Comcast Sets Tone With NBC Staffers

Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Wall Street Journal

January 27,2011

By SAM SCHECHNER

On the eve of taking control of NBC Universal, Comcast Corp. executives on Thursday hosted a company-wide meeting with employees to introduce themselves and spell out their priorities, including fixing NBC's prime-time hours.

Steve Burke, who is set become chief executive of NBC Universal, used the event to set a new tone for the company, introducing a new corporate logo. At the meeting—with live segments beamed from New York, Los Angeles, London, Miami and Philadelphia—Mr. Burke also discussed a new corporate "credo" that reads, in part, "We like to keep score and win."

Comcast is set to close its deal to buy control of NBC Universal from General Electric Co. late Friday. In that deal, approved last week by regulators, Comcast is merging its suite of cable networks with NBC Universal's assets, and will take a 51% stake in the new entity. In the deal, Comcast is contributing cash and assets worth roughly $13.75 billion.

Employees were greeted in their offices Thursday by signs and cupcakes bearing the new logo, and a welcome package that included a thick book detailing the histories of Comcast, NBC and the Universal studio. They also were given certificates for 25 shares of Comcast stock, about a $575 value.

NBC's colorful iconic peacock will remain a fixture in the logos for NBC, MSNBC and CNBC. But the logo for company itself, to be called NBCUniversal, removes both the peacock and the outline of a globe from Universal's logo. The old logo was introduced when NBC and Universal merged in 2004. The logo also deletes the space between NBC and Universal: Legally, NBC Universal will be known as NBCUniversal, as it appears in the new logo, a person familiar with the matter said.

The company-wide meeting, streamed online for employees not attending in person, included appearances from Comcast founder Ralph Roberts, as well as his son, and Comcast CEO, Brian Roberts.

Mr. Burke, interviewed in New York by "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams, said that fixing NBC's evening hours is a prime priority.

Robert Greenblatt, whom Mr. Burke has appointed to run NBC's entertainment operations, has his work cut out for him. NBC dominated prime time in the 1990s and early 2000s, but has tumbled most of its competitors.

Mr. Greenblatt has already started ordering pilot episodes of potential new series for the fall schedule. They include "Smash," a musical about putting on a Broadway musical, and "Are You there Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea," a sitcom based on an autobiography by Chelsea Handler.

Ms. Handler also hosts a late-night show on cable channel E! Entertainment, which Comcast is folding into NBCU.

It seems like a huge production for two large companies such as NBC Universal and Comcast to be merging. I am curious to see how NBC will do in the coming years, especially in the prime timeline up. NBC is still a major network, regardless if it is a little behind in the ratings compared to competitors.

Data Growth Boosts Vodafone

Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
Wall Street Journal

February 3, 2011

By LILLY VITOROVICH

LONDON—Vodafone Group PLC on Thursday reported solid third-quarter revenue, driven by an explosion in customers' data usage and strong free-cash-flow generation.

Vodafone posted a 2.1% rise in group service revenue—one of the key figures tracked by U.K. analysts—to £10.96 billion ($17.74 billion) for the three months ended Dec. 31, underpinned by growth in India, Turkey, the U.K. and South Africa. It is the fifth sequential quarter of improvement.

Vodafone said revenue from data services grew 27% due to "strong smartphone and mobile connectivity sales." On an annualised basis, Vodafone's data revenue is more than £5 billion, and has exceeded messaging revenue for the first time. Third-quarter group revenue rose 3% to £11.89 billion from a year earlier.

"Our performance has been driven by the effective execution of our strategy to strengthen our businesses and deliver growth, particularly in data services and emerging markets," Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said.

Vodafone, which appointed a new chairman a day earlier, said adjusted operating profit for the full year is now expected to be at the upper end of a range between £11.8 billion and £12.2 billion.

Free cash flow before licence and spectrum payments and one-off tax-related payments was £1.1 billion, lower than last year due primarily to working-capital movements. The company posted cumulative free-cash-flow generation of £4.6 billion, consistent with Vodafone's expectations of free cash flow of more than £6.5 billion during the 2011 fiscal year.

Vodafone didn't provide profit figures for the third quarter but will report full year results on May 17.

At Verizon Wireless, in which Vodafone holds a 45% stake, service revenue rose 7% in the third quarter, driven by net customer growth and higher data revenue.

Vodafone Wednesday appointed Royal Philips Electronics NV's chief executive and president, Gerard Kleisterlee, as its new chairman, succeeding John Bond, who came under fire from some shareholders last year over the mobile giant's strategy and track record on acquisitions.

Vodafone shares have risen 30% during the past 12 months, outperforming London's FTSE 100 index, which has risen 13% over the same period.

I especially related to this article because I was just recently in Ireland and I saw how popular Vodaphone was across the pond. It is undoubtedly because of such a rise is smartphones worldwide. They said that data plan's accounted for a significant number of sales and I would expect since smart phones are so popular in the US is comes to no shock that they would be popular in Europe and other parts of the world as well.

Myspace's Future Gets Fuzzy

Time: 2 1/2 hours
Wall Street Journal


February 7, 2011

By EMILY STEEL And RUSSELL ADAMS

News Corp.'s early talks to sell Myspace have focused on deals in which the conglomerate would retain a stake in the struggling social-media and entertainment website, according to people familiar with the matter.

News Corp. has hired Allen & Co. to advise on "possible deal opportunities for Myspace," the investment bank said.

News Corp. executives are holding informal talks about a handful of options. In one scenario, News Corp. would combine Myspace with another site, possibly in gaming or social networking, in exchange for cash and equity in the merged company, the people said. Executives also have talked to private-equity and venture-capital firms about taking over the business and setting aside stakes for News Corp. and employees of the reorganized site, the people said.

News Corp. and Myspace said no formal discussions with investment or acquisition partners have been held.

News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said last week that the company hopes to reach a decision on Myspace in the first half. He said partners in the U.S. and abroad have expressed interest and that an outright sale is one option.

Talks with potential partners began in November after Mr. Carey said the site was running out of time to stem losses. Myspace Chief Executive Mike Jones and Jonathan Miller, News Corp.'s chief digital officer, subsequently concluded that Myspace could attract more talent and have better financial prospects as an independent Internet company, according to the people familiar with the matter. Mr. Carey then gave his blessing to pursue informal talks regarding some sort of deal involving the site, the people said.

Mr. Jones in November had conversations with people in the industry about the site, according to a person familiar with the matter. Some of those people began to consider an investment but decided against it, the person said.

A Myspace spokeswoman said, "All interested parties are directed through a single process managed by our bankers, who have just recently been retained."

Another possibility is a partnership with a gaming company, according to the people familiar with the matter. They said News Corp. is interested in the revenue potential of online games and see Myspace as a gateway to avid game players.

That could be difficult, however. In December, only 4.4 million of the site's 50.1 million unique visitors used Myspace's games section, according to comScore Inc.

An investor who had spoken to Myspace said the company likely would be valued in the tens of millions of dollars. Others said it was too preliminary to estimate a price. News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal, paid $580 million to buy Myspace in 2005.

Myspace's traffic continued to decline after the site last autumn shifted its focus to entertainment from social networking. Myspace's December traffic of 50.1 million visitors was down 27% from a year earlier, according to comScore. Myspace executives said the decision in January to cut the company's roughly 1,000-person work force in half put the site on a fast track toward profitability.

The day employees were told about the latest round of job cuts, Mr. Jones touted the early success of the autumn revamp as an entertainment hub. Myspace has seen an "uptick in returning and new users," with more than 3.3 million new profiles created since the relaunch, he wrote in a memo to employees.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, the News Corp. segment that includes Myspace reported an operating loss of $156 million, $31 million deeper than the segment's year-earlier loss. News Corp. blamed the wider loss mostly on lower search and advertising revenues at Myspace.

I related to this article a lot because the first social networking site that I had was on Myspace. With the new picture "The Social Network" up for countless movie awards, it is safe to say that social networking is on the rise. However Facebook seems to have a monopoly on the industry. It will be interesting to see if Myspace merging with another company will be enough to revamp the website and make it as visited as it once was.

U.S. Magazine Circulation Drops Further

Time: 2 hours
Wall Street Journal

February 7, 2011
By TESS STYNES

U.S. magazine circulation continued to weaken in the second half of 2010, according to preliminary data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The steady decline in U.S. magazine newsstand sales accelerated in the second half of 2010, falling 7.3% compared with a drop of 5.6% in the first half.

Overall, total paid and verified magazine circulation declined 1.2%.
Steep declines have plagued the magazine industry in recent years as readers migrated to the Internet for news and entertainment and the recession curbed discretionary purchases.

Hearst Corp.'s Cosmopolitan again recorded the most single-copy sales, at an average 1.6 million copies, down 11% from a year earlier.

On a total paid and verified basis, Better Homes and Gardens published by Meredith Corp., remained in the top spot, with circulation growth of 0.7% to an average 7.7 million copies. It took the top spot from Reader's Digest in the second half of 2009.

Newsstand sales of US Weekly fell 16% to 812,089 copies, posting the biggest decline among the nation's 25 most-sold magazines.

Of the seven publications with newsstand sales growth, the biggest newsstand gainer was Bauer Publishing's Woman's World, with a 9.1% increase to 1.3 million copies.

The biggest paid-circulation rise was by Game Informer Magazine at 5.1 million copies, up 33%.

AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin continued to have the highest circulation, at 24.4 million and 23.6 million, down 2.6% and 2%, respectively.

I knew that magazine sales were declining but I thought in the recent years that they had made some sort of a comeback. Because of that this article was very surprising to me. I wasn’t surprised, however, that Cosmopolitan has the most single copy sales since I feel that their key demographic is young women who might not want the actual subscription. This article shows that with all the benefits that the Internet holds, there is significant drawbacks in several industries.

AOL, Huffington Doubles Down On Free News

Time: 55 minutes
Wall Street Journal

February 7, 2011

By NAT WORDEN

AOL Inc.'s $315 million acquisition of online news website Huffington Post boils down to a wager that free, ad-supported online news content can become a substantial profit driver for a large media company.

The Internet company, spun off from Time Warner Inc. in 2009, is now asking investors to look past its short-term financial suffering while it restructures and makes acquisitions, staking its future on becoming a digital content company and a one-stop shop for major brand advertisers looking to shift their spending online.
AOL's deal for Huffington Post puts Arianna Huffington, in charge of integrating the new media venture she founded with AOL's patchwork of sites, like the technology blogs TechCrunch and Engadget and the Patch local news sites.

Ms. Huffington, a prolific and outspoken political commentator, has also been a critic of the recent scramble by traditional publishers to find subscription business models.

News Corp. charges for full access to The Wall Street Journal and charges for its new tablet-computer newspaper, The Daily. New York Times Co., meanwhile, plans to begin experimenting with a pay wall for its flagship paper.

"Free content is not without problems, but it's here to stay, and publishers need to come to terms with that and figure out how to make it work for them," Huffington said in a speech at a journalism conference in late 2009 hosted by the Federal Trade Commission.

She clashed over her business approach at that event with News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, who is also an ideological rival to Ms. Huffington. Mr. Murdoch said the survival of high-quality journalism requires that consumers pay for news online and accused news aggregation sites, like Huffington Post, of acting like "parasites" by linking to and getting revenue from stories published by other outlets.

Ms. Huffington defended her site against that charge, noting that news aggregation is legal and that it drives large amounts of traffic to the sites of News Corp. and other publishers. She also said news aggregation is "part of the web's DNA."
Huffington Post had raised about $35 million in venture capital since its founding in 2005. It was expected to generate "north of $50 million" in revenue this year, up from $30 million in 2010. It also expects $10 million in operating income before depreciation and amortization this year.

By comparison, New York Times's news media group posted digital ad revenue of $212 million last year, and Comscore puts the December audience at its flagship site at 45 million unique visitors, compared with Huffington Post's 25 million. New York Times plans to launch an online subscription business soon that will give readers a free sampling of articles on its site before charging for access.

AOL is undergoing a major restructuring, and its fourth-quarter operating income more than doubled thanks to cost-cutting efforts, even as its revenue dropped by more than 25% and its ad revenue was down almost 30%.

Chief Financial Officer Arthur Minson said AOL could return to growth in operating income before depreciation and amortization by 2013.

"AOL is not a one year turnaround story, but we didn't come here for it to take five years," he said, adding that the Huffington Post would help speed the process.

Obviously from a consumer’s perspective having free news is a huge benefit. I think that because the internet has been such a huge part of my life especially as a student, it seems ridiculous to me to charge for articles when there is so much free content online. I regularly frequent AOL for news articles, and paying for the Wall Street Journal seemed so excessive, (although I will admit it is nice having it delivered to my door every morning). I think that soon all news content will have to rely on ads for revenue because with free news available, it will be hard to persuade consumers that their articles are worth the price.

Super Bowl Draws Record Audience

Time: 1 hour
Wall Street Journal


February 7, 2011
By SAM SCHECHNER

Head coaches Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Mike McCarthy of the Green Bay Packers spoke before Super Bowl XLV on Sunday.

A record number of viewers watched the Green Bay Packers defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Sunday's closely fought Super Bowl, as professional football continues to reel in an otherwise fragmented TV audience.

For the second year in a row, the game set a record as the most-watched telecast in U.S. history. Approximately 111 million people watched the game on Fox Broadcasting, according to Nielsen Co.

That is about 4.2% above last year, when New Orleans's defeat of Indianapolis on CBS Corp.'s namesake network unseated the 1983 series finale of "M*A*S*H" as the most-watched single broadcast in the U.S.

The big audience is a boon for Fox, which has seen its average prime-time audience of 8.1 million viewers decline 18% from this point last season, according to Nielsen, with declines in some of its big series like "House" and weaker post-season baseball ratings.

Both Fox and The Wall Street Journal are owned by News Corp.

A tight matchup, popular teams and cold weather across much of the U.S. helped boost viewing, analysts suggested.

Pro football and with a handful of other popular events like the Academy Awards have seen their audiences spike in recent years even as viewers splinter among a growing number of channels. In each of the last four years, the Super Bowl audience has broken its own audience record, according to Nielsen data.

For the regular National Football League season, an average of 17.9 million people tuned in, up 7.6% from the previous season.

The big Super Bowl numbers look bigger in part because of population growth. When looking at the percentage of the households that tuned in, rather than the absolute number of viewers, none of the recent Super Bowls approaches the peaks of the late 1970s and early 1980s. About 49.1% of TV households watched the 1982 Super Bowl, compared to 46% on Sunday. Still that percentage is bigger than any Super Bowl since the 1996.

In the teams' home media markets—Pittsburgh and Milwaukee—about 59.7% of homes with TVs were tuned to Sunday night's close game, according to preliminary data Fox provided. In the New York City area, about 42.6% of homes with TVs were watching, which Fox said was the most that had tuned in for a Super Bowl not featuring the New York Giants in 28 years.

Fox gave the coveted post-Super Bowl spot to its musical series "Glee." That boosted its audience to 26.8 million people. So far this season, 11.6 million have watched the show, on average.

From a marketing perspective, having a viewership of 111 million people is obviously a very positive thing. With this being the single most watched broadcast in history I think that companies will find that the ridiculous prices that they were paying for thirty second ads was money well spent. After a viewership of 111 million people this year I can’t even imagine what the going rate will be for a standard commercial for the Superbowl next year. It was be interesting to see how much of a raise in sales companies receive after their ad airs.

At Super Bowl, Many Ads Fail to Score

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Wall Street Journal


February 6,2011

By EMILY STEEL

A mini Darth Vader and consumer-created ads from PepsiCo scored points in the first half of Sunday night's Super Bowl in a game where commercial time is largely lacking the laugh level of past years.

Advertisers are having plenty of fumbles. Ad time is dominated by auto makers and film studios, which generally create dull ads. Several star-studded ads fell flat, including a spot for Snickers featuring Roseanne Barr and Richard Lewis that failed to live up to the buzz of last year's Betty White ad. Some ads featuring Super Bowl ad icons, such as CareerBuilder's chimpanzees and the GoDaddy.com girls, felt stale, ad executives said. And some early Anheuser-Busch InBev N.V. ads got a thumbs down from ad executives, who have high expectations for the perennial Super Bowl advertiser.

CarMax's takes the "kid in a candy store" idea to new conclusions.
Volkswagen AG was one of the few auto advertisers able to break the mold for the often dull car category. It had a "Star Wars"-themed spot in which a little boy dressed in a Darth Vader costume thinks that he has discovered the "Force" to start a 2012 Passat parked in the driveway.

"It's brilliant and simple. It will win the water-cooler discussion," said Allen Adamson, managing director at WPP PLC's Landor & Associates.

The ad, which captured pregame buzz with more than 12 million views and more than 10,000 comments online before kickoff, was one of two spots for Volkswagen's VW created by Interpublic Group of Cos.'s Deutsch LA.

Sunday night's game is expected to feature ads from more than eight companies in the auto category, including General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet brand, Volkswagen's Audi luxury brand, Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz, BMW of North America and South Korea's Kia Motors Corp. and sister car maker Hyundai Motor Co.

Few are standing out, ad executives said. One Chevrolet ad shows a couple kissing goodbye after a first date and the man checking his date's Facebook status using his car's technology as he drives away. The Audi spot, which attempts to pitch its message about a new class of luxury, features a pair of well-dressed men escaping a mansion.

Using humor and going after buzz can be risky for auto advertisers because cars are big-ticket items where safety plays an important roll in the purchase, ad experts say. The effect—combined with a series of movie trailers for film studios — is leading to a game that largely lacks the comedic energies of years past.
Marketers spent about $2.8 million to $3 million for a 30-second spot during this year's matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers, which was expected to draw a huge audience amid a year of record-breaking viewership for the National Football League.

Some familiar characters returning to the Big Game are being met with a less enthusiastic homecoming. Ad executives said the ad for online jobs site CareerBuilder, which featured chimpanzees making it impossible for a human co-worker to park his car, wasn't fresh.
In typical Super Bowl style, the big game featured a lineup of celebrities during commercial time. A spot for flower-delivery firm Teleflora had country music star Faith Hill giving love advice to a young man.

Pepsi's "Torpedo" ad gives the geeky guy at chance to be hype for once.
But several star-studded ads failed to deliver. Internet company GoDaddy.com's commercial, which showed 77-year-old Joan Rivers as its new GoDaddy girl, was a tease, ad executives said. "That's like a cold shower," said Izzy DeBellis, co-chief creative officer at MDC's Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners, which worked on a BMW ad slated to run during the game.

Meanwhile, the Snickers spot failed to satisfy after setting high expectations last year with its ad featuring Betty White. This year's commercial starred comedians Roseanne Barr and Richard Lewis at a logging farm. "It's no Betty White," said William Charnock, chief strategy officer at Interpublic Group's RGA.
Anheuser-Busch, the game's exclusive beer advertiser for more than two decades, isn't delivering a stellar year of commercials so far, ad executives said.

The company's Clydesdale horses and actor Peter Stormare starred in a Wild West-themed ad for Budweiser. In the ad, Mr. Stormare walks into a bar and demands Budweiser beer. After taking a sip, he breaks out singing Elton John's "Tiny Dancer." Ad executives said the ad didn't feature enough of the horses.
PepsiCo returned to the Super Bowl for the fifth year in a row with its "Crash the Super Bowl" contest that sources ads from consumers. The company bought six spots, three for its Doritos chips brand and three for its Pepsi MAX soda.

The favorite among ad executives was a Doritos spot that featured a man licking the cheese residue off a co-worker's finger.

The amateur producer who creates the Doritos or Pepsi MAX spot that ranks highest in Super Bowl ad contests in the coming days will have a shot at a contract to create another ad for the brands.

"People are always rooting for the underdog, for the kids to beat Madison Avenue. Pepsi now owns that," said Mr. Adamson.

It was very interesting to me that this article said that the commercials were less entertaining than in past years. I watched the ads this year and found most of them to be quite entertaining. Perhaps because I might not be in the demographic that ads are normally targeted to which is why I found them appealing and the majority of viewers did not.

New York Times Ad Revenue Slips, Profit Falls

By Russell Adams

February 3, 2011

New York Times Co. reported a 26% decline in fourth-quarter profits as accelerating declines in print advertising raised uncertainty about the near-term prospects for a newspaper-industry recovery.

The recent results from Times Co. and Gannett Co. indicate advertising growth remains elusive for many publishers even as declines have moderated from their crippling 2009 levels. That is putting more pressure on profits as those companies run out of room to cut expenses and increase revenue from consumers.

Revenue from print advertising and circulation at the Times's newspapers, which together account for about 80% of company revenue, declined 7.2% and 3.6%, respectively. The print-advertising losses more than offset growth in the Times's digital businesses.

"The advertising marketplace was volatile during the quarter," Times Co. Chief Executive Janet Robinson said in a prepared statement. "The progress we made on the print advertising front in October and November was not sustained in December due to a combination of difficult year-over-year comparisons and advertiser caution about the economy and consumer spending."

Fourth-quarter net income was $67.1 million, or 44 cents a share, compared to $90.9 million, or 61 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. The year-ago results include a $32.4 million after-tax gain from a pension freeze.

Total revenue was down 2.9% to $661.7 million. The company had about $597 million in net debt at the end of the year.

In order to tap a new revenue stream as readers migrate away from the printed paper, Nytimes.com soon will begin to charge its most frequent visitors. Readers will get free access to a certain number of articles before they are prompted to sign up for a subscription for additional material. The Times hasn't released details of the pay-wall system.

A person familiar with the matter said the company is planning to offer several subscription packages that incorporate access to the Times online and on other digital devices like Apple Inc.'s iPad. Executives have discussed offering a basic online subscription for under $10 a month and a more comprehensive digital offering, including the Times's iPad app as well as full online access, for around $20 a month, the person said. A print subscription to the Times will come with full online privileges at no additional cost, the Times has said.

Times Co. executives said they hope to create a pay system that introduces a subscription revenue stream without eating into online advertising, which is more than $100 million a year on nytimes.com, according to people familiar with the matter.

In the division that includes the websites for the Times, the Boston Globe and other newspapers, digital advertising revenue increased 20% to $67.5 million due mainly to growth in national display advertising. Total digital revenue in the period increased 11% as the segment was dragged down by a 3% decline in revenues at About.com.

Total revenue in the newspaper group declined 2.9% to $626.5 million.

This article was very interesting to me because I know that ad revenue is the main component in keeping newspapers successful. For the ad sales to go down is a very bad sign for the newspaper industry in general. I think that having subscriptions on personal computers and cell phones will raise revenue and hopefully in the coming quarters there will be a rise in ad sales.  

Retailers Post Surprisingly Solid January Sales

Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Wall Street Journal

By KAREN TALLEY

  

February 3, 2011

NEW YORK—Snow, sleet and freezing rain didn't keep all shoppers from their appointed rounds in January, as many retailers are reporting generally good sales for the month.

The fear was that holiday buying in November and December, combined with cold and stormy conditions throughout most of the country last month, pushed shopping to the bottom of many priority lists.

But initial reports show consumers shrugged off the bad weather, while the location of stores also played a role. Costco Wholesale Corp., which has a bigger presence in the lesser-hit western part of the U.S., as well as significant international operations, posted a 9% rise in comparable-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year. Analysts were expecting a 6.1% gain from the warehouse club operator.

Macy's Inc. reported better-than-expected same-store sales in January, despite the harsh weather.

"Sales in January were restrained by the series of snowstorms that caused widespread store closings along the East Coast and in the Southeast," said Terry J. Lundgren, the company's chairman, president and chief executive.

Target Corp., said its same-story sales were below expectations, "particularly in portions of the South and the Northeast," said Gregg Steinhafel, the company's chairman and chief executive.

Limited Inc., which has been doing well for the entire quarter, which closes at the end of this month, raised its guidance for the period after posting a 24% jump in same-store sales for January. Analysts were expecting a 6.7% increase from the operator of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works.

Teen retailer Wet Seal Inc. posted a 6.2% rise in comparable-store sales when a 4% decline was expected, and bumped up its fourth-quarter guidance.

Weather was, however, called out by a number of retailers. BJ's Wholesale Club, which has a big concentration of its warehouse clubs in hard-hit winter areas, posted a 0.3% gain in same-store sales, below expectations for 2%, and said "severe snowstorms" affecting the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions had a negative impact on merchandise comparable club sales of approximately 2.5%.

The company also announced plans to "explore strategic alternatives," which generally means a sale or a restructuring. Word broke earlier this month that private-equity firm Leonard Green & Partners LP is considering a hostile takeover bid for the warehouse club operator.

Teen retailer Hot Topic Inc. posted a 3.3% drop in same-store sales, when a 2.8% decline was expected, and estimated that inclement conditions hurt results by two percentage points.

Big Lots Inc. reported flat quarterly sales, which is at the low end of the close-out retailer's guidance. The company said the last three weeks of January "were impacted negatively by weather conditions in many of our major regions and markets."

But in general, "Weather, which had been the big scare factor, had less impact than many feared," said Edward Yruma, retail analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets. "Also, some of the heavy promotions that retailers ran in January paid off."

Retailers generally came into January with less clearance merchandise than they had in the past couple of years, having planned more carefully for the holiday season after finding themselves overstocked the prior could of years.

But markdowns were still rife, with as much as 80% off in some stores as they tried to make way for spring merchandise that starts coming in during the month. That apparel generally hung on shelves as shoppers couldn't get into the mood given the cold weather. Some retailers kept the promotions going right through January.

"I spent $30 at J.C. Penney and my receipt said I saved $202," said Jharonne Martis, retail analyst at Thomson Reuters. Still, in general January typically accounts for about 20% of total sales for the quarter, which means it is not a make or break month.

The 28 retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters are expected to show that sales grew 2.7% in January. The figure compares with 3.3% a year ago and follows December's 3.1% gain and the 5.6% growth in November.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Aeropostale Inc. and American Eagle Outfitters Inc., which have yet to be heard from, will stop reporting monthly sales data after Thursday. The companies have declined to comment on their decisions.

However, industry watchers say the decision is based, in part, on a desire to remove some volatility from retailers' share prices caused by investors reacting to data from a very limited time period. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. stopped the practice in May 2009, and it was expected that other retailers would gradually follow suit.

Write to Karen Talley at karen.talley@dowjones.com

 

The contents of this article show how much our economy is changing from what we have seen in the past few years. The weather has been especially awful this winter and it is a great sign that despite this consumers are still going out and buying products. Obviously the marketing techniques being used are sales, as mentioned in the article, which offer lower prices as an incentive for people to go out and purchase. Apparently this technique is working. I think it is also a good sign that these mega corporations are succeeding because if they aren’t selling, then no one will.  

Verizon Beats AT&T in Voice Calls for iPhones

Time: 45 minutes
Wall Street Journal

•  By WALTER S. MOSSBERG

February 3, 2011

For millions of iPhone owners, or would-be iPhone owners, who dislike AT&T's wireless service or prefer Verizon Wireless service, liberation is at hand. Starting Feb. 10, Apple's iconic smart phone finally will be available in the U.S. on a second carrier, Verizon, instead of just on AT&T, which has been the exclusive iPhone network since the device launched in 2007. Current Verizon customers can pre-order the iPhone Thursday.

Walt Mossberg compares the new Verizon iPhone 4 to an AT&T iPhone 4, and finds that they aren't interchangeable. The Verizon has much better voice calls, he says, but there's a trade off in data speed.

Complaints about dropped voice calls, or calls that can't be initiated, on AT&T's service, especially on iPhones, have been legion. Meanwhile, Verizon has enjoyed a general reputation for reliable voice service. So, many frustrated AT&T iPhone users and those scared off by reports of dropped calls, or simply loyal to Verizon, have been eagerly anticipating this move. To these people, I'm here to say: Yes, there are some major benefits to having your iPhone on Verizon, but, as with all good things, there are also trade-offs.

I've been testing a Verizon iPhone 4 and comparing it to an AT&T iPhone 4, which has been out since last summer. The phones themselves are essentially identical, except for the fact that they have different radios inside to accommodate the two carriers' differing network technologies. They aren't interchangeable.

On the big question, I can say that, at least in the areas where I was using it, the Verizon model did much, much better with voice calls. In numerous tries over nine days, I had only three dropped calls on the Verizon unit, and those were all to one person who was using an AT&T iPhone in an especially bad area for AT&T: San Francisco. With the nearly identical AT&T model, I often get that many dropped calls in one day.

Calls on the Verizon unit were mostly crisp and clear, including speakerphone calls and those made over my car's Bluetooth connection. On my first full day of testing, I did have several Verizon calls that dropped out for a few seconds, before recovering. Apple attributed this to a very minor glitch I'd encountered in my initial setup of the phone and urged me to reboot it. I did and suffered no more momentary dropouts.

The Verizon model also introduces a feature that some iPhone power users have been craving but that AT&T hasn't allowed in the past: the ability to use the phone, for an extra monthly fee, as a Wi-Fi hot spot for Internet connectivity to multiple laptops or other devices. In my tests, this worked fine with Windows and Macintosh laptops, and an iPad. Wednesday afternoon, AT&T countered by announcing a similar Wi-Fi hot spot plan for the iPhone at an unspecified future date.

For an extra fee, Verizon iPhone users can use the phone as a Wi-Fi hot spot. AT&T has rushed to counter this feature with one of its own.

Also, Verizon is, for an unspecified but limited time, offering an unlimited $30 a month data plan for the iPhone. That is something AT&T once offered new customers, but has since replaced with capped plans offering fixed amounts of data at $15 or $25 a month. (Existing AT&T customers have been allowed to keep their $30 unlimited plans.)

What about the trade-offs? Chief among them is data speed. I performed scores of speed tests on the two phones, which I used primarily in Washington, and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs, and for part of one day at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. In these many tests, despite a few Verizon victories here and there, AT&T's network averaged 46% faster at download speeds and 24% faster at upload speeds. This speed difference was noticeable while doing tasks like downloading large numbers of emails, or waiting for complicated Web pages to load. AT&T's speeds varied more while Verizon's were more consistent, but overall, AT&T was more satisfying at cellular data.

Also, because Verizon's iPhone—like most other Verizon phones—doesn't work on the world-wide GSM mobile-phone standard, you can't use it in most countries outside the U.S. AT&T's iPhone does work on this standard, and can be used widely abroad, albeit at very high roaming rates. In the midst of my testing, I had to travel to Hong Kong, one of the few countries where the Verizon iPhone functions. But even there, it only worked for voice, not data, at least in the areas where I was working. The AT&T model handled both voice and data everywhere I tried it there.

Finally, the Verizon model can't fetch Internet data at the same time it is making a voice call, something the AT&T model can do. In fact, if you try to, say, call up a Web page while on a voice call with the Verizon model, you get an error message warning the two things can't be done simultaneously. While this distinction is a weapon in the war of words between the carriers, I doubt it's a big deal for most average users. My guess is that the most common things you'd want to check while talking would be your calendar, contacts and notes. And, in my tests, it was possible to check all those things on the Verizon model during calls, even though I have them set up to sync via the Internet.

I did have some issues with the Verizon model. In the D.C. area, long a coverage stronghold for Verizon, it kept switching briefly from 3G mode to slower 2G mode. This didn't affect voice quality, and didn't last long, but it slowed data downloads drastically for short periods. Also, on my first day of testing—after the setup glitch but before I rebooted—the Verizon phone showed poor battery life, and had trouble connecting to my car's Bluetooth setup. After that, these problems disappeared. Bluetooth worked fine and I was able to make it through a day with the battery on both phones.

Apple lists the specs on the two models as identical. They both start at $199, both have the same battery-life rating, both run the same operating software. In my tests, I was easily able to transfer all my apps, music, photos, settings, music and videos from the AT&T iPhone to the Verizon model, using iTunes, and I didn't run into any apps or media that failed to work as expected.

Prices for voice and data plans are a bit different. The least you can pay monthly for an iPhone on Verizon is $75, which includes 450 voice minutes, 250 text messages and unlimited data. On AT&T, you can pay just $65, but your data is limited to a paltry 200 megabytes, though you get 1,000 text messages in this scenario.

The Verizon wireless hot-spot plan costs $20 a month for 2 gigabytes of data, but gets expensive if you run over: $20 for each extra gigabyte.

One big question about the Verizon iPhone that neither company is answering is whether it will be updated to a new iPhone 5 model when the AT&T model is updated. Such updates typically have occurred in June or July, which could make people who buy a Verizon iPhone now resentful that their new phone was bested so soon. Of course, Verizon customers who wait might be resentful if their version of the iPhone isn't upgraded at the same time as AT&T's.

Officials at both Apple and Verizon will only say they don't intend to make Verizon customers unhappy, but that could mean anything.

Bottom line: In my tests, the new Verizon version of the iPhone did much better at voice calling than the AT&T version, and offers some attractive benefits, like unlimited data and a wireless hot-spot capability. But if you really care about data speed, or travel overseas, and AT&T service is tolerable in your area, you may want to stick with AT&T.

—See a video of Walt Mossberg discussing the Verizon iPhone at WSJ.com/PersonalTech. Find all his columns and videos at the All Things Digital website, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

This article was especially interesting to me because I am the owner of an AT&T iPhone that I have been very impressed with. However several of my friends are on the Verizon network and have been awaiting the new Verizon iPhone release. Since AT&T has had a monopoly on the iPhone for at least 3 years, it will be interesting to see how Verizon and AT&T’s customers increase and decrease, respectively. I also have been following how each company has been dealing with the new release and from an outsider’s perspective, it is almost comical. Each companies CEO has engaged in a mudslinging against each other’s product via press releases. Which product is better is unclear, however I think it is safe to say that AT&T has some new competition that is sure to be followed by other companies in the coming years.