MFM

Included in this year’s group of People to Watch chosen annually by the Media Financial Management Association are three from TV: Nexstar’s Tim Busch, NBC Owned Stations’ Christine Dorfler and Fox Sports’ John Charlton.

A Distance Learning Seminar organized by Media Financial Management Association (MFM) will provide an accounting update for media companies. Scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 10, from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. ET, […]

Companies are required by state laws to try to reunite ex-employees and others with unclaimed property — prizes, credits, wages, shares of stock and other assets. And with states looking to close their budget deficits, there’s been an uptick in auditing activities designed to discover businesses that may not be complying and collect penalties.

The first meeting for the 2012-13 group is scheduled for Aug. 9 in Chicago.

The recent settlement reached between the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and the Television Music License Committee reduces the fees paid by station to ASCAP for both blanket and per-program license fees for 2012 through 2016. In addition, the new licenses will cover all broadcasts by stations, including both primary channel broadcasts and those made on [multicast] secondary digital channels.

A growing number of young adults born between 1980 and 1995 — Gen Y — are purchasing over-the-air antennas to watch television programming. Gen Ys are inherently more adept at, and prone to, experimenting with alternative forms of viewing TV content; they are less likely to accept the need to subscribe to subscription-based pay TV once they’re free to make their own decisions about it.

Too often, when we pass up on informal and formal activities to aid our professional development for the sake of a pending project, we are also sacrificing the contribution these educational opportunities could be making to the success of our organizations.

Cox’s Neil Johnston and Katz Media’s Robert Damon to co-chair the Feb. 23-24 gathering in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

You can’t prevent natural and man-made disasters, but you can mitigate their impact on your business by preparing for emergencies and making sure you have insurance to cover the loss of property and revenue caused by service disruptions.

The annual seminar is designed to help in preparing budgets for next year with discussions and presentations on the outlook for digital ad platforms; ad spending projections; and general overviews of what to expect in 2012 in broadcasting, print and online media.

One of the most important ingredients to the success of any business is employee engagement. Here are a variety of strategies you can use to measure, set goals and improve this vital component. And don’t forget the importance of commnication: “The tone comes from the top. People may doubt what I say, but they always believe what I do,” advises Keen CFOs’ Bill Keenan.

Knowing the facts and developing the very best credit practices are essential for optimizing your ad sales operation. Eliminating old misperceptions can help media companies develop better compensation and credit liability practices that protect their own interests while fostering a win-win relationship with valuable industry players.

At Media Finance Focus 2011 (May 15-17 in Atlanta), the MFM and its BCCA subsidiary will recognize 11 industry executives who have aided the organization, made significant contributions to the media industries and inspired others. The award recipients: William Fitzsimmons, Michael Denson, Robin Szabo, Dwight Delapenha, Robert Amos, William Waters, Dean Rohrbaugh, George Stella, Wanda Borges, Bruce Nathan and Peter Gallo.

The bundling of services presents new accounting challenges for properly recognizing revenue from multiplatform content distribution deals. Things have changed from the days of broadcast-only deals for programming, when accountants used tried-and-true standards maintained by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

We may not be able to put a moratorium on new media, but we can incorporate it into the time-shifting and TV everywhere solutions that capitalize on the changes in consumer behavior they are creating. More help in understanding the new media will be available at the MFM annual conference in Atlanta in May.

As you rush to respond to the dual pressures of year-end deadlines and the many expectations inherent in the holiday season, I urge you to take a few minutes to reflect on ways you can be a better boss and can help foster the best management practices within your organization.

Measures such as streamlining and automating much of the credit application process and involving ad sales in ongoing monitoring of their clients’ risk profile have reduced the time required to provide credit approvals and created a transparent and consistent credit and collections process.