...Canceling School In the article, For Mayor, Keeping Schools Open Brings Another Headache, Michael Grynbaum reported that the new Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio and the schools Chancellor, Carmen Farina made the decision last Wednesday to keep NYC schools open on Thursday in the wake of the impending snow storm. The decision to keep schools open set off a firestorm of criticism and the Mayor found himself being publically called out by Al Roker of the Today Show. (Grynbaum, 2013) NYC schools rarely close and have only done so on 11 occasions over the last 40 years. Mayor de Blasio defended himself saying, “It would be nice if we got a video the night before of what the next day looks like”. (Grynbaum, 2013) That remark was met with criticism from Al Roker who stated, “Mr. Mayor, I could never run NYC, but I know when it’s time to keep kids home from school.” (Grynbaum, 2013) The decision to close schools or keep them open during inclement weather is a question that many districts are facing across the country this winter. School districts throughout Indiana are trying to figure out how they will make up the lost school days to meet the 180 requirement. I understand Al Roker’s comments that the schools probably should have been closed. But, sometimes I think we lose sight of other consequences of closing schools. In my position, I worked with the NYC Department of Education for 6 years. Their student population is larger than the city of Indianapolis at 1,000...
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...Sofía Solano Mendoza James Denza Seminar Academic Inquiry 27/04/2011 SEXTING Sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit photos via text messages, and is shockingly common among teens. According to Katie Couric of [Fox News], [Sexting] is “the new craze all over the country among 11 to 17 year-old adolescents.” A recent study by MSNBC found that 20% (1 in 5) of teens between the ages of 12 and 17 have sexted in their lives. Teens say “sexting” is one way to gain approval from peers or possible suitors. Teens in America are facing criminal charges of child pornography for sending and receiving nude pictures. These photos are often forwarded from friend-to-friend via cell phone and even around entire classes. With the availability of technology, young people are not aware that once they start cyber-swapping photos they are on the Internet to stay. If these photos get into the hands of the wrong people such as college admissions or future employers they could ruin the chance to fulfill a dream and there is nothing sexy about that. In fact, I see a relation with the movie of American Beauty, because in the entire movie Rick the neighbor of Jane is filming her with some erotic scenes. The media image of scantily dressed individuals is so common that teenagers don’t feel that it is wrong. It isn’t uncommon for teens to follow media and act like the people they see on the television everyday. In music videos it isn’t uncommon to see women...
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...Background Since childhood, Becky Fuller has dreamed to work for the Today show as news producer. However, her effort to the job is off-putting to potential suitors and eventually being laid off from her job at the local Good Morning New Jersey. After this event, her mother advises her to stop her dream to make her life better; However, Becky perseveres, and continues her dream. She sends lots of résumés, and receives an opportunity from IBS for the national morning show, DayBreak. For the job interview with Jerry Barnes, it is not satisfactory. Then, Becky bumps into one of her heroes, veteran television journalist Mike Pomeroy in an elevator, and meets him. Finally, Barnes hires Becky to be DayBreak's executive producer. On her first day, Becky realizes that the show has many problems. She decides Pomeroy to replace her co-host Paul McVee as her new co-host. Pomeroy refuses to become Becky’s co-host because he wants to less workload. Becky uses Pomeroy’s contract to force him to accept her requirement eventually. However, Pomeroy is not contributed for his job due to many reasons, and the result is discouraging as ratings begin to drop; Becky is told that DayBreak may be canceled. Therefore, Becky decides to use radical approach in order to raise the ratings and save the show, but Barnes doesn’t believe Becky could success. During a staff meeting, Pomeroy shows interest in doing a story, and finally he breaks the story of racketeering on live television, and this help...
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...Emmy-winning TV makeup artist. She created her first foundation and concealer products seven years ago while working for Barbara Walters, Meredith Vieira, and the rest of the hosts on “The View.” 2. Contributions and Uniqueness With sales growth slower than desired, Eve Pearl, the founder, is considering pitching her high-end cosmetic products — priced well above department store levels — to a broad audience by appearing on ShopNBC, a 24-hour TV shopping channel in the mode of QVC. While working on “The View,” Ms. Pearl started selling her brush-on products from her New York apartment. By 2008, she had become Ms. Vieira’s personal makeup specialist. She followed the broadcaster backstage on the sets of “Today” and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” appeared on “Today” herself, and basked in the glow of a ribbon-cutting. She was flanked by morning show stars — Ms. Vieira, Ann Curry, Hoda Kotb and Natalie Morales — at the grand opening of her stylish 700-square-foot Upper East Side boutique. A YouTube posting of that celebrity-filled debut attracted tens of thousands of viewers and encouraged Ms. Pearl to start posting promotional videos demonstrating her techniques and products. That proved to be a good thing, with Internet orders soon outstripping her boutique business and her wholesale deliveries to makeup professionals. By 2011, Ms. Pearl had more than 100 products — some with prices as high as $98 — and more than $1 million in revenue. Her online sales were accounting...
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...obesity. Moreover, obese children have a much higher risk of many health problems such as coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and certain cancers--all of which are fatal if left untreated. In 2010, a mother from California sued McDonald’s over the company’s marketing practice of Happy Meal. The mother claimed that McDonald’s used alluring toys to lure kids into Happy Meal. This lawsuit, which might be viewed by many as senseless and absurd, was one of McDonald’s biggest cases. In order to come out of the lawsuit ahead, this largest fast food chain had to undergo some major organizational changes. In this paper, we would like to use the knowledge learned in the class to analyze the event (the lawsuit) and its effects on McDonald’s. The paper will have four main parts. In the first part, we provide a brief introduction of the company, McDonald’s, and the lawsuit. In the second part, we will use the concepts learned in class to analyze Happy Meal’s influencing strategies and the organizational changes during and after the suit. We believe that Happy Meal’s influencing strategies deserve our attention as they were the main causes of the crisis. Since its Happy Meal’s influencing...
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...USA Today by Gannett Company On 20th April 1982 - announced the first copies of USA Today In 1985 - became the second largest newspaper in the America In 17th April 1995 - Launced USA Today Online In 2000 - The paper redesign In 2009 - Newspaper have closed shop or reduced publications day and adapt to online only Norfatahiyah Bt Md Sulhaimi 1110937 USA Today Become a more serious newspaper with improved journalism Raising public awareness and move into profitability USAToday.com Readers interacted with the journalist and given opportunity to voice their opinion Continuous strategy of marketing innovation USA Today Product Innovation Promotional Innovation Distribution Innovation USAToday.com Added blogs Really Simple Syndication(RSS) Pod casting No Demand for the newspaper will decrease because customer just get news from USAToday.com Strength Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Huge media conglomerate with Gannett Gannett's capabilities in high-tech graphic design High fixed costs Weak profit margin Increasing numbers of white-collar workers Failure of competition to innovate and innovate rapidly Online news threaten to cannibalize printed news Competition from other newspaper, national and local Fast delivery the news Design through customer preference Limitation when it saturated Move to USA Today Online Lose readers of the population ages over the next 10 to 30 years Economic factor such as higher newsprint costs https://www.scribd...
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...Case 1 USA Today: Innovation in an Evolving Industry* Synopsis: As the entire newspaper industry sits on the brink of collapse, Gannett and USA Today work to avoid disaster and transform the nation’s most read newspaper into tomorrow’s best resource for news and information. This case reviews the history of USA Today, including its continued use of innovation to stay on top of the technological and sociocultural shifts that are rapidly changing the newspaper industry. In the face of continual competition across a variety of media sources, the future of USA Today depends on its ability to continually push the envelope of innovation and offer value-added, proprietary content to ensure continued differentiation and the future of the USA Today brand. Themes: Product strategy, innovation, target marketing, distribution strategy, changing technology, changing sociocultural patterns, customer relationships, competition, differentiation, strategic focus, SWOT analysis Case Summary USA Today is the most successful and highly visible newspaper that students have seen and read on a national basis. The case provides an overview of Gannett's strategic marketing approach to launching and growing this unique newspaper. When USA Today debuted in 1982, it achieved rapid success due to its innovative format. No other media source had considered a national newspaper written in shorter pieces than a traditional paper and sprinkled with eye-catching, colorful photos, graphs, and charts. Designed...
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...[From August Harpers and Sojourners Newsletter] The Christian Paradox How a faithful nation gets Jesus wrong by Bill McKibben, Updated August 3, 2005 Posted on Wednesday, July 27, 2005. What it means to be Christian in America. An excerpt. Originally from August 2005 Harpers. Only 40 percent of Americans can name more than four of the Ten Commandments, and a scant half can cite any of the four authors of the Gospels. Twelve percent believe Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. This failure to recall the specifics of our Christian heritage may be further evidence of our nation's educational decline, but it probably doesn't matter all that much in spiritual or political terms. Here is a statistic that does matter: Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that "God helps those who help themselves." That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin's wisdom not biblical; it's counter-biblical. Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbor. On this essential matter, most Americans - most American Christians - are simply wrong, as if 75 percent of American scientists believed that Newton proved gravity causes apples to fly up. Asking Christians what Christ taught isn't a trick. When we say we are a Christian...
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...Meredith Hancock CWV-101 February 15, 2013 Instructor Thomas Joseph The Christian Worldview Reflected Through Billy Graham Billy Graham is recognized as one of the most influential, American Evangelical leaders of years past and even still today. He has lead over 210 million people to Christ and has guided over eleven different United States Presidents in major decision making, particularly Eisenhower and Nixon, through his preaching and biblical knowledge (Showalter & Yichao, 2010). Mr. Graham reflects this writer’s personal belief in God and assists her in understanding the Bible and recognizing it as her guide to a successful life on this earth and life after death. Billy Graham strongly expresses his Christian worldview through his values, as he places importance in his family, his sponsorship of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and his belief in the reality and eternity of God’s love. Billy Graham built his life and career around his family and his love for Jesus Christ. Graham and his wife Ruth raised their five children to be leaders of God and interestingly enough, all five of them have followed in their father’s footsteps and started ministries of their own. Graham reflects this writer’s worldview through his respect for life, love of family, and values centered upon God, as the creator of all things and this is reflected in the raising of all of his children to be moral, God-fearing human beings. This became more apparent as Franklin desired...
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...FITNESS JOURNAL ALPHA CYCLE • Day 1 • Week 1 “Today is Day 1 of the new you. Make every second count.” Today’s Workout: __________________________________________________ Notes: __________________________________________________________ ■ ■ NAILED IT BARELY MADE IT REMINDER: Take your “before” photo and enter your stats on the measurement chart located in the Quick-Start Guide or on p. 12 of this journal. • Day 2 “It’s 25 minutes to change your life, so just push through.” Today’s Workout: __________________________________________________ Notes: __________________________________________________________ • Day 3 Notes: __________________________________________________________ BARELY MADE IT ■ ■ NAILED IT BARELY MADE IT “It ain’t easy, but it’s worth it.” Today’s Workout: __________________________________________________ Notes: __________________________________________________________ • Day 5 NAILED IT “Today is about progress, not perfection.” Today’s Workout: __________________________________________________ • Day 4 ■ ■ ■ ■ NAILED IT BARELY MADE IT “First Double Day! Do your best and don’t quit!” Notes: __________________________________________________________ ■ ■ NAILED IT Today’s Workouts: _________________________________________________ BARELY MADE IT Week 1 Weight Waist Chest • ■ ■ NAILED IT BARELY MADE IT STATURDAY Thigh Arm 2 ...
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...Dear Mr. President, As you know, we live in America, a democracy. And in living in this democracy, the people have a responsibility to participate in things both civic and political. If we did not, this democracy would not work and America would not be the same. It is up to the citizens to speak up for what we believe to be able to help maintain this wonderful country. I write to you to request that we create a holiday for Billy Graham. I feel that Mr. Graham very much deserves a holiday in his honor for all his influences on America. He has performed countless sermons to about 80 million people and millions more over radio or television. For about 3 million people, he helped by guiding them in their decisions to join Christ and has given confidence to countless more Christians. Billy Graham, as you may know, has helped at presidential inaugurations and presidential funerals. He has been comfort in times of need and even influenced Christians during the civil rights movement by stating his belief that all people of America should be treated equally, including black people. The most honorable characteristic of Billy Graham is the fact that he does all that he does simply because he believes it is the right, Christianly thing to do. He has definitely contributed a lot to the Christian society and it would probably be very different without him, seeing as he was a major factor of developing contemporary Christianity. Not only is the Christian community different...
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...1.Discuss how the two cases in this chapter illustrate the major theme of this text: changes in the macro environment affect individual firms and industries through the microeconomic factors of demand, production, cost and profitability. Drawing on current business publications, find some updated facts for each case that support this theme. Both the cases McDonald’s in China and Wal-Mart in Mexico show how the interplay of microeconomic and macroeconomic factors influences managers’ competitive strategies. For both of these company, expansion abroad was a strategic move that helped offset slowing in the United States. However, both cases show how companies had to understand consumer behavior in these countries and the nature of competition from both local and international sources. is prevalent that several changes in the macro environment have had an effect on the profitability of individual firms and industries. The text states that downturns in economic activity forced all the fast-food companies to develop new strategies. During this economic downturn McDonald’s was one company in particular that has developed strategies that were influenced by microeconomic changes. A great example is when McDonald’s entered the Chinese market they had to take into consideration consumer taste and acceptance in China. They had to decided whether or not to have the menu in Chinese or English and whether or not to take on the American menu or add more Chinese influenced menu items. Cost...
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...1. What opportunities in the marketing environment did Gannett seize in launching USA Today? How did the company learn about and respond to these opportunities? Gannett noticed two trends or opportunities in the reading public and took advantage of those trends. The first one is the increasingly short attention span among a generation nurtured on television, the second is the growing hunger for more information. The newspaper’s primary mission was to provide more news to their readers in less time. They targeted the young and well-educated because he noticed that they were busy and care about the news (they targeted nontraditional newspaper readers) unlike their competitors. Typical readers turned out to be professionals, usually managers, about 40 years old, well educated, with an income of about$60,000 a year. USA Today capitalized its market opportunities by listening to their readers. They provided personal level communication, provided news in a clear, upbeat, positive way. They were also the first color newspaper and captured readers using a TV set like distribution box. They were very unique and out of the box. In addition to this, Gannett’s research had shown that readers get most of their information from such snippets and they were also interested in sports, movie reviews, and health information so he didn’t just limit it to traditional news, he added diverse news about several topics like sports. I believe that the company knew about opportunities by closely...
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...Background USA Today is a national U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. Initially considered gimmicky and insubstantial, it gradually developed a reputation for higher quality while increasing its circulation and advertising revenues at a time when few papers were experiencing growth. The features that originally set it apart are abundant colorful graphics, very brief stories, and a concentration on sports and celebrity, have influenced other newspapers. To date, USA Today remains the widest circulated print newspaper in the United States. Issues Cultural shifts and aging An increasing number of potential consumers have been shown to dislike reading newspaper. In order to combat this, USA Today should add sections that appeal to a younger audience, such as fashion and/or entertainment news. This will not only attract younger consumers, but also attract female consumers who do not currently make up a large portion of USA Today’s customer base. Technology There has been a shift in recent years to reading newspapers online or on e-readers, such as the Kindle or Nook. USA Today currently has a version of the newspaper available for the Kindle, but they should also add a version for the Nook. Also, they should promote their online website as a source for receiving the same news as the...
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...Richard Godfrey BMKT 6311 USA Today Case Study The newspaper publishing industry is one of the most rapidly evolving industries in the world today. Changing due to economic climate shift, consumer needs evolving, enhanced technology, and continuous competition; USA Today has been able to succeed. The publication raises the bar through innovation and value-added content to bolster their standing in the publishing world as “The Nation’s Newspaper” in hopes of staying continually relevant and standing out amongst the competition, ensuring the future of the USA Today brand. 1) When Gannett first debuted USA Today in 1982, the corporation took advantage of a multitude of opportunities in the marketing environment and secured a strong foothold in a market that already had several major players. The most impactful opportunity, in my opinion, is its format. In an attempt to stand out from the competition, USA Today developed a unique format of shorter pieces with photos, graphs, charts in order to address the needs of an audience other publications seemingly ignored. By creating a product high in form utility, the publication was able to distinguish itself and cater to an evolving market. Gannett also cited watching trends and evolution of news readers as part of the success. As society shifted to having typically shorter attention spans, yet still having a hunger for knowledge, Gannett capitalized on these trends with the updated format of USA Today targeted towards the evolved reader...
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