Covid Is Good Reason to Finally Fix Dreaded Earnings Calls
It’s a format that serves no one, and yet every 13 weeks it arrives just the same. When I half-jokingly tweeted about this last week, I was surprised not by how many people felt the same, but that some responses said to do away with earnings calls altogether. That would also be a mistake.
These conference calls are a chance to hear from some of the most powerful people in business — leaders who have a remarkable vantage point when it comes to what’s happening in the broader economy. In normal times, the discussions can be fascinating, especially when executives ditch the robotic jargon. Since the coronavirus hit, they’ve become even more illuminating, offering some of the best insights into the various ways that the pandemic has altered society and who’s been hurt most. Randall Stephenson’s final call as CEO of AT&T Inc. is one such example.
Netflix Inc. also has an interesting approach. In lieu of a widely held conference call, each quarter one analyst conducts a pre-taped 35- to 45-minute virtual video interview with Netflix executives that gets released on YouTube following the financial results:
In a fast-moving public-heath and economic crisis, last quarter’s report card feels stale and can’t be used as a barometer to forecast what’s to come. That makes the calls indispensable. (And incidentally, it’s why I wrote on Friday that shareholders would be better served if Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. held its own earnings calls, instead of waiting to hear from him at the once-a-year annual meeting and occasional TV interview.) Also, as the national work-from-home experiment continues, with parents juggling round-the-clock office hours, kitchen hours and parenting hours, time is precious. Analysts and investors often have to cover numerous earnings filings and calls a day, and so it’s no surprise that so many research reports hit our inboxes in the middle of the night. Leaving the calls as purely Q&A forums would be more productive, as would saving certain questions that get too in the weeds for a discussion offline with an investor-relations representative.
A word that gets thrown around a lot lately is “unprecedented” — these unprecedented times, an unprecedented crisis, etc. It’s all the more reason to hear directly from the people who can help the world better understand what’s going on and what’s needed to recover. In another 13 weeks, let’s see who’s up to the challenge.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Tara Lachapelle is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the business of entertainment and telecommunications, as well as broader deals. She previously wrote an M&A column for Bloomberg News.02
How to transition from classic to new Google Sites
If you’re a site owner or a G Suite administrator, learn how to upgrade your classic Sites to new Sites smoothly.
Google recently announced the transition from classic to new Google Sites will be completed by the end of 2021. Starting in mid-August 2020, when people access sites.google.com, the system will take them to the new Google Sites (sites.google.com/new) instead of the classic Google Sites (sites.google.com/classic).
If G Suite administrators and Google Site owners take no action at all before the end of 2021, then visitors will no longer be able to access classic Google Sites–a new, converted version of each classic Google Site will be available for site owners to review and then publish. See Google’s Transition from classic Sites to new Sites support page for a detailed timeline of the transition process.What’s Hot at TechRepublic
However, prudent G Suite administrators and site owners may take several steps today to transition from classic to new Google Sites. The steps detailed below will ensure that you not only preserve classic Google Site data but also support site owners through the upgrade process.How administrators can enable new Google Sites
A G Suite administrator may control which people within their organization can use Google Sites. In most cases, I recommend that Google Sites be enabled for everyone within the organization. To enable new Google Sites, access admin.google.com with a G Suite administrator account, sign in, then select Apps, then G Suite, then Sites. Make sure the Service status is ON (either for everyone, as in Figure A, or for selected organizational units) and that both Site Creation And Editing and Users Can Create New Sites are checked.
SEE: Google Sheets: Tips and tricks (TechRepublic download) How administrators can prevent creation of classic Sites
A G Suite administrator also will likely want to prevent people from creating additional classic Google Sites (Figure A). As above, access admin.google.com with a G Suite administrator account, sign in, then select Apps, then G Suite, then Sites. Click (or tap) in the section Sharing Settings – Classic Sites, then click (or tap) the pencil icon next to Site creation. Select “Users At [your domain] Cannot Create Sites,” then select Save.
Figure A
In most cases, a G Suite administrator will want to enable Google Sites for everyone. The administrator may choose to prevent the creation of additional classic Google Sites, while also allowing people to create new Google Sites.How to review classic Google Sites
Go to the Classic Sites Manager to display a list of classic sites. For each site, the list identifies the site owner, the date the site was last edited, and the number of site views in the past 30 days. This list identifies exactly how many classic Google Sites you may need to convert, rebuild, or delete (Figure B).
Figure B
The Classic Sites Manager helps you identify the status of classic Sites you may need to convert, rebuild, or delete.
You may export the displayed list of classic Google Sites to a Google Sheet. This data may help site owners or G Suite administrators track each site’s status during the review and conversion process. To export the list, scroll to the bottom of the Classic Sites Manager page, then select Export To Google Sheets.How to preserve Google Sites data
Before you take any actions on these sites, I recommend you first export and preserve classic Google Site data. Go to https://takeout.google.com, choose Deselect All, scroll down the page to Classic Sites, select the checkbox, then scroll to the bottom of the page and select Next Step. You may then choose a delivery method (I suggest you choose Add To Drive) and modify the frequency, file type & size if desired–although in most cases, the default options for a one-time export make sense. Next, select Create Export.
You’ll receive an email notification when the export is complete. This export ensures you at least have the core contents of your classic Google Sites before you make any changes.How to convert, rebuild, or delete
For many sites, the Conversion Tool helps you streamline the migration from classic to new sites.
Click anywhere in the row next to a site name, then select the Conversion Tool to start the process.
If the system identifies any items that merit attention, it displays a warning. For example, classic Google Sites supported gadgets, page-level permissions, unlimited levels of subpages, and visitor comments, while new Google Sites allows embedded content, Site sharing controls, a limit of five subpages, and no support for visitor comments. See Google’s Compare new Sites & classic Sites support page for a feature-by-feature comparison of the two tools. Review the warning items and address any concerns before you continue.
In many cases, you may simply step through the conversion process (Figure C). Select the box to share the site with the same people, select Start. The system will create a draft version in the new Google Sites and send an email to you when the draft is ready. Review the draft content in the new Google Sites, make any desired changes, then Publish when ready.
Figure C
The Conversion Tool walks you step-by-step through the conversion process from classic Sites to new Sites.
Alternatively, you may choose to build a new version of a classic site. A rebuild makes sense when you want to modify or update the content from your classic site. This process is less automated and more manual. You’d need to create a new Google Site, then add pages and copy/paste or add content, as needed.
Of course, if you no longer need a site, you may delete it. On the Classic Sites Manager page, select the box to the left of the name of the classic Google Site, then choose Delete. Review the displayed message, then choose Continue to delete the site. As with the conversion process, you’ll receive an email notification when the selected site(s) have been deleted.What are your classic to new Google Sites transition plans?
If you or people in your organization still use classic Google Sites, what are your plans to transition these sites? Do you plan to upgrade from classic to new Google Sites as soon as possible? And, if you’ve used the Site conversion tool, what has your experience been? Let me know how you have found the process of moving from classic to new Google Sites–either leave a note in the comments or on Twitter (@awolber).Google Weekly Newsletter
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A new version of ‘The Secret Garden’ wants to remind you of the healing power of nature
Dixie Egerickx is Mary in the latest screen adaptation of the beloved story “The Secret Garden.” (STXfilms/StudioCanal)
Like “Little Women” and “A Christmas Carol,” “The Secret Garden” has become a story that gets retold and reimagined for each generation. Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 novel, which follows a spoiled young girl named Mary who comes to live with her uncle in Yorkshire after the death of her parents, has captivated readers for more than a century.
Among the numerous adaptations are a classic 1949 MGM version directed by Fred M. Wilcox and Agnieszka Holland’s colorful rendition of the story in 1993, which earned Maggie Smith a supporting actress BAFTA nomination. For Rosie Alison, a producer at David Heyman’s Heyday Films, this felt like the right time to both revisit Mary’s story and put a fresh spin on it.
“It just feels like it’s a really rich, potent, deep story and that it hasn’t been treated with its full imaginative potential,” said Alison, speaking on the set of the film two years ago in London. “It was hovering in our minds at Heyday as something that we wanted to do. This was the chance to make something more imaginative, more vividly subjective from a child’s-eye point of view, that’s more fantastical and immersive but also more psychologically rich and layered.”
Alison tapped Jack Thorne, the screenwriter and playwright responsible for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” to write the script, which needed to be slightly updated to reflect the expectations of today’s audiences (including making a dramatic shift to the ending).
The idea was to reset the narrative in 1947 on the eve of the Indian Partition, moving it forward in time from the original early 20th century setting to allow the story to feel more present and to capitalize on the state of ruin in Britain following World War II. The story needed to be told from Mary’s perspective, which meant following her for several scenes on her own. Thorne suggested adding a dog, who Mary, played by young actress Dixie Egerickx, discovers injured on the moors and befriends.
Story continues
“I reread it and I’d forgotten how subversive and difficult and a bit dangerous it was,” Thorne said of the story. “And how complicated of a character Mary was. I’m always attracted to films about kids and why they’re not perfect. Mary is so far from perfect. The main thing that I pitched that they liked was I said, ‘I want this to be Mary’s film.’ So much of the book is her on her own dealing with herself, and I really want to understand Mary as much as possible…
“I wanted to bring in a dog so she could have a journey with herself before she had a journey with the other two [kids]. It’s still about the three of them making themselves better, but it’s also about Mary making herself better on her own and what nature can do.”Dixie Egerickx with a dog in “The Secret Garden.” (STXfilms/StudioCanal)
After the death of her parents in India, Mary is shipped home and brought to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle Archibald Craven (Colin Firth). She’s angry and difficult, often butting heads with the housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock (Julie Walters). The film, directed by Marc Munden, is very much about Mary discovering herself as she explores the grounds surrounding the massive house.
It’s Mary’s encounter with a locked garden, which once belonged to her mother and her aunt, Archibald’s late wife, that allows her to finally open up and find friendship with Archibald’s son, Colin (Edan Hayhurst), and local boy Dickon (Amir Wilson). To create the garden, the filmmakers decided to shoot pieces of various real gardens around the U.K. to give the effect that Misselthwaite’s garden is boundless, a reflection of Mary’s imagination rather than reality.
“I wanted us to be immersed in the garden with the children and through their eyes,” Munden said. “I didn’t want it to be fantastical in the sense of it being supernatural or Harry Potter-type magical, but I wanted to bring out and enhance the natural beauty of it and show the diverse range of gardens we have on our little island. It was really about trying to find all the elements that were extraordinary and unique and would delight and inspire a child. It’s a healing garden — they’re healed by nature in some ways. You never know really know how big it is, but the idea is that once they’re in it, it goes on and on.”Dixie Egerickx, left, Edan Hayhurst and Amir Wilson in “The Secret Garden.” (STXfilms/StudioCanal)
The production traveled from the Yorkshire Moors to locations including Bodnant in North Wales, the Trebah Gardens in Cornwall, Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean and Iford Manor in Somerset. Some of the gardens were augmented by production designer Grant Montgomery using fake plants and flowers, as well as minimal CGI, but much of what’s onscreen reflects what exists around the U.K.
“It’s amazing when you think about it how few films really do capture nature,” Alison said. “When we’ve been trying to find references for moments when people go into a big, beautiful landscape and then exalt in it, there are surprisingly few. Especially when you consider that cinema’s greatest gift is to photograph nature. We’re trying to marry the natural world with very natural-looking visual effect. We don’t want it to look fake or CGI — we just want to give that enhancement to nature.”
Added Egerickx, who was cast from hundreds of kids auditioning for Mary, “It was stuff I didn’t even know existed in the U.K. And it definitely helped because it added to the wonder of it. That’s a big bit of the film and I was feeling that in real life. They were all really beautiful and I wouldn’t have got that if they had just been on a set.”
After Heyday wrapped production on the film, shot in the exterior gardens, a manor house in Yorkshire and on sets at Pinewood Studios in the spring of 2018, Munden spent several months in the editing and postproduction process, finishing the film in the spring of 2019. Originally, the movie was set for release by Studiocanal internationally and by Global Road Entertainment in the U.S.Director Marc Munden and Dixie Egerickx on the set of “The Secret Garden.” (STXfilms/StudioCanal)
Then Global Road folded only months after “The Secret Garden” wrapped, leaving it available to buyers. STX Entertainment jumped onboard, with the team compelled by the way Thorne and Munden had evolved the story for a modern audience.
“We’ve really become a primary destination for not only the films that we’re making and producing on our own but for films being made by third parties that don’t yet have a distribution partner either internationally or domestically,” said STXfilms chairman Adam Fogelson.
“They brought us a piece on the film while they were still in postproduction and the entire team felt like this particular interpretation of the material, the strength of the cast, the exquisite visual nature of what the filmmaking team was making, the opportunity to work with David Heyman and the strength of the brand he brings — all of that combined made it feel like a great opportunity for us to do what we do,” Fogelson said.
“The Secret Garden” had been scheduled to arrive in theaters this past spring — Studiocanal always planned on a thematically appropriate spring release — but was sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of keeping the film on the shelves, STX decided to give families the opportunity to see it at home by releasing it on premium video-on-demand beginning Aug. 7 in the U.S.Dixie Egerickx and Amir Wilson in “The Secret Garden.” (STXfilms/StudioCanal)
“There was at the time we made the decision — and there continues to be now — a great deal of uncertainty about when people will be able to go back into the theaters,” Fogelson noted. “When that fact was combined with this particular story and the way in which this movie was executed, it felt like the themes were relevant and meaningful. … It felt like an appropriate choice to allow people to experience it where they were able, sooner rather than later.”
“It’s slightly disappointing, but I think the way people watch things has just changed so much,” Munden sayid. “They have big tellys and great quality screens. Obviously I’d love people to see it on a big screen, whether it’s a big telly or a cinema screen, but I think less and less stuff is being shown only in cinema, especially with what’s happened in March. So as long as people can feel like they’re immersed in it, I’m happy.”
By releasing the film now, after viewers have spent months stuck inside, the filmmakers also are able to capitalize on its main theme — that nature can heal you. The story urges us to go outside and revel in the natural world.
“I hope it reminds us, myself included, to maybe spend less time on our phones and maybe spend time outside a little more,” Egerickx said. “I hope it enforces the appreciation for outside and nature. It’s easy to forget when you’re inside all the time, on your phone or when you’re working, but it really is crazy how much it can help.”
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