Ponovno predvajanje sobota, 12. junij 1993

Frozen Out in Japan? Join the Club.

Date: 13 June 1993

By David E. Sanger

David Sanger

Computer chips, auto parts and rice may be the best-known markets that the Japanese protect, but they are hardly the oldest. For a century the Japanese press, an early convert to the notion that information is power, has maintained a curious monopoly on information -- particularly access to Government officials and early looks at vital corporate data. Both have been available chiefly to members of Japan's "press clubs," which exclude foreigners. But last week the editors of Japan's biggest newspapers and TV networks finally relented to decades of pressure. Foreign news organizations, they declared, "in principle" will be permitted to become full members. The move was hailed by the exiting American Ambassador, Michael Armacost, as one of America's most important trade victories in a country where decision-making is more than a little opaque. Indeed, far more than ideas are at stake -- money, for instance. The Bloomberg News Service has long argued that Japanese news services and their subscribers have an unfair edge because they get first crack at corporate earnings and other market-moving information.

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A Brief Silence Costs the Knicks

Date: 12 June 1993

The Knicks were fined $25,000 by the league yesterday for failing to make their players available to the news media before Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Chicago Bulls. In the June 4 game, the Bulls beat the Knicks, 96-88, at Chicago, clinching the four-of-seven-game series with their fourth straight victory after losing the first two games.

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Observer; Terror In the Sunlight

Date: 12 June 1993

By Russell Baker

Russell Baker

While dozing in The Wall Street Journal the other day, I suddenly felt the hair rising on the back of my neck the way it does when I walk into the darkened parlor and see a long-dead relative poring over my Oxford English Dictionary's small-print edition with a magnifying glass. The difference was that this sinister Wall Street Journal moment occurred while I was on the back porch in full afternoon sun whereas parlor sightings of long-dead relatives always occur late on misty evenings when the empty martini pitcher is still fresh with the smell of the juniper berry.

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Common Traditions and Visions for 2 Big Papers

Date: 12 June 1993

By William Glaberson

William Glaberson

The marriage of The New York Times and The Boston Globe began with a phone call last fall from Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, a descendant of a man who stabilized an ailing newspaper in New York, to William O. Taylor, a descendant of a man who kept one afloat in Boston. In a way, both men said yesterday, it was their similarities and the similar traditions of the newspapers they have run for much of their adult lives that brought them -- and their companies -- together.

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Times Co.'s Strategy: Dominate Northeast

Date: 12 June 1993

By Steve Lohr

Steve Lohr

With its $1.1 billion purchase of The Boston Globe, The New York Times Company is taking the biggest step in its 20-year effort to move beyond metropolitan New York and its flagship newspaper, further hedging its financial future. The Globe purchase certainly advances that goal, analysts and consultants agree. But the question raised by the purchase, they say, is whether it is smart to make a huge bet on the Northeast, a region whose economic outlook is uncertain, and on the newspaper business, an industry often regarded as mature.

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Media Feed

Date: 13 June 1993

By Garry Trudeau

Garry Trudeau

It is a measure of the diminished self-esteem of this Administration that insiders no longer talk about having a good year, or a good month or even a good week. They're looking for a few good days. Last week they finally got five in a row. I happened to be there, and here's how they did it. Monday: In his debut as the President's new counselor, David Gergen shows up in the press room to announce his decision to "turn the page" on 12:30 press briefings, which will hereafter be conducted at the more convenient time of 11:30. The announcement sends a shot of electricity through the room, as several reporters rush to the phones to make lunch reservations. Then, with great fanfare, Gergen cuts a red ribbon reopening the back offices to the press. Access-starved reporters surge forward into the previously off-limits back corridor, where a buffet of cold cuts and cheese cubes has been set up to welcome us. A string quartet plays in the background as we fan out to buttonhole press staffers we haven't seen since the election.

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The Globe's Own Family Is a Story Unto Itself

Date: 13 June 1993

By Fox Butterfield

Fox Butterfield

WHEN she was a young reporter at The Boston Globe two decades ago, Susan Trausch remembers, a very excited John I. Taylor, president of the family company that had owned the paper since 1872, came up to her as she was preparing to do a routine story on the local gas company. "Are you," he asked with apparent envy, "going to ride on the gas truck?"

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GRACE TAKES CONTROL OF RESTAURANT ENTERPRISES

Date: 12 June 1993

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

W. R. Grace & Company took control yesterday of Restaurant Enterprises Group Inc. and proposed a new restructuring plan in an effort to increase the value of its investment in the financially troubled company. Grace, a large chemicals and health-care company, said it had bought a majority stake in Restaurant Enterprises by exercising rights and purchasing stock from other shareholders. The company, which operates 563 restaurants, including the El Torito and Carrows chains, is seeking to restructure its debt. The company missed its interest payments to bondholders due Dec. 15 and March 15.

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PNC AGREES TO A SALE OF SEARS MORTGAGE UNITS

Date: 12 June 1993

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

The PNC Bank Corporation of Pittsburgh agreed yesterday to sell the Western production offices and support operations of the Sears Mortgage Corporation to a group headed by Arthur D. Ringwald, executive vice president of the unit. Terms were not disclosed. The $51.1-billion-asset banking company said it would sell the offices to concentrate on its primary market in the Eastern United States, where two-thirds of the mortgage operation's loans are originated. PNC Bank said on May 11 that it might sell the Western offices, at the same time it announced an agreement to buy Sears Mortgage from Sears, Roebuck & Company for $328 million in cash.

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WELLS FARGO PLANS TO ELIMINATE 700 POSITIONS

Date: 12 June 1993

By Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News

Wells Fargo & Company said yesterday that it planned to eliminate 700 positions in the next year as it changes the way it sells products like mortgages and mutual funds at its branches. Wells Fargo, which has about 20,000 employees and 626 branches, said it expected the affected staff members to be offered positions elsewhere in the company. The nation's ninth-largest banking company, based in San Francisco, said it was under a companywide job freeze and openings were being filled internally. "What we are going to be doing is having a shift from generalists, who sell a wide array of products, to specialists," said Leslie Altick, a spokeswoman.

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