Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 38

2 Section 3 Chicago Tribune, Thursday, May 14, 1998 heatwood Business briefing Compiled by Joanne Skerrett REPUBLIC INDUSTRIES division to be partly sold, spun off graphics and theatrics. In Miami, Cheatwood was known as "Hurricane JoeL" His style earned him national recognition, as well as notoriety. His lead was followed by other television stations around the country. But if his experience in Chicago proved anything, it's that individual markets are different. The formula faltered in Chicago, and Springer was Cheatwood's undoing.

Channel 5 sources said some newsroom decisions that normally would have been Cheatwood's in recent months were made at NBC headquarters in New York. When Wert arrived in March, he made some of the hiring decisions that ordinarily would have been handled by Cheatwood. Wert and Schwartz, who used to work together at ABC-owned WLS, began talking several weeks ago. The talk became serious three weeks ago, once it was clear that NBC had a landing pad for Cheatwood, sources said. Wert said the change was "absolutely not" made to get Cheatwood out of the newsroom.

"Joel has had a difficult year in Chicago, but has tremendous company support. This is what he wants to do," Wert said in an interview. Schwartz's departure sent shock-waves through the newsroom at Channel 7, where she was held in high regard. The sting of her leaving was compounded by the timinglocal stations are in the midst of a ratings sweeps period. Wert said that once he knew Cheatwood was going to take a new position at NBC, "I started prioritizing the leadership needs of our newsroom.

Ideally, I wanted to find someone with great news and programming experience, but Chicago experience as well," he said. The 43-year-old Schwartz has worked in Chicago since 1980 and had been news director at WLS since 1993. She had held assistant news director and producer positions at WLS, WBBM-TV and WMAQ-TV. Broadcast sources said Schwartz was disappointed at being passed over for the general manager's job at Channel 7 last year. Trash-hauling Reuters MIAMI Republic Industries Inc.

said Wednesday it will spin off its garbage-hauling division in a bid to jump-start the auto-retailing giant's low stock price and fuel Chairman Wayne Hui-zenga's acquisitions campaign. In a two-step transaction, Republic this summer will sell a 25 to 30 percent stake in its Republic Services Inc. solid-waste division in a public stock offering and in 1999 spin off the rest to Republic's shareholders. of Oak Brook, 111., and the Blockbuster Entertainment video chain, bought into Republic in 1995, it has been acquiring companies at a rapid pace. The transactions, including the takeovers of Alamo Rent A Car Inc.

and scores of car dealerships, were aimed at building market share in a retailing sector with few leaders, and were done largely with Republic's high-flying stock. But the stock has been nearly halved since 1997, crimping the company's dealmaking. AMERICAN EXPRESS Plan to sell cardholder data draws fire Associated Press NEW YORK American Express Co. drew fire from privacy groups Wednesday after announcing it is in a venture to sell extensive information on its cardholders to merchants. American Express is collaborating with KnowledgeBase Marketing a company that has compiled records on 175 million Americans.

KnowledgeBase, based in Chapel Hill, N.C., keeps track of such things as a person's age, whether they recently married, divorced, had a baby or bought a house. In the new alliance, KnowledgeBase's data would be combined with American Express' records of credit-card purchases. HOME DEPOT Company testing small-store format Reuters NEW YORK Home Depot the largest of North America's home-improvement centers, said Wednesday it is testing a small-store format in a move that takes direct aim at neighborhood hardware stores. "I think they are going after the independent retailer," Paul Pentz, president of Tru-Serv, said about Home Depot's test and Sears, Roebuck and stand-alone stores. Tru-Serv is a cooperative with 10,500 member hardware stores.

"The U.S. home-improve KJ Continued from Page 1 a new day in Chicago's crime and disaster-oriented TV journalism, but it does signal the official new beginning at Channel 5, which has slumped and staggered since it invited Springer to work the night shift. Cheatwood said in an interview that it would be "a natural thing to assume" he was pushed out the door, "but NBC is not a company that would just create something to move me into If that had been the case, they would have shown me the door." And, in fact NBC did show the door earlier this year to former General Manager Lyle Banks, who along with Cheatwood was held responsible for the Springer-as-commentator experiment. In very successful but equally controversial tours of duty in Miami and Boston, Cheatwood Vaulted poorly performing TV pews operations to high ratings, with adrenaline-driven newscasts noted for crime, mayhem, flashy Kirk Continued from Page 1 cast Will she transport some of that talent to her nc" home, where ratings have slipped considerably since Sponger's short-lived commentaries led to the departures of popular and respected news anchors Carol Marin and Ron Magers? Channel 5 now ranks a distant second to Channel 7 in the coveted 10 p.m. news ratings.

Less publicized, but still hugely significant Channel 5 lost some of its top news producers at that same time. In the short term, look for the Channel 5 newscast to take on a more serious tone, sources said. (Although criticized for its happy-talk between stories, Channel 7 has established itself as a solidly produced, hard-news-oriented newscast -t In the longer term, a talent shakeup at Channel 5 seems inevitable. But Wert said that at least far, he hasn't focused on the station's anchor situatioa fQ if 'In Mitift. A.

C. Imports Northwest Highway Palatine, IL 847-358-5750 The stock offering should raise $1.5 billion to $2 billion, which will be invested in its auto sales and rental businesses, Republic Industries said. Republic Services is the fourth-largest solid-waste company in the United States, based on 1997 revenues of $1.13 billion. It collects trash for businesses, cities and homes through 96 companies in 24 states. Since Huizenga, a south Florida dealmaker and billionaire credited with creating trash-hauler Waste Management Inc.

Under the plan, American Express would compile mailing lists from the information to help companies target their sales pitches to the people most likely to buy their products. Customers can keep their names off a mailing list by calling or writing to American Express. But it does not propose to notify cardholders specifically about this new program, a spokesman said. That raised protests from personal-privacy activists. Consumers "don't use the American Express card to become a guinea pig for American Express' marketing campaigns," said David Banisar, counsel to the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington.

ment convenience market generated sales totaling approximately $50 billion in 1997, but the vast majority of those sales took place outside of larger home center stores such as Home Depot," Home Depot President Arthur Blank said in a statement. "This is something they view as the next leg of growth for them into the next century," said L. Wayne Hood, analyst at Prudential Securities. Atlanta-based Home Depot is the largest retailer in the estimated $365 billion housing and building-products market. Reporters' notebooks SUNDAY Inside Finance MONDAY Inside Technology TUESDAY Inside Chicago's Markets WEDNESDAY Inside Commercial Real Estate THURSDAY Inside Manufacturing FRIDAY Inside Travel SATURDAY Inside Retailing for more than $2 billion of that A year from now, investors will be able to take notice and act-when Groupe Schneider American depositary receipts begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Pineau-Valencienne said he had hoped trading would begin sooner, but the company waited while accounting procedures were switched to U.S. methods. Noting that only 20 percent of Groupe Schneider's sales come from France, Pineau-Valencienne said, "We want to enlarge the number of foreign investors Being global if you want to raise equity, you need a wide market" He's especially eager to attract U.S. pension fund money. Maybe this isn't a good time to tell him about activist pension-fund shareholders.

Paper profits: Roger Stone cast himself in an unlikely image this week: trendsetter. The chairman and chief executive of Stone Container Corp. told shareholders that the decision by the family-controlled business to sell out to Jefferson Smurfit Corp. is no isolated event. "This industry desperately needs more consolidation, and it will occur," he said.

On that score, he echoes his peers at other paper companies, not to mention scores of analysts on Wall Street who deplore the overcapacity in the industry and resulting depressed prices and earnings. Nevertheless, Stone was pretty optimistic about the business climate ahead. Paper-mill capacity will be flat Stone said. And his company has INSIDE ANUFACTURINGSallie L. Gaines and Greg Bums Suburban firm thrives under overseas owner ing her boss, Channel 7 General Manager Emily Barr, and her colleagues in the stunned newsroom.

Barr praised her and said that "she enjoyed working with Schwartz." She wouldn't comment further on her departure. Frank Whittaker, deputy news director at Channel 7, was named interim news boss. Barr said that she would look both inside and outside to fill the position. Party time: Roughly 70 Channel 7 staffers showed up at an impromptu reception for Schwartz at a local hotel after she left on Wednesday. Wert was there as welL Paul Rogers leaves WGN: Paul Rogers, host of WGN-AM 720's "Nightside" music program, is leaving the station for Nevada.

His final "Nightside" program will air this Saturday nightSunday morning beginning at 11:30 p.m. He had been with WGN since 1977. Programming note: wayne Larrivee fills in for Terry Boers on WSCR-AM 1160 on Friday from 2 p.m.-630 p.m. with Dan McNeil. litSffMift maintenance.

i A Imperial Motors Jaguar 721 Green Bay Road Wilmette, IL 847-256-0606 mmm "My focus has been on administration, not only in news but in all departments," Wert said in an interview. Having worked at three newsrooms in the city during her career, Schwartz gives Wert someone has a vast knowledge of the talent in Chicago. Above all else, newsroom sources said, Wert is intent on bringing back a Chicago feel to his newsroom. Cheatwood had shuffled in a number of new, unfamiliar reporters and anchors since he came on board as top news director last year. In fact newsroom sources said that NBC officials in New York had put the clamps on some of Cheatwood's moves to bring in talent in the last few months.

Schwartz had been news director at Channel 7 since 1993. In addition to her Channel 5 stint she also had worked at WBBM-Ch. 2. Not insignificantly, Wert and Schwartz worked together at Channel 7. The fallout at Channel 7: Sources said Schwartz was out of the building 30 minutes after tell iSiiViSlilfc Til Si's We'll handle the I'll Howard Orioff Jaguar 1924 N.

Paulina Chicago, IL 773-227-3200 JAPAN Nomura Securities bank to team up in 2 lucrative sectors Reuters TOKYO Nomura Securities and the Industrial Bank of Japan announced a groundbreaking alliance Wednesday that moved them one step closer to a complete union, but analysts said the unwillingness of either firm to be a junior partner could prevent any future marriage. Different corporate cultures and a rivalry between the lead-; ing long-term credit bank and the giant broker in the corpol' rate bond business could also, make it difficult for them to go' all the way, the analysts say. Nomura and IBJ said they; would tie up in the areas of derivatives and asset manage ment lucrative areas under called Big Bang financial changes launched last month. C' "It is possible that relations between IBJ and Nomura will be much closer following their agreement to form two joint venture businesses," said Akira Takai, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research. "But I don't think Nomura wants an all-out alliance with IBJ, as that will make it difficult for Nomura to become! a dominant partner in the alliance," he said.

Analysts said IBJ would be unwilling to be the junior partner in an alliance as it is considered to be more prestigious in the financial community and has close ties with authorities: started raising prices that have been hammered over the past year or two: "Demand has pretty well caught up." Combined, Stone and Jefferson Smurfit will be the world's largest paper packaging company and the fourth-largest paper company overall. Although shareholders of suburban St. Louis-based Jefferson Smurfit will own 52 percent of the combined company, Roger Stone will be president and CEO. There's not much doubt how Stone will be spending the next three years, until his mandatory retirement at age 66: "Our prk mary focus is to fix up the balance sheet. We've got a couple of years of hard work." That's an understated way of saying that the bull market of the past few years skipped Stone Container, which has announced plans to sell about $1.5 billion in assets to lower debt.

Your Way: "Manufacturing" doesn't always mean steel mills or paper plants. In fact Kraft Foods of Glenview is betting that some darn good manufacturing happens in your kitchens. To that Kraft is challenging the culinary whizzes of America to come forward with their recipes for barbecue sauce. The winning sauce will "be the inspiration" for a new flavor that Kraft will introduce next year, note that the language gives the company lots of leeway on the final recipe. The manufacturer of the winning sauce receives $25,000.

For info, send a self-addressed, stamped business-size envelope to Barbecue Official Rules, Box 35991-OR, Los Angeles, Calif. 90035-0991, or visit www.kraftfoods.com. And rest easy, readers. We promise not to stack the deck by submitting Aunt Hazel's recipe. E-mail Sallie L.

Gaines at SGainesTribune.com. E-mail Greg Burns at GBurnsTribune.com E-mail regular contributor -Michael Arndt at MArndtTribune.com. MORE ON THE INTERNET: Find out what's happening Inside Chicago's business sectors at chicago.tribune.comgoinslder Can an American company find happiness not to mention profits as the property of a foreign buyer? Those of you wringing your hands over the fate of Chrysler which has agreed to be acquired by Germany's Daimler-Benz AG, might want to consider the experience of Square Co. of Palatine. In 1991, Square was acquired by France's Groupe Schneider after a bitter three-month battle to remain independent.

The result may not be a lovefest, but it's certainly a mutual admiration society. First of all, they're both in the same business, making electrical equipment. Groupe Schneider put all of its North American operations under the umbrella of Square which is run by Americans and which accounts for 32 percent of sales of the French giant. "We did not colonize Square said Groupe Schneider's chief executive, Didier Plneau-Valen-cienne, in Chicago this week for a regular visit. "I tried despite internal pressure to make sure that the French did not impose their views." Chris Richardson, the 37-year veteran of Square who is president and chief operating officer of North American operations, said fear of foreign ownership turned out to be overblown.

Tm equating that a little bit to the issue of diversity in the U.S. it's comfortable to do business with the peo- pie who look just like you." In fact, both men say, the company has benefited by having foreign opportunities for promising employees; young people particularly enjoy the chance to work in different countries, they say. Both men indicated that these are the employees likely destined for senior management. "If you have an imperialistic attitude, you lose," Pineau-Valen-cienne said. "Uninterrupted, enhanced service was the key for us.

If Daimler-Benz and Chrysler can do that, they'll succeed." Trading Up: Speaking of success, Pineau-Valencienne is a little miffed that his company isn't on the radar screen of U.S. investors. Sales and profits have grown each year since the takeover; North American sales were $2.45 billion in 1997, and Square accounted Westlake Motors 466 West Lake Street Elmhurst, IL 630-833-7945 Towne Countree Jaguar U.S. Route 41 67th Place Schererville, IN 800-835-3080 Available on all 1998 models except XjR. Includes alt regularly scheduled maintenance as outlined in the Jaguar Passport to Service.

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