Publications

Dennis F. Herrick

Published in The Albuquerque Journal — November 10, 2005

Oil Companies

Not Most Greedy

At the risk of being labeled a defender of Big Oil, I’d like to bring some perspective to Exxon’s announcement that it earned net income of $9.9 billion in the last quarter.

Politicians and consumer advocates were quick to fire charges of profiteering and corporate greed in a Journal story with a headline in big letters across six columns.

However, Exxon actually is more restrained in its profit-taking than another multi-billion-dollar corporation reported on a few pages later under a small one-column headline, where we read about the quarterly earnings of Microsoft Corp.

The public doesn’t fully understand any company’s financial health because the media report total revenue, net income and even pennies earned per share—but never the profit margin, which is the percentage of money taken in that is profit.

Let’s divide the net income by the total revenue reported for both companies. Now we see that Exxon’s profit was 9.83 percent selling gas at the pump, while Microsoft’s profit was 32.04 percent selling software to our computers.

No wonder the Wall Street Journal in 2002 called Microsoft “one of the most profitable (corporations) in the world.”

Microsoft’s profit margin is more than triple Exxon’s, but still we blame the oil company more for being greedy and gouging the public.

Dennis F. Herrick

Published in American Archaeology magazine — Fall 2005

A Mistaken Date

In the Summer 2005 issue, the article “Coronado’s Campsite Preserved” mistakenly reports that “most of Pueblo Santiago was excavated in 1957 prior to the excavation of a gravel pit on the property.” The gravel pit excavation might indeed have been in 1957. However, Santiago’s excavation was carried out under Edgar Lee Hewett’s supervision in 1934.

Dennis F. Herrick

Published in the Albuquerque Journal — Aug. 30, 2005

Accused Not a Sniper

Saying that you were a “Marine Sniper” does not mean that you actually were. Yet the media seem to be seizing on this one comment by Jason Kerns to lead off their newscasts and place in their headlines.

Kerns, who is suspected of shooting down a police helicopter, was in the Marines in Afghanistan—but that does not make him a sniper. He reportedly was a marksmanship “instructor,” but that does not make him a sniper, either.

The Journal headline saying that Kerns had “sniper skills” implies something that Kerns was not unless he graduated from the rigorous 10-week Marine Scout Sniper Basic Course in Hawaii.

Until someone takes the trouble to look at the DD214 form reporting Kerns’ official duties while in the military, it is sensationalism to keep referring to him as a Marine sniper other than to report that he claimed to be one.

Dennis F. Herrick

Published in the Albuquerque Journal — June 24, 2003

NEW DIRECTIONS IN MEDIA OWNERSHIP

Chain Papers Disturbingly

Quiet on Issue That Affects All

Author James P. Pinkerton misreads the future in predicting what will happen with newspaper-TV cross-ownership in his otherwise excellent column, “FCC Rule Is Only Part of Media Transformation.”

Until its vote allowing cross-ownership, the Federal Communications Commission had a 28-year-old ban against the same company owning both a daily newspaper and a TV station in the same market, but it was a ban in name only.

There are about 40 of these newspaper-TV combinations already in existence. Most were grandfathered in when the ban was imposed and others have been allowed to be created under FCC waivers. Pinkerton doubts there will be very many more cross-ownership combinations even without the ban. He notes that only one of the three TV conglomerates owns a newspaper.

He never mentions newspaper chains, however, and it is those chains that are expected to go on a buying spree for local TV stations. TV stations are much more profitable than newspapers, so newspaper chains are interested in TV acquisitions. More than 20 newspaper chains already own TV stations, though most are in different markets from their dailies. America’s largest chain, Gannett, which owns media properties in 42 states, owns 100 dailies, 22 TV stations, 400 or so non-daily papers and USA Weekend magazine.

Tribune Company owns 12 dailies and 26 TV stations, the New York Times owns 19 dailies and eight TV stations, Hearst Corporation owns 12 dailies and 27 TV stations, E.W. Scripps owns 21 dailies and 10 TV stations, Freedom Communications owns 27 dailies and eight TV stations, Media General owns 25 dailies and 26 TV stations, and the list goes on.

That’s as of today. The numbers keep changing as the biggest get bigger. Unless the FCC action is overturned by Congress, we can expect to see a lot of buying and swapping as these newspaper chains try to acquire TV stations in the same cities where their dailies are located.

A Newspaper Association of America analysis reports that the new FCC rules will allow the owner of a large-market daily to also buy two TV stations and four radio stations, plus suburban and alternative weeklies, shoppers and other media properties. Some will.

The Journal is to be commended for running this article and John Trever’s recent cartoon critical of media consolidation. About 80 percent of America’s dailies are now owned by chains, but the Journal is one of the very few family-owned dailies left with a circulation of more than 100,000. The chain papers have been disturbingly quiet about this issue. A poll a few days before the FCC vote revealed that an overwhelming majority of Americans had never heard about the issue.