American Morning

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November 20th, 2009
07:29 AM ET

Behind-the-scenes with a new brand of Tim McGraw

By Christine Romans

Tim McGraw, sans trademark cowboy hat, saunters into a Manhattan restaurant and needs to find a place to throw out his gum. Finding none, he finds a clean and shiny teaspoon at a waiter station and neatly tucks his chewed gum into it. As far as I know, no one put it on eBay.

Thus begins our 35-minute sit-down with the country music star, who has a new movie, new album, a tour starting in February, and new management.

McGraw is a country music star who is bent on a “fresh start.” He’s honing his brand for a new dynamic audience. His die-hard country music fans are most-likely to buy his records from Target.

But there is a new, digitally savvy audience online, sampling tracks from various artists and genres. He has signed with Red Light Management, the people behind Dave Mathews Band and Phish, and the tour for his album Southern Voice, will be “different” from anything we’ve ever seen from him.

Has Brand McGraw set the “reset button?”

“I don't know whether it's a reset button as much as it is just an advancement button. It's just time to take this up. We've laid a tremendous platform and it is time to expand from that platform. “

That platform is 40 million country records, three Grammy awards, 10 American Music Awards, 11 Country Music Awards. You get the picture. Where he is expanding most visibly is in movies.

He co-stars opposite Sandra Bullock in "The Blind Side," opening nationwide this weekend. It’s his biggest role yet. On the red carpet at the premiere this week, Bullock told CNN about her country music co-star.

FULL POST


Filed under: Behind the scenes • Business • Entertainment
November 11th, 2009
09:47 AM ET

Dairy deliveries with a little nostalgia

In New York City two men are going door to door delivering milk the old fashioned way, complete with glass bottles. They've turned their nostalgic idea into a booming business. CNN's Stephanie Elam joined them for an overnight delivery.


Filed under: Business
November 5th, 2009
07:00 AM ET

Charles Gasparino – 'The Sellout'

sellout.book

From The Sellout
By Charles Gasparino

Chapter One: Fun and Games

Ask Pat Dunlavy to give you the defining moment of his long
career at Salomon Brothers—the point in time when he started
to really understand how the firm and the rest of Wall Street
really works—and he’ll tell you the story about “The Great Race
of 1978.” Dunlavy was thirty years old. He was making a good
living as a bond salesman in Salomon Brothers’ Cleveland
office. His customers were predominantly large pension funds
and other institutional investors in the Midwest that bought and
traded bonds. Because of his position, he had contact with
some of the firm’s power players in New York, including the firm’s
legendary CEO, John Gutfreund, and some of the most savvy bond traders he’d ever met, people such as Lew Ranieri and a brilliant and charismatic trader named John Meriwether, known throughout the firm simply as “J.M.”

The Cleveland office occupied one of the largest buildings in Cleveland, fourteen stories overlooking a decaying downtown of abandoned buildings and steel mills. Like most securities firms, Salomon Brothers had its share of loudmouthed former jocks, particularly at its sales and trading desks. Daniel Benton, a salesman and former high school football player, was one of those (though certainly not the worst bloviator of the bunch). Benton was growing tired of being ribbed about his expanding waistline. At one point he made an officewide announcement. He challenged anyone in the office to a race up the building’s fourteen floors. He said he would wipe the floor with any one of them.

Read more


Filed under: Business
October 30th, 2009
08:03 AM ET

Nickel & Dimed: Hidden fees cost you big

They are everywhere... And they are growing.

They are the "gotcha" fees – the hidden fees, the ones that you don't know about that come to your attention after you've received the service or product, and they hurt the most.


Filed under: Business • Nickel & Dimed
October 29th, 2009
10:10 AM ET

Nickel & Dimed: Hands in your 401k

Who's got their hands in your 401k? People could be dipping into your retirement and you may not know it, until you retire … thousands of dollars lighter. Our Gerri Willis shows us how we're being Nickel & Dimed with hidden 401k fees.


Filed under: Business • Nickel & Dimed
October 28th, 2009
10:24 AM ET

Nickel & Dimed: How to protect yourself from bank fees

It's hard to do without a credit card or banking account, but the costs of those products – what you pay in fees – may be more than you bargained for.

CNN's Gerri Willis is kicking off our new series "Nickel and Dimed" this morning.


Filed under: Business • Nickel & Dimed
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