The taping issue

For those of you who follow Miami media, the firing of columnist Jim DeFede from The Miami Herald for taping former Miami City Commissioner Art Teele (who committed suicide in the lobby of the newspaper after talking with DeFede by phone) is a shock, but not entirely unpredictable. The same kind of law that makes it illegal for the cops to wiretap your home makes it illegal to record telephone conversations without permission. That's anybody, not just reporters.

Think what you may of DeFede's unfortunate situation, one basic move you can make to avoid trouble is, first off, ask permission tape any interview and, second, get that request and a solid "Yes, you can tape me" on the actual tape.

Then, if it weren't obvious, keep the tape. I generally don't record much. It makes for a lot of work later transcribing. But if you need to tape sources, and you do a lot of phone work, then a few simple questions on the record in advance can save you a lot of legal headaches later.

Interesting feedback

I talked recently with my brother, an executive at a major software company, and he had this to say about journalists and interviews:

1) Decent journalists nearly always get their interviews. Why? Because no one questions executives, particularly corner-office types. Whether they like it or not, high-power execs tend to get surrounded by yes-men and yes-women. Often, a journalist is the only one who can challenge their ideas. This, on the whole, is a good thing, he says. How do you get an interview? If your reputation preceeds you, often a phone call directly to the boss is enough. This is why developing a beat is important; people in the industries you cover should already know you, and Latin Trade.

2) Repeatedly getting the run-around, press flacks and lots of bureaucracy? Unless you're reporting from Mexico, where bureaucracy is pretty much business-as-usual, the reason why might startle you: The company doesn't trust you. This is because either a) they don't know you and/or your publication very well or b) more likely, you've written some dumb stuff in the past, and although they might want exposure, they fear you'll get it wrong.

So, what can you do? Short of simply being an ace reporter (always a good thing), you might try to convince your potential source in advance of your seriousness. The reputation of the magazine will get you something, but closing the deal means being serious, getting it straight and demonstrating that their information will arrive accurately and completely to our pages. Media is reality, folks, and no one is more cognizant of that these days than big companies. Play the game their way -- clear objectives, responsibility, professionalism -- and doors will open.

Big run

Reading over the last few handfuls of stories from our corries, I'm struck by the depth and quality of the interviews. We have ministers quoted low in logistics stories, CFOs going on the record and bank heads happy to talk about their view of interest rates and the Central Bank.

What's going on? Well, I'll tell you. We've had an amazing run of exclusives in the marquee spots of the magazine, and that has opened doors for us across the region. Like who, you ask? Why, thanks for asking...

Just counting issues since the beginning of 2005, our list of interviewees includes former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar (September), BankBoston Brazil President Geraldo Carbone (September), Chile Central Bank President Vittorio Corbo (September), Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications President Miles Flint (August), Kingston Technology CEO John Tu (August), Comunidad Andina de Fomento President Enrique García (August), LAN CEO Ernesto Videla (July), Carvajal CEO Alfredo Carvajal (July), Ambev CEO Carlos Brito (July), Gerdau CEO Jorge Gerdau Johannpeter (July), former Ecuadoran President Lucio Gutiérrez -- his last interview before leaving office (June), Banco Bradesco President Márcio Cypriano (May), Mexican Competition Commission Director Eduardo Pérez Motta (May), Martín Torrijos, President of Panama (April), Banco Santander Central Hispano Latin America CEO Francisco Luzón (April), Qualcomm CEO Irwin Jacobs (March), Mexican Finance Minister Francisco Gil Díaz (March), and former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso (January).

Chalk up that run about half to our dilligent correspondents, and half to the editors here in-house, banging on the doors and doing the perhaps obvious, like asking for interviews. Point is, don't assume that your Finance Minister, Central Banker, big-wheel CEO or even President won't talk to you. Assume that he or she will. You would be surprised who will walk through an open door.

Payment policy

You can read about the actual terms in detail at the link to the right, Accounting, but here is some more general direction:

Latin Trade pays 75 days after publication. That is, if your story is published on August 1, then your check should be mailed by October 15.

Example

Publication Payment

July 1 Sept. 15
Jan. 1 March 15
May 1 July 15

etc.

U.S. mail can take up to two weeks to arrive. Courier packages sent abroad take at least two days. Wires usually happen within a 24 hour time frame, but your bank could easily hold your money for several business days without telling us. So, generally, if you don't see money by a week or so after that date, please advise me.

If no money, advise me, and only me -- not the receptionist, the accountant or whoever answers the phone. Your editor, even, will only end up asking me your question, so on money issues, best to start here.

We've done two important things to simply tracking money through our various accounting systems:

1) Automated invoicing. Go here to find that.

2) Story slugs and invoice numbers.

The slug ("ra mcd0605," etc.) is key because it tells you and us several things immediately.

Example

ra = radar, so the story ran in the Radar section of the magazine

mcd = mcdonald's, so the story had to do with the fast-food chain

0605 = the story was published in June, 2005

By doing this, accounting knows instantly when each check should be paid. Also, the slug should begin to appear on your actual check stub, so if you have two or three stories combined in a check -- for you, a good thing, since it reduces transfer costs -- there will be a list on the stub to figure out what is being paid.

Example

ra mcd0605 $300
cu yur0605 $400
sp bog0605 $150

Check total would be $850.

If you are taking bank wires or having other people cash your checks, you won't see these. In my experience, leaving your accounting to other people -- whether a bank or your mom -- is the fastest road to tears and frustration. I learned early on in freelancing to sign all my own checks, and that's about the only way. But, I understand that people have other problems to solve.

How to invoice:

Wait for an editor to send you a final version of the story, a readback. Once you have that final readback, you know the story is on its way to publication, and that the slug is final, ie, not going to change. Many times, stories are slugged one month but are moved. Sometimes, it's because the writer is not finished with the story, a source bails out or other problems. Sometimes, although less often, we simply lose pages in the magazine and have to delay.

For that reason, wait until you get a readback to invoice via the automated online system.

Once you are ready to invoice -- and I will be paying only invoices in that system, so it's important that you file there consistently -- you will need to create an invoice number. Why? Because the fastest way for accounting to find a missing payment is to associate your name with a number in their system.

Example

ra mcd0605 Greg Brown Invoice No. 34

In this case, accounting knows that you asked to paid for something, and their best way to search is to look for the number 34. Your choice of numbers is not important, but it should be something you can track consistently on your own (1,2,3, etc). Crazy numbers like "9i76ghj" or non-numbers like "beer story" might seem funny for a moment, but it won't get you paid quickly, and getting you paid is my goal.

If you really don't want to get involved in your own money and accounting, that's fine, but don't expect us to jump when you have problems digging up your payments eight months down the road. We'll figure it out, but it's going to take longer.

Ahead of the game

So why bother to interview a little chip company in San Diego? Because are they changing the market, and not everyone is happy about it...

Today on siliconvalley.com, part of the San Jose Mercury News:

Broadcom has filed another lawsuit against Qualcomm, adding an antitrust complaint to the patent infringement and fair trade charges it's already made against the wireless technology firm. In this latest lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Jersey, the broadband semiconductor manufacturer alleges that Qualcomm abused the wireless technology standards-setting process, broke federal antitrust law by failing to license its 3G technology "on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms" and engaged in anticompetitive business practices.
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Excellent work on this big trend in wireless, the standards fight, from Spanish Editor Andrés F. Velázquez, in our March edition. A Q&A from their CEO was revealing, too, also a AFV production, although Qualcomm asked me -- for protocol reasons -- to come sit down with the boss. Happy to do it, and a nice package resulted.

Scoop!

New York Times yesterday...seems Latin American countries are looking at high commodities prices and trying to get a cut of the cash by raising royalties...

July 5, 2005
Energy-Rich Nations Are Raising Price of Foreign Admittance

By JUAN FORERO
LA PAZ, Bolivia - For centuries, this country made it easy for prospectors to mine - from the Spaniards who plundered gold to the tin barons of the 19th century to the multinational energy companies that flocked here in the 1990's to develop Latin America's second-largest natural gas deposits. But like many energy-producing countries these days, Bolivia has pulled back the welcome mat. With an angry population demanding a larger share of the benefits, and some groups even calling for expropriation, the government recently raised royalties and taxes to among the highest levels in Latin America.

It might appear to be an exceptional episode of revolutionary zeal translated into energy policy. But Bolivia is just the latest of several oil-and-gas-producing countries in Latin America and beyond that are squeezing energy companies as never before. With prices of crude oil and natural gas at record highs, and ideology increasingly propelling government policy makers, producing nations are demanding a larger part of the mineral wealth. In some cases, they are canceling long-term contracts that gave energy companies highly favorable terms. "They think that since there is more revenue coming in, they can take a much harder line in negotiations," said Lawrence J. Goldstein, president of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation, an industry-financed analysis group in New York. "In some cases, they don't even need to negotiate."
More (registration required)...

Latin Trade in our June issue, reported, edited and off to the presses months before...thanks to a great idea from Jorge Garretón in Chile, excellent multi-country reporting from Paulo Prada in Rio, and the dilligence and energy of News Editor Forrest Jones to pull it all together...well done indeed!

A Royal Mess
Commodities have long been the bread and butter of Latin American economies, but the price of political instability in decades past has been ironclad promises of investment security and, always, low taxes. As Chinese demand has spiraled upward, however, doubling prices on staples like oil and minerals, politicians both left and right across the region are looking for ways to rewrite their longstanding royalties deals with foreign extraction companies.

Political leaders in Venezuela have forced royalties on foreign oil companies up to nearly 16.7% from 1%. (A royalty is the cut of a profit a country takes from an oil or mining project.) Chile, which put promises of non-interference in its Constitution to lure mining investment, is considering an increase to 5% from zero now. Brazilian politicians want to raise royalties to 10% from 3%. Everywhere you look, the push is the same: High prices mean different rules.

Nowhere is the debate more divisive than in Bolivia, a country where calls for higher royalties on natural gas - an effective 50% cut in profits - have escalated into protests, crippling the country repeatedly. In March, President Carlos Mesa, a political moderate, offered to resign amid roadblocks and marches as protestors urged the government to hike the fees foreign companies pay for extracting natural gas. His predecessor, former President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, resigned in 2003 after similar protests turned violent.

The intensity of the debate in Bolivia underscores the dilemma governments face when considering raising royalties: Will the short-term income derived from higher payments outweigh the cost of increasing the burden on potential foreign investors? "Governments have to decide between the quick money higher royalties can bring and the broader economic good that long-term commitments by investors can provide,'' says Mark T. Nesbitt, a natural resources attorney in Denver, Colorado.
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