Daily Business Report-Aug. 3, 2020
Photo via iStock
Commentary
California could lose community
newspapers without legislative action
To help save community newspapers, the Legislature must extend an exemption over contract workers in AB 5, or risk losing a vital voice for their constituents
By David Chavern | Special to CalMatters
You’d be hard pressed to find an industry that hasn’t been negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. But when it comes to news publishing, the virus has accelerated some difficult trends, especially for small community publishers.
And now yet another blow to small newspapers in California is about to be dealt, unless the state Legislature acts soon.
A new report warns that the current health crisis may accelerate the closing of community newspapers across the nation. These outlets are critical to our democracy. When they can no longer afford to continue reporting, communities lose a vital watchdog and government business is hidden from public view.
David Chavern is president and CEO of News Media Alliance, the news industry’s largest trade organization, david@newsmediaalliance.org.
Right now, many communities throughout California are suffering the loss of their watchdogs. More than a dozen newspapers have suspended operations in the last five months, with more planning to close in the coming months.
Last year, the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 5 for how businesses classify workers as contractors or employees. In recognition of the inapplicability of the legislation to the news industry and the economic headwinds facing community newspapers, the Legislature gave news publishers a one-year exemption, but when the extension ends in December 2020, publishers will be forced to classify newspaper carriers as employees.
This significant change to a business practice that has been in place for more than 100 years will have the effect of increasing the cost of newspaper delivery by as much as 85 percent, a burden that is unsustainable for small publishers that have also recently been hit with advertising revenue declines of 30 percent to 50 percent as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Local publishers have sounded the alarm with California lawmakers, but so far, they have not taken any steps to address the devastating impact this will have on both publishers and readers.
Small community and ethnic newspapers are especially vulnerable to economic fluctuations and catastrophic consequences, like closure. These small publishers are scrambling to stay afloat by cutting coverage, furloughing reporters and eliminating print publication on certain days of the week.
They are expediting their transition to digital-first publishing and exploring new methods for providing information to their communities as more readers turn to these methods during the crisis. However, cutting print days disenfranchises specific demographic groups, such as senior citizens and other residents who don’t have Internet access (6 percent) or don’t have a reliable Internet connection (up to 25 percent of rural communities). Through losing their local newspaper, these groups are losing their main source of information and their connection to the community.
Keeping news publishers strong is in the interest not only of the press, but of our greater democracy. When they lack a steady flow of information, communities suffer a slew of ailments, from declining citizen engagement to increased corruption and declining government performance. Fewer people run for office and fewer people vote.
At a time when California’s unemployment rate is alarming, lack of legislative action to extend the exemption for newspaper carriers will cause even more job losses. If publishers are forced to limit circulation areas for financial reasons, they will have to reconfigure carrier routes, reduce home deliveries and cease daily publication, which means thousands of carrier routes will be eliminated.
To save California newspapers, at a minimum, the Legislature must extend the exemption to AB 5, which will provide newspapers with more time to get past COVID-related advertising declines and to adjust their operations to meet changing consumption patterns. In addition, to further aid ethnic and community news publishers, the Legislature should prioritize these outlets for public outreach ads. Not only will this help provide residents with access to key local resources and public health information, it will help these community outlets bridge the financial gap without any additional state funding.
If California’s lawmakers don’t act soon to help community news publishers, they risk losing a vital local voice for their constituents – and themselves.
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San Diego company wants to convert
40-foot-long shipping containers
into temporary housing for the homeless
Strategic Operations, a San Diego company that has been modifying 40-foot-long shipping containers for use as training facilities for the military, is proposing a new use for those containers — temporary housing for the homeless.
Located on the backlot of Stu Segall Productions television and movie studio, Strategic Operations wants to modify those shipping containers to produce 480-square-foot, single-family homes equipped with full plumbing for bathrooms and kitchen, as well as air conditioning and heating.
The all-electric kitchen comes with fully equipped double-burner stove, microwave, and refrigerator/freezer. The fully furnished bedrooms can comfortably sleep two adults and two children with multiple storage options for the whole family. Horizontal and vertical configurations of the homes can be easily assembled into safe, secure family habitats with minimal site prep, according to the company.
The converted shipping containers are called “Strategic Habitats.” The company did not close the cost of the converted containers.
“Strategic Habitats are larger than hotel rooms, which recently have been converted to homeless housing, while our Strategic Habitats are priced 30 to 40 percent less than converted hotels or new construction,” said Kit Lavell, Strategic Operations executive vice president. “Additionally, Strategic Habitats are much quicker to complete over new construction and the units can easily be assembled in a variety of configurations and placed on parking lots or any open property.”
Lavell said that that there are about 8,000 homeless in San Diego County, the fourth highest in the U.S., with more than half living on the street, and the rest in shelters. “We see our Strategic Habitats as distinctive or essential and special environments that are material for life and growth,” he said. “They can be an essential solution to help homeless individuals and family re-enter society with dignity in a distinctive safe and special environment.”
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Hines proposes $3 billion mixed-use
development on 200 acres in Mission Valley
GlobeSt.com
Developer Hines is planning a massive $3 billion mixed-use transit-oriented development in San Diego. Currently in the planning phase, Riverwalk San Diego is on a 200-acre former gold course and 4,300 homes, of which approximately 400 will be affordable, 150,000 square feet of retail space, 1 million square feet of office space, 97 acres of open space, including a 50-acre river park. The project will also restore a portion of the San Diego River and add a new trolley stop.
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NASA poised to search for ancient life on Mars
with powerful ‘eyes’ from San Diego
NASA’s Perseverence rover launched for Mars this week, with a $28 million suite of cameras developed by San Diego’s Malin Space Science Systems. The company has flown its cameras on nine NASA missions, including the Curiosity rover
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NASA and European Space Agency expect to spend
$7 billion on Mars sample return campaign
ExecutiveGov
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) expect the total cost of bringing back samples from Mars to Earth to reach at least $7 billion, SpaceNews reported Thursday. Those include three missions with Mars 2020 as the first.
A United Launch Alliance-built Atlas 5 rocket took off July 30th from Cape Canaveral, Florida as part of the Mars 2020 mission to bring a rover dubbed Perseverance to the surface of Mars to collect up to three dozen samples of rock.
The two other missions will return those collected samples to Earth. One of these two missions is expected to launch in 2026 and will use a NASA-built lander carrying a European “fetch rover” that will collect and load the sample tubes into a container, which will use a rocket called Mars Ascent Vehicle in order for it to launch into Mars orbit.
The Earth Return Orbit mission led by ESA will then pick up the container in Mars orbit using a NASA-provided containment system. A capsule with the sample container is expected to reach the Utah desert by 2031.
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San Diego No. 3 in U.S. for life sciences
San Diego County remains No. 3 among the nation’s top life science clusters, according to a report released this week by Jones Lang LaSalle, a commercial real estate company.
The Greater Boston and San Francisco Bay Area once again took the top two spots, in that order. JLL ranks life science clusters each year based on their concentration of employees and companies, as well as how many federal and venture capital dollars pour into each region.
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Museum of Man gets a new name: Museum of Us
The San Diego Museum of Man in Balboa Park has a new name: Museum of Us.
The shift is timely, given the nation’s unfolding social-justice reckoning, but it was years in the making. It is both an admission that the old title had a gender problem, and a reflection of a broader effort by the cultural anthropology museum to redefine its role in the community, its stewardship of the items in its collection, and the stories it tells.
“Change is hard and change is messy,” said Micah Parzen, the museum’s CEO, “but it can be transformational, too. That’s what we’re aiming for.”
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Keller Williams Realty announces
addition of Amy Ruiz and Kaylyn Dowell
Keller Williams Realty San Diego East Foothills in El Cajon, one of the largest residential real estate brokerages in San Diego County, has announced the addition of veteran real estate agent Amy Ruiz as a new productivity coach at the brokerage, along with Kaylyn Dowell, who has served as a productivity coach at the KW office since 2019.
According to Keller Williams, productivity coaches train and educate newly licensed agents on best practices for maintaining a successful real estate sales business. Productivity coaches help agents with focus, purposefulness and accountability, which are the key ingredients for success. Keller Williams has stated that a productivity coach is the vehicle that helps agents to bridge the divide between understanding what it takes to succeed in real estate and actually doing it.
Ruiz and Dowell will immediately begin their roles as co-productivity coaches, said Joe Garzanelli, principal owner of Keller Williams.
Ruiz, who lives in La Mesa, spent 18 years working in human resources prior to the start of her real estate sales career in 2006. Except for a few months, she has remained with KW throughout her entire real estate career. Ruiz also was recently elected to serve on the board of directors of the Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors, one of San Diego County’s largest real estate trade groups for San Diego-area Realtors.
Dowell, who lives in Alpine, has worked in real estate office administration and operations since 2007, and with Keller Williams since 2009. She also currently serves as agent services director at the KW brokerage.
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S.D. Women’s Week Leadership Conference Goes Global
New virtual format with no boundaries features Daymond John, Linda Cureton, Ed Smart, Amy Trask
San Diego Women’s Week, celebrating 11 years of inspiring, empowering and connecting women is now virtual with leadership events for all ages and professions. Attendees enjoy virtual networking, keynote speakers, panel discussions, and more, all wrapped around creative solutions to everyday issues affecting leaders in the workplace and in their daily lives.
WHEN: Wednesday, Aug. 26 – Friday, Aug. 28, 2020
WHO: Keynotes for 2020 Leadership conference include:
- Daymond John from Shark Tank: Powershift, Transform Any Situation, Close Any Deal, and Achieve Any Outcome.
- Linda Cureton, Former CIO – NASA: Managing and Leading in a Tough Environment.
- Ed Smart, Father of Elizabeth Smart: Two Miracles, and Standing up for Yourself.
- Amy Trask, Former NFL Team Executive – Los Angeles Raiders: Leadership Vulnerabilities.
WHERE: Wednesday – Virtual Women and Wine 6-7:30 p.m.
Friday – Virtual Leadership Conference 8:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Click here for complete list of speakers and additional details.
