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Star-Bulletin to deliver NY Times
Starting Nov. 3, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin will sell and deliver the New York Times seven days a week on Oahu in an exclusive arrangement.The partnership, which includes delivery to homes and newsstands, will help the Times grow in Hawaii and allow readers to get a well-known national paper along with the local paper, the companies said.
The Times has a reported daily circulation of 1.1 million and Sunday circulation of 1.7 million nationwide.
Dalton Tanonaka to lead PBEC
The Pacific Basin Economic Council today named a new president. He is Dalton Tanonaka, 48, a Hawaii-born former print and broadcast journalist with considerable experience in Asia.His first challenge is to try to keep the international organization's headquarters in Hawaii. There is serious discussion among its membership and on the board of directors about moving the offices to Asia, he told a news conference at the Plaza Club.
Formed in 1967 and headquartered in Honolulu since 1992, PBEC is an international association of senior business leaders representing 1,000 major corporations in 20 "economies" around the Pacific.
State's bond rating holds steady
The state of Hawaii's $300 million general obligation bonds that are expected for negotiation the week of Nov. 11 through Salomon Smith Barney have been rated "AA-" by Fitch Ratings. The bonds, which comprise the 2002 Series CZ, will be due July 1, 2007 through July 1, 2022. They will be optionally callable, at par, or face value, on dates to be determined.Fitch cited the state's strong debt security, sound financial operations, conservative budgetary procedures and rebounding economy as the reason for assigning the rating.
Currently, the state's outstanding $3.56 billion general obligation bonds are rated "AA-."
Longs Drug names new CEO
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. >> Longs Drug Stores Corp. named former Kroger Co. Senior Vice President Warren Bryant as president and chief executive officer. Bloomberg News reported Bryant, 56, replaces Harold Somerset, who will become vice chairman, the company said.
Feds, states challenge EchoStar's Hughes buy
WASHINGTON >> U.S. and state antitrust enforcers sued to stop EchoStar Communications Corp. from buying rival DirecTV, saying the combination of the nation's only satellite-television services would hurt competition.The U.S. Justice Department and 23 states, including Hawaii, filed a lawsuit asking a federal court in Washington to block EchoStar, the second- largest U.S. satellite TV company, from acquiring DirecTV from General Motors Corp.'s Hughes Electronics unit.
A court order halting the transaction would clear the way for News Corp., controlled by Rupert Murdoch, to renew efforts to acquire El Segundo, California-based DirecTV, the biggest U.S. satellite TV service according to Bloomberg News.
Japan tour sales are gaining ground
TOKYO >> JTB Corp., Kinki Nippon Tourist Co. and three other Japanese travel agencies reported a 25 percent increase in package tour sales in September as demand rose for trips to China and other Asian destinations, the Japan Association of Travel Agents said.The sales a year earlier were also weakened by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., inflating the difference in the figures, according to a Bloomberg News report. Last month's sales were 0.6 percent lower than in the same month in 2000, the association said.
Sales in the first half of October were 64 percent higher than a year earlier, and 2.9 percent lower than in the same period of 2000.
Black Press investor Torstar posts profit
TORONTO >> Newspaper and book publisher Torstar Corp. reported a third-quarter profit yesterday, reversing a year-earlier loss, helped by stronger sales and lower newsprint and interest costs.The publisher of the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper, reported net income of $16.1 million, or 21 cents a share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $4.9 million, or 6 cents a share, last year.
Torstar chief executive Rob Prichard told analysts the firm had already exceeded its initial full-year targets for cost cuts and debt reduction.
"Our sense of the right level of debt in a steady state for Torstar is about 35 percent of total capitalization. If we stay on course with our current plans, and absent acquisitions, we'd be in that territory sometime in the back half of next year," Prichard said.
Prichard said the firm's first priority for excess cash was to build its businesses, with deals similar to its recent agreement to purchase a 19.35 percent stake in closely held newspaper publisher Black Press, owner of the Star-Bulletin and MidWeek. In September, Torstar said it would spend $12.6 million to buy the stake in Victoria, British Columbia-based Black Press.
If there are no attractive acquisition opportunities, Prichard said the firm would be happy to return cash to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share buybacks.
