Cox cable systems in Carthage, Lamar, about to be sold?

Today's Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that many Cox Communications cable franchises, including most or all of those in Missouri, are about to be sold to Cebridge Communications, which currently operates the cable franchise in Neosho. The article does not release any information on whether the sale would affect the franchises in Carthage and Lamar.
"The deal includes cable television systems in West Texas, serving Lubbock, Midland, Amarillo, San Angelo and Abilene areas; North Carolina, serving Greenville, Rocky Mount, New Bern and Kinston areas; Humboldt County and Bakersfield, California; and much of Middle America Cox (MAC), primarily with operations in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. MAC also includes certain systems in Oklahoma, Mississippi and Missouri," the article said. The sale is taking place to enable Cox Enterprises Inc. the parent company, to reduce debt it was left with when it took the company private last year.

Another Leggett company announces layoffs

Another company owned by Carthage-based Fortune 500 company Leggett & Platt has announced a major layoff, according to the Winston-Salem NC Journal.
Hanes Dye & Finishing Co., announced Tuesday it was laying off 144 workers., with company officials blaming Asisn textile imports.
"That is the single biggest contributing factor," Hanes Dye vice president and general manager Mike Vaughan told the newspaper. "We didn't anticipate this flood of imports."

Nexstar revenue decreases during third quarter

Business, like sports, is a game of expectations. If you predict, you are going to lose $20 million and you only lose $18 million, you are applauded as a winner.
That seems to be the approach being taken by Nexstar Broadcasting, owner of KSNF in Joplin and KSFX in Springfield, as well as de facto owner of Mission stations KODE in Joplin and KOLR in Springfield.
Nexstar's third quarter results, announced today, show net revenue of $54 million, a decrease of 9.9 percent from the $59.9 million net revenue in the third quarter of 2004. That's not bad, though, since company officials had projected net revenue of $52 to $53 million.
Buried in the news release is the information that the company still owes approximately $644.5 million.
In the release, CEO Perry Sook, pictured, said, "We continue to reposition the company for a return to growth in 2006 by pre-selling advertising in advance of the Winter Olympics, expanding project revenue programs, and launching additional local news broadcasts in several of our markets."
Sook also trumpets the retransmission agreement recently reached with Cox Communications. "Although the confidentiality provisions limit Nexstar and Cox from discussing publicly the financial aspects of this agreement, we are pleased to have reached an economic agreement that is acceptable to both parties. We look forward to announcing additional agreements in the periods ahead." Though Nexstar and Cox have settled their differences, which I am pretty certain do not involve Cox paying Nexstar per customer, the impasse between Nexstar and Cable One in Joplin remains. KSNF and KODE have not been on Cable One since the end of 2004.

Columnist: DeLay troubles could derail Matt Blunt's presidential ambition

In today's edition, St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan poses the suggestion that the legal troubles that threaten former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay could also have an effect on the political future of Missouri Governor Matt Blunt. It's a provocative and troubling column.

Body found of teen who inspired Precious Moments figurine

The body of 15-year-old Heather Lynn Roberts, a girl who provided the inspiration for one of the figurines created by Carthage's Precious Moments company, was found yesterday in North Carolina.
Miss Roberts and her grandmother, Gail Haddock Dail,pictured, had been missing for almost a year. Ms. Dail's van was found bured in mud, according to an article in the Raleigh News-Observer.

Moark gets O. K. for expansion

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources issued a permit to Moark to expand its facilities in Neosho, the Joplin Globe reported less than an hour ago. Permits were also approved for Moark facilities in Jasper and McDonald counties, the article said.
It's business as usual at DNR and big business, as usual, for the state of Missouri.

O'Sullivan CEO takes medical leave of absence

According to an official announcement released today by O'Sullivan Industries, CEO Bob Parker is taking a "temporary medical leave of absence." Rick Walters, chief financial officer, and like Parker, a former Newell Rubbermaid official, will serve as interim CEO.
The announcement was made by Charles Macaluso, chairman of the company's board of directors. According to PR Newswire, Macaluso noted that the board is confident that the company is on track with the operation of its business and that the company will continue to make appropriate progress toward a financial reorganization."

Globe section on East Newton well done, but troubling

The Joplin Globe spent the entire 2005 football season following the football exploits of my alma mater, East Newton High School. The results were published in a special section Sunday and it was well done.
The section was jam-packed with text and photos covering the nearly-completed season.
It is the kind of sports reporting that could boost the newspaper's well-deserved reputation of having a serviceable, but boring sports section.
Unfortunately, the section was just another indicator that the newspaper does not understand why it earns the reputation it has in its home city. If Joplin's hometown newspaper is going to spend an entire season with a school 30 miles away, it needs to counter-balance that with more in-depth coverage of the Joplin High School football team. (And hopefully, there is something in the works that will make this an unwarranted criticism.)
Some suggestions:
- Devote an entire page complete with extra photos to every Joplin High School football game.
-Add extra photo coverage of the school's Football Homecoming festivities, instead of just tacking a small picture above the fold on page one.
-Have a player or a coach write a diary of the entire season, and then run it at the end of the season, complete with photos.
-Beef up coverage of the junior varsity, freshman and middle school teams. If you capture those football parents' readership at the beginning of the seventh grade year, the odds are you will have them long after their children graduate.
-Have regular features spotlighting Joplin athletes, in all sports, not just football. Don't just look for the star athletes. Look for interesting stories. That was what I did with my Sports Talk column at The Carthage Press and The Lamar Democrat, and I was able to write more than 1,000 of those feature columns in just a little more than a decade.
-Use the Globe website for more of the coverage of junior varsity, freshman, and middle school sports. You can even hire school-age stringers to blog stories and statistics.
The only limit on what can be done with Joplin sports coverage is the limit of the Globe editors' imaginations. Unfortunately, that has been what has been holding back the newspaper's sports section for as long as I can remember.

Costumes take away from news

While you can understand KSN's desire to boost morale with fun things like dressing up its anchors on Halloween newscasts, it just didn't seem right to have serious news read by anchors in costume.
I noticed that it was done during the morning newscast by Toni Valliere, pictured, and Lucas McDonald (I guess it was them; I couldn't see their faces.), and the 5 p.m. newscast with Tiffany Alaniz and Gary Bandy.
A cute feature or two about Halloween, alongside the features on how parents can watch out for perverts on the annual holiday would have been more than enough without the costuming.
Sure, many businesses, including some banks and grocery stores, allow employees to dress up on Halloween, but a news program, while it doesn't have to imitate a funeral, does need some dignity.

City manager needs to read The Turner Report

Today's Joplin Globe reports that Joplin Police Chief Kevin Lindsey has been keeping his bosses informed about his attempts to land another position. The story reads:
"For the most part, Lindsey has been keeping Joplin officials apprised of his status during his job search, City Manager Mark Rohr, pictured, said. Lindsey called Rohr on Monday morning to let him know about his interview this week."
If Rohr had been reading The Turner Report, he would have known about Lindsey's Springdale interview since Oct. 13, which was when I reported that Lindsey was one of 11 finalists who would be interviewed Nov. 1-3.