Big Time Companies, like Sur La Table And Pier 1, Are Filing For Bankruptcy

Photo Credit: 13 WIBW (Source MGN) (WILX)

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and these extremely unprecedented times, big time companies are filing for bankruptcy all around the world. “I’m pretty confident we will see more bankruptcies than in any businessperson’s lifetime.” said James Hammond, CEO of New Generation Research, which runs BankruptcyData.

The Seattle-based home and cooking retailer, Sur La Table, has filled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reports Forbes. The company will close more than one-third of its stores and is negotiating with Investment Companies to sell the remaining locations.

The Japanese retailer known for office supplies and home goods, Muji, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on July 9. With this, the retailer is offering furniture rentals to cater to those working from home for as low as $7/month.

In January, Pier 1 said it planned to close up to 450 stores. With the push of the coronavirus pandemic, home decor retailer Pier 1 Imports, announced in a press release, that it is "pursuing a sale" by voluntarily filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. In May, the company announced its shut down after failing to find a buyer.

Clothing retailer, J. Crew, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and plans to convert $1.65 billion of its debt into equity.

Texas-based name brand retailer, Neiman Marcus, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, explaining "inexorable pressure" from the coronavirus pandemic.

The American department store, JCPenny, filed for bankruptcy and will close about 30% of its stores due to pandemic-related disruptions.

GNC, Pennsylvania-based American company selling health and nutrition related products, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy announcing the plan to close roughly 1,000 stores while it looked for a buyer. 248 stores that would close immediately had been announced.

Brooks Brothers, the oldest men's clothier in the United States, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and plans to close 51 stores while seeking a buyer.

The largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy thus far has been the car-rental company, Hertz.

There are many more companies filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as the pandemic takes its toll.

Bari Weiss, From New York Times, Resigns From Opinion Writing

Bari Weiss
Photo Credit: Twitter

In 2017, Bari Weiss joined the New York Times as an Opinion writer in an effort to broaden the opinion staffs beliefs and ideas after President Trump’s inauguration. On Tuesday, Bari Weiss resigned from New York Times, denouncing the work environment as “hostile”.

“The paper of record is, more and more, the record of those living in a distant galaxy, one whose concerns are profoundly removed from the lives of most people,” she wrote. “Nowadays, standing up for principle at the paper does not win plaudits. It puts a target on your back.”

In a lengthy resignation letter shared on Weiss’s website, Weiss accused the company of neglecting its principles to “satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions.” With this, Weiss criticized the Times for not standing up for her after she was “bullied” by fellow staff members via Twitter.

“They have called me a Nazi and a racist,” she wrote, “I have learned to brush off comments about how I’m ‘writing about the Jews again.’ Several colleagues perceived to be friendly with me were badgered by coworkers. My work and my character are openly demeaned on company-wide Slack channels where masthead editors regularly weigh in,” she wrote.

Andrew Sullivan, prominent conservative commentator, also announced on Tuesday that he will move on from New York magazine with Bari Weiss.

Amazon Joins Other Retailers In Removing Washington Redskins Merchandise

Photo Credit: Dicks Sporting Goods

Major retailers, including, Dicks Sporting Goods, Nike, Walmart, Target and now Amazon, have stopped selling Washington Redskins merchandise nationwide. This came after the football teams announcement on Friday, July 2, shared that FedEx, sponsor of the team's stadium in Landover, Maryland, formally asked the team to change its name. The team is undergoing a name evaluation due to the consideration of it being a racial slur disparaging to Native Americans.

Walmart said in a statement on Twitter that they would “discontinuing the sale of items that referenced the team’s name and logo”. On Wednesday, Amazon joined in and sent a note to sellers that they were required to discontinue the team’s merchandise from the site, a spokesperson confirmed to CBS News.

On Wednesday, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, asked the retailer to remove any additional merchandise featuring offensive slurs and images, including Cleveland Indians merchandise. The MLB team recently said it would also consider a possible name change.

Rebranding of both teams has been a topic of discussion for years, and recent protests have sparked the renewed interest. "We have been talking to the NFL and sharing our concerns regarding the name of the Washington team," Nike told CBS News on Thursday. "We are pleased to see the team taking a first step towards change."

PepsiCo and Bank of America also encouraged the change.

MSNBC's, Joy Reid, Named the New Host of The 7 P.M. Weeknight Hour

Photo Credit: Facebook / Joy Reid

On Thursday, MSNBC announced Joy Reid’s new role for the 7 P.M. weeknight hour, The ReidOut. Joy Reid is a political analyst and host, who will be the first black woman to host a nightly evening news show. The time slot was previously anchored by Chris Matthews, who announced his retirement in March.

The ReidOut will feature one-on-one conversations with politicians, covering all political issues of the day, as well as one-on-one conversations with newsmakers. The show will debut on July 20.

A replacement for Reid’s weekend show "AM Joy," will be named this fall.

Reid also recently wrote the New York Times best-seller The Man Who Sold America: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story.

Former Fox News Anchor, Shepard Smith, Joins CNBC To Host Evening News Program

Shepard Smith, former News Anchor for Fox News, joined CNBC to anchor a new one-hour evening news program, The News with Shepard Smith. Smith had been with Fox News from the beginning as an assignment reporter. Working his way through, he had advanced as a senior correspondent, chief news anchor and managing editor.

"Some of the top names among the news side at Fox" have been "leaving voluntarily one by one," a former staffer pointed out, as a majority of the network has been taken over by Donald Trump. In March 2018, Smith resigned a contract with Fox News, and told Time magazine in an interview, that the job has been “more challenging“ during Trumps presidency “and more challenging is more fun.”

CNN’s Brian Stelter reported that Smith “couldn’t take it anymore” and “had been marginalized” by Fox News.

The News with Shepard Smith, will air Monday through Friday at 7pm ET, starting this fall. In the meantime, Smith will take time off to spend with his family.

Smith will also become the CNBC’s chief general news anchor and chief breaking general news anchor, as well as executive editor of the nightly newscast.

“Gathering and reporting the news has been my life’s work,” Smith said in a statement. “I am honored to continue to pursue the truth, both for CNBC’s loyal viewers and for those who have been following my reporting for decades in good times and in bad.”

Reddit Bans Hate Speech In Act Against 'The Donald' Subreddit

Photo Credit: The New York Times

On Monday, June 29, Reddit finally decided to ban hate speech after a yearlong debate. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman announced that ‘The Donald’, home to 790,000 subscribers, has failed to “meet our most basic expectations.”

Reddit is known as one of the largest social networking and message board websites. The community or “subreddit,” called “The_Donald,” is known to share videos and messages in support of Donald Trump. Reddit executives said the group had consistently broken its rules by allowing people to target and harass others with hate speech.

“Reddit is a place for community and belonging, not for attacking people,” said Steve Huffman, the company’s chief executive. ‘‘The_Donald’ has been in violation of that.”

As part of a crackdown on hate speech, Reddit is also banning roughly 2,000 other political communities. Twitch, a video-game broadcasting and viewing platform, shared a few examples of "offending content" from Trump's account, including a campaign rally in 2016 and a recent campaign event in Tulsa, Oklahoma, both of which showed the president making racist comments about Mexican Americans.

How To Find A New Person In The Media For Getting The Word Out

If you are looking for media contacts, aka "people who work in the media that you really want to write about your business," you’ve come to the right place! Tin Shinglers with a Media Kit Membership have access to our database full of hundreds of contacts from LA contacts to contacts for food!

Here's the thing - you might not know hat media outlet to hit up. You might not know about a local newspaper or obscure podcast. So Tin Shingle built a search tool for that!

Let's say you are looking for media contacts for people who write about local businesses in and around Los Angeles.

You would log into your member account at Tin Shingle, and go to the Media Contact Idea Center.

From there, you'd see this easy box that says "Areas of Interest," and you'd start typing LA or Los Angeles.

A list of suggestions would begin coming up.

We made a little video for you to show you what we mean…

Is The Facebook Ad Boycott Still Happening? And Should It Be Forever?

During the past week, more than 500 companies, like The North Face and Rei, joined the campaign of boycotting Facebook ads with the intent of placing pressure on Facebook to take a stronger stance against hate speech.

The current boycott is like nothing Facebook has experienced before. The Anti-Defamation League launched a #StopHateForProfit campaign asking companies to stop their advertising. “Let’s send Facebook a powerful message: Your profits will never be worth promoting hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism and violence,” the campaign’s site reads. Hundreds of companies joined in. “When we re-engage will depend on Facebook’s response,” Levi Strauss CMO Jen Sey wrote in a blog post.

This began in June after advocacy groups and others began pushing for Facebook to refrain from sharing hateful content such as ads featuring nazi symbols from President Donald Trump and white nationalist content from Red Ice TV. More specifically, calls were spurred by posts from President Trump responding to the demonstrations against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, including one in which he suggested the “THUGS” protesting should be shot.

Owner & Co-Founder, Katie James, shared that,

“Facebook Ads have long been censored. The reason that they state is that the content is too controversial or divisive. In my experience, this has been for an inter-faith group meeting after a church received white supremacy flyers posted onto their church in October 2017, and most recently, an article about Beacon’s Mayor giving his decision about moving a memorial bench. Both were declined to be paid.

So for Facebook to say that they are not into censorship is false. They do censor. And they should censor. All media publications should and do censor. One cannot possibly publish everything, so natural censorship happens all of the time when left on the cutting room floor. But to not censor hate speech of the president of the United States is bias and wrong. Clearly they support it, if they will not censor it.”

Tin Shingle has always advocated not to put all of your eggs into one basket. Right now, Facebook is not only controlling the levers with which you can reach people, but it is developing the feeling of a bad taste in your mouth. They’ve had that stigma for years, but their recent lack of censorship added to the amount of frustration that people unleash on that platform, leaves it all gross. Do you really want your brand to be there?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees: "My guess is that all of these advertisers will be back on the platform soon enough," according to The Information.

PR Lead: TV Opportunity For Care Packages (Deadline Friday...Ok Maybe Saturday)

TV Opportunity For Care Packages

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: DUE BY 11AM EST SATURDAY

On-Air expert Sabina Hitchen is looking to showcase small businesses on a national news show that would air later in July. This is a Pure PR Opportunity (aka "no-fee"... it's actual press)

Her very specific guidelines are below:

OPPORTUNITY

National news show seeks care packages that people can send to their friends and loved ones. This must be a company that produces and ships care packages.This is not for products that would be a good fit inside of a care package (although, that's a great concept and we can TuneUp it at another time!). Your business must be a care package business.

GREAT THEMES INCLUDE BUT NOT LIMITED TO:

• Friend's Birthday

• Parents Anniversary

• Cheer Up - Stress Relief

• Depressed and Lonely - need a cheer up

• Graduation

• New House

• Kids Box

• Babysitter In A Box

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

You'll want to have inventory in stock. Website ready for orders.

PITCHING TIPS & ETIQUETTE

• Tailor your pitch to this show's audience and be clear regarding what you're offering.

• Get to the point very quickly and use bullets when possible to highlight the unique selling points of your product.

• Include links to exactly what you are referring to. Do not rely on anyone to dig through your website.

• Do not pitch this if you are letting the contact know about your company in general, but don't have a solid offering to share.

• Introduce yourself. People looking to fill spots are people just like you and appreciate manners.

• Include an image of your product in the body of the email.

• Do not pitch this is your business is not a great fit.

• Tin Shingle is not responsible in any way for you performance in this opportunity This will be between you and the contact.

CONTACT
Email info@tinshingle.com with your pitch.

FOLLOW THESE GUIDELINES ON FOLLOWING UP

Please do not follow up via email or phone. It will not improve your chances for submission or being chosen.

If your product is selected, you will be notified about next steps.

If you need help on your pitch, or if you are constantly not hearing back, do listen to this TuneUp:
How To Write The Perfect Pitch to Land Amazing Press (Template Included!)

Tin Shingle is not affiliated with any lead unless otherwise specified.

Friends of Tin Shingle Who Sell Face Masks

As we enter the period of reopening, people are anxious to get back to normal life, however, we must keep in mind that social distancing and safety measures are still in effect. For the foreseeable future, we are required to wear face masks when social distancing and safety measures are hard to do. Like, going to the grocery store, post office, etc. As we phase into restaurant dining, store openings, etc., you might be coming out of your house more which means, you’re going to need a lot of different face masks! An easy solution is to keep a face covering in your car(s), in your purse, on your key rack, etc. You may have already noticed the new dice hanging above the dashboard in cars - yup - it’s the face mask.

For many years, plain white face masks have been worn in China. A little crazy that they never became a fashion statement! Nowadays, masks must match outfits, right? During this pandemic crisis, the CDC has issued new guidelines that relax the fabric and construction requirements of a traditional medical mask for a person wearing a face covering in a socially distanced situation out in public. The CDC and the Surgeon General of the United States of America even allow bandanas or T-shirt material folded in a special way and secured with rubber bands around the ears.

Not only can we wear stylish face coverings, we can buy them from an army of makers, including friends of Tin Shingle! Below is a list of Tin Shingle’s mask makers.

Please note, these coverings and masks are not medical grade. Use CDC guidelines and use FDA-approved items if possible and these only as a last resort. These products have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. These masks are not an N95 Respirator. Use these products at your own risk.

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LuLuBdesign

LuluBdesign makes LuLuwrap from silk chiffon, a fabric that is airy, sheer and lightweight. Silk chiffon is considered a premium fabric because of its shimmer, smooth texture and its strength despite being very lightweight. While wearing it you feel luxuriously sexy!

SHOP MASKS HERE.

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EFFIES PAPER

Effie’s Paper is a lifestyle brand setting the trend for the cool accessories to buy, how to travel in style and how much coffee it’s chic to drink on a daily basis. Effie’s Paper is a Minority Owned Women Business Enterprise and Kalyn (owner) is a recent graduate of the prestigious Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program.

SHOP MASKS HERE.

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INNER BEAUTY EFFECTS

Inner Beauty Effects is a Hudson Valley based fashion design company, who for a brief period rented a hallway studio in Atlas Studios in Newburgh to conduct podcasts with women entrepreneurs. Originally they made durable bags with an exciting pop of fabric on the inside. Now they are making face masks in pleasant fabrics you’ll feel good about wearing around. Inner Beauty Effects is also selling surface & hand sanitizer! Free shipping on 3 or more masks with code: FREESHIP

SHOP MASKS HERE.

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TARA MCPHERSON

Tara McPherson is a well known artist who moved to Beacon with her family. People collect her art as stickers, posters, dolls, board games, etc. Now her art is collectable as a face mask. Learn more about the meaning of her paintings here. “Tara exhibits her paintings and serigraphs in fine art galleries all over the world. Named the crown princess of poster art by ELLE Magazine, she has created numerous gig posters for rock bands such as Beck, The Pixies, and Metallica. She has worked with Sony Pictures Animation doing character designs & creative development. Her array of art also includes a variety of toys with Kidrobot, painted covers for DC Vertigo Comics, advertising illustrations for Wyden+Kennedy, Barton F Graf, Publicis, and Bernstein Andrulli. She taught in the Illustration department at Parsons in NYC for 4 years.”

SHOP MASKS HERE

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