It's Tuesday: Justice? Or Just Deserts? - Issue #68
If someone does you wrong, does that person receive justice? Or do they get their just deserts? That's a good question. Because justice implies righteousness, truth, the upholding of law and virtue.
On the other hand, if they got their just deserts, they are ideally getting a punishment that fits the crime.
What should the punishment be for a person who steals from the elderly and infirm? In the first article below, a woman in Florida has been convicted of running a long time scam in the magazine subscription business, taking advantage of of the elderly, the infirm, and those who don't know any better.
None of the articles I found about her guilty plea mention the punishment for this. Jail? How long? A fine? How much is enough? Restitution? That would be nice.
What about the brother the articles mention? Did he turn her in? There's no mention of what happened (or happens) to him. Why is that?
What punishment do you think fits this crime?
1___FL woman pleads guilty to magazine scam
Florida Woman Pleads Guilty to $86 Million Magazine Fraud Scheme Targeting Elders | USAO-MN | Department of Justice — www.justice.gov
MINNEAPOLIS – A Florida woman has pleaded guilty to her role in a $300 million nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme that targeted elderly and vulnerable victims
Florida woman pleads guilty to $86M scam of elderly, vulnerable in MN - Bring Me The News — bringmethenews.com She was involved in a magazine telemarketing scam that netted $300 million from 150,000 people across the nation.
We’ve known for a long time that these operations exist and are too numerous to mention. I recently ran into one that was based in California. A quick internet search showed that they’ve hit a lot of people and yet, despite complaints that go back ten years, the operation is clearly still in business. How is that possible?
This is one part of the media business that clearly needs to clean up its act. We need to find a way to make it harder for scam artists to live off of the tail end of our business operations.
2___New marijuana magazine debuts at California dispensaries
Sweet Mary Zine: New Print Product Debuts At Marijuana Dispensaries 10/20/2022 — www.mediapost.com Sweet Mary Zine: New Print Product Debuts At Marijuana Dispensaries - 10/20/2022
A magazine with no specific distribution plans, frequency plans, print production plans? Hmmmm. Why does skeptical me think they are they “funning” us and have actual plans?
Or, are they really, really high?
My guess is the former. But I’m looking forward to seeing what the magazine looks like and learning more about it.
3___In office news, the 10 most puzzling apps in the US. According to Google
The Most Puzzling Office apps in the United States, According to Google — Business Mogul — www.thebusinessmogul.com As our workplaces become more digitized than ever, with hybrid or remote working taking off and the ‘digital nomad’ becoming more common, new data reveals the common office apps which cause workers the most confusion and sap the most productivity.
I confess to being unaware of the online only magazine, “Digital Adoption” so one good thing about this article is that now I have a really good source for information about sites, apps and technology.
The list is not surprising. Quickbooks is number 1 followed by MS Excel at number 2. Two other MS apps, One Drive (Seriously, if you know what One Drive is, drop me a line) and Teams drop in at 6 and 7 respectively.
Confession: I use five of the ten apps on the list. I’m on Excel all day. I reluctantly use Teams because some of my clients use Teams for our face to face meetings. My go to is Zoom and I recall being a bit confused when I first launched it. I am in DropBox all day, every day, but it's a set it and forget it app. Wordpress? I have an elderly Wordpress blog account and recent attempts to update it have led to an excessive amount of cursing and frightening our new foster dog.
4___US small businesses create their own supply chains
Small Businesses Build Their Own Supply Chains - The New York Times — www.nytimes.com They’re shifting to domestic sourcing and production, like some big manufacturers, but with at least one advantage the giants don’t have.
There’s nothing in this article about paper mills or any of the other supply chain hurdles that are impacting US magazine publishers. But there are interesting lessons here that we can apply to our business:
The first is that the just in time global supply chain and off-shoring strategy may not have been such a bright idea considering how fragile it was. I’d jump up on my chair and start shouting “I told you so! I told you so! But that would frighten our new foster dog and she's been through enough already.
Second, and far more important, small businesses are perfectly capable of innovating and creating their own supply chains, their own destinies. Can magazine publishers, especially those who wish to continue to print a paper version of their publication can’t “innovate” their way out of our current situation?
I'd certainly like to think so.
5___Document details plans for cuts to Twitter's workforce
Planned cuts at Twitter likely to hurt content moderation, user security - The Washington Post — www.washingtonpost.com
The impact of such layoffs would likely be felt immediately by millions of users
From what I see with many of my own magazine clients, Twitter is an easy platform to be on and to navigate, but not one that any of them seem to spend a lot of time developing.
That's too bad because my personal experience with the platform has been mostly enjoyable and I've made some pretty good long term connections. Everything with the platform is fine, providing I stay away from political Twitter.
Will the decline in revenue, the forced acquisition by Musk, the heavy staff cuts be the end of the platform? It’s possible. And if so, too bad. The original promise of the micro blogging platform was a good one.
Your Moment of Magazine Zen...
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Hey, Halloween is this week. Are you ready? Did you already break into your candy? No shame if you did. Just share the rest with your co-workers. I hear the local chain drugstore already has displays up for Christmas. You're good.