USA Yesterday?

The Wall Street Journal has pushed aside USA Today to become the biggest newspaper in the United States, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation last week. The results show that USA Today recorded a paid circulation of 1.88 million in a six-month period this year ending in September. The Wall Street Journal had a paid circulation of 2.02 million copies in the same period of time. More information can be found at Ad Age.

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=139641

USA Today's circulation has decreased from 2.33 million since the financial downfall began last year. In response, some of the decrease can be traced to vacant hotel rooms that would have otherwise been greeted by copies of USA Today in the mornings. It is interesting that the WSJ, widely considered to be the most conservative of the national papers, has become largest during the reign of a liberal president. The growth in circulation during these rough times for the press is a commendable feat, and one that will hopefully contribute to the balance between liberal and conservative powers reporting today's news.

ARF aims to fix quality problems in online research

Eight corporations including Unilever, Coca-Cola Co., General Motors, Kraft Foods, General Mills, Bayer, Capital One and Microsoft will test the newly developed process that aims to ensure the reliability and accuracy of online research. Developed by the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), the process is represented by a half billion dollars in research spending by the businesses hopeful of its success. Jack Neff with Ad Age reports the story:

http://adage.com/article?article_id=139310

The goals of the new process include making online research panels reliable, creating consistency in research population samples from project to project, and protecting against fake and duplicated research. The foundation of the process is that it relies on a checklist system for project parameters. This would replace the older and arguably ineffective system which only states minimum guidelines. For 30 days, the eight research buyers will use ARF's process to choose a supplier for a project. They will report details and their critiques early in the year 2010.

Walmart Blog? Really?

A revolutionary and sophisticated new blog has hit cyberspace!

It's called "People of Walmart," and you guessed it - it allows people to converse about individuals who shop at Walmart. The blog allows people to joyously upload, rate, and even comment on photos on the blog's pages. Ad Age exposes the riveting story:

http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=138886

Walmart has kept quiet so far, and Ad Age seems to think any act on their behalf will have a negative effect on their reputation. Walmart may issue a statement on the matter, but it's likely that they'll be just fine sitting on the sideline for this one. The bloggers that are making comments about how a certain shopper's mauve satchel doesn't go with her leopard-print vest probably won't have too much of an impact on whether or not mom buys the frozen pizza and the $5 movies from Walmart. In fact, the blog may even encourage people to trek to their local roll-back habitat and perhaps make a purchase or two in an effort to catch a customer in a laughable outfit.

This will certainly blow over without blemishing the corporation's reputation.

Sigg Bottles

The customer doesn't seem to come first for one brand of "eco-friendly" beverage bottles. Sigg is the maker of trendy metal bottles that were designed to take the place of earth-harming plastic bottles. However, after some fancy (deceptive) messages from CEO Steve Wasik, we find that the metal bottles produced all the way until August 2008 contained the dangerous plastic compound BPA. Ad Age uncovers the mystery:

http://adage.com/article?article_id=138712

A lack of transparency within the company seems to be doing just as much damage as the tainted bottles the company has produced. Customers and loyal Sigg buyers may feel like they aren't valued as much by the company when the leadership at Sigg is unwilling to openly display their activities and efforts to get to the bottom of this issue. The company needs to open up and show their customers exactly what they're up to if they want to see any chance of bottling up and disposing of their troubles.

A religious tone to professional writing

Many professional writers take on politics, science, and other concrete topics. Today, my regards go to a man that attempts the abstract. A man by the name of Donald Miller. His book is called Blue Like Jazz.

Miller writes spiritual books that probe our consciousness for something beyond our understanding. A subtitle on the cover of his book states nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality. This book simply contains his thoughts. But they manage to portray a different perspective to Christianity in society today.

Blue Like Jazz is a refreshing look into the faith life of a writer who has the same struggles and problems in life as anyone else. But he's found a way to move past those struggles. He lives a Christian life, today.

In a nation considered "Christian" by the media, I find it difficult to believe that the majority of Americans would be considered practicing Christians by the leaders of the Church. Reading the Bible has become less and less of a practice because frankly, it's quite difficult to understand.

But that's where professional writers like Donald Miller come into the picture. He takes his religious studies and his knowledge of the Bible - - and passes that on to the reader. He puts the stuff that was preached and discussed over two thousand years ago into words we can understand today. Without writers like Miller, some Christians would be lost in their faith, and in their lives.

So for those Christians who can pick up a Bible and understand every word and every meaning, this isn't for you.

But for the rest of us...

Toyota's iQ

Yuri Kageyama, Associated Press writer, reveals the iQ, a new car from Toyota:

http://detroitnews.com/article/20090408/AUTO01/904080401/1148/auto01/l

The iQ is Toyota's brand new design to break into the super-compact, affordable, green car segment which is primarily held by Daimler AG's Smart coupe.

At a tiny 9.8 feet long, the iQ is smaller than Toyota's already-cramped Yaris. The toaster-sized iQ was designed to cater to younger, urban drivers that need to get around in heavily congested places. Safety, styling, and smooth handling were top priorities by the design team in Japan. Toyota engineers are quite confident in the new vehicle; they even claim that while driving the iQ, formerly dull tasks such as doing a U-turn become exciting.

In a period of dollar-hoarding and record job losses, Toyota's release of a small, fuel efficient car displays intelligence that seems to escape many execs in Detroit. A claimed 54 mpg should relieve some stress for people nervously stepping into the new car market. And the go-kart-sized coupe achieves this efficiency without the use of diesel or hybrid technology. Executives at Toyota hope that the iQ will help boost sales to help the corporation through the hard times on Wall Street.

The car is already on sale in Europe and Japan for a price of around $14,000. Toyota executives haven't decided whether or not the car will be sold in the states. But if it does, which I hope, it'll no doubt be sporting Scion badges and an attractive sticker price.

Sounds like an intelligent move to me.