The Wardman Wire

Business - Management

A cartoon by ASBO Jesus.

I prefer a quote I heard once:

“I go window shopping to look at all the things I don’t need to buy.”

From the Times Online:

News Corporation, parent company of The Times, bought the leading American religious website Beliefnet yesterday in an effort to tap the faith market in a country where 88 per cent of the population say that they pray regularly.

Beliefnet, formed eight years ago, attracts 3.1 million monthly users. It was sold by its founder Steve Waldman, who wanted to find a big media company willing to provide investment that the standalone business could not afford. No transaction price was disclosed.

Mr Waldman said in a video posted on the company’s website that he had received several approaches from large media companies, which “have come to realise that there is a thirst for information and services about spirituality”, although he said that he was “in no rush to sell”.

News Corp is perhaps best-known for its newspapers, with titles such as The Sun and the New York Post, and mass entertainment through the 20th Century Fox film studio. However, the media group also owns a handful of faith-based businesses, including Zondervan, the largest Christian publisher in the United States, and Fox Faith, which makes faith-based films.

Their presence in the company’s portfolio helped to persuade Mr Waldman to sell. He described News Corp as owning a number of “high-quality companies that produce religious and spiritual content”.

Appealing to a Christian audience is big business in the United States, where films such as Walt Disney’s The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe are marketed, at least partly, at a Christian audience. Mel Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion of Christ earned $611 million (£295 million) worldwide despite an uncompromising narrative, of which $370 million was taken in the United States.

Beliefnet describes itself as the “largest online community” for spirituality and sends out daily e-mail newsletters to 11 million addresses. It aims to be independent of any religious organisation or movement and provides content aimed at more than merely a Christian audience.

The website will be absorbed into News Corp’s Fox Entertainment Group, owner of the Hollywood film studio, rather than its Fox Interactive Media division, which is the group that includes MySpace, the social networking website.

Price has not been mentioned, but I note that the TreeHugger blog/portal, which attracts approximately 60-70% of the users of Beliefnet, sold to Discovery for roughly $15 million in August.

If Mr Murdoch does not look after his Internet properties well, it is possible for new communities to be built up in a period of months or a small number of years.

We shall see.

According to the BBC yesterday, Virgin is emerging as the leading company to take over the Northern Rock:

Northern Rock is poised to name a consortium led by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group as favourite to buy the bank, the BBC has learned.

The bank is expected to name the group as its preferred bidder on Monday.

Virgin’s bid includes an immediate repayment of £11bn of the £25bn the bank owes the Bank of England, with the rest to be repaid within three years.

Remember the Virgin Atlantic Fraud?

Less than 4 months ago another of Richard Branson’s companies - Virgin Atlantic - admitted to colluding with British Airways over a 1-2 year period to defraud it’s own customers of a sum (I think - I can’t find an exact figure) of £50-£100m by engaging in price-fixing of fuel surcharges.

Virgin Atlantic was an active participant in the price-fxiing. Richard Branson’s airline avoided a fine because it told the authorities first.

Was the breakdown that gave rise to the data loss at the systematic (i.e., something in the office), or incidental (i.e., something in the “Junior Functionary” concerned).

The former has dire consequences for the people who created the organisation, up to and including Gordon Brown who made the decision to merge the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise.

The latter has dire consequences for the “Junior Civil Servant”.

From the BBC

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologised for the data loss but said it was down to officials not following the rules rather than “systemic” failures at HMRC caused by budget cuts.

Any systems auditor or designer (or programme manager worth his wages) will tell you that “officials not following the rules” is precisely a symptom of systemic failures. Relying on “x didn’t follow procedure” is an indication that something in the environment is not right. And when it has happened multiple times with “fixes” applied each time, and assurances that it is “sorted out”, that should raise warning signals and give very grave cause for concern.

I’m sticking with Gaping Void cartoons for a bit, as he is in a purple patch.

This one made me think about organisations, careers, and blogging.

Mike Ion has written an article looking at how Mr Gordon can implement a vision, discussing John Kotter’s ideas. This article is not about helping Mr Gordon find a vision - it’s about what he can do with it if that happens.