Greetings from Evansville, Indiana and St. Louis, Missouri! On the left is the picture of the snow storm I faced on my way to Indiana. On the right is beautiful downtown St. Louis, site of the 2009 US Championship.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Greetings from St. Louis
In Other News: The New York Times is going Bankrupt! Ha! Ha! Ha!
NEW YORK (AP) – The New York Times Co. said Wednesday that ad revenue at its news media properties dropped 15.8 percent in December as the recession weighed on what is usually a lucrative holiday season.
December’s reduction from a year earlier wasn’t as steep as the 17.2 percent drop in October and 21.8 percent in November.
For the quarter, total ad revenue at the company fell 17.6 percent, with an 18.4 percent loss in the news media unit alone.
The news media properties include the company’s newspaper Web sites but not the About.com properties. The company publishes the Times, The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and 16 other daily newspapers.
Online ad revenue for the Web sites and About.com combined fell for the second consecutive month, by 12.7 percent in December, contributing to the company’s first quarterly reduction in digital revenues.
Newspaper circulation revenue rose 3 percent in December, largely because of price increases, while it increased 3.7 percent during the quarter.
The Times also said Wednesday it would stop issuing its monthly revenue reports, as Gannett Co. has recently done. The reports have been closely watched since ad revenue began to severely plunge last summer. Revenue breakdowns will still be provided quarterly.
During a conference call, Chief Financial Officer James Follo said other newspaper companies have been moving away from the monthly reports, and doing so would allow the Times to “focus on managing our business in the long term.”
>:)
Susan, how will you prepare for your 1st US Championship?
Why on earth would she play in the US Championship when she already won world championships and Olympiad gold?
Let’s just hope Susan’s best chess is still to come.