It has been a busy year for labor relations at the greater San Fernando Valley’s hospitals. New labor contracts were signed at a handful of the area’s hospitals and negotiations are currently underway for most of the rest. The contracts are some of the first reached by the newly re-energized SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West, an increasingly powerful union that represents some 140,000 members including nurses, technicians and service workers, netting pay increases of 7 percent a year and 40 percent over the life of the contract in some cases, along with improved pension, medical and dental benefits and more stringent staffing requirements. Dealing with organized labor is a challenge for almost any industry. But with a nursing shortage, declining reimbursement rates and the mounting costs of treating the uninsured, union negotiations have proven particularly irksome for some hospitals. “Well over 62 percent of our costs are in labor costs,” said Jim Lott, executive vice president for the Hospital Association of Southern California, a hospital trade group. “And unfortunately for the hospitals, the allied health professions almost all of them are in extremely short supply. So that places the advantage in union’s hands as they negotiate a contract.” While the union may have the upper hand at the bargaining table, it is difficult to know whether the details of the contracts signed reflect the union’s negotiating prowess or the sheer labor shortage. For their part, the SEIU does not dwell on the wage increases won. The union says that its focus has been on providing a safe environment for its workers and for patients and giving a voice in the management of care to those who are directly charged with providing it. “Healthcare workers don’t go into this line of work for the money,” said Sal Rosselli, president of SEIU Healthcare Workers-West. “They go into it because they want to provide service. So our relationship with the employer needs to be one to accomplish these common goals.” That may be more true for some hospitals than others. At non-profits such as Kaiser Permanente and Catholic Healthcare West’s Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where the focus is on community benefits, negotiations have tended to proceed without incident. But even not-for-profit Antelope Valley Hospital has been the focus of union demonstrations, and the activism has escalated further where for profit hospitals are concerned. Over the past year, members of the SEIU have staged demonstrations at Health Care of America’s West Hills Hospital & Medical Center and Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center protesting working conditions. In other states, the SEIU has also played a role in several lawsuits filed against hospitals alleging that they colluded to keep nurses’ pay artificially low. At Antelope Valley Hospital, the demonstration revolved around demands for pay raises that arose from a 5 percent pay hike the hospital gave to some of its other workers. The protest occurred as the hospital and union were negotiating a new contract, and the union claimed the hospital was unresponsive to its demand for pay raises. Officials at Antelope Valley Hospital responded that they were not dragging their feet, but simply could not decide on a pay proposal separate from the full package of wages and benefits and no such package had yet been offered. “No one is arguing that an increase would not be forthcoming, but it’s all subject to the negotiating process,” said John Sullivan, vice president of human resources at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster. “We asked if they would bring forward the other parts of the economic package. We have no idea what they will be asking for in terms of pension, life insurance or other components.” Executives quiet Officials at many of the hospitals declined to talk to the Business Journal for this story. Those at Providence Health Systems’ Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, which is just beginning contract negotiations, Tenet Healthcare Corp.’s Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center and Northridge Hospital Medical Center did not return phone calls. Jim Sherman, president and CEO of Los Robles, said through a spokesperson that the hospital did not wish to comment while it was in negotiations. Beverly Gilmore, president and CEO of West Hills Hospital, said through a spokeswoman that the hospital’s contract had been ratified and West Hills had no further comment. But it is clear to some that the SEIU has garnered considerable clout in recent years, putting the management of at least some of these hospitals somewhere between a rock and a hard place. It’s one thing for the auto industry to decry union tactics and demands; quite another for hospital administration to respond to a labor union’s call for “patients over profits,” as the SEIU has sometimes characterized its efforts, when there are literally lives at stake. Before a merger that occurred in January, 2005, the Southern California chapters of the SEIU numbered 30,000 members. The merger brought the size of the local to 140,000. It allowed the SEIU to negotiate with larger healthcare corporations on a statewide basis and heightened the union’s political efforts as well. “This bargaining is the first round of bargaining since this merger has taken place, and generally speaking, it’s been very, very successful,” Rosselli said. “Besides representing a lot of workers, because of our size and our focus we have tremendous clout in Sacramento. So being a statewide operation allows economy of scale and allows more efficiency of programs and strategic campaigns.” Even more important, the union’s growth potential is impressive. Healthcare workers are the fastest growing employment segment in the country, with 1.7 million jobs added since 2001, according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor. The agency projects that healthcare employment will increase by 27 percent by 2014, compared with a 14 percent projected increase for any other industry. While other unions have seen their memberships dwindle, the SEIU, the largest union in California, has added more than 800,000 members since 1996. Membership rise In L.A. County, the union’s membership numbers 30,370, up from 23,101 in just one year, according to statistics compiled by the Los Angeles Business Journal. With that heft, the SEIU is working aggressively toward getting a universal healthcare plan passed in Sacramento. “We’ve made it the priority in 2006, 2007 and 2008,” Rosselli said, “and we intend to accomplish it by ballot initiative if we have to.” Rosselli added that the union’s efforts have led to improved relations with hospitals with whom he said the SEIU shares common goals. But at least some say that the increased clout of the union has emboldened it in ways that hospitals are simply not accustomed to. “Their tactics in the last 10 years have been nothing short of what we experienced back during the old auto worker union days,” said Lott. “We’ve had unions storm our association offices in Sacramento, we’ve had threats, all kinds of things. But I think the biggest issue is once a hospital is unionized, it’s a very tenuous relationship and to speak about the effect could tip the balance in that relationship.”

Crown Media Holdings Inc. has completed the sale of its film library to RHI Entertainment, Inc., the company announced Monday. Crown, owner and operator of Studio City-based Hallmark Channel, has the right to continue to broadcast selected titles from the library on the Hallmark Movie Channel for up to two years. The library includes 600 television movies, mini-series and series. Proceeds from the approximately $160 million transaction will be used by the company to reduce outstanding debt under its bank credit facility and for operating purposes. RHI Entertainment is a privately held production and distribution company with offices in four cities, including Los Angeles.

Rashel Pouri sits her visitor down in front of a plasma screen at the Encino penthouse headquarters for Medi-Spa, the first of three day spas the Valley businesswoman has opened. Clips from television segments that have aired about her spa flicker across the screen. Here, a client before and after treatment. There, an interview with Pouri, a beautiful woman who seems to grow even more striking in the camera’s lens. “Wait. I want you to see Pat Harvey,” she says of the anchor on KCAL-TV, one of several TV stations that have aired segments on Medi-Spa. “All the women love Pat Harvey.” If all goes as planned, it will be Pouri’s name that people recognize instantly at this time next year. And if all goes as she hopes it will, Pouri will be known, like Pat Harvey, as a woman of substance, whose interests and involvements extend well beyond the Botox-charged world of the beauty industry she inhabits. The Valley businesswoman and socialite has inked a deal for a reality show based around her life and her company slated to begin filming in March, Pouri told the Business Journal. Because the reality show won’t unfold until filming gets underway, Pouri could only discuss the broad themes of the show, being produced by BBC America, she said. “The show is about my life, my spa and all the celebrity clients I have and my relationship with Sen. (Hillary) Clinton,” Pouri said. According to Pouri’s publicist, Christine King, president of TMG International, the producers were traveling out of the country and not available to comment for this story. King said that the producers had initially wanted to fashion the show, with the working title “Spa Wars,” around several different spas, but zeroed in on Pouri after meeting her. “When they got to Rashel they came to a screeching halt,” said King. “This woman has such a big personality. Hulk Hogan right now is the reality TV family. If you look at who the next family will be, it will be Rashel and her family.” Iranian-born, half-Muslim and half-Christian, Pouri was promised into marriage at 14. She had two young children when, in 1985, she immigrated to the U.S., telling her husband that she wanted to visit her family, who had migrated here about 10 years earlier. She filed for divorce instead. In 1990 Pouri remarried, this time to a man of Jewish descent. They now have a five-and-a-half year-old daughter in addition to Pouri’s two older children, a son, 28, and a daughter 23. She opened Medi-Spa in 2002, and since then has expanded it to include three locations in Calabasas and Rancho Palos Verdes in addition to Encino and a surgical center. Reality shows thrive on exposing the flaws in their subjects, something that was of greater concern to publicist King than to Pouri. “Rashel says things that many of us might think, but would never say,” King explained. “With a different type of personality, that being seen on a reality show might be worrisome for a publicist. I think because she doesn’t hide anything, we had the discussion about the show and after going around we looked at each other and said, ‘why not?’ She said, I am who I am. Let’s go for it.” Indeed, Pouri is both blunt and unapologetic about her reasons for agreeing to do the show. She has long had a plan to franchise her business and she recently launched Rashel cosmetics and Ravi skin care and hair care products, efforts likely to be helped greatly by the exposure the TV show promises. Nor does she shy away from the kind of publicity considered essential in the beauty industry. She readily drops the names of clients such as Vivica A. Fox and Felicity Huffman who she says frequent her spa, and she is regularly seen in those circles looking as glamorous as any of the stars. But in the next breath, she reveals another side to lay bare her life to public scrutiny. “This is the best opportunity for me professionally, but I want to speak for women. We have a lot of women who get abused and battered, and I want them to listen to me and look at where I came from and where I am now. I started with nothing and I am so proud of myself.” A tireless fundraiser for Clinton, Pouri is also setting up a foundation to provide funds and services for children who are victims of the war in the Middle East. She hopes to organize a group of physicians and go with them to Iran, Afghanistan and other countries there to provide reconstructive surgical services, and she hopes the TV show will follow her there, televising the plight of the smallest victims of war. Just as she herself did, Pouri is hoping to help women take off the veil that holds them back, both literally and figuratively. “I’m hoping in this show that I can show the power of women who have been through a hard time,” she said. “If I can do it, you can do it.”

A look at the people, places and things that shaped the Valley area in 2006.It was a year of high gas prices, a high Dow, stock option probes and an ailing auto market nationally. In the Valley, the business scene in 2006 was dominated by a slowing housing market, a changing retail scene, a rash of restaurant robberies and a recovering movie industry, which saw a stronger-than-expected summer. The year also brought a slate of new faces, brands, projects and issues that will set the agenda for the region in coming years. The Business Journal takes a special look at those issues and the people, businesses and events that helped shape 2006 in the San Fernando Valley area. Accounting Climate: Another gangbuster year for CPA firms thanks to the continued effects of Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. Along with the many headaches the legislation caused for public companies, it continued to boost staffing levels and salaries for accounting professionals and proved a reliable and constant driver of revenues for accounting firms. Biggest News: FAS 123. The new ruling, which regulated the way in which companies account for executive stock option compensation and led to a host of scandals related to the way stock option grants were dated at some firms. Companies in the News: Local Valley companies, The Cheesecake Factory, Semtech and THQ were among those whose stock option practices became the subject of SEC investigations. People in the News: Bruce Karatz, CEO of KB Home, was forced out of the company after an internal investigation found he had inappropriately backdated stock option grants. Karatz, who earned $155.9 million in the prior year, agreed to repay KB some $13 million. Shelly Garcia Autos Climate: The environment for Valley auto dealers largely mirrored the conditions affecting the Big 3 automakers in general, which were dealt with massive layoffs, a slowed production cycle and skyrocketing gas prices. As a result, fewer people purchased sports utility vehicles and downsized to smaller cars. Despite those conditions, though, some luxury dealers reported minimal impact from the slowdown Bob Smith BMW in Calabasas, for example, reported revenues of $93 million as of June 30 while Vista Lexus in Woodland Hills brought in $33.5 million. The year brought a handful of new car-related projects including a 20,000-square-foot CarMax location that opened in November at Alameda and Flower streets in Burbank. In Glendale, several dealerships on the Brand Boulevard of Cars received makeovers. However, it also saw the loss of a longtime family-owned dealer, Auto Stiegler Mercedes-Benz in Encino, which was purchased in August by a competing car dealer. Biggest News: Detroit’s woes and the cost of fuel made motorists think twice about buying that new SUV, hurting local dealers. Companies in the News: The Big 3 automakers and Galpin Motors, which opened a new aftermarket auto sports division in March. People in the News: Stephen Smythe, the 11-year president of Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills, and investor David L. Peterson of Calabasas Motorcars, who purchased Auto Stiegler Mercedes-Benz in Encino. Chris Coates Aviation Climate: The aviation industry remained stable although charter companies faced high prices in fuel and difficulty in finding maintenance workers and mechanics. Biggest News The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners moved ahead with a study on whether to ban certain types of jet aircraft at Van Nuys Airport. Business aviation and commercial aviation interests were at odds over funding of the Federal Aviation Administration and its air traffic control system. Companies in the News: Petersen Aviation is sold and bought by Los Angeles real estate developer Robert Maguire who changes the name to Maguire Aviation. Plans by Avjet to construct a new hangar and office space at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank stalled over whether the project violates zoning codes. People in the News: Alan Purwin and Helinet Aviation Services received a 2006 American Spirit Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration for work in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina. Richard Hodkinson stepped away from the daily operation of his charter company Elite Aviation after 14 years. Mark R. .Madler Banking and Finance Climate: 2006 was a transitional year for banks. With long term interest rates remaining relatively low and short term rates rising, banks found they were paying more for deposits than they were earning in interest income on loans. Happily, the strong economy kept loan volume relatively high, mitigating some of the margin pressure. But that was not the case in the home mortgage lending sector, where a dramatic slowdown in home sales led to big declines in loan volume. Biggest News: Americas United Bank, the first Hispanic-managed bank in the Valley, opened in Glendale, becoming one of the strongest signals yet of the growing potential of the Hispanic commercial banking market. Companies in the News: Mid-State Bank & Trust, a Central California banking organization, moved into the Conejo Valley with its first Westlake Village Branch. Community West Bank opened in Westlake Village, marking the Goleta-based bank’s first entry into the greater Valley area. People in the News: C.G. Kum, president and CEO of First California Bank, engineers a planned merger of FCB Bancorp with National Mercantile Bancorp, which will create an entity with assets of nearly $1 billion when the transaction closes next year; Ron Nechemia, CEO of Eurorient, became the first U.S. businessman to engineer a deal for a $1 billion contract to build a Liquified Natural Gas terminal in China. Shelly Garcia Chambers Climate: The 26 chambers of commerce in the San Fernando Valley area continued to gain prominence and influence this year. The Chatsworth/Porter Ranch Chamber of Commerce took a stance on the divisive effort by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to gain control over the LAUSD. In October, Patricia Soteras, the longtime executive director of the Agoura/Oak Park/Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce, died of a heart attack at 75. A former child star, she was widely credited with building the organization’s membership and its influence in the community. Biggest News: Late this year, the membership of the Woodland Hills and Tarzana chambers of commerce voted to merge, becoming one group representing the two communities starting Jan. 1. The new group will have about 650 members. The Tarzana Chamber will receive four seats on the combined board of directors. Chris Coates Commercial Real Estate Climate: With a strong economy, the office and industrial leasing markets tightened to range between 3 percent and 9 percent, pushing up rents and encouraging a continued interest in property acquisitions in the area. But as the year came to an end, acquisition activity slowed considerably, putting into question whether property values would hold in 2007. Biggest News: Merger mania. In the largest deal, Equity Office Properties Trust was acquired by Blackstone Group for about $19 billion. Elsewhere, Arden Realty was acquired by a joint venture of General Electric Co. and Trizec Properties Inc. Trizec, in turn, was acquired in short order by a venture of Brookfield Properties Corp. and Blackstone Group. CB Richard Ellis acquired Trammell Crow Co. in a transaction valued at about $2.2 billion. Companies in the News: John Laing Homes, a company with roots dating back to 1848, was acquired by Emaar Properties in Dubai. Hines International made a stunning entry into the San Fernando Valley marketplace when it acquired LNR Warner Center for $385 a foot. People in the News: Isaac Larian, the CEO of MGA Entertainment, makers of Bratz dolls, beat out a number of the area’s most prominent developers to acquire the Los Angeles Times property in Canoga Park. Shelly Garcia Education Climate: Education in the Los Angeles area was dominated by the efforts of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to reform the Los Angeles Unified School District. In October, the school board selected a new superintendent, retired Navy admiral David L. Brewer, who took over last month and Brewer has since called on the business community to help him reform the troubled district. The school district also continued its building spree, opening new high schools in Arleta, Panorama City and the East Valley and launching plans to construct an $89 million school on the site of the former Granada Hills Hospital. Outside of the LAUSD, Dr. William Jennings in June was named interim dean of the College of Business and Economics at California State University, Northridge. This summer, Woodbury University launched a fundraising effort for a new facility at its business school while the National Tooling and Machining Association’s training facility closed its doors. Biggest News: Villaraigosa’s efforts to reform the LAUSD and the subsequent selection of Brewer as superintendent. Chris Coates Entertainment Climate: Hollywood studios bounced back in the summer of 2006 following a weak performance the previous summer. Leading the way was the Walt Disney Co.’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” which earned more than $1 billion in worldwide receipts. Biggest News: The Valley got a double dose of big news in January when the Disney Co. announced its $7 billion acquisition of Pixar Animation. Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. announced at the same time they were pulling the plug on their respective television networks and replacing them with The CW, based in Burbank. Companies in the News: Disney; NBC Universal saying it would take a second look at using scripted programming during weeknight prime time; shareholders of Chatsworth-based Image Entertainment turned back an attempt by Lions Gate Entertainment to elect a slate of hand-picked officers to the company board. People in the News: Disney Chief Executive Officer and President Robert Iger made good on his pledge to create Disney-branded content, putting that content on as many technological platforms as possible, and expanding into overseas markets. Mark R. Madler Government and Politics Climate: Despite a contentious election year, only a handful of races included Valley seats and as a result, the real action seemed to come from city hall and Sacramento. As Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa tried to wrestle control of the LAUSD, the City Council made some strides to make L.A. more business-friendly with mostly mixed results. The most significant step came just this month when the council voted to extend an exemption freeing new businesses from paying business taxes for 10 years after start-up. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a phased increase of the state’s minimum wage from the current $6.75 to $7.25 on Jan. 1 and $8 Jan. 1, 2008. Biggest News: Shock flared across the Valley when the state Department of Housing and Community Development denied on Nov. 3 a request to renew the Northeast Valley Enterprise Zone, which had been in place since 1986. The designation, the only such zone in the Valley, allowed businesses to receive financial incentives and tax credits. (The state did approve, however, an enterprise zone for Santa Clarita.) People in the News: Villaraigosa; Second District Councilwoman Wendy Greuel and City Council President Eric Garcetti, who introduced the business tax extensions; and Valley City Councilman Dennis Zine, who remains the most business-friendly member of the current council. Chris Coates Health care Climate: The business of health care in the Valley continued to face a laundry list of familiar but no less daunting issues: changes in premiums; more underinsured patients, fewer nurses and calls for seismic retrofits. 2006 saw a spate of new projects open: a new emergency room at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital; a patient tower at Valley Presbyterian Hospital; a $200 million spa and health facility in Westlake Village by the CEO of Dole Foods Co.; and, at Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda, a new residential center and acute care facility. Construction and expansion projects also continued at virtually every facility. A new cancer center broke ground at Providence St. Joseph in Burbank and an expansion at West Hills Hospital Medical Center also broke ground. The year also saw controversy ignited after officials for Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in August announced they were closing an acute care ward. Biggest News: In June, the owners of Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center and West Hills Medical Center and SEIU United Healthcare Workers West agreed to a new union contract after 15 days of negotiations and a threat of the strike. Companies in the News: Amgen Inc., which launched a series of expansions at facilities in San Francisco and Colorado; Mannkind Inc., which raised money for its inhalable insulin delivery system; Meridian Health Care Management Inc., which filed for bankruptcy in May; the staffing firm On Assignment Inc. People in the News: Morre Dean, named president and CEO of Glendale Adventist Medical Center and Scott Reiner stepped down; Kaiser Permanente veteran Matt Gerlach, named chief administrative officer for the Southern California region of Providence Health System in October. Chris Coates Hospitality Climate: The Valley hospitality industry largely rebounded from a series of lackluster years following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and the SARs outbreak, which dealt a blow to the local tourism market. Hotel occupancy rates were up across the Valley area while areas such as Lancaster and Santa Clarita staked an even larger claim in the Los Angeles market by adding a number of new projects. The year also brought continued tensions over whether taxes generated from Valley hotel stays should fund a Valley-specific tourism bureau and worries over the possible closure of Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia. The biggest concern came in November, when Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa approved a plan to extend the living wage ordinance to hotels near Los Angeles International Airport, raising fears that a similar ordinance could pass in other areas of the city, such as the Valley. Biggest News: The continued growth of hotels in the Santa Clarita Valley, which experienced some of the highest occupancy rates among hotels in the entire region for 2006. Companies in the News: Six Flags Inc.; Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, which last month opened a 270-room luxury hotel as part of the $250 million California WellBeing Institute in Westlake Village; the Hilton Burbank Airport & Convention Center, which sold in August for $125 million. People in the News: Wendy Greuel, the Valley Councilwoman pushing for the Valley hotel bed tax to fund a new Valley-specific tourism bureau; Six Flags President and CEO Mark Shapiro, who in June announced the company was considering selling Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor in Valencia to cut costs. Chris Coates Insurance Climate: The year saw continued efforts to re-evaluate how auto insurance companies determine premiums and there was a move to expand by two local insurers. Woodland Hills-based 21st Century Insurance aggressively expanded into New Jersey, Florida, Georgia & Pennsylvania while Calabasas-based Countrywide Insurance Group moved into Arizona, Nevada, Illinois, Indiana and Colorado. Biggest News: The “good driver reforms” by California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi to base insurance premiums more on a driver’s record versus his or her home address altered the long-held but largely arbitrary technique used to determine how much a person pays for car insurance. Companies in the News: 21st Century; Countrywide; Farmers Insurance; WKF & C; Agency Inc., a New York-based insurance company that opened a Warner Center office in August. Farmers Insurance opened an employee training center in Agoura Hills. Chris Coates Manufacturing Climate: Manufacturing in the Valley leveled off for the year with the biggest challenge for the industry finding qualified employees. Biggest News: Already beset by trouble hiring qualified workers, the Valley’s manufacturing sector was hit by the closure of a training center of the National Tooling and Machining Association in North Hollywood. Companies in the News: Mattel Inc. amended a 2004 lawsuit against Van Nuys-based MGA Entertainment alleging MGA hired away key Mattel personnel and used intellectual property theft to fuel the growth of the company through its popular Bratz doll line. People in the News: Precision Dynamics co-founder and chief technology officer Walt Mosher files a lawsuit challenging the election of two members of the privately-held company’s board. Following an 8-day trial, a judge ruled in December that Mosher had not proven the two board members had been elected improperly. Mark. R. Madler Media Climate: When it came to the newspaper side of the industry, 2006 was not a bright one. San Fernando Valley publications were not immune to the general anemic conditions leading to lower circulation numbers and staffing cuts. Biggest News: In October, the publisher, directors of circulation, human resources and finance plus four reporters were cut at the Daily News. The move by parent company, MediaNews Group, consolidates a number of business functions, a strategy employed at other newspapers owned by MediaNews. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times saw its publisher Jeff Johnson and editor Dean Baquet pushed out following a public dispute with Tribune Co. over making additional staff cuts at the newspaper. Replacements were brought in from the Chicago Tribune. Companies in the News: The Daily News and Tribune Co.; NBC Universal announced consolidations in its area news operations into the Burbank location. People in the News: Johnson; Baquet; former Daily News Publisher Tracy Rafter was axed to be replaced by John McKeon, president and Chief Executive Officer of the Los Angeles News Group. Mark R. Madler Residential Real Estate Climate: 2006 was the year of the stalemate. Homes sales came to an abrupt stop and then began declining. By July, condominium and single-family home sales declined nearly 20 percent to 1,126 from year ago figures. Condominium developers came under fire from local community groups and worries began to surface that the market was oversaturated. Home prices continued to climb, albeit modestly. Biggest News: Noho Commons, a mixed use development that includes about 300 loft apartment rentals units, opened for business. Companies in the News: The Ryland Group Inc., Calabasas, after three years of sharp income increases, saw revenues flatten and earnings decline. Shelly Garcia Restaurants Climate: Soaring gas prices gave many restaurant operators, particularly fast food and casual dining establishments, indigestion. Would-be diners stayed away from even favorite eating places as the price of filling a tank rose well beyond $3 a gallon. Even as the price of gas stabilized later in the year, sales continued to be off at many restaurants. Biggest News: Valley restaurants along Ventura Boulevard and elsewhere were victims of a rash of takeover robberies that remain unsolved. Companies in the News: Wendy’s International Inc. sold Westlake Village-based Baja Fresh Mexican Grill to a private investor for $31 million, a fraction of what the company paid for the chain several years earlier. Shelly Garcia Retail Climate: Despite expectations that retail sales would sink with the downturn in the housing market, shoppers continued to pack stores and purchase merchandise. Biggest News: The passing of Robinsons-May. The chain was converted to Macy’s following the merger of May Department Stores Co. and Federated Department Stores Co. Besides the disappearance of the Rob-May moniker throughout L.A., the Valley lost the chain’s regional headquarters, which had operated in North Hollywood. Companies in the News: Westfield completed one of the largest makeovers ever in the Valley with the renovation of its Topanga mall. Nordstrom opened the largest store in its arsenal, a redone 200,000-square foot freestanding store, also in Topanga. Stevens Nursery & Hardware closed after 65 years in the Valley to make room for a condominium development in Valley Village. Shelly Garcia Technology Climate: The technology industry remained strong in the Valley and the state as a whole as it was helped along by private investment and job growth in certain sectors. Biggest News: In May, Vitesse fired three top executives and a month later was delisted from the Nasdaq National Market. Companies in the News: Magnetek pulled up stakes from Chatsworth and moved its corporate headquarters to suburban Milwaukee. The move came a month after Magnetek sold its power electronics group to Camarillo-based Power-One Inc. Server hosting company ISWest broke ground on a new 16,000-square-foot data center in Agoura Hills and online banking software company Digital Insight Corp. was acquired for $1.35 billion in cash by Intuit Inc. Mark R. Madler

Carrie Rogers, economic development and marketing manager for Santa Clarita, admits that her city isn’t exactly a bastion of fine dining establishments. In fact, they’re few and far between. “Our residents still leave the Santa Clarita Valley to go to dinner,” she said. “We know residents are leaving.” Luring upscale restaurants to open locations in Santa Clarita has been a sore spot for the well-heeled bedroom community for years, despite its designation as one of the fastest-growing cities in Los Angeles County. The reason, say those familiar with the restaurant industry and local issues, is that bistros and high-end restaurants have been slow to realize the swift growth and affluence of the region’s growing population, which now has a median income of $91,400, among the highest in the county. The result is that while Santa Clarita is chock full of fast food restaurants and a smattering of middle-end casual fare largely the result of nearby Six Flags Magic Mountain and freeway traffic high-end eateries such as The Cheesecake Factory, Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine and Ruth’s Chris Steak House are nonexistent. Residents have taken notice. Rogers said a recent city survey of Santa Clarita residents found that many want upscale restaurants nearby, specifically The Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro and Dave & Buster’s. But despite the demand and calls for a new restaurant, Howard Gordon, a senior vice president with The Cheesecake Factory said there are no plans to expand into the Santa Clarita Valley. “At this point, we are not planning to open a restaurant in Valencia,” he said, although he would not elaborate. Several other restaurants contacted for this story would not talk publicly about why they haven’t moved into the area. But Rogers said that the major issue is the lack of a sizeable daytime population, since many of Santa Clarita’s residents don’t work in the city and commute to the San Fernando Valley. For restaurants, that means a relatively muted lunchtime dining crowd. “Our daytime lunches aren’t significant enough,” Rogers said. “That really is critical for those restaurants.” Another issue is Santa Clarita’s population a group largely comprised of families who generally aren’t frequent haute cuisine consumers. Added up, the wobbly conditions make opening an expensive restaurant in Santa Clarita seem risky for many companies especially for non-chain restaurants. The independent ones that have staked a claim have largely struggled. Twin Palms, a Pasadena fine dining and entertainment restaurant, opened a location in Valencia Town Center several years ago only to quickly close and be replaced in 2002 by Cafe M & #233;lisse, a more informal offshoot of the tony Santa Monica eatery. That restaurant, in turn, closed after only about six months, said restaurant spokeswoman Marje Bennetts. “We opened in the spring and closed in the fall,” she said. Bennetts said that while business was always solid on weekends and the restaurant was busy, it fell off on weekdays and nearly ceased during lunch. Changing tides? Despite the previous market conditions, however, there are indications the trend is slowly changing, said Bert Abel, executive vice president of Castaic real estate brokerage NAI Capital, who handles various restaurant deals in the area. In June, George’s Bistro, another high-end Santa Monica eatery, opened a Valencia location. Nearby, the 300-seat Salt Creek Grille, a satellite location of a Dana Point restaurant, has been open for seven years. Abel said the shift might be a product of the sheer number of people moving into the Santa Clarita Valley, expected to increase from 213,178 people in 2000 to 352,382, according to the city. Another factor is the continuing tightening of the San Fernando Valley office market, which could force tenants to look north to Santa Clarita for space. And more offices means more hungry workers at lunch, said “That additional square footage is really going to put them over the top,” Abel predicted. Hotels will also likely be a factor in Santa Clarita, where plans are in the works for a 157-room Embassy Suites and 140-bed Courtyard by Marriott. Abel also just negotiated the sale of a golf facility on McBean Parkway near Valencia Boulevard to a developer who plans to build a seven-story, 200-room hotel with a 9,500-square-foot restaurant. That project, coupled with the new homes in the pipeline, makes Abel think that upscale restaurants will want to bank on the continued growth even though current numbers are somewhat soft. Abel said he is also in negotiations with Ruth’s Chris Steak House to open a location at Bridgeport Marketplace, a complex at Newhall Ranch Road and McBean Parkway he is representing. Abel said restaurateurs are starting to wise up. “The Santa Clarita Valley in general is right at the cusp of being at a point demographically that is a comfort level for these higher-end restaurants,” he said. “They need a very high-end demographic.”

Guadalupe Ibarra is one of the estimated 500,000 San Fernando Valley residents who don’t have enough health insurance. For six years, the single mom living in North Hills has had only the barest of Medi-Cal coverage to pay for emergencies and care for her three children. Because she’s not working, Ibarra sees the state-supported health system as her only option even it means she doesn’t have insurance for herself. She worries about what might happen to her. “If you get sick or something and don’t have insurance, it’s really hard,” she said. “It’s difficult.” Ibarra’s situation is far from unique in California, where 7 million people 19 percent of the total population are uninsured, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It’s a daunting reality that hospitals are forced to grapple with on a daily basis. “Volumes continue to rise,” said Kerry Carmody, administrator for Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, where 12 percent of patients are uninsured. “It’s really impacted all of our emergency rooms.” Because hospitals can’t turn people away, most have two options when it comes to who pays for procedures on uninsured patients: either pass the bill onto the patient or pay for it themselves. For hospitals already hampered by tough state regulations, liability costs and competition from outpatient surgery centers, the bills can go into the millions of dollars a year a situation multiplied because uninsured people will often wait to go to the hospital until absolutely necessary, when injuries or sicknesses are more likely to be severe, Carmody said. “They turn to the emergency rooms in the San Fernando Valley as their primary care providers,” he said. To address the surging numbers, hospitals like Holy Cross are forced to expand emergency room operations and hire more staff. “Those are all costs that are absorbed,” Carmody said. “The cost for those salaries continues to go up.” A big problem While Valley hospitals see thousands of uninsured a year, a large number is treated through community clinics, such as the 10 managed by Northeast Valley Health Corp. The clinic treated almost 165,000 patients last year, 38 percent of whom were uninsured the vast majority are working adults employed by companies that did not have comprehensive coverage, said Vilma Champion, director of managed care and marketing for the NEVHC. “A lot of the population we serve work in small businesses, which usually doesn’t offer insurance,” she said. Indeed, a major factor in whether a person has health insurance is the size of his or her employer, said Mark Morgan, marketing and product development officer for insurance provider HealthNet of California. Morgan said that just 40 percent of businesses with fewer than 12 workers offer insurance to workers. “So it’s a scale question,” he said. “That’s a function of the operating margins of a small employer.” The problem comes when workers assume they can’t find affordable insurance. “It’s still very costly for them,” Champion said. “The (public) programs that are available are mostly for children.” There’s a big problem with that kind of thinking, however: It’s not true, according to insurance brokers. Leonor McCall-Rodriguez, vice president of emerging markets for Thousand Oaks-based Blue Cross of California, pointed to dozens of low-cost and free insurance programs from numerous providers that many overlook. “We know that for a third of the uninsured, they could be insured today if they just knew about,” she said. “There’s a lack of information out there.” In her experience, McCall-Rodriguez said a surprising number of uninsured people would be willing to pay for coverage but are disheartened by the minutiae. “This is a very dry, difficult subject,” said McCall-Rodriguez, who works in the company’s Newbury Park location. “Most people have experience with insurance. But when it comes to buying it on your own, most people don’t know how to go about it.” Morgan said people get discouraged. “That lack of awareness leads people to believe there aren’t solutions and that leads people to become uninsured,” he said. There are other long-held misconceptions. “We oftentimes run into the perception that managed care companies are taking advantage of these people,” Morgan said. “The trust isn’t there. If they just knew the facts.” Some of that is the result of cultural misunderstandings. Southern California’s large population from Latin America, for example, came from countries where insurance was either unavailable or government-supported. Many have never had to deal with premiums, HMOs or PPOs, McCall-Rodriguez said. “When you take insurance, which is difficult to understand in English,” it’s even more challenging in a different tongue, she said. “With the Latino populace, there’s a socioeconomic issue,” Morgan said. “It adds to the complexity.” Education the solution? To address the misconceptions, many providers including Blue Cross and HealthNet have started education divisions to provide information to brokers, doctors, nonprofits and uninsured people about the industry. Along with insurers such as Kaiser Permanente, PacifiCare and Aetna, they have also established low-cost programs, some of which offer coverage for less than $40 a month. But the most aggressive tact so far has been by Blue Cross of California, which last year introduced Tonik, a low-payment insurance system for young people. More than 78,000 signed up in 2005 alone, according to the company. Still, the costs are often out of the grasp of many. A study released this fall by the Commonwealth Fund found that 89 percent of adults who looked into buying insurance since 2003 were turned away for health reasons or found it out of their budget. There’s also Medi-Cal, the system offered by the California Department of Health Services that Ibarra and her three children use. Programs are offered to a wide number of people, from moderate-, low- or no-income adults and families to immigrants awaiting legal status to those denied for private health insurance because of an existing medical condition. Still, some see those programs as handouts, said Chad Westover, vice president of state-sponsored business for WellPoint Inc., the Thousand Oaks parent of Blue Cross. In fact, about 3 million of California’s uninsured qualify for government assistance programs but don’t apply, according to the Foundation for Health Coverage Education. “Some of these individuals who have moderate income really exclude themselves,” Westover said. It seems the concept of low-cost insurance is still below the radar of many uninsured people, he said. Despite the costs, though, hospital officials refuse to turn people away. Footing the bill, it seems, is the only solution, Carmody said. “I don’t think anyone has come up with the magic bullet yet,” he said.

Avjet Aviation went back to the drawing board in its plans for a new hangar and office space at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. The aircraft management and sales company needed to reconfigure how the building fit on three parcels of land in the 3000 block of Clybourn Avenue after the Burbank Planning Board rejected the project for violating city zoning codes. The company makes its case for approval before the Burbank City Council on Jan. 16. “We’ll do whatever is required to get the city council to see our view of things and why we want to move this forward,” said AvJet Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Marc J. Foulkrod. In June, the company had a lease agreement approved by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority to construct a new hangar to go with the four it already has at the airport. The 57,000 square-foot hangar will house a 737 Boeing Business Jet owned by Shangri La Entertainment, a motion picture production company. The new building will also include 12,383 square-feet of office space. The aircraft firm anticipated a December 2007 completion date and a minimum cost of $5 million. In August, the Burbank Community Development Department Director Sue Georgino approved the project. An appeal of the decision was filed by city residents Phil and Carolyn Berlin and a hearing took place in early November before the city Planning Board. “We have a lease with the airport authority and we were told it was well within the confines of the development agreement,” Foulkrod said. When the city and airport authority were negotiating an agreement on future development and uses at Bob Hope, one of the selling points was that the existing zoning codes would stay in place, Carolyn Berlin said. Now it seems to the long-time resident as though the city is not doing what it should. “It basically comes down to whether or not the city is going to enforce our zoning codes,” Carolyn Berlin said. Two of the three parcels for the proposed hangar are zoned for aviation use while the third, which is the frontage along Clybourn Avenue, is zoned for manufacturing.

ADVERTISING Grant Rosenquist has been named as vice president of analytics and technology of Inter/Media Advertising, based in Encino. In the role, Rosenquist will create, enhance and manage the company’s proprietary technology systems, developed to manage and track media efficiency and optimize ad dollars. Rosenquist has 17 years specializing in research planning and managing media advertising campaigns. AVIATION Diana Sanchez has been named as manager of public relations for the Van Nuys Airport. She previously served in a similar position in the community relations department at Los Angeles International Airport. Sanchez replaces Stacy T. Geere who is leaving to start her own public relations firm based in Santa Clarita. BANKING Craig Kolasinski has been appointed executive vice president, business development at First Bank of Beverly Hills, a new position. Kolasinski has been EVP, chief credit officer of the Calabasas-based bank. FBBH has also appointed Eric Rosa executive vice president and chief lending officer. Rosa was formerly chief lending officer at ChinaTrust Bank. BIOTECH Yuji Orihara has been named president and representative director of Amgen KK, the Japanese arm of the Thousand Oaks drug maker Amgen Inc. Orihara was previously a senior managing director with Novartis Pharma. CIVICS Ben Golombek has been named communications director for Second District City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who represents portions of the eastern San Fernando Valley. Golombek had worked in the press office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Mark Lunn has been named senior administrative assistant to Ventura County Supervisor-elect Peter Foy. Lunn is a 30-year veteran of the California Highway Patrol. Joel Price has been named a commissioner on the Traffic and Transportation Advisory Committee for the Thousand Oaks City Council. Price is a Los Angeles Police Department detective in the Valley. Scott Wilk has stepped down as district director for U.S. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon to start his own lobbying group. He has worked for the Santa Clarita congressman for five years. CONSTRUCTION Sherri Miller has been appointed to manage the new Santa Clarita office of engineering firm Dudek. She is a senior project manager at the firm specializing in environmental documentation and planning. PCL Construction Services has promoted three executives in its Glendale offices. Dave Yount, who has been with the company since 1984, was named operations manager. Mark Josten was appointed senior construction manager. He has been with PCL for 13 years. Jeff Miller was named construction manager. He started his career with PCL in 1992. EDUCATION Don Davis has been named chief of staff for Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent David L. Brewer III. He was previously chief of staff to the district’s office of the general counsel. ENTERTAINMENT Kerry Chandler has been named as senior vice president of corporate responsibility, a newly created position at The Walt Disney Co. In the role, Chandler will be responsible for developing overall strategy and direction for the company’s corporate responsibility efforts, including the areas of community outreach, volunteerism, environmental policy and programs, charitable giving and The Walt Disney Company Foundation. Prior to assuming her new role at Disney, Chandler served one year as senior vice president of Human Resources at Hong Kong Disneyland. Allie Carsia has been named as director of marketing for Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel. In her role, Carsia oversees development and execution of affiliate trade ads, direct mail and e-mail programs and networks’ affiliate websites. She will work out of the company’s Los Angeles office. Carsia previously worked at Reed Television Group as a regional sales manager. Scott Franklin has been appointed as chief executive officer of The Motion Picture Group, a film/entertainment financing and production company based in Studio City. Henri Kessler has been named as president of the firm. HEALTH CARE Lloyd H. Dean, president of Catholic Healthcare West, has been awarded the Mathies Award from the Partnership in Care Foundation. The award recognizes innovative and creative leaders in the professional health care community. Catholic Healthcare West operates facilities in Arizona, Nevada and California, including Glendale Memorial Hospital and Northridge Hospital Medical Center in the Valley. Jeffery Flocken has been named senior vice president in charge of the California region for Tenet Healthcare Corp., the corporate parent of Encino Tarzana Medical Center and 18 other western facilities. He was previously vice president of the California region. Flocken starting in 1980s worked at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, leaving in 1997 as president and CEO. Steven Sell has been named president of Managed Health Network, a behavioral health subsidiary of managed health care provider Health Net. Sell is currently its chief sales and marketing officer. LAW William I. Goldsmith, a partner with Goldsmith & Hull in Encino, has been elected president of the California Creditors Bar Association, a specialty bar group representing commercial and retail creditors’ rights attorneys. PHOTO David W. Stuart, a deputy district attorney for the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office, has been appointed to the Los Angeles County Superior Court. He lives in Westlake Village. NOT-FOR-PROFIT Nilima Kapoor has been named as director of the lending division of the Valley Economic Development Corp. She has been with the organization for six years and most recently was manager of the VEDC’s San Fernando Valley Financial Development Corp. Anthony Pizano has been named as the manager of the San Fernando Valley Financial Development Corp. He previously served as the agency’s loan officer. REAL ESTATE Rita B. Silver has been appointed corporate controller at Younan Properties Inc. in Woodland Hills. Silver is a 26-year financial veteran who was most recently controller for Douglas Emmett & Co. Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura Inc. added a brokerage team to its just opened Oxnard office. John Ochoa, Grant Harris and David Kim joined Lee specializing in industrial and office properties. Ochoa and Harris, who join as founding principals, were previously with Colliers International. TECHNOLOGY Suzanne Swanson has been appointed as executive vice president of Gamma Enterprises Technologies, a Woodland Hills-based data management software company. Her responsibilities include leading corporate and product marketing, product management and business development. Swanson previously serves as senior vice president of business development of Patch Link.

Initial fears that customers retrenched after the brisk start to the holiday season, quickly dissipated as the calendar wound its way toward Dec. 25. With several weeks of the holiday shopping season under their belts, retailers both nationally and locally are feeling far more confident that the season will bring the healthy sales increases anticipated back in November. Although traffic at Valley-area shopping centers slowed some in the days immediately following Black Friday, the official start to the holiday selling season, retailers and mall management report that customers are back in the stores and they are buying. “We’ve actually been very pleased by our customers’ response,” said David Senecal, general manager at JC Penney Co. in the Northridge Fashion Center. “We’re looking for it to be even better than we thought it would be (in November).” At Penney, where sales projections have been revised upwards, sales are strong in the home area, including heavyweight blankets, which, although packaged for gift giving, are also being snapped up for their energy savings potential, and men’s wear. “Our career apparel for ladies is also doing very well,” Senecal added. The Northridge center overall saw some slowdown in foot traffic during the weekdays that followed Black Friday, but by the second week in December, there was a steady stream of customers during the week as well. The mall for this season has extended its hours, opening at 8 a.m. “Our market research department did some research with a sample of 2000 customers, and they indicated they would like extended shopping hours,” said Daniyel Gordon, senior general manager of Northridge Fashion Center. “So we decided we would try it out this year and see how things went. And we’re seeing customers coming in early.” Although malls don’t acknowledge any connection, it’s probably no coincidence that many have added shopping conveniences like extra hours and new parking options to help combat the increased use of online shopping. Internet retailers have also become far more aggressive, offering free shipping and other incentives earlier in the season than they have in the past. comScore Networks, a Reston, Va.-based information provider, projects that online retail spending will increase 24 percent compared to the 2005 holiday season to $24.3 billion. It at first looked as though shoppers had put the brakes on shopping almost immediately following the Thanksgiving Day weekend. After an optimistic start, some pundits even began downgrading their projections for holiday sales increases, which range from about 3 percent nationally to as much as 8.5 percent for the Los Angeles County region. Then came November sales figures which showed lackluster growth at many stores, so much so that analysts concluded even a big Thanksgiving weekend would not compensate. But the worries were short lived as shoppers quickly found their way back to the malls in early December. Gift cards, which have accounted for a large percentage of holiday sales in recent years, have been especially strong at Westfield’s Topanga shopping center. “The Westfield gift card has been extremely successful and our numbers have increased more than 60 percent over last year,” said Sarah Richardson, marketing director for Westfield’s Topanga and neighboring Promenade center, “which tells me more customers are coming here and spending more money than last year.” Westfield is also seeing a huge increase in its Santa sales, more than double last year’s numbers. “So definitely we’re expecting a successful 2006 and an even better 2007,” Richardson said. Indeed, if traffic keeps up, stores could see an especially bright holiday this year, particularly because Christmas Day falls on Monday, providing an extra weekend for shopping. Some, however, do not think that the extra time will add to retail coffers. “Retailers should not expect that an extra shopping day this year will save them, because only 36.6 percent of shoppers said they expect to shop on Dec. 24,” said C. Britt Beemer, CEO of America’s Research Group who lowered his holiday sales increase forecast from 3.1 percent predicted in mid-November to 2.7 percent based on research the firm has conducted. Beemer’s research concluded that toys, electronics and jewelry will be the most active merchandise categories this season. The firm’s research also found that more shoppers were disappointed with the discounts stores have offered so far compared to shoppers last year, a sentiment that may confirm some suspicions that retailers will resort to heavy discounting before the season is through. Westfield Gets New Marketing Director Sarah Richardson has been appointed marketing director for Westfield Topanga and Promenade. Richardson joined Westfield Corp. in 2004 and was most recently regional assistant marketing director at Westfield Santa Anita. Senior reporter Shelly Garcia can be reached at (818) 316-3123 or by e-mail at [email protected] .

To better communicate with employees and customers alike, large and small companies alike are taking to the blog. In the consumer world, the ubiquitous blog derived from the tech term weblog is a free form method of exchange with Internet readers while in business they have become a tool to give information about products and services. Use of corporate blogs will grow as customers come to expect that the same type of communication used in their personal lives will be available elsewhere, most industry watchers believe. While the blogosphere gains most attention for the sites related to politics, entertainment or an individual’s personal musings, the boundaries have expanded to include Fortune 500 companies to smaller firms, such as information technology provider SADA Systems in North Hollywood. “The nature of blogs makes two-way communication possible and makes it easy for us to submit information and news in a plain format and automatically displayed wherever we wish to display it,” said Tony Safoian, president of SADA Systems, The company’s SADA Speaks blog began in August and presents a mix of company and industry news that is updated at least once a week as a method of displaying the company’s knowledge and understanding of the industry. A survey by JupiterResearch found companies with revenues of $1 million or less were more likely to use corporate or employee blogs while larger companies had the resources for more expensive efforts The study released in June, showed 44 percent of companies with revenues of $1 million and less used a blog and that 30 percent allowed employees to keep a blog. For the companies with revenues above $1 million only 24 percent maintained a blog and 22 percent allowed employees to keep one. First adapters of corporate blogs, however, lean toward those that are online savvy or have websites used for research. Legal issues “If you are a technology company, for example, doing things online is second nature to you,” said Marty Shindler, an Encino-based management consultant on business issues for creative and technology companies. JupiterResearch analyst Emily Riley said that while more than a third of companies now use blogs for internal or external communications, extremely high profile ones are hesitant about posting information to the public because of liability issues. “In any situation where a company’s marketing efforts are bound by regulations, a blog falls under that,” Riley said. Biotech giant Amgen, Inc. faces such a situation. The Thousand Oaks-based company currently does not use a blog for communications but has been looking into it during the past year. Unlike many consumer products companies, Amgen is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about what it can say about its products and that has to be taken into consideration, said spokeswoman Sarah Rockwell. “We need to make sure we are compliant within guidelines about communicating with the public about our products,” Rockwell said. SADA, of course, doesn’t fall under such scrutiny. Nor does Yahoo! Search Marketing in Burbank, which premiered a blog in October coinciding with the launch of its new sponsored search platform. The division takes the responsibility seriously, setting up an editorial calendar of what topics to write about but also remaining flexible enough to address a hot topic; allowing reader comments to the content; and a goal of updating the site twice a week. “It’s not about repurposing a press release,” marketing director Robin Zucker said “It’s about understanding what several hundred thousand customers need to know and want to know from us.” It’s a strategy that Riley supports. The key to a successful blog is not to talk down to people and to make the content different from what the public relations or marketing departments give to the press, Riley said. “Otherwise it is just a redundant effort,” she added. While it is often the marketing department that first adapts a blog as a communications tool, Riley said she encourages that employees deeper within a company be involved to make it more interesting and appealing to consumers who are looking for more information. Executive updates SADA Systems and Yahoo! use employees to update their blogs but the executive suite has joined the blogosphere as well. There are a number of top management at major companies blogging their thoughts and observations. Jeff Wiener, the senior vice president of search and marketplace for Yahoo! is among them, maintaining a blog since March 2005. Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems, Mark Kingdon of Organic, Inc., and Bob Lutz, vice chairman of General Motors are among others. “If a CEO wants to say something and they don’t want to send it via e-mail, they can post to a blog and get it through a company internet, a company website or internal web pages,” Safoian said.