Tag: Courier-Journal

Media and Marketing

CJ owner Gannett files suit to get court records on Donald Trump’s divorce from Ivana to see if she accused him of rape

Joined by The New York Times, Gannett Co. argues in papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court today that the rape allegation — which Trump has denied — is of public interest in the GOP presidential campaign of the twice-divorced and thrice-married New York billionaire, according to the New York Daily News.

The filing notes that a 1993 biography of Trump reported that Ivana Trump — his first wife — told friends her husband had “raped” her in 1989 during a fit of rage. Trump and the former  Czech model Ivana Zelníčková married in 1977 and divorced 14 years later in 1991. By 1995, they’d patched things up enough to star in a Pizza Hut commercial where they joked about their divorce settlement:

Gannett bought The Courier-Journal from the Bingham family in July 1986 for $300 million. With the CJ and USA Today, Gannett now owns 110 dailies across the U.S. and the U.K. Adjusted for inflation, $300 million would be equivalent to $660 million in today’s dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.

Photo, top: While that photograph is undated, Ivana Trump’s hair screams 1980s; more hairstyles from that era.

Wayback News

49 years ago today: in the Summer of Love, Vietnam came home to Louisville; dirty skies and risky steaks, and hep cats

By Jim Hopkins
Boulevard Publisher

CJ front page August 9 1967 150
Aug. 9, 1967

The 1967 Summer of Love was in full sway: 100,000 visitors converged in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in bell-bottoms and tie-dyed tops to drop acid, protest the Vietnam war, and listen to Scott McKenzie‘s recording of “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” on transistor radios.

In Louisville 49 years ago today, The Courier-Journal captured the Zeitgeist in stories about that increasingly unpopular war on the other side of the globe; opposition to factory growth in the east end, plus air pollution and the perils of barbecuing. This was the news that Wednesday morning.

‘Bright and white’

Cmdr. Ed Lighter of Louisville, stationed on the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany off the coast of Vietnam, flew a Skyhawk in a successful bombing run on a North Vietnamese truck convoy. Lighter, 38, said the sortie used 800-lb. bombs to destroy eight trucks. “They burned bright and white,” Lighter said, “so we figured it was magnesium going up.”

Courier-Journal August 9 1967
On the CJ’s page 16.

Ford unveiled plans to spend as much as $100 million to build a new truck factory, even as a group of residents tried to raise $15,000 for a lawsuit to block it.

Non-farm July employment in the area rose to 297,000 — 200 more than in June, and 12,000 more than July 1966. The unemployment rate was 3.2%.

The Will Sales Optical shop at Fourth and Liberty and at the Bacon Shopping Center in Shively appealed to a different sort of hippies in an advertisement on page 16: “All the hep cats are talking about Will Sales Teen Scene glasses, and on credit, too!”

The weather forecast called for highs of 89 degrees as the CJ’s editorial board bemoaned the city’s polluted skies — and a new medical study about that all-American pastime: backyard grilling.

Stoking up the grill

“Just as we had finished reading about Louisville’s 16th-place finish in the air-pollution sweepstakes, came a weekend to put troubled minds at rest,” the unsigned editorial said. “The clear, azure skies and the moderate temperatures helped us forget the besmirched air, even those invisible gases and fly-ash particles floating around us. We stoked up the outdoor grill and watched in delight as the steak turned charcoal-colored. The repast that followed was a reward.

Grilling dad
Ignorance was bliss.

“But no! It wasn’t a reward at all, we learned the next morning. Continue reading “49 years ago today: in the Summer of Love, Vietnam came home to Louisville; dirty skies and risky steaks, and hep cats” →

Latest Headlines

Yum China buyout said stalled as two bidders balk at terms; U.S. farmers binge on rye as Brown-Forman whiskey demand soars; CJ owner Gannett’s stock tanks 9% on weak Q2 results

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:03 p.m.

KFC Shanghai
A KFC in Shanghai, where the Yum China division is headquartered.

YUM: Two of what may be the only serious bidders for Yum’s mammoth China Division have submitted offers — including one for just $2 billion — but have failed to reach a final agreement for a business once expected to command $10 billion, according to The Financial Times. The bidders are China-based private equity fund Primavera and Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek.

Primavera made the $2 billion offer for part of the franchise, people briefed on the talks said. “The bid conformed to Yum’s original conditions for the sale, but the buyout group and Yum could not agree on pricing,” the FT says.

Greg Creed
Creed

Temasek also made an offer — the newspaper didn’t say how much — but also couldn’t reach an agreement on the 7,200 KFC and Pizza Hut units. They accounted for more than half Yum’s revenue last year.

The Louisville-based fast food giant put the China operations on the auction block last year after being pressured to do so by investors including Corvex Management founder Keith Meister. CEO Greg Creed is preparing to lead a road show that Yum expects will end with a spinoff by Oct. 31.

Keith Meister
Meister

But the FT’s report raises doubts about the timetable, particularly after Bloomberg News reported that a consortium of the only other known bidders dropped out in May: private equity firm KKR and Chinese state investor CIC.

A company spokesperson whom the FT didn’t identify said Yum is “making great progress toward the separation of our China business,” which last year accounted for 61% of Yum’s $11.1 billion in revenue and 39% of $1.9 billion in profits.

The FT’s report was published yesterday. This afternoon, Wall Street wasn’t worried; Yum’s stock closed less than 1% higher, or 47 cents, to $89.72 — just below its record trading high of $90.38 on Monday (FT).

BROWN-FORMAN: Racing to meet consumer demand for whiskey, U.S. farmers planted 1.76 million acres of rye for the 2016-17 season, the most since 1989 and a 12% increase from a year ago. Planted in autumn and harvested in mid-summer, rye fell out of favor over the past decade as other crops produced bigger profits (Reuters).

In Nashville yesterday, Jack Daniel’s officially opened its second retail store — the first in its 150-year history outside the distiller’s corporate hometown of Lynchburg. “We get about 275,000 visitors that come see us every year, and there’s certainly a lot more people in this world, and we’d like to take Lynchburg to them,” said Dave Stang, director of events and sponsorships. The store doesn’t sell its namesake liquor :(, but does sell Jack Daniel’s-branded merchandise (News Channel 5).

Meanwhile, the Jack Daniel’s Barrel Hunt promotion is coming to South Africa as part of the distiller’s 150th anniversary — a global scavenger hunt to find 150 handcrafted barrels at historic and cultural sites (Biz Community). Clues for the next barrel, in Lithuania’s Kaunas, will be revealed tomorrow. The most recent found was in the U.K.’s Manchester; still to be found: barrels in Prague and Riccione, Italy. How the hunt works.

Garvin Brown IV
Garvin Brown

And Brown-Forman stockholders hold their annual meeting tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. in the company’s Louisville headquarters conference center at 850 Dixie Highway. Board Chairman Garvin Brown IV will oversee the meeting. On the agenda, according to the proxy statement:

  • Electing 12 directors to the board. They include three new members initially elected this spring, all fifth-generation members of the Brown family controlling the company. They are Campbell P. Brown, Marshall B. Farrer, and Laura L. Frazier.
  • Voting on a proposal to amend the Restated Certificate of Incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of Class A common stock in connection with the company’s previously announced two-for-one stock split.

GE/HAIER: In Everett, Wash., a Daily Herald reader takes issue Continue reading “Yum China buyout said stalled as two bidders balk at terms; U.S. farmers binge on rye as Brown-Forman whiskey demand soars; CJ owner Gannett’s stock tanks 9% on weak Q2 results” →

Media and Marketing

Gannett consolidating jobs at CJ-like hub in Memphis

The Courier-Journal’s owner, Gannett Co., is eliminating a key job — copy editor — as it restructures the newsroom of the recently acquired Memphis Commercial Appeal and consolidates work at a big page production hub in Nashville similar to one in Louisville.

CJ July 25
Yesterday’s CJ.

But the union representing employees at the Memphis daily began challenging the move yesterday, the Memphis Daily News said today. “This job-cutting plan would weaken our final stages of review and fact-checking and outsource much of the work to people in other cities,” Newspaper Guild president Daniel Connolly told employees in a memo.

The guild is also worried that some staffers losing their jobs in the reorganization won’t get severance pay.

In Louisville, Gannett’s hub designs pages for dozens of other newspapers in the chain at a time when the company is expanding dramatically. It’s launched an $864 million hostile takeover of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and nine other dailies. Earlier this month, Gannett bought N.J.’s Bergen Record and other media properties in the state. And in April, the company completed its $280 million purchase of the Memphis paper and 14 other dailies. Including USA Today, Gannett now owns 109 papers in the U.S. and U.K. It bought the CJ from the Bingham family in 1986 after a bitter fight among family members.

The A-list

Royal ties that bind: Brown-Forman’s Barzun-Bingham connection shined bright in the Brexit shocker

By Jim Hopkins
Boulevard Publisher

The spirits giant Brown-Forman depends on the U.K. for 10% of its annual sales, and the rest of Europe for another 21% — making Britain’s surprise vote to quit the E.U. especially meaningful last month. Brexit also recalled Brown-Forman’s familial ties to the Kingdom through the techie U.S. ambassador Matthew Barzun.

“Well, it’s been a big day,” he Tweeted the day after the June 23 referendum, “and as @POTUS says, our unmatched & unbreakable #SpecialRelationship will endure.”

Barzun, 45, a part-year Louisville resident, is a former technology entrepreneur from the Internet’s early days, becoming only the fourth employee of CNET Networks in 1993. He worked there until 2004 in roles including chief strategy officer and executive vice president, according to his State Department biography.

Barzun has been married to Brown-Forman heiress Brooke Brown Barzun since 1999. Her father was the late Brown-Forman CEO Owsley Brown II, and her mother is Owsley’s widow, the philanthropist Christy Brown.

A fifth-generation Brown

The company is one of Louisville’s most storied businesses. It was founded by Brooke’s great-great grandfather George Garvin Brown in 1870. The distiller employs 1,300 workers in the city and another 3,300 worldwide, where the company distributes Jack Daniel’s, Finlandia vodka and other marquee brands in about 160 countries. Tomorrow, shareholders will hold their annual meeting at the Dixie Highway headquarters; three board members up for re-election also are fifth-generation members of the family controlling the nearly 150-year-old distiller.

The Barzuns’ rarefied social and political connections were on full display in November 2013, when the couple rode in a gilded, horse-drawn carriage to Buckingham Palace to present his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II; photo, top, and in this video:

The Barzuns also entertained the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall during a reception last year at the ambassador’s official Winfield House residence in London, shortly before the royals visited Louisville at Christy Brown’s invitation:

Barzuns and Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall, and Matthew and Brooke Barzun.

President Obama handed Continue reading “Royal ties that bind: Brown-Forman’s Barzun-Bingham connection shined bright in the Brexit shocker” →

Latest Headlines

KFC to double outlets in Germany; Jack Daniel’s is going down under; Papa John’s quiere gerentes que harlan Inglis; Taco Bell wants 😀 applicants; and a UPS wedding in Fla.

A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 1 p.m.

KFC plans to more than double its presence in Germany over the next five years, to 300 restaurants from 140, according to Insa Klasing, head of the chicken giant’s German subsidiary. Where most locations were major city drive-ins, “today we are also on the market with smaller restaurants,” Klasing said. But even with 300 sites, KFC will still be overshadowed by the nation’s biggest fast-food chain: McDonald’s (Europe Online). And the addition of 160 restaurants would increase total KFCs by just over a 1% vs. the current 15,000 worldwide (KFC corporate website).

KFC bucket of chickenIn India, KFC is re-emphasizing chicken at its approximately 300 restaurants, two years after a push to sell more vegetarian burgers. In the last six months, the Yum division has rolled out three campaigns for its new chicken items, including the Chizza fried chicken slathered with cheese. During the same period, it didn’t start any new ads for vegetarian meals. KFC won’t stop selling vegetarian meals or launch vegetarian options, which still account for 30% of its India menu. But it won’t invest significantly on it either, KFC India marketing chief Lluis Ruiz Ribot said in an interview: “While chicken has always been a large part of our menu, 2016 is the year that we have refocused on our core,” he said (Quartz).

Jack Daniel's bottleBROWN-FORMAN: In Australia, Jack Daniel’s assistant Master Distiller Chris Fletcher will host a series of master classes and tastings in Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth, as part of the Brown-Forman brand’s 150th anniversary celebrations (Au Review). BF executives toured Ontario’s Collingwood, where it distills Collingwood Canadian Whiskey, and saw first-hand the impact of a $100,000 company donation to the YMCA and a community hospital. “We work from the corporate office and a lot of the things that we do, we only get to see on paper,” said BF civil engagement manager Karen Krinock. “We knew what the ask was, but to see both the YMCA and Collingwood General and Marine Hospital was really meaningful” (Enterprise Bulletin). Louisville-based BF employs 1,300 in the city, and another 3,300 worldwide.

HUMANA: The Justice Department’s lawsuit to block the $37 billion Humana-Aetna merger on antitrust grounds seeks, ironically, to prevent what Obamacare aimed to achieve: government-directed oligopolies, according to The Wall Street Journal editorial board. “The new regulations and mandates since the law passed in 2010 are designed to encourage consolidation,” the paper’s lead editorial says. “But now the trust busters are fretting that these giants will have less incentive to innovate to reduce costs and improve quality, and patients will have fewer choices” (WSJ). Humana employs 12,500 in its Louisville hometown, and a total 50,000 across the country.

Concord mapPAPA JOHN’S: In the San Francisco Bay area, prospective managers who can communicate with customers in English are especially welcome, although bilingual skills are a plus, too, according to a new Craigslist helped-wanted ad for Papa John’s in Concord, Pleasant Hill and Martinez (Craigslist). In surrounding Contra Costa County, 24.4% of the population is Hispanic vs. 23.5% for the San Francisco Bay area; 37.6% for California, and 17.6% for the nation as a whole (Census).

TACO BELL: Language skills aren’t the hiring issue at Detroit area Taco Bells, but something much more basic: Applicants “must be able to come to work on time, show up for scheduled shifts, and be productive when at work.” Also: be happy (Craigslist). Meanwhile, on Craigslist’s Missed Connections section for the Seattle area, a man is looking for a woman Continue reading “KFC to double outlets in Germany; Jack Daniel’s is going down under; Papa John’s quiere gerentes que harlan Inglis; Taco Bell wants 😀 applicants; and a UPS wedding in Fla.” →