Cloned dogs upstage Murdoch mania

The Murdochs were the only story in the media all week, allowing even the most prim of broadsheets to indulge in tabloid frenzy as they settled a long string of paybacks since the “Dirty Digger” first turned up in London in 1968 and bought the now-closed News of the World.

In all the fuss, it has to be remembered Murdoch has achieved more startups than any other media entrepreneur: his Wikipedia entry lists newspapers such as varied as The Sun and The Australian, the expansion of satellite television around the globe (Sky and Star), his revival of the 20th Century Fox film studio and the launch Fox Network to rival three established ones (it later spawned the cable news channel).

On top of that he has improved the Wall Street Journal with the aim of besting the New York Times.

By coincidence, and good timing, the NZ International Film Festival features two relevant documentaries in which Murdoch makes brief appearances: Page One, an enthusiastic behind-the-scenes tribute to the New York Times; and Tabloid, which revives the story of one Joyce McKinney, an American pinup girl with a shady past and a taste for Mormon missionaries – specifically one in particular whom she follows to England and abducts to a country cottage where she consummates her obsessive love for him (he is far less keen).

This story, which is best enjoyed if you have never heard of it, became a tabloid sensation in 1977 as the British press went into overdrive with the case of the “manacled Mormon.”

The headlines are a major feature of the film, which is hosted by a 60ish Ms McKinney herself and her brood of cloned pit bull terriers (see it to believe it).

Too big to bail
The search for the latest rotten state of Europe has alighted on Italy ¬ to no one’s surprise.

But even to its own citizens, Italy is an enigma. Its leader has become the continent’s clown prince and its women despair at their country’s image as a feminist-free zone.

But the latest concern is not the scandals surrounding Silvio Berlusconi – impressive though these are – but Italy's whopping €1.85 trillion in debt, which is more than twice as much as Greece, Ireland and Portugal combined.

The collapse of the world’s eighth largest economy would be a major shock, if not quite the equivalent of the Roman Empire’s demise. Italy has been around for 150 years and even that celebration failed to excite its 60 million citizens.

A recent 16-page report by The Economist was far from flattering, except when it described how Italy’s 21,000 mid-sized companies had become pocket-sized multinationals doing business in 150 countries.

While the World Economic Forum castigates Italy for its inefficient bureaucracy, tax loopholes, inadequate infrastructure and poor credit supply, the world cannot get enough of its luxury goods, motor cars, espresso machines and lots of unglamorous but well-designed manufactured goods.

Tourists still love Italy – all 40 million of them each year – and The Economist’s letters pages was full of people making that point, regardless of all other factors.

Suburbs rule in health stakes
In a turn up for conventional wisdom, and the preaching of public health officials, a new ranking of state-by-state health rankings in the US has found rural residents are now more likely than other Americans to be obese, sedentary and smoke cigarettes.

They also face higher rates of related health problems including diabetes, stroke, heart attacks and high blood pressure, according to County Health Rankings, a research project that recently issued its second annual report.

The Wall Street Journal’s health columnist, Melinda Beck, picks up the story:

In many measures, residents of suburban areas are the best off. They generally rate their own health the highest and have the fewest premature deaths than either their urban or rural counterparts. Suburbanites also have the fewest low-birth-weight babies, homicides and sexually transmitted diseases.

Much of the health advantage in cities may be a function of age, income and education levels. The average annual household income in central cities is $US53,000, according to the county ranking report. By contrast, average incomes are $US39,000 in most rural areas and $US60,000 in suburbs. Rural residents also tend to be older and less educated than their urban counterparts.

Books without Borders
When the Borders store chain first hit New Zealand in 1999, it promised to bring a new era for readers where a wide variety of choice and browsing attractions such as a coffee bar would be the last word in bookselling.

It certainly offered a choice not seen outside a public library but it lacked the pizzazz and come-in offerings of its American equivalent, where pile-‘em-high bestsellers were sold cheaply alongside heavyweight non-fiction.

The stock barely seemed to change and low prices were rare, despite the freedom to parallel import from the US and elsewhere. An even stranger policy saw it stock international magazines such as Time and Newsweek at twice the price of editions produced in Asia.

In short, Borders was uncompetitive against the more savvy independents such as Unity and the mega-magazine stores, who imported books and magazines at much keener prices.

So it is not surprising the Borders brand will finally disappear in New Zealand under the Whitcoulls deal with the Farmers department store owners.

This week it emerged Borders in the US also had no buyer after going into bankruptcy in February. The closure will leave Barnes & Noble as America’s only national bookstore chain and likely to be the major beneficiary of Borders' $US1 billion-plus annual sales.

The obituaries emphasise that during its 40-year history – Borders started as a shop in the university town of Ann Arbor, Michigan – it made some bad strategic steps, such as selling its online retailing operation to Amazon a decade ago and its slow introduction of an e-book reader.