Nonprofit station names new president
Lagging sales may bring back the kind of heavy discounts that boosted sales last year.
Nonprofit classical music station KMFA-FM 89.5 has named Ann Hume Wilson president and general manager, the station’s board of trustees said Friday.
Wilson has been the station’s interim general manager since mid-October. In her new role, she will oversee station management and operations, audience development, fundraising, outreach and marketing, as well as working with the board and staff to develop and implement long-range planning and strategy.
Wilson comes to KMFA following three years as executive director of the Grammynominated choral ensemble Conspirare. Prior to joining Conspirare, Wilson was associate director of the Blanton Museum of Art. NEW YORK — If shoppers don’t show up in stores soon, more 70 percent off sale signs will.
After a promising start to the holiday shopping season over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, sales have slowed as worries about weak U.S. job growth and other concerns have caused Americans to spend less.
That puts pressure on J.C. Penney, Macy’s and other stores, which had been offering fewer discounts this season than they did last year, to step up promotions to lure shoppers like Ron Antonette from Long Beach, Calif.
of Long Beach, Calif.
Antonette so far has spent about $1,000 on Legos, a Wii U game console and Apple’s iPad Mini tablet computer for his two young children. Even though that’s just half of what he planned to spend for the season, Antonette has stopped shopping over fears that Congress and the White House won’t reach a budget deal by January. A stalemate would trigger tax increases and spending cuts known as the “fiscal cliff.”
“I basically stopped moving forward in buying,” said Antonette, 44, who runs a small public relations business and worries that he might not be able to take mortgage deductions on his house next year. “I feel like we’re in financial limbo.”
Antonette isn’t the only shopper who feels that way. Mike Duke, CEO of Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, said that in a poll last month of the chain’s low- to middleincome shoppers, an overwhelming majority was aware of the threat of higher taxes. And some said it would lead them to cut back their holiday buying, he said.
Overall, holiday sales are up 2.2 percent to $659 billion from Nov. 1 through last Saturday, according to an analysis of sales data done for