MoffettNathanson streaming TV report | Business Insider

May 13, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

People just aren’t watching — or paying for — TV the way they used to.

The number of people paying cable and satellite giants like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and DirecTV for TV service fell during the first three months of the year, according to a new report from MoffettNathanson, a media and telecommunications research firm.

It’s the first time that the industry has lost subscribers during that time, which is traditionally a strong period for pay TV, according to the research note. Last year, pay TV companies added 271,000 subscribers in the first quarter, and in the same period in 2013, they added 208,000 subscribers, according to the firm.

Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC

May 12, 2015May 11, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

v.19 n. 20 – Released May 11, 2015

This Week’s Headlines:

U.S. Labor Market Rebounds in April
Lending Standards Little Changed Over Last Quarter
U.S. Light Vehicle Sales Disappoint in April
Consumer Credit: $20.5 Billion Gain in March
Events of Interest
- June 03, 2015: International Trade Outlook

Who The Smartphone Revolution Left Behind | TechCrunch

May 8, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

How many of us have been tempted to chuck our smartphones into the ocean while on vacation to stop the incessant buzzing of incoming emails and texts from interrupting what is supposed to be down time?

While many of us have become increasingly desperate to unplug – there’s even a growing industry of “digital detox” vacation spots – in our love-hate relationship with our smartphones, love ultimately conquers all.

We wouldn’t dream of cutting the cord for more than a day or two max. After all, mobile connectedness has become so critical to modern life that according to research by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, even people living on less than $2 a day reported owning a mobile phone – cutting back on food purchases if necessary.

The Best Cities to Work for an Entrepreneur | Inc.com

May 8, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

We’ve seen, and run, plenty of stories about which cities are the best to start and build a business. But how about the employees? What are the best cities in which to work at a small business?

WalletHub recently crunched those numbers, using a combination of factors meant to represent the environment for small businesses as well as a region’s overall economic environment. Overall, the South and West seem to host more businesses that are hospitable to their employees, while cities in the Northeast generally don’t appear in the rankings until much further down. At number 10, Boston was the highest-ranked city in the Northeast, well below Austin, Omaha, and Raleigh. San Francisco came in 23rd; San Jose was number 34.

The metro areas that ranked the best for their small business economic environments were:

Should Your Shop Purchase a .Agency Domain? | Adweek

May 7, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

This month, hundreds of new domain names went on sale for the first time—and quite a few famous people and businesses are going out of their way to make sure those websites won’t tarnish their brands. For example, when .nyc debuted last year, lawyers for former Mayor Michael Bloomberg bought everything from BloombergBlows.nyc to MikeIsTooShort.nyc.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers “released” these new domains after hundreds of parties argued the online community needed more options and submitted their own requests over a period of several years.

In addition to jokes like .sucks and .ninja and practical entries like .technology, one new domain seems designed for the advertising industry: .agency. But should advertising shops invest in the new domain?

5 Crisis-Mode Moves to Save Your Google Ranking | Entrepreneur

May 6, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Usually, April 15 is the red-letter day on a business’ spring calendar. But this year, all eyes were on April 21, when Google’s new algorithm update — designed to provide a better search experience for mobile users — moved mobile optimization from nicety to necessity.

What does this mean? Basically, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you can expect your search-engine rankings, and ultimately your web traffic, to take a hit. Mobilegeddon is upon us.

Now that the big day has come and gone, you may be suffering from the fallout. To help, we’ve identified five quick crisis-mode moves that can help you fix your most egregious mobile mistakes.

Why Fructose-Laden Drinks May Leave You Wanting More | Live Science

May 6, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The type of sugar in your drink may affect how much food you want to eat, according to a new study. Researchers found that people wanted to eat more high-calorie foods when they had a drink containing fructose, compared with when their drink contained glucose.

In the study, 24 people were given drinks sweetened with 75 grams of fructose on one day, and the same amount of glucose in a drink on another day. The researchers also showed the people images of high-calorie foods that included candy, cookies, pizza and burgers, and asked the participants to rate how hungry they were and how much they wanted to eat each food.

After consuming fructose, the participants reported feeling hungrier and expressed a greater desire to eat the foods pictured than when they consumed glucose.

Wells Fargo charged with opening accounts without customers’ permission | Money CNN

May 6, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Wells Fargo is accused of opening up accounts and credit cards in customers’ names without their authorization.

The accounts are being opened by Wells Fargo employees under pressure to meet unrealistic sales goals and quotas, according to the civil complaint filed by the Los Angeles City Attorney.

The complaint charges that bank employees opened new accounts for existing customers without their authorization, in order to meet sales quotas. The employees also allegedly transferred money from customers’ authorized accounts to pay fees on the unauthorized accounts.

When fees on unauthorized accounts went unpaid, some customers were placed into collection. Others had negative information placed on their credit reports as a result.

Getting Rich in America Depends on a Lot More Than a College Degree | Bloomberg Business

May 5, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

With graduation season around the corner, more than a few U.S. families are probably wondering just how much that college degree will be worth.

There’s little doubt education is associated with higher income, better financial decision-making and more wealth. However, issues that are harder for an individual to control — what type of family you come from, whether you get an inheritance, or how healthy you are — also play a growing role in determining your net worth, according to a new report by researchers William Emmons and Bryan Noeth at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Education “is important, but it’s not the whole story,” Emmons, a senior economic adviser at the St. Louis Fed, said in an interview. “You can’t simply send everyone to college and expect to solve all the social problems that we have, including problems in the job market.”