Sunday, August 22, 1999
TIPSHEET
Com-error spreads at speed of Web
Did you hear about Comair taking over part of the failing Sun Air of South Africa? Sun, that nation's third-largest airline, closed Aug. 13, and it's expected Comair and another airline will absorb many of Sun's routes and employees.
All this is news, though, to the folks at Comair's headquarters in Boone County. On Tuesday, stockholders began ringing the phones to ask what's up, reacting to an Associated Press story on the Yahoo! Finance Web site.
Seems a Yahoo! staffer saw the story and slapped Comair's “COMR” ticker symbol on it. The story actually involved the other Comair, South Africa's second-largest airline, which has no connection to Comair of Kentucky.
After a call to Yahoo! from the locals, the problem was soon corrected. The Comair we know has no plans to start service to South Africa — unless, of course, somebody builds a Disney World there. — John Byczkowski
For sale: free newspaper
A quiet battle among three free weekly newspapers has played out in recent years on Cincinnati-area street corners from Clifton to downtown, North College Hill to Anderson Township. Now it appears that the battle is over, and City Beat and the Downtowner are the winners in the local giveaway newspaper war of words and ads.
Everybody's News, an alternative weekly bought by publisher and co-owner Donna Goodwin and her husband, Paul, in 1990, is on the selling block. “We're selling the paper,” Ms. Goodwin said. “But I'm not at liberty to make any comment on the situation.”
Eight full-time staffers work at the publication, “and there are billions of contributors,” Ms. Goodwin said.
Investor Louis Buschle said he thought there has been a decline in revenues in recent years at the publication but would make no further comment.
And what is a free newspaper worth?
Ms. Goodwin paused. “How much are you willing to pay?” — John Eckberg
UKat beanbags planned
What's this, the Kentucky Wildcats full of beans?
It looks as if a new line of them are, thanks to an Alabama licensing company and the Highland Mint distributors. The University of Kentucky 'cats are among 30 college mascots chosen for a line of upscale beanbag toys called Team Mascots. It's the only mascot chosen from Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana for this first draft of toys.
Timm Boyle, spokesman for Highland Mint, said the mascots mostly were selected from teams in the Southeastern and Atlantic Coast conferences. “The goal is to add more and more schools as time goes on,” he said.
The limited-edition toys will be available for $14.95 each through Highland Mint dealers — call (800) 544-6135. The mascots will be retired Feb. 14. — Lisa Biank Fasig
Dead-end data
Government number-crunchers are great at telling you what their reports say, but getting explanations of what they mean is another story.
Take the Cincinnati inflation rate released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. First, it takes six months to collect enough data to fashion a local index, so the rate is not a snapshot of any particular point in time.
Second, because there's so little data, the bureau constructs odd categories. “Recreation” includes the costs of bicycles and the cost of movie tickets. Recreation costs have fallen since last year, but the feds can't explain what's responsible or why.
“Education and communications” lumps the cost of tuition with the cost of telephone service. So, if you have a teen-ager who goes to a private school, you'll be glad to know those costs fell 0.3 percent since last year.
— John Byczkowski
Items for Tipsheet are gathered by Enquirer business reporters and compiled by Lisa Biank Fasig of the business staff.
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