Weekend Digest: The Groceries To Go Edition

For our weekend business and political readers:

YAHOO MAKING A DIFFERENT, RADICAL MOVE
The New York Times reports that the well-known Internet web portal now wants to try a new persona: high-quality television programmer.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the company’s chief executive, Marissa Mayer, is looking for series that are ready to launch and don’t require a lot of development.

At a time when the culture is addicted to high-end television narratives, Yahoo wants in on the action, partly because while its site may have (flat) traffic — 700 million global visits a month — and (declining) revenue, it has zero cachet and no discernible way forward.

The Times says, “The prize is dear. Winning in the distribution of high-end content is about mining an audience, and you can’t blame technology companies for believing they have relevant skill sets.”

So how hard could it be?  Click here to find out.

HOW TO RUN A CREATIVE BUSINESS
Pixar president Ed Catmull recently shared his secrets to Fast Company on how to lead a creative company.

For many in creative fields Pixar is an example of a company that has it all figured out – the innovative animation giant has created 14 No. 1 movies in a row. Clearly they are doing something right. But what? Can other managers learn from their success?

Catmull has four main lessons to be learned.  Go to this link to discover what they are.

GROCERIES DELIVERED TO-GO
Forbes says it’s called, “The Same-Day War.” A battle in development among giants like Walmart, Amazon and Google to deliver groceries to your home.

AmazonFresh recently expanded from Seattle to Los Angeles and San Francisco, where it offers new customers free same-day delivery on orders over $35.

In the Bay Area, Google is working with stores such as Walgreens to provide rapid delivery of food and other products through Google Shopping Express; a test with Google employees in Los Angeles is under way.

Promising low prices and fees, Walmart to Go colonized its second market, Denver, in October after two years in San Francisco.

Two-year-old Instacart is already live in six cities, providing superfast deliveries from Whole Foods, Costco and other chains. (Its home base: San Francisco, of course.)

Forbes reports Instacart has already gotten a head start over its massive rivals and “is expanding at a break-net pace.”

So how does the system work and why is Instacart “winning” in the short-term?

Click on this link to learn more.

CROWDFUNDING ATTRACTING HEFTY SUMS FROM INVESTORS
CNN Money asks, “Is there really much return on a free service that attracts grassroots funding?”

The answers, it says, “might surprise you.”

There is no shortage of evidence testifying to the value of crowdfunding for those seeking to finance a new product idea, company, or even personal need. Just this month, Kickstarter-born Oculus VR was snatched up by Facebook for $2 billion. Smartwatch-maker Pebble sold more than 400,000 of its crowdfunded smartwatches last year. And in March, Kickstarter surpassed $1 billion in pledges made.

In all, crowdfunding platforms have raised some $2.7 billion and successfully funded more than a million campaigns in 2012, according to a Massolution report, with an 81% increase to $5.1 billion expected for 2013.

So why are investors “enthusiastically” getting behind crowdfunding platforms and what are the estimated numbers for the crowdfunding market by 2025?  Go to this link for details and complete analysis.

WHAT DO YOU GET FOR A POTENTIAL PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WHO HAS EVERYTHING?
That potential candidate is Hillary Clinton and POLITICO says the answer is…a grandchild.

One of those things will be happening for sure later this year as this past Thursday Chelsea Clinton announced she was pregnant.

Chelsea Clinton’s announcement that she is expecting her first baby sent ripples Thursday through the nation’s political and media community, which has come to scrutinize the Clinton family’s every move with the rapt enthusiasm of a British tabloid photographer stalking the perimeter of Buckingham Palace.

The announcement came almost as an afterthought at the end of a Clinton Foundation-sponsored event in Manhattan. Chelsea Clinton dropped in the news at the end, mentioning that she and her husband are expecting.

POLITICO says, “Now, Clinton will be something else entirely: the most prominent American politician ever to become a grandmother.”

For more on the story, click on this link.

A RIDE ON AIR FORCE ONE
So what’s it really like riding on Air Force One? And what happens after it lands?

A reporter for The Washington Post took her first ride recently and writes a compelling story about the experience of covering the president from Air Force One to the motorcade after it got to its destination.

It turns out that riding Air Force One is, in lots of ways, like flying commercial. You need to get there hours early. You send your items through a metal detector and get wanded down. The inside of the cabin is, well, the cabin of a plane, but with some much nicer touches, like real towels and hand lotion in the bathroom.

The press sits in what amounts to a first-class cabin (comfy large leather seats) and boards early. When the president touches down in the Marine One helicopter, we all head back out onto the tarmac, watch him board and hustle back. Takeoff happens almost as soon as the president boards.

And what about the president’s date night at the end of a busy day?

For the inside scoop, go to this link.

A LONGSHOT CHALLENGER TO JOHN BOEHNER WENT THERE
We don’t make this stuff up: Does Speaker of the House John Boehner suffer from “electile dysfunction”?  One of his primary challengers thinks so in a racy Internet video that he has posted on his website.

J.D. Winteregg, an adjunct French teacher at Cedarville University running against Boehner, who has created a spoof Cialis commercial which aims squarely at 12-term incumbent.

“If you have a Boehner lasting longer than 23 years, seek immediate medical attention,” the ad’s narrator advises.

The Daily Beast says, “Winteregg, who is one of three Republicans challenging Boehner, is the longest of longshots in Ohio’s May 6th Republican primary and has only $25,000 on hand according to his most recent FEC report.”

He also has no political experience, and apparently, no boundaries.

To learn more about Mr. Winteregg and his video, click on this link.

“EARTH COUSIN” FOUND
It’s called Kepler-186f and it’s an astonishing discovery announced this past week.

Astronomers announced they have found the first “Earth cousin” — a rocky world roughly the size of Earth that may be capable of supporting life as we know it. The discovery further bolsters the emerging view that Earth is not such a unique place, and that habitable environments may be widespread throughout the galaxy, experts said.

For more on this incredible story plus a video, navigate to this link from Space.com.

BATMAN AT 75
The legendary superhero is now 75 and to honor the occasion for the Caped Crusader, Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment are planning a year-long celebration.

What will it include?

A slate of new Batman comic titles beginning with Batman Eternal, partnering with comic book stores and libraries for Batman Day on July 23, art exhibit and panels at San Diego Comic Con, new animated DVD films and shorts, and home video release of the 1966-1968 Batman TV series and 25th anniversary edition of Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie.

And Holy Hot Tamale, there’s more:

On May 5, the Paley Center in New York will live stream a Batman At 75 session. A documentary, Legends of the Knight, is in theaters, while a successful Kickstarter project hopes to realize another, The Cape Creator: A Tribute to Bat-Maker Bill Finger.

To add to the fun, Fast Company posted some “notable” Batman covers from throughout the years, “and asked some Batman luminaries to describe their encounters with the Dark Knight.

Crash! Boom! Pow! For all this and more, go to this link.

IT’S TIME FOR CANNES
The selections for the Cannes Film Festival were announced this past week and The Wall Street Journal reports some 49 films were chosen for the 67th competition from a pool of more than 1,800 submissions.

The festival in the south of France will run from May 14 to May 25.

The lineup includes popular festival directors like David Cronenberg, whose “Maps to the Stars” satirizes the downfall of former child actors, and Mike Leigh, going to the festival with his biopic of British artist J.M.W. Turner, called “Mr. Turner.” Atom Egoyan, Ken Loach and Jean-Luc Godard are also taking films to the festival.

The Cannes movies also feature A-list actors like Nicole Kidman, playing one of her red-carpet forbearers, Princess Grace Kelly, in “Grace of Monaco.” Other stars represented in the selection include Robert Pattinson, Channing Tatum and Ryan Gosling – as a director.

To find out more about Gosling’s directorial debut as well as another A-list actor’s directing debut in a film that will feature stars Hilary Swank and Meryl Streep, click on this link.