MollysBrother.com

An Open Letter to the Los Angeles Times

Dear Mr. Hiller,

Today you had Russ Stanton announce 250 job cuts at the Los Angeles Times. It is a shame that you have not been able to stem the financial bleeding that has been happening at your newspaper for too long. Every day, I wake up eager to read the newspaper that continues to be delivered to my front door. And every day, the newspaper feels lighter and thinner in my hands. I have frequented the LATimes.com more recently in the past few months, but have found the webpage static, unoriginal, and uninviting. Here are some suggestions I have that may help you with your bottom line:

• Advertising Space — Take a page from the NYTimes.com. A quick visit to their site showed FIVE (5) “above-the-fold” advertising opportunities. The LATimes.com displays one (1). Even online outlets for smaller newspapers have more advertising opportunities. SFGate.com and the MercuryNews.com have two ads each. Isn’t it in your interest to optimize advertising space? Isn’t that how you make money?
• Relevant News – We are no longer on a 24-hour news cycle, but I don’t need to tell you that. Or maybe I do. Your website updates too infrequently. Again, look at CNN.com, ABCNews.com, MSNBC.com, and the NYTimes.com. Each venue provides minute-to-minute updates.
• Your Layout – I know I shouldn’t be throwing stones here, but I don’t have nearly the budget you do. Your layout–in a word–sucks. It is boring and lacks the kinetic energy that websites should provide these days. Again, look to your competitors (especially broadcast media online outlets–MSNBC.com is an excellent example).
• Return to Your Roots — You have forgotten that, at your core, you are LA’s newspaper. Stop the corporate, cost-cutting attempts coming from Tribune headquarters.
• Call on “the New Media” — This paper exists in the same city as MySpace HQ. Even though MySpace has floundered a bit to its Facebook rival, there might be much to learn from their knowledge approach. Take some meetings. Learn the law of the land. Write your articles so Google and Yahoo can actually find them.
• Value Your Employees — At the end of the day, value your employees. I detest supporting a newspaper that devalues its colleagues to the extent that the LA Times has recently. Favorite columnists have disappeared. Or, a long-time reader favorite like Al Martinez, reappears and is relegated to a part-time schedule in an ill-fitting section of the newspaper. But my heart goes out to the army of nameless men and women who work (or worked) tirelessly behind the scenes to get this newspaper out the door each and every day. Knowing that they are losing their jobs because of constant mismanagement angers me. Almost to the point of a permanent subscription cancellation. (Don’t be fooled: It is coming soon. Just keep up the cutbacks and the mismanagement. Especially since I don’t hear about pay cuts for the top corporate earners.)

It is time to understand that the internet presence and the real-world presence have to go hand-in-hand. You can “blame” the influence of the internet for your lack of ad dollars. You can blame your own mishandling of your website. It’s not like the internet came out of nowhere and sneaked up on you. We’ve been dealing with the internet for over a decade now. It’s time to stop lamenting its presence and to start earning money from it.

But, like a lot of advice given to the LA Times recently, I feel like this, too, will fall on deaf ears.

Signed,

A Reader on the Subscription Bubble

Posted in Personal Finance | No Comments »

Los Angeles Grocery Store Ends Double Coupons

I read in the LA Times last week that Ralph’s, a grocery store in the western United States, is reviewing their “double coupons” policy. My store! Reviewing their doubles coupon policy! Argh. The beauty of using coupons at Ralph’s stores is that it is actually worth it to clip the coupon. They would double the value of coupons up to $1.00. If you had a buck off of anything, you’d get $2 off if you used the coupon.

Today, they announced that they are curbing that practice. Now, they will only double coupons that have a value of $0.50. Any coupon that is more than fifty-cents but less than a dollar will be redeemable for a buck.

So, it’s not a total abort of their longstanding practice. But the company is still honoring the redemption of double coupons–to a point.

Posted in Economic Woes | No Comments »

This economy: How worried are you?

There was an article yesterday that I caught on one of my new favorite blogs. It’s not a financial site, but an offbeat, interesting blog. Anyway, the author posted to an article about the impact of the rising gas prices on…wait for it…wait for it…the brothel and prostitution industry in Nevada.

In reading the article on CNN.com, I was wondering just how far and how wide this whole “sluggish” economy bit is going to go. It makes me wonder if the theme of this presidential election should be “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Posted in Personal Finance | No Comments »

Back to Basics: The Debt Snowball

With this ongoing housing crisis and credit crunch, it’s time to for Americans to get back to basics. Over the course of the next few weeks, I am going to re-post some helpful tips to help us refocus our efforts and reload our savings accounts.

I know that there are dissenters out there. And I know that there are critics of his, too. (I am one, too. Dave gets a little to religious and preachy for me at times, so I can see how we can turn some non-Christians off.) But the reality is that, out of all of the debt elimination strategies, Dave Ramsey’s “Debt Snowball” is my favorite and, I think, the most effective.

What is the Debt Snowball?

For those of your new to the personal finance blogosphere, the Debt Snowball is a debt elimination technique that was created by Dave Ramsey. (In addition to having authored books and hosting a daily radio show, Dave has a TV show on the Fox business channel. Or at least, he did. I don’t get the channel, so I don’t know.) If you are not familiar with Dave, run and buy his book. (Or click over to buy his book.)

How does it work?

The debt snowball suggests that you list out all of your debts. Then, while paying the minimum payments on all your outstanding bills, you attack the smallest debts first. In addition to that minimum payment, you throw all your extra money at that debt. So, instead of (let’s say) paying $200/month on a credit card debt. You find a way to make an extra $100 or $200 a month. You now put that extra money towards that credit card. So, now you are paying $400/month towards the debt. Once you’ve paid off that debt, you then take THAT $400 and add it to the minimum payments of the next one. So now, you are putting $400 + minimum payment towards that debt. Once you pay that off, you then take that new amount and pay off the next debt. Ideally, once you get to the larger debt amounts, you should conceivably be able to pay them off in a fraction of the time.

One Important Note

It is important to note that Dave has developed an entire system to debt reduction and financial freedom. This is merely one small–but important–aspect of it. In order for this to work successfully, I believe that all other aspects of his plan must be followed as well. If you are unfamiliar with Dave or are interested in re-committing to his Total Money Makeover, head on over to Amazon and get his book.

Posted in "Back to Basics" Series, Debt | No Comments »

Inexpensive Way to Cool Down

Summer is upon us and most of the United States have suffered from major heat waves over the course of these past few weeks. With the arrival of summer, the arrival of sky-high electric bills are just around the corner. I have friends and family who have air conditioning units and they run them around the clock during June, July, August, and–sometimes–September.

Sigh. I am one of the unlucky few who does not benefit from an AC unit. No central air for me. No window unit spewing wonderfully cool air into my living room. But, I have created a low-cost–and semi-environmentally friendly–alternative.

I get a large glass bowl, fill it with water, and put it in the freezer. Once the water has frozen, I take th large bowl (now filled with ice) and put it on a stool in front of my fan. I turn the fan on and–voila!–cooler air coming my way!

It was fascinating. On Friday night, the air was hot and oppressive and uncomfortable. All the fan did was move hot, thick air through the room. I didn’t sleep at all. On Saturday, I created this little contraption and slept soundly!

Remember when I said that it was “environmentally friendly?” Well, I take the bowl of water in the morning and put it back in the freezer to refreeze during the day. I then reuse it again that night

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Created a Debt Elimination Tool

So, I created a debt elimination tool for myself and for my friends. I hope that you will download it and utilize it, too. Although the file is a little large, it is an incredible way to help you figure out which approach you should take when eliminating your debt. It compares which approach is best, how long it will take you to pay off your debt, and how much money you will save.

Head over to the right sidebar and follow the email link.

Posted in Personal Finance | No Comments »

Financial Stress: Keep the Communication Open

Being in a relationship is hard work–and when you bring money and financial stress into the relationship, doubly so! In this difficult time, it is important to work on keeping the communication open.

DON’T HIDE SECRETS

All too often, communication seems to break down when it comes to financial decisions. Wives keep those purchases at the department stores from their husbands and husbands keep the true cost of golfing or that night out drinking with their buddies from their wives. In order for both to know where the couple stands financially, you can’t keep secrets. Be honest. Communicate how much credit card debt you have. Communicate when you think you might be behind on a monthly payment. Although it sounds stressful to communicate these issues, it causes even more stress to keep them hidden.

DEVELOP TANGIBLE FINANCIAL GOALS TOGETHER

Create a plan to sit down and develop a clear picture of what you want–as a couple–in your financial future. Do you want to be plagued with credit card debt well in to retirement? Or would you like to work on spending your golden years free from financial worries? Sit down and chart out tangible hopes and expectations with your life–and share them with your partner. Hopefully, together the two of you can begin to live the lives you want.

WORK ON THE COMMUNICATION

When stress seeps into the relationship, the lines of communication seem to get clogged. Work on keeping these lines of communication open and free-flowing through the stressful–and unstressful–times. It will pay off in the long run.

Posted in Couples, Personal Finance | No Comments »