Sunday March 7, 2010

Banks have been affected just as much as the customers visiting them. Over this past year and a half banks across America have been closing rapidly, but now the fast pace is slowing down. New York Times compared these past years and the effect it has had on large and small banks across the country. USA Today reported on the 3 new banks that were shut down this year. This article went into detail of how banks have been affected so dramatically. Los Angeles Times created a "by-the-numbers look" of the past year and its economic growths and failures. At this economic state newspapers are choosing their words wisely. The NY Times decided to warn their East Coast and West Coast and major city readers, while also informing them about large and small banks. USA Today was very fact based. These facts came with numbers, percentages, and dollars to sum up what has happened in the banking world. The LA Times took a similar approach as USA Today. They went as far as having a page long stat sheet of these past years.

Although the Los Angeles Times took a break from reporting economic news about the unemployment situation, both USA Today and the New York Times reported that the jobless rate remains unchanged at 9.7% nationally, leaving room for hope that the economy is recovering. 36,000 jobs were lost in February, which is, by no means, a number to be excited about. Companies are expected to hire again in the upcoming spring and summer seasons. Both papers agree that the construction industry cut 64,000 jobs and are less likely to recover than other industries. USA Today and the New York Times were very factual in their presentation, exuding both, hope and reality, in an uncertain economy.

According to economists, the amount of people who are claiming unemployment and job loss has dropped from last week's 3 month high. USA Today believes this shows a sign that layoffs may be slowing down and the economy is slowly recovering, while the New York Times says hope has been revived that just the labor market is the one recovering. Los Angeles Times reports that if history repeats itself with the current situation (an increase in demand), that companies will have to start hiring again to keep up with supply. The newspapers don't spend too much time on the topic, moving on to how the housing market is still suffering. USA Today stated demand for housing sank this winter, and New York Times piggy backed on that reporting sales fell 7.6% in January. These two newspapers seem to be the most active in reporting progress on the economy, while the Los Angeles Times almost seems to be burnt out, only supplying approximately a paragraph of summary information.

Ask 5 different economists where the US is as far as recovering from the recession and you'll get 5 different answers. The outlook on the economy is up in the air with experts simply not agreeing on progress. The New York Times expected the reports for February's job cuts to be well over 100,000, while the Los Angeles Times reported February cuts to be 42,090. USA Today noted that personal spending rose slightly, while the New York Times claimed average household debt ate approximately 17.5% of disposable income. Each way you look at it, the country still has a long way to go to get back to comfortable times.

Hiring is still slow to emerge because many manufacturers are still selling surplus and waiting until demand rises to continue production. Economic outlook in general appeared in jagged lines across several graphs. Each article noted a grim reality, but included hints of optimism as they explained things that have improved since the recession first hit.

Photo Credit: David Kidwell/Pocono Record, via Associated Press
Photo Caption: Job losses are expected to have accelerated in February, mainly because of snowstorms.

Senator Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky, on his way to a vote on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.(Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times, AP / March 1, 2010)

By: Giselle Mares
March 2,2010


The Senate ended a politically charged dead end over unemployment pay on Tuesday night, voting to allow jobless Americans in danger of exhausting their benefits another month of aid.

The New York Times was the only publication that included a photo in the story. This publication was also the longest among the three publications. A more detailed summary of the debate that occured is presented.

The Los Angeles Times provided a brief story that simply stated that a vote would be conducted on this issue.

USA Today also published a short story on this issue. This publication simply stated the 78-19 vote. This story was brief and concise.

 

In this Feb. 22, 2010 photo, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett is interviewed before lunch with officials from Salida Capital, a Canadian Investment firm, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (Seth Wenig, AP / February 22, 2010)

By: Giselle Mares
March 1,2010

Warren Buffet stated on Monday that the economy is improving but at a slow rate. The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today have all published a story on this issue today.

The Los Angeles Times published the story with the title "Warren Buffett says economy recovering at very slow rate, consumers still reluctant to spend". This newspaper was the only publication that included a picture in the story. The New York Times titled the story "Buffett Says Economy Recovering but at Slow Rate" and USA Today titled the story "Warren Buffett sees housing market bouncing back by 2011". All 3 stories had a similar title. However, I believe the New York Times did a better job in naming the story. It makes the reader want to read the entire story to learn more about why the economy is recovering at a slow rate.

All three articles started the story with an immediate identification lede. All 3 named "Billionaire Warren Buffet" to begin the lede.

A patient awaits care outside a hospital in Talca, Chile. (Sebastian Martinez, Associated Press / February 27, 2010)

By: Giselle Mares
February 28, 2010

The recession has effected Carl Jr.'s target market of young males. (Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times / October 1, 2003)

By: Brittany Fastuca
February 27, 2010

Private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, parent of Dunkin' Donuts, offers to pay $619 million in cash, but Boston private equity firm also offers to buy the company for the same amount. CKE says it will continue to accept competing bids through April 6. CKE, the parent company of Carl Jr.'s and Hardee's, still has about $309 million in debt. Many fast food restaurants share prices have plummeted, especially CKE.

Los Angeles Times is the only article that offers a picture to give the publication more of an upper on the other two newspapers. This article offers a topic lede since it tell you the event that occurred, but it isn't offering any of the other relevant information needed to pinpoint what the reader is about to read about.

USA Today goes most in depth about what the CKE company is, what it offers, the name of the CEO, and the activity of the company. Funny thing is that none of the articles give what CKE stands for.

New York Times offers the shortest article, but within regards of immediacy they were the fastest. The length of the article might have relation with the timeliness of the article being posted compared to the others.

This is a file photo of the AIG logo shown in New York. AIG came out about there $8.87 billion loss in the fourth quarter as it started to pay down some of its billions of dollars in bailout loans it received from the government.(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file) (Mark Lennihan, AP / September 17, 2008)

By: Brittany Fastuca
February 26, 2010

AIG came out to the world about its $8.87 billion loss in the fourth quarter today, keeping the insurance company at a week point. The company was still in debt with the government in paying back loans. AIG did come out and warn the government and Securities and Exchange Commission of needs of financial aid. According to Los Angeles Times, "these fourth-quarter results were an improvement from the $61.7 billion AIG lost in the year ago period, but they were worse than analysts expected."

The USA Today paper actually published the same article but with a different title. Obviously all statistics were the same and facts, since it was the same writer. The way that Los Angeles Times makes it better though, is by presenting the article with a picture and a more in-depth title acknowledging the reader more of what they are about to read. Both these articles use a summary lead by including the 5 W's minus the where since there isn't a specific place.

New York Times was the first article to actually write out American International Group. The article starts out with a summary lede basically describing exactly what's going on and getting straight to the point in the first paragraph. New York Times states exact comparisons between each year with dollar amounts versus the other articles that use percentages. The way the 2 other articles top this is by going into how much AIG owes the government in dollar value. None of the articles follow the inverted pyramid structure, even though it known to be most common, they all keep the important facts flowing throughout the whole article. Even at the end of the USA Today and Los Angeles Times article they save the astonishing fact on how much AIG owes the government.

Sold sign seen outside a new Houston home leads the trend in the new home sales great tumble of 11.2% in January from the previous month. (Pat Sullivan / Associated Press / February 22, 2010)

By: Brittany Fastuca
February 25, 2010

"The housing market is still flat on its back and it is only being held together -- as well as it's being held together -- by very aggressive actions by the federal government," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com in the Los Angeles Times. There are no signs of stop the deep plunge the new homes housing market is going through after a huge leap to 11.2% this past month compared to the previous month. This is the lowest the new homes housing market has been in 13 years. Funny thing is, previously occupied homes continue to over sell new homes even though the construction of new housing is supposed to help the United States break out of this hard economic time.

"Sales of new homes plunged to a record low in January, underscoring the formidable challenges facing the housing industry as it tries to recover from the worst slump in decades," according to USA Today. Obviously USA Today, knows how to exaggerate since according to Los Angeles Times it has only been a decade since the new housing market has been this low. One good thing about USA Today's exaggeration is their timely manner. The publication came out in front of the pact with immediacy by several hours. All articles keep with the same 11.2%, making all articles seem very credible.

"The sickly housing market was socked with another dose of bad news on Wednesday when the Commerce Department reported that new home sales fell in January to the lowest level since record-keeping began in 1963," which is how David Streitfeld and Javier Hernandez from New York Times puts it. New York Times comes out of the race between the three news publications with the best lede. This definitely could count as a zinger giving this article a lot more spice compared to Los Angeles Times and USA Today. New York Times also agrees with the 13 year all time low, showing that USA Today is over dramatic. USA Today continues to carry this trait through out the article with multiple "unexpectedly"s, using more climatic words like "fledgling" and "heighten fears" to explain the economy. As for the Los Angeles Times, the publication goes about the news in a more relaxed manner by just dishing out facts to inform people exactly what is going on with the economy without completely scaring them after they read the article. Overall, the New York Times displays the news the best by catching your eye from the beginning and also including more facts even to the raise in percentage of new housing supply in January.