polich, Special for The Arizona Republic | azcentral.com 5:02 a.m. MST December 4, 2015

Remember when your parents drove to the end of the runway so you could watch the planes? Perhaps your thrill was Deer Valley or Sky Harbor or Luke. The experience may have created a desire to be cabin crew seeing the world, or to join the Air Force, or simply to become an aviation buff.

But even the most enthusiastic aviation ​buff ​would cringe at the aircraft swarming like a thunderstorm directly over Valley neighborhoods built decades ago that never faced the scourge of low-flying planes until today.

The FAA and local governments hope you have already forgotten that one year ago those planes were not screaming over your head. ​They hope you will buy silly arguments that the planes are not as loud as a rock band rehearsing in your garage or a motorcycle racing up and down your block. 

They hope owners whose property values have been substantially reduced will fail to go to court with “unjust taking” actions against the government for fair compensation.

TOOL TO TRACK AIR TRAFFIC

On a recent Monday I was able to log flights over my home. I used Sky Harbor's PublicVue tool and in a few hours counted about three dozen flights within 1.5 miles​,​ below 6,000 feet above ground, some much closer and lower.

PublicVue also reveals two secrets of air traffic in the Valley:​

1. Small aircraft on short hops ​like Phoenix to Flagstaff ​can be even more disruptive than the airliners because the FAA allows them to begin turning from the runway toward their destination much earlier, putting them over close-in neighborhoods.

AZCENTRAL Why the Phoenix Sky 
Harbor flight-path noise 
may drive you crazy

2. Some of your neighbors are pilots. A few of them skirt FAA minimums, 500 feet over open terrain but twice that over congested areas. For example, they thread the needle between Camelback Mountain and Phoenix Mountains Park while ignoring that their sightseeing could be too close to congested residential and commercial areas surrounding the mountains.

As I sit at my desk at 8 a.m. on a Tuesday to complete this article, overhead is American Airlines 646. The Airbus passes 1.2 miles from my home just 5,630 feet above my head, followed by a dozen more​ airliners​.

PUSH FOR CHANGE

One way to force air traffic back to where it was last year is to call your congressmen.

Another way is to contact the airline CEOs. They will claim they are only following orders. The reality is the airlines themselves put us in this wind-tunnel by claiming they need to save a bit of fuel at a time when they benefit from a collapse in oil prices but do not pass on the savings when we buy a ticket. And airlines ​have become highly profitable by offering tiny telescoped seats and big charges for baggage and food​ that were always free until now (something else they would like you to forget ).

Let's press the airlines as well as the politicians to undo the damage to the desert sky over Phoenix.

AZCENTRAL Phoenix: 
Aviation employees
disciplined over flight paths

John Polich is a Scottsdale resident, who has worked for the Arizona Republic, Channel 12 and as research director of the New York Times.  He ran United States units of international opinion research companies and has taught communication in the U.S. and Europe.​

Reprinted from The Arizona Republic, Dec. 4, 2015.

Travel Rules To Live By: Broken

Diane Love and I resumed our travels this month, and almost immediately and belatedly I discovered that I had broken four of our rules for traveling.

RULE 1: NEVER TAKE THE LAST FLIGHT OF THE DAY

I booked us on one of the last flights of the day from Phoenix to Fort Lauderdale. The rule is never take the last flight because weather or mechanical problems may delay or cancel your trip and you will miss connections or a good night's sleep.

We made an exception because the late afternoon US Airways flight, a rare non-stop on this route, would keep us off a 6 a.m. flight connecting through bad weather in the Midwest. What we did not know was that this flight rarely departs or arrives as scheduled because it comes to Phoenix from Mexico and is intensely inspected by federal agents. US Airways has not bothered to adjust the published schedule and we only learned this when I noticed the pilots were sitting at the gate with the passengers waiting to board. The pilots boarded just on time, but the passengers did not.

As we finally settled in on board,  the pilot announced a further delay because the top cross member of the frame that would secure the cockpit door was hanging by a couple screws and therefore not securing anything. First a mechanic came, then left for his tools. Then he left for a screw. Then he left for more screws. Finally we departed.

The highlight of the flight was the cabin crew, more jovial and respectful than usual. The low point was the bottom seat cushion, which had collapsed in some former life. The whole row seemed to be recovered from a desert aircraft graveyard and was partially held together by tape. The "New American Airlines" cocktail napkin on the badly scarred arm rest promised: "Adding one new plane a week." Clearly this was not one of the new planes.

RULE 2: STICK WITH A RENTAL CAR COMPANY YOU TRUST

For Fort Lauderdale, I had booked an E-Class Mercedes for the too good to believe price of about $250 for five days from Sixt. This broke my policy of using the company that has given the least grief over the years, Hertz. On arrival after midnight we found the Sixt agents working in the dark, using flashlights due to a power failure. They invoked the "or equivalent" provision of the rental contract and gave us a Cadillac ATS, which according to Edmunds.com is smaller than an E-Class Mercedes (shorter, narrower, lower, lighter) and costs a third less than the $50,000+ Mercedes. When we added Diane as additional driver, Sixt added 20 percent to the bill. Because there were no lights at Sixt, we were unable to inspect the car until daylight at the hotel, when we found a scratch on the right rear quarter panel. I phoned Sixt to record this old damage, but now Sixt is trying to bill me for repairs.

RULE 3: NEVER BOOK A HOTEL BASED ONLY ON ITS WEBSITE

Fort Lauderdale's Pelican Grand Beach Resort has a beautiful Web site that when we booked did not reveal that there is heavy demolition and construction during renovation. Good hotels generally reveal any construction in advance and give travelers the opportunity to book elsewhere or receive a greatly reduced rate understanding that their experience may be diminished because of it.

The first consequence of the renovation is that the hotel's sign is obscured, particularly at night, as you can see (or cannot see) here. We arrived after 1 a.m. after driving around the neighborhood for some time trying to find the hotel.

After getting to sleep about 2 a.m., we faced the second consequence about 7 a.m. when we were awakened by the dramatic sound of concrete being broken a few floors over our head. You can see scaffolding posed above at the roof, where a penthouse is being added.

The third consequence is this welcome to the Pelican Grand Beach Resort provided at its main entrance: a porta potty for construction workers:














We moved to another hotel and were not charged for the truncated night at the Pelican.

RULE 4: NEVER BOOK A "GUARANTEE" CABIN FOR A CRUISE

Five years ago we learned to never book a so-called "guarantee" cabin on a cruise ship to get a bargain price. This is because the guarantee is that the cruise line will assign you whatever cabin they like, regardless of whether you would consider it better than or equal to the minimum category you book. In that earlier episode, Cunard assigned us a cabin on the Queen Mary 2 facing the elevator lobby and stairs. This resulted in noise 24 hours a day for a week from the comings and going of all the other passengers on our deck even with a towel stuffed under the door.

We managed to apply this rule until this month, when I foolishly booked a guarantee cabin again-- on the Queen Mary 2. We just received our cabin assignment and yet again we face eight days and nights with a towel stuffed under the door from Southampton to Brooklyn.

Nervous Breakdown: A Week Full Of ‘Surprises’ Should Trouble Media Execs

Five stories in the past week may force media moguls to again rethink strategy. The recap follows:

Surprise 1: Researchers Find Audiences Detest Bogus Stories, Boorish Ads

JUNE 16- I was shocked-- SHOCKED-- to learn that “news outlets need ‘more inventive’ business model.” That’s the conclusion of a study funded by new media giant Google, old media veteran BBC, and the British media regulator. It was conducted by the Reuters Institute at Oxford, funded by the news service that pioneered the telegraph and carrier pigeons. Reuters was first to flash news of Lincoln’s assassination.

The survey in 12 countries including the United States found that half the people questioned get their news from a smartphone, most say they will not pay for online news, and many use ad block software, which was “reaching epidemic proportions.” It reported that in some countries about half the respondents said they get their news from social media. And about a third feel deceived or disappointed by “sponsored articles,” advertising in disguise.

"Our research documents that most people like news and use news, but they don't want to pay for it, don't want to see advertising around it, and don't want to see it mixed up with sponsored content," says Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, the Reuters Institute's director of research, quoted by the BBC. "This means sustainable business models remain elusive even for those who succeed in building an audience."

Surprise 2: Brian Williams Lands At MSNBC With Peers Like Al Sharpton of Tawana Brawley Fame

JUNE 18- The collapse of the cable news concept accelerated today when NBC parked its refugee from journalism, Brian Williams, at MSNBC. Williams The Exaggerator is a perfect fit with Al Sharpton, host of MSNBC’s PoliticsNation. You will recall that in 1987 Sharpton championed Tawana Brawley’s “story of being attacked, scrawled with racial slurs, smeared with feces and left beside a road wrapped in a plastic bag….” The story was false and Sharpton and Brawley lost a defamation suit.

Al Sharpton Source: MSNBC

But the lesson is not just that corporations never feel embarrassment-- as you and I and every working journalist might have felt when we learned of Williams’ folly. The takeaway is that the networks, desperate to reverse the declining audiences of cable news channels, have no plan. They will throw any on-air “personality” at the wall of consumer indifference, hoping to catch a break.

When Ted Turner started the first 24 hour a day news channel, CNN, he created a phenomenon. I repeat, “News.” It was a magnet for viewers fascinated with journalism 24 hours a day in what we now call “real time.” After Time Warner bought Turner’s companies in 1996, CNN and its offspring, including CNN’s Headline News (which rarely reports headline news) and competitor MSNBC, devolved into repetitive shows rounding up the usual talking heads and an occasional big story. (Fox News falls into a category of its own.)

This news vacuum is being filled in part by new media, social or antisocial, riding new technologies. So when old media like MSNBC and present owner NBCUniversal complain about their fate, much of the blame falls on themselves.

Surprise 3: News Corp Cuts Wall Street Journal Staff To Be “Premier Digital News Organization In The World.”

JUNE 18- The Wall Street Journal announced "substantial job cuts and shifting of resources into digital media efforts and core coverage areas."

The Journal's own coverage reported that "Gerard Baker, editor in chief of Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, said the purpose of the moves was a 'full transformation of our newsroom with a bold but simple aim: to become the premier digital news organization in the world.' He added, 'This process will require us to discontinue some of our activities while investing more in others.'"

Before the announcement, WSJ staff had already been cut to 1800 from 2100 over five years.

Surprise 4: Ebay Sells Craigslist To Craigslist

JUNE 19- Craigslist has a refund policy: it bought itself back. According to Reuters, the companies “had been feuding for years” over alleged misappropriation of confidential information gleaned in EBay’s 2004 purchase of Craigslist. The latest transaction settles those complaints, but the wakeup call for media owners should be that buyer’s remorse is setting in for investors who were sold business models that were either too simple or too complex or too easy to duplicate to survive the velocity of change in both old and new media.