Of course, some newspaper reporters can cover a once-mighty American industry in rapid decline without even leaving their desks.
- The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting today on its own bankruptcy filing: The company has one 
significant creditor -- the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS has said Sun-Times Media Group owes up to $608 million in back taxes and penalties from past business practices by its former controlling owner, Conrad Black, now imprisoned for theft from corporate coffers.
- The Detroit News and The Detroit Free Press quote their own editors/publishers/CEOs [hope they spelled those names right] as they tout the possibility of making their newspapers, which these days only appear on their readers' porches three days a week, appear all the time on new gizmos such as Amazon's Kindle and Plastic Logic's Reader.
[They also got written about in The New York Times.]
- The Hartford Courant reports on the ouster of its own publisher, who is replaced by the general manager of two TV stations -- which the new publisher is bringing with him. The old publisher? No comment.
- The Ann Arbor News is saying good-bye to its loyal readers, and vice versa.
-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
Big Auto is the big news, in Buffalo and across the country.
On P. 1, The Buffalo News kicks off with "Countdown begins for automakers": President Obama brought the hammer down Monday on General Motors and Chrysler, demanding more aggressive restructuring and rejecting the plans that the automakers submitted for more financial aid.
In Business Today, "Stocks tumble as auto plans are rejected," "As GM reforms, who will be in charge?," "Q&A: Warranties on U.S. vehicles that are backed by the government" and "Workers say Obama treated autos worse that he did Wall Street."
AP has this follow: "With autos, Obama expands government's role": President Barack Obama's extraordinary auto industry intervention is assertive and coldly pragmatic, with a dose of caution and a sentimental nod to the automobile's place in the American psyche.
From the front, The Detroit Free Press has a story headlined "Why Ford execs can find reasons to smile," which is only slightly less snarky that the headline the photo seems to demand "Why are these 
men laughing?" [They didn't take any government money. Ha, ha, ha.]
The Detroit News, meanwhile, explains why the Obama administration does not believe that the electric Chevy Volt will save GM. [Wows the media. Costs too much.]
DetNews columnist Daniel Howes says Obama is now "CEO-in-chief," having ousted GM boss Rick Wagoner: The terror of Wall Street, disgraced New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, would love it.
Exhaustive detail provided by the White House virtual Briefing Room.
See also:
- The Wall Street Journal: Detroit's Fate Sealed in West Wing.
- The New York Times: For U.S. and Carmakers, a Path Strewn With Pitfalls.
- The New York Daily News cover blares "AUTOCRAT!" The story leads with the more fatalistic: Would you buy a new car from this man?
- Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik: By showing General Motors chief Rick Wagoner the door, President Obama is in effect announcing that if the government picks up the tab for a stumbling business, it gets the right to call the shots.
Maybe moral hazard isn't dead.
-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
March 30, 2009 - 10:20 AM | Comment
Today is the first day that The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News are not delivering their 
newspapers to front porches in Michigan. And the front-page story that those former subscribers will be missing -- if they have not already shifted to Digital Free Press or edetroitnews -- is just about the biggest story in a run of big stories.
This is not a coincidence.
The whole newspaper industry is in trouble these days, and the few cities that have supported two major newspapers have seen the most destruction [Example. Example.] Detroit's tanking economy, weighed down by the woes of the auto industry, has put the newspapers there in such dire straits that they've launched an innovative [desperate] plan to offer home delivery of their product only on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, the only days that are really valued by advertisers. The rest of the week, papers are for sale in boxes and in stores, and the whole shootin' match is available, as it has long been, online.
That's the story -- and the story -- that is the newspapers. The story that is in/on the newspapers is 
that the Obama administration has determined that the restructuring plans that were offered by General Motors and Chrysler did not establish a credible path to viability. GM's CEO is out. Chrysler has 30 days to form a partnership with Italian automaker Fiat. The government will back warranties on cars sold by the two companies. A czar to coordinate help for autoworkers and auto-dependent communities has been named. Both firms may still go into some kind of "quick rinse" bankruptcy.
So, Monday, March 30, 2009. The day that a major American city had the most need for a newspaper or two to tell them what was going on is the day that they began to disappear. Oh, well. At least the newspapers can lead with stories about someone else's woes instead of making themselves the big news.
Just what will happen if Michigan State wins the NCAA basketball championship next Monday?
An AP roundup of the newspaper changes here, with more on developments at The Washington Post and at The New York Times-owned International Herald-Tribune.
--George Pyle
March 17, 2009 - 11:28 AM | Comment
American International Group is under heavy fire from President Obama, Congress, regulators, and taxpayers over its payment of $165 million in bonuses to employees and executives.
The company has received $170 billion in taxpayer support to prop it up, which means the U.S. Treasury owns nearly 80 percent of the global insurer.
Its problems stem largely from a small, London-based unit that sold credit-default swaps, a derivative investment that worked like insurance on mortgage-backed securities. But that's precisely the unit that is getting the bonuses.
The company says it needs to retain those employees in order to properly and safely wind down that operation, for the good of the company and taxpayers. It says it can't break the contracts with those employees, which pre-date the company's problems. And it and others say breaking the contracts would set a bad precedent.
The government has objected to the bonuses, but top officials say they're hamstrung by the legal contracts. Yet Obama has ordered Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to find a way.
Should the bonuses be allowed? Or should they be stopped or rescinded? How?
-- Jonathan D. Epstein
March 17, 2009 - 10:37 AM | Comment
A little-known provision in the federal stimulus bill passed last month has created concerns for foreign students studying in the United States, as well as their colleges and potential employers.
The new clause in the H-1B visa program requires banks and other companies that have received federal government money to certify that they took "good faith steps" to recruit or retrain a U.S. worker for the same job for which a foreign worker is being considered. And the companies must attest that no U.S. worker was displaced by the H-1B worker in an equivalent position.
The law expires in February 2011.
Already, Bank of America Corp. withdrew offers it had made to more than 50 such students because of the H-1B visa requirement. Bank of America has received $45 billion in taxpayer funds through the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Now, international students are worried they won't be able to get a job. And colleges and universities are worried that they'll lose full-paying students, who may decide not to come here at all because the U.S. will appear unfriendly.
What do you think?
-- Jonathan D. Epstein
General Motors gave the Tonawanda engine plant some good news and bad news. It's bringing back to the plant production of an inline 5-cylinder engine that was moved to Michigan in mid 2007, but it has put on indefinite hold a new diesel engine that was slotted for Tonawanda.
GM is making the adjustments amid the severe slump in auto sales and as it tries to right its financial ship. Which brings the topic back to the all-important sales. Are you in the market to buy? What would it take for you to make a new vehicle purchase?
-- Matt Glynn
News service reports say General Motors has hired former auto analyst Steve Girsky to advise the Saturn division and its dealers on GM's efforts related to the brand. GM is exploring whether to sell, spin off or close Saturn. Reports say some parties have expressed interest in taking it over.
Do you think Saturn has a viable future apart from GM?
-- Matt Glynn
Somewhere within Dante's nine circles of hell is the tech support phone call.
Now, that may be overstating the annoyance factor just a bit.
But a set of random interviews conducted at the Walden Galleria and a request for comments from my Facebook friends showed me one thing: A lot of people have had truly awful tech-support experiences.
If it's not the hard-to-negotiate automated menu, or the long wait times, it's the struggle for the less-than-tech-savvy to explain the issue to a rep who may not speak English well.
A lot of computer owners turn to the tech reps at a bricks-and-mortar retailer, to a locally owned repair shop or to Internet chat rooms to get better help.
Now, in response, the giant computer manufacturer Dell - a frequent target of complaints I heard - is offering a premium service package for its customers.
People willing to pay extra are promised they'll deal with a North American tech rep, they can arrange to get the same person every time and they'll have a short wait to reach someone.
Will the 'Your Tech Team' service prove popular with customers? Would you be willing to pay extra for customer service if you were assured it was a higher-quality program?
And what are your best - or worst - tech support experiences?
- Stephen T. Watson
