The Macon Telegraph from Macon, Georgia • 25

3kl99aton (Telegraph Business I bim 1 1 Bl Mutual funds 2C 3C Classifieds 5C Macon Bibb planning and zoning agenda If 1 Crossword puzzle 13C NOV 9 1997 JW 10B 'X aWi guide Eric Tyson Is life insurance enough? Question: My employer offers paid life insurance as part of the bene fits package How do I decide if enough or if I need sup plementary coverage? I have two children ages 3 and 1 Also what do you think of my buying a universal life pol icy for supplementary cover age? Answer: Most larger compa nies offer a small amount of life insurance coverage often equal to a salary or thereabouts which for most people who need life insurance is insuffi cient Ask yourself how many worth of your future income would you want to pro vide to your dependents or example since you have children ages 1 and 3 you might reason that you would want your family to have your income replaced for the next 20 years which would be about the time your children would be completing college Buy a term life policy for the amount of coverage you need Also determine whether your spouse has adequate coverage Generally cash value policies such as the universal life policy you mention should be used when a person or couple expects to have a large estate at their passing and is using the insur ance as an estate planning tool However even if you expect to have a large estate at your pass ing please remember there are many other ways such as a bypass trust and other trusts and annual gifting to reduce taxable estate Question: I am in the market for a brokerage firm I have heard some referred to as service and others as Can you please explain the difference between the two types of brokers? Which might be right for me? Answer: ull service brokers research investments give advice and theft clients develop goals They charge a high commission relative to dis count brokers High commissions are not the biggest drawback to using full service brokers however Because they are paid by com mission they have a significant conflict of interest They are bound to advocate strategies that are of financial benefit to them not necessarily to you You should not be motivated to hire such a broker because they market themselves as being able to discern what will happen in the future with specific stocks and bonds and the overall mar ket No one can predict the future A discount broker generally offers no investment advice and has employees who work on a salary Using a discount broker helps you avoid the conflict of interest that inevitably surfaces with a full service broker If using a discount bro ker and need some advice on a certain financial issue hire a financial adviser who gets paid by the hour In addition to trading individ ual securities most brokerage firms offer mutual funds Discount brokers generally offer no load mutual funds However to buy such funds through a dis count broker you normally must pay a nominal transaction fee If you expect to be investing much in no load funds you might consider using a discount brokerage division of one of the major mutual fund companies such as Vanguard Rowe Price or idelity Eric Tyson author of the best sellers for Dummies" and inance for is a financial coun selor and lecturer Write him in care of King eatures 235 45th St New York NY 10017 He answers questions only through the column At right rank Malloy left Tina Hicks and hlMMwii I Rachel English prepare microphones and make last minute adjustments before a broadcast 1 1 Below ox anchors Secily Wilson left and Cheryl Tan get ready for WW BT A the 6pm news Iks I if i 'aMteS1 Mt Nick OzaAhe Macon Telegraph NewswHo ox boasts (relative) ratings success WMAZ continues to lead WGXA is fastest growing ox news in country By Lance Wallace The Macon Telegraph WGXA TV Channel 24 has come a long way baby Less than two months from its second birthday the ox affiliate has become fastest growing 10 news in the country The station built by Atlanta developer Herman Russell opened in 1982 as an ABC affili ate In July 1995 Russell Rowe Broadcasting sold the station to Charlotte based Gocom Television which converted the station to ox on Jan 1 1996 was a marketing decision to affiliate with ox said Bob Young former WGXA news director who was recently promoted to station manager wanted to compete on a local news arena We wanted to have an edge We wanted to do something no other station did why we went with the 10 WGXA news has historically finished well behind WMAZ the number one station in the market Operations Mananger George Jobin who worked at Channel 13 before joining 24 as the sports director said the reason for their poor showing was a lack of resources lay down over Jobin said went out every day to kick butt Ron (Wildman) and I lay down We have any Under previous management news staff was five full time employees and two part timers with no live remote trucks Now there are 20 full time employees and two live remote trucks a couple of bucks to throw at the prod uct Jobin said Please see WGXA 4C WGXA TV Channel 24 news has some ammunition in its war to win advertisers from its rival WMAZ TV Channel 13 In June ox announced that WGXA had the fastest growing audience of any late news in the network among a key demographic group In May 1996 WGXA had a 23 rating and 7 share with adults ages 18 to 49 a group particularly attractive to advertisers In May 1997 those numbers jumped 74 percent to a 4 rating and 10 share Ratings measure the percentage of all television sets in the market including TVs that are turned off that are tuned to a particular program Share is the per centage viewing a program among all television sets that are on at a given time ox 24 news still works in the shade of its competitor WMAZ TV Channel 11 pm newscast in July drew an average rating of 18 with a 48 share among all households in the 21 county designated market area 10 pm newscast had a 4 rating and an 8 share While news shows on WGXA TV Channel 24 are dominated in the ratings by their rivals WMAZ TV ox 24 officials believe they have created a distinct product with its own audience and advertisers lot of ox stations do a 10 pm said George Jobin operations manager at Channel 24 ratings to be had there and money to be made Lance Wallace Robert SeayThe Macon Telegraph iTiTi rnrM ox sports reporter Jason Terzis points out the fact that he is wearing shorts as he checks his sports line one more time before broadcast WMAZ focused on viewers not competition By Stacy Lam The Macon Telegraph When been the leader far and away for more than 40 years as WMAZ TV has in local news hard to get worked up about the competition two main competitors are the 44 years of his tory we have to live up to and the expectations of our said Raymond Tubb the news oper ations manager compete with ourselves to try to get that next level said Dodie Cantrell news director at WMAZ TV Channel 13 But General Manager Don McGouirk said efforts by its competitor WGXA TV Channel 24 to improve and expand its news operation over the past two years gone unnoticed offer better newscasts than sometimes had in this McGouirk said of WGXA have been times in the past when I was embarrassed by some of the (competing) product on Macon television news I find myself embarrassed any And all the WMAZ crowd has to say about WGXA as the stations vie for viewers during the November sweeps period What the stations charge for advertising is based on ratings during the four annual sweeps months rom their lofty No 1 position WMAZ a CBS affili ate is more focused on what viewers want than what the other guy is doing But they discuss plans for the future not wanting to give WGXA a heads up Since Gannett acquired the station in November 1995 WMAZ has added a Dublin bureau spent $250000 on equipment for live weather radar and set up a community affairs department to oversee projects such as food drives and programs honoring communi Please see WMAZ 4C Did Levi Strauss get too big for its britches? By Greg Johnson Los Angeles Times Levi Strauss Co is consistently ranked as one of the United most admired employers and it owns one of the most powerful brands So why is the San rancisco based compa ny laying off 6400 workers and closing 11 plants? Events leading up to gut wrenching cutbacks illustrate what can happen when products fail to equal a brand image honed and kept alive in minds people say the changing buying patterns that cause the said Clay Timon chairman and chief executive of Landor Associates a San rancisco based brand consulting firm usually the company itself They forget that they have to listen to what consumers really Consumers will forgive favored brands the occasional misstep But brand experts say savvy marketers use that to reinvigorate their tired brands by first restructuring the product mix and then retooling the image exactly what Lou Gerstner is doing with IBM and what Sears Roebuck Co did so successfully with its side of Timon said the reason these well known brands seem to con tinue through good times and Privately held Levi which stitched its first pair of denim in 1850 talk much about its $71 billion business Levi executives maintain that the compa ny can dominate denim categories where it chooses to compete The 501 jeans remain an icon around the world and Sears and JC Penney Co both report increased sales of product during the last year 10 year old Dockers brand has become synonymous with pleated khaki pants and the year old Slates line already dominates the dress pants business no accident observers note that Levi is focusing on khaki and dress pants that carry fatter profit margins But no question that Levi has lost market share to longtime competitors like Lee and Wrangler brands and new comers Lucky Brand Dungarees Inc and Original Arizona Jeans Co label Levi now has an estimated 26 percent of the denim pants market the biggest of the jeans markets down from a 1990 high of 482 percent according to Tactical Retail Solutions a New York based firm that tracks retail sales been as close to the customer Please see 4C wwuz.