Interviews

CNBC "Bull's Eye"

October 11, 2004

BECKY QUICK, HOST: The Chicago Sun Times is admitting that it inflated its circulation figures for years, and now its parent company is paying big time. The company has agreed to pay advertisers $27 million to compensate them for over-priced advertising. The question is, is this an industry-wide problem? Nick Economides, is a professor of economics at the NYU Stern School of Business. And, sir, we’ve heard an awful lot about other newspapers that have also been goosing their circulation figures. I guess the question is why does this seem to be such a widespread problem?

NICK ECONOMIDES, NYU STERN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: Well, newspapers are not doing so well. And that’s partly because of the success of the Internet. We see many more and many more people getting their news from the Internet. And many more advertisers are looking to get these readers to pay attention to them through the Internet rather than through newspapers. Newspapers are in a bind and sometimes they inflate the numbers.

BECKY QUICK: Do you think this is a situation where newspapers don’t have a future?

NICK ECONOMIDES: Well, its not that they don’t have a future, their future is not that great. I think over time we will see more and more people getting their news from the Internet. And as Internet news providers get more established and more prestigious, the newspapers will have a role but it will not be a dominant role anymore as it has been for hundreds of years.

BECKY QUICK: Professor, most of these newspapers also have websites as well. Why don’t they have a situation where advertisers are cross-promoting on their websites and on their actual print newspapers?

NICK ECONOMIDES: Well, they might. But, the websites that the newspapers have are not necessarily the websites which are more (audio problem)

BECKY QUICK: I’m sorry, Professor. We seem to have lost the feed on that one. If we can get the professor back we will. [CUT TO COMMERCIAL] Welcome back to Bullseye. We’ve been speaking with Professor Nick Economides talking about circulation figures at newspapers; they’ve been inflating these numbers. And professor when we lost you just before the break you were talking about how some of the websites are really drawing a lot more of viewers than traditional newspaper websites. Could you tell us about what some of those websites are? Where are viewers actually being attracted?

BECKY QUICK: It sounds like we still have not managed to fix that connection with the professor. And Professor we do apologize for that, we’ll have you back on very soon for another version on this.

CNBC "SquawkBox"

CNBC/Dow Jones Business Video

SHOW: CNBC/DOW JONES BUSINESS VIDEO 9:12 AM EST

September 2, 2005 Friday

FedEx - CEO of FedEx Freight Interview

Mark Haines, Becky Quick

Doug Duncan

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A lot of people working hard to help those who have been affected. And I want to thank the people for their efforts. The results are not acceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARK HAINES, CNBC ANCHOR: Well, that was President Bush a few minutes ago. He just left the White House to head to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. There has been widespread criticism of how the federal government has responded to Hurricane Katrina. Corporations have donated more than $100 million to Katrina relief efforts. One of those companies very active in relief efforts is FedEx. FedEx is flying in the first of many disaster relief shipments today. Joining us with more on their efforts, Doug Duncan, CEO of FedEx Freight, joins us from Memphis.

Good morning, sir, thanks very much for being with us.

DOUG DUNCAN, CEO, FEDEX FREIGHT: Good morning.

HAINES: I`m told your first relief plane on its way to New Orleans right now. What is on that plane?

DUNCAN: Well, it is not just now. We actually flew 50 tons of supplies in before the hurricane relief to position it ahead of time. Yesterday we moved 45 tons of supplies to the Houston Astrodome, cots and personal care kits, so it is an ongoing effort. We`ve had a great partnership with the Red Cross for a long time and this is just our stepped-up efforts because of this disaster.

HAINES: OK. So this is Red Cross material?

DUNCAN: It is Red Cross, it is Heart-To-Heart relief, who we are participating with, moving goods to Baton Rouge. We`ve got a number of FedEx custom critical trucks committed to the FEMA effort. I mean, we are -- just about every relief effort that is going on down there we are participating in it in one form or another.

HAINES: And what sort of status report can you give us on your employees and your operations in the storm-impacted area?

DUNCAN: Well, obviously, we`ve been working very hard to find our employees and get them secure. We have an 800 number, 1-800-GO-FEDEX, we are asking them to call into. Predominantly we`ve located and most of the employees are OK in most of the areas. In the New Orleans area is where we still have not found all our employees, and that`s the biggest concern. In the other areas other than New Orleans, we are in limited to some operation, some with generators, some without phones, some without computers, but we`ve got the facilities secure, the customer shipments are secure and we are getting back to a ready state so we can help in the effort to get those areas back on their feet.

BECKY QUICK, CNBC CORRESPONDENT: Sir, it is Becky Quick. This morning we heard from UPS (UPS), obviously higher fuel costs impacting everyone. UPS now says that it is going to be raising the cap on its fuel surcharge for flight deliveries to 12.5 percent. How are you dealing with these higher fuel prices?

DUNCAN: Well, we certainly have fuel surcharges in effect and that will have to be looked at, but that`s certainly not the focus of our concern at the moment. I mean, we`ve got contingency plans in place to make sure that we have got the fuel supplies to keep our business operating and that those contingency plans are operating very well. We are going to take care of our people. We`re going to be a great corporate citizen. And, you know, the price of fuel and how we deal with that, that will be a secondary issue at this point.

HAINES: Do you fuel that the -- from the common pool at an airport or do you have your separate supplies?

DUNCAN: We have supplies, strategic relationships with lots of suppliers around the country, so this is obviously -- as much fuel as we burn, we have great plans and a lot of effort making sure we have fuel at the right places, right locations and that type of thing.

HAINES: So from.

DUNCAN: It is not one way or the other.

HAINES: Right. So, so far, no problems on that score?

DUNCAN: No, I mean, the pipelines were shut down, there have been some disruption, but our contingency plans to this point are operating as planned.

HAINES: All right, sir, well, we thank you very much for your time and we applaud your efforts on helping get this area back on its feet.

DUNCAN: Thank you very much, we are happy to do so.

HAINES: Doug Duncan, CEO of FedEx Freight.