Gotta spend it to make it

I don't think the bean counters frankly care about this study, or anything else for that matter, because Wall Street wants more profits!

 

I think it makes sense. It's something I used to say all the time. If you want people to buy the paper, you have to make it seem like they're getting more for their money.
You take things away from your product and people notice. I call it the Skinny Cow. So say you're trying to sell this cow. The ribs are sticking out. You can see its spine. The eyes are sunken in. There are flies all around it.
You go up to someone, "You want to buy this cow?"
"NO!"
So you come back four months later, then cow looks even skinnier.
"You want to buy this cow?"
"Why the hell would I want to do that?"

My company once dispersed something like $400 million to shareholders. Some of that was long overdue, but they could have taken $10 of that and put it back in the newsroom and it would have been more than enough.
I don't think some of these companies realize what little it would take. Hey, here's a thought. Don't pay your CEO $50 million per year and don't remodel his office. Maybe then you'd have enough money to hire another photographer or another copy editor.

 

Reminds me of when one of the Big Three (I think Chrysler) was paying a former CEO some absurd amount of money in retirement. He was building an enormous mansion in Florida while assembly workers were being laid off by the hundreds.

 

He probably invited them over for a party with cake.

 

Five years? Try 10. We're still on OS 9.2932894376 or something like that.

 

The self-reverential can't stand the thought of pumping serious loot into what they fear are repidly-diminishing assets.