Job Market

I Hate My Job!: The importance of identifying if what you really hate is the work itself, or the atmosphere you do it in. Failure to do so can result in bad career choices.

How to Innovate Your Career: Looking at your job as accumulating a series of experiences that can be applied to several disciplines – for instance, the people skills you picked up working the counter at a fast food joint can help you in management. Remember, this applies to experiences picked up via hobbies and interests, too.  

Media

Cablevision, which suffered a hefty drop in profits, is spinning off its sports businesses, which include the Knicks, Rangers and the arena where they play, Madison Square Garden. The company is doing well to focus on media as damage control, especially since they've become a big player in the ISP arena. Their Optimum service offers complimentary wifi access to subscribers within their coverage area, meaning they intend to go toe-to-toe with phone company mobile Internet services. (The Everything Wars: Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends . . .) Would not be at all surprised to see them boost their Internet involvement in the future, so keep an eye out. 

Technology

Advertising in web-based gaming is expected to grow much faster than in console gaming. No surprise – casual Web games are red-hot right now, and also, people expect to see ads in them - unlike console gaming, where the ads may be viewed as intrusive and negative.

Sprint was banking heavily on the Palm Pre to pull it out of the fire, but it seems to have not quite done the job - it lost $384 million in the last quarter. However, the company is now throwing its dice in another direction, announcing it will have an Android phone by the end of the year. We suspect Palm may eventually be shopping its device to other partners. Sprint is definitely not on the resume shortlist, especialy for the immediate future.

Why Microsoft Seems to Have Gotten the Better End of the Search Deal: Followup analysis to yesterday's blockbuster Microhoo announcement. Yahoo's stocks tumbled yesterday, so Bing definitely seems to be the winner here – at least in the short term. Consider the division on the "probably will grow in the near future" list.

Is downloadable music finally killing CDs? Mega-company EMI, parent of Capitol Records (known as The House Built By The Beatles And Currently Maintained By Coldplay), has said it will only sell CDs through big-box retailers. If you're thinking of going into independent music retailing . . . don't. This sounds like the tip of an iceberg. 

Anime/Manga/Comics

East meets West: Studio Madhouse is producing a Wolverine anime, in which Logan has been transformed into a bishounen, as well as an Iron Man anime. The lines between anime and Western pop culture are increasingly blurring (as evidenced by the Harry Potter, Star Wars and Venture Brothers cosplay at Otakon), so knowing a bit about both might be a boost to anyone enterting entertainment-related fields.

Manga Keeps Growing in a Tough Economy: Given the general state of the publishing industry, this is a very good thing to see. If you're aiming for a career here, you're on the right track. 

Publishing

Publisher's Weekly, the Bible of the publishing industry, is up for sale.  Owner Reed Business Group is looking to divest itself of most of its trade publications. Hopefully, it'll be purchased by a forward-looking company that can use PW as a way to point publishers toward new media, which will ultimately be its salvation.

Video Games

It was a down quarter for gaming companies: Sony revenue fell for the third consecutive quarter, with sales on game consoles among the divisions taking a hit (1.1 million PS3s and 1.3 million PSPs were shipped in the quarter compared to 1.6 million and 3.7 million respectively in the same period last year). Meanwhile, things are equally glum at the House that Mario Built, with Nintendo profits down a stunning 60 percent, with the lack of new blockbuster games cited as one reason. The general state of the economy and the high yen were also factors for both companies. In the case of Nintendo, it may also be a case of Wii and Wii Fit supply finally meeting demand. For Nintendo, this seems to be a temporary setback, as the just-released Wii Sports Resort and the upcoming Wii Fit sequel may take care of their blockbuster problem. Sony is more questionable, but they never should be counted out. Keep an eye on the situation for both companies.   

Undaunted, Sony is moving ahead with a Playstation 3 Home update that includes a "movie theater" which may offer full-length movies and TV shows in the future. This seems to be a major counterattack to Xbox's Netflix partership, further evolving gaming consoles into full lifestyle devices. Your move now, Nintendo . . . 

- Bonnie