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Q&A with CNN Worldwide president

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – As president of CNN Worldwide, Jim Walton oversees the news operation's television, online and mobile businesses around the world.

A day after CNN's parent company Time Warner reported its latest earnings, Walton spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the cable network's 2010 financials, the early performance of Piers Morgan Tonight and the importance of U.S. primetime show.

The Hollywood Reporter: CNN had a record operating profit in 2009, and I hear you brought in another record profit for 2010. Is that true, and how big was it?

Jim Walton: We had a really good year in 2010. We had a fantastic year, and yes, we grew up profits over 2009. It was another earnings record, so we are really pleased...I am speaking about the worldwide business of CNN.

THR: How big a profit?

Walton: As you know, Time Warner doesn't break out our earnings, so I am not allowed to either. I can't.

THR: That is several record years in a row, isn't it?

Walton: That is seven years in a row of profit growth. That's pretty good. While the journalism industry is under siege, we continue to grow.

THR: What were the main drivers of your growth?

Walton: There are a lot of men and women here who work really hard. We have a pretty diverse business that is spread out around the world. And we got multiple revenue streams - television, the Web and mobile. It's not one television network. It's a big old honking news machine.

THR: The continued profit growth seems to be in some contrast with your continued U.S. primetime ratings challenges that are often in focus. Is that just not as important a factor?

Walton: I don't want to minimize it. The primetime programming on CNN U.S. is very, very important, and those ratings are important to us. But the ad revenue generated by our primetime programming on CNN U.S. is only about 10% of our total revenues. We have other parts of our business that are as big or bigger than that.

THR: What were some of the growth drivers for CNN last year?

Walton: Over the years, as various economies go up and down around the world, we are in so many different economies that we have a lot of touch points and are not weighed down by any one thing. We also have television, Web and mobile. Advertising is a huge component of our business domestically and internationally, but the distribution business is big for us. The Web business is big for us, mobile is growing, and we are in the syndication business as well.

THR: What do you predict for your business for this year?

Walton: I'm not allowed to give forward-leaning statements on financials. What I can tell you is that I am confident that we are going to have another great year. We have some new programs on CNN. We will be launching a new primetime program on HLN. We have some digital additions that we are going to make over the next four, five months. And the international business continues to evolve. So, I am very confident that we are going to have another strong year.

THR: You mentioned new programs. How do you feel about the performance of Piers Morgan so far?

Walton: It's spectacular. I'm really pleased. He is so clever, he is really smart, he is a big personality. And he works hard and does his homework. He's been stepping into the Egypt story now. We couldn't be happier.

THR: What about ratings? Have you noticed what kind of guests and topics do better for him or whether the show does better when he steps into breaking news versus has celebrity guests?

Walton: It's really too early to put a stamp on it. Piers and his producers and Ken Jautz who runs CNN U.S. will work together and look at what happens each day, review and always try to make it better each day. I can assure you that Piers will be every bit a part of the conversation, and the interview will be the basis of what that program is. But I think it is in its early days. He has tried all sorts of different types of shows in the two and a half weeks he has been on the air. Maybe that's what it will always be like.

THR: Parker Spitzer has been on the air longer, and you have tweaked that a bit. How happy are you with it now?

Walton: Much has been said and much has been written about the program. If you look at it just on its merits, it's one of the smartest programs on television - whether cable or broadcast. It fits very much within the brand of CNN and what it stands for. And if you look at the last 10 days or so, its performance has gotten a lot better and the past couple of nights it has beaten MSNBC. It's got some momentum right now.

THR: How do you explain that?

Walton: We had a couple of folks who weren't television professionals, and now they have got some time under their belts. They are performing, and the show just gets better and better.

THR: Anything you can say about the chatter that it will be just Spitzer one day?

Walton: I have got a little saying here at CNN internally that you can't burp without somebody somewhere writing. CNN commands a lot of attention, which is great. What you can count on is that we have Dr. Drew coming on HLN in primetime soon. That's the talent focus for our company right now.

THR: You have added personalities to primetime since Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes joked last year that some time CNN may be a bit boring. Do you feel you have made real progress?

Walton: It's in the eye of the beholder. What is funny to somebody is not funny to somebody else. What is exciting to one person might be boring to somebody else. But everybody who performs at CNN in an anchor role needs to be very, very smart and be able to relate to and be relevant to their audiences. We are not trying to be funny necessarily.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)

Sony Profits Fall with TV Prices

Stiff price competition in the flat-screen TV market and the strong Japanese yen hurt profits at Sony in the last three months of 2010, the company said Thursday.

Net profits at the consumer electronics giant dropped 8.6 percent on the same period a year earlier to 72.3 billion (US$886 million) as sales fell 1.4 percent to 2.2 trillion.

The lower sales came primarily as a result of the strong yen, which has been hitting Sony and other Japanese exporters all year. In the last year, the yen has appreciated 9 percent against the U.S. dollar and 18 percent against the Euro making the price of Sony goods more expensive outside of Japan, and reducing the profit made on each item sold.

Sony's consumer, professional and devices division, which includes its TV business, saw profits plunge 47 percent as the company was forced to cut the price ofto match competitors. Ironically, the lower prices helped Sony increase sales of TVs from 5.4 million in the last three months of 2009 to 7.9 million in the same period of 2010.

Quarterly TV unit sales were strong in all regions except North America, but for the full year Sony expects to miss its original sales target of 25 million by about 2 million TVs. Sony blamed "general market conditions" and the expected late launch of some new models.

Sony isn't alone in feeling the effects of falling TV prices. Panasonic, its biggest domestic competitor, said Wednesday that its TV business recorded losses during the quarter on steep price declines. Samsung and LG Electronics, which together with Sony and Panasonic account for more than half of all flat-screen TV sales, were also impacted by lower prices for televisions.

The TV business is an important one for Sony and the company has been chasing profitability for several years. That will continue with the most recent results.

"TV is something that occupies the center of the living and connects with a lot of devices and services," said Masaru Kato , Sony's chief financial officer, at a Tokyo news conference. "It's a business we cannot do without, so just because we are not making money, we are not going to move out. We are going to work on making it profitable."

Strong sales of digital SLR (single lens reflex) cameras also helped Sony's consumer division.

New Investments

The company has been ploughing more resources intoas consumer interest shifts towards DSLR devices from simpler point-and-shoot models. For the full year, Sony raised its digital camera sales target from 23 million to 24 million units.

Afor its PlayStation 3 console and PlayStation Portable hit sales at its networked products and services division, which fell 6 percent. Sony shifted 6.3 million PS3s during the quarter, down from 6.5 million during the year-earlier period. PSP sales dropped from 4.2 million units to 3.6 million units. last month.

But the lower sales didn't dent profits. Reductions in the cost of PS3 components meant Sony saw profits at the division surge 135 percent. It was the fifth consecutive quarter of profit for the games business.

Sales Forecasts Cut

Looking ahead, Sony cut its sales forecast for the full financial year, which ends on March 31. Lower-than-expected sales in its consumer division are expected to bring full year sales in at 7.2 trillion, which is down 3 percent from its previous forecast but broadly in line with actual sales the year before. Sony kept its profit forecasts unchanged.

It's been two years since the electronics industry was hit hard by the economic turmoil that followed the collapse of Lehman Bros.

Sony responded with structural reforms and a management shake-up that helped results last year, but its core electronics business had still not recovered, said Kato. That is now changing, he said.

"This year the electronics business is recovering considerably and helping overall performance," Kato said.

Martyn Williams covers Japan and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at . Martyn's e-mail address is

Funeral procession features 'legend of lowriders'

LOS ANGELES – She was a cover girl, had a bit part in a popular 1970s TV show and was an icon of car culture. "Gypsy Rose," an award-winning Chevy Impala admired for its elaborate floral paint job, was known in the world of cruising lowriders as one of the most tricked-out muscle cars of a generation.

On Saturday, the pink, rose-covered car rode atop a flatbed truck, leading a funeral procession of lowriders through East L.A., behind the hearse that carried its owner to his final resting place.

Car clubs from across Southern California and as far away as Las Vegas rolled out to pay their respects to Jesse Valadez, a founding member of the Imperial Car Club. Valadez died of colon cancer Jan. 29 at age 64.

"He loved that car. It was known as the legend of the lowriders," said his brother Armando, 63, who co-founded the Imperial Car Club with Jesse in 1964. "It was his pride and joy. It was his baby."

Mourners, many wearing shirts touting their car clubs, gathered Saturday morning for a service at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, before joining the procession to Rose Hills Memorial Park, ten miles east in Whittier.

The first "Gypsy Rose," a 1963 Impala, was featured in the NBC sitcom "Chico and the Man," which brought customized cars into the national spotlight.

"`Chico and the Man' was the beginning of everything. That car opened the door for everything you see now," said Joe Ray, editor of Lowrider magazine. "I don't know how lowriding would be today without him, his car and that club. He was a pioneer. The name of his car and his car club and East Los Angeles are all synonymous to me."

Valadez's friends in the club bought a casket painted with roses for him to be buried in. At the cemetery, mourners lined up to place freshly cut roses on top of the casket.

"Jesse lived for his club," said his older brother Gil. "Everyone looked up to the Imperials back then because they had the best lowriders."

According to East L.A. legend, "Gypsy Rose" inspired so much envy that one night in the early `70s a rival car club, or maybe a gang, attacked it with bricks, doing so much damage that it could never be a show car again.

"Car clubs were considered gangs on wheels back then," Ray said. "But it was just fists and maybe knives, no guns. There were rivalries, but they wouldn't touch your car."

Valadez started over with a 1964 Impala, decorating it with more elaborate roses this time, upholstering the interior in hot pink, and installing a cocktail bar in the backseat and a chandelier where the rear dome light used to be. The paint job took two and half years, his brother said.

The car's intricate flower patterns, designed by Walt Prey of Walt Studios in Van Nuys, were "heralded as one of the best paint jobs ever," said Ray. "It set the tone for a lot of the custom jobs back then."

The car rode low but not too low — about 5 inches off the ground — because Jesse Valadez "didn't like to play with hydraulics," said his brother Armando. "That came later."

Ray, 55, grew up down the street from Valadez and was president of the Lifestyle Car Club.

"We went head to head in car shows and competitions. I was always looking to my left at him. And I know he was looking at me," Ray said.

The candy colored "Gypsy Rose" got a lot of attention at car shows and cruising on Whittier Boulevard.

"The girls were attracted to those crazy nail-polish colors," Ray said. "I'd only go one block before my ex-wife was pinching my leg and we had to get out of there."

Later as lowriders became more established and law enforcement cracked down on cruising, Valadez became a mentor and role model for a new generation of car fanciers and helped other car clubs, Armando Valadez said.

Meanwhile, the "Gypsy Rose" was featured in advertisements for car shows and soon was touring the country.

"When Jesse's car was invited to Texas, all the way across the country, I knew it was big," Armando said.

The car traveled the country with lowrider tours and was featured at the Peterson Auto Museum's "La Vida Lowrider" exhibit in 2008.

Ray said the funeral caravan would make him and others nostalgic for old times.

"We were serious competitors back in the day. But when you grow older and go back 30 years, you become friends," he said. "You realize things have changed, and you appreciate those memories and sharing them, because some people aren't around anymore."

Valadez is survived by two daughters and a son, Jesse Jr., who is also an Imperial member and will inherit "Gypsy Rose."

N.Z museum mulls options for mummified Maori heads

WELLINGTON (AFP) – For decades, New Zealand has campaigned for museums to repatriate the mummified and heavily-tattooed heads of Maori warriors held in collections worldwide -- now it must decide what to do with the gruesome but culturally valuable relics.

New Zealand's national museum Te Papa has more than 100 of the heads, known as toi moko, in storage in Wellington, along with about 500 skeletal remains plundered from Maori graves as recently as the 1930s.

In Maori culture, the dark swirls and geometric designs of traditional facial tattoos on men recognised high birth and rank, as well as achievements on the battlefield.

Te Herekiekie Herewini, who leads Te Papa's repatriation programme, said the heads of deceased chiefs or family members would be mummified as a way of preserving their spirit, while enemies' heads were preserved as war trophies.

"Initially the mummification of heads and bodies was part of our normal mourning process," he said.

"But when Europeans came, they saw the exotic nature of the heads and they became a coveted trading item because they were of commercial value in Europe, America and Australia."

The heads became so valuable that in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, some Maori hunted members of rival iwis (tribes) and murdered them to supply the burgeoning market in European museums for exotic human remains.

"For some of the iwi, trading in toi moko was strategic in accessing items such as muskets and European tools," Herewini said.

The trade in human heads was banned in the 1830s but over the next century museums turned their attention to skeletal remains.

New Zealand medical students also fed the demand, as they were required to take their own skeletons when they attended overseas colleges, with most of the bones robbed from Maori tombs.

"People would go to known caves or hidden burial sites where they knew Maori remains were and, without permission, they would take them and trade them," Herewini said. "Every museum wanted their own Maori head or Maori skeleton."

The grisly curios continued to be displayed in museums around the world, including New Zealand, until the 1970s.

Herewini said it was around then that Maori began pushing for the repatriation of their ancestors' remains, often meeting fierce resistance from institutions which feared it would set a precedent that could eventually see them forced to return human remains such as ancient Egyptian mummies.

The French parliament last year voted overwhelmingly in favour of returning around 15 Maori toi moko after years of debate about the implications of the move.

"These are much more than simple museum pieces," French lawmaker Michele Tabarot said at the time.

"These are human remains and some of these people were deliberately murdered to satisfy a despicable trade."

Herewini said repatriating remains was an emotional issue for Maori, who had a strong connection to the land and wanted to give the warriors the dignity of a proper funeral.

"For us, it's taking an ancestor back home, so it's the whole process of remembering," he said. "They're family members and it's important for them to be returned home to their resting place.

"The iwi don't know exactly who these people are but they do know they're connected to the land. They think about the different battles they were in, the different lifestyle they lived and the possible connections they have with them directly."

While the remains are returned to their iwi whenever possible, Herewini said that a lack of historical records meant about a quarter of the heads and bones held at Te Papa could not be identified.

They are stored in acid-free boxes in a special area of the museum and never go on display. Even viewing images of toi moko is considered taboo in Maori culture, Herewini said.

Building a permanent mausoleum for the unidentified remains in Wellington is under consideration but the Ngati Kuri tribe, in the country's far north, has put forward an alternative proposal.

They want to bury them near Te Rerenga Wairua, or Cape Reinga, the northernmost point in New Zealand, where Maori believe the spirits of the dead depart for the afterlife.

"It's a special area where there are ancient burial sites," Ngati Kuri Trust chairman Graeme Neho said. "Provided the other iwi agree, we believe placing their final resting place there would be a comfort to them and we would be their guardians."

Regardless of the remains' final destination, Herewiri sad he would continue his quest to return Maori ancestors to their homeland.

"For me, it's about righting a wrong, whether that was committed by Maori or Europeans is really immaterial," he said.

"It's completing the circle and bringing these people back home."

H&R Block agrees to improve access for deaf

WASHINGTON – The nation's largest tax preparation company, H&R Block, agreed Monday to improve its services for deaf and hard of hearing people.

The Justice Department announced that H&R Block had agreed to a nationwide settlement to resolve a complaint filed by a deaf person in San Antonio, Texas, under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"The agreement will ensure that individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing have equal access to tax preparation services at more than 11,000 offices nationwide," said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

In a written statement, H&R Block spokesman Gene King said, "We are happy to put this behind us and concentrate on serving all clients during our 56th tax season."

The company agreed to provide auxiliary aids and services such as sign language interpreters, to train its employees and to enforce policies for communicating with deaf and hard of hearing customers. It will post notices advising customers of their right to request a sign language interpreter or other aid.

The company agreed to pay a $20,000 civil fine and pay the person who filed the complaint $5,000 in damages.

H&R Block, headquartered in Kansas City, has more than 11,000 owned or franchised offices in the U.S.