Coming This Fall! The 2009 MSA Retail Industry Report
from MSA
Pre-order your copy of the indispensable industry guide for cultural retail operations! The 2009 MSA Retail Industry Report will provide benchmarks, give insight and enable you to make smart business decisions. More

Attention MSA Museum Members – Volunteers for the MSA 2009 Nominating Committee Needed
from MSA
MSA is seeking nominations for MSA Museum Members to serve on the 2009 Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee is responsible for selecting qualified candidates to run in an election to serve on the Association's board of directors. The deadline for receipt of all nomination forms in the MSA office is July 13, 2009. Get more information and complete the online form. More

Summer Issue of Museum Store Magazine Mailed
from MSA
The summer issue of Museum Store magazine was recently mailed to MSA members. You can view the Table of Contents and find links to related Web articles online. More

Product News Peak Buying No. 2 Issue Now Online
from MSA
The current issue of Product News also was mailed to MSA members. View the ads for the holiday buying issue online and get some great merchandising ideas for the upcoming season. More

One New Position Posted to MSA's Job Source
from MSA
One new position has been posted to Job Source – MSA's online resource for the most up-to-date job listings in the cultural commerce industry. More

Tenenbaum Says She's Confident, Ready to Lead CPSC
from WIS-TV
South Carolinian and former state Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum is starting a four-year term in the nation's capitol. She'll lead the nation's Consumer Product Safety Commission. Tenenbaum left for Washington DC. If she had first day jitters, you wouldn't know it. She is confident and composed to head the powerful Washington agency. More

Natural History Museum Launches iPhone app
from The Daily Sound
While there is nothing more interactive than actually visiting the Butterflies Alive! exhibit at the Museum of Natural History in Santa Barbara, Calif., museum officials are inching closer to replicating the experience by introducing a new application for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. More

The Five Newest Interactive Trends: How Will They Affect You?
from iMedia Communications
One of the byproducts of this fast-paced environment of change is the excitement of uncertainty that each day brings. Just a couple of years ago, the speed of news was dependent on the rate at which someone could blog or a news outlet could publish a report online. Now, news is broadcast instantly via Twitter and the vast array of social networks. The only time I'm not inundated with the latest happenings is when I'm asleep. More

Businesses Using Twitter, Facebook to Market Goods
from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter originally served to connect users with their friends, but are now being embraced by businesses, which use the sites as marketing tools. More

Visa International Travel Report is Good News for Texas
from San Antonio Business Journal
Visa Inc., using data collected from its cardholder transactions, has created a new report that tracks where in the U.S. money is being spent by international travelers. According to that first VisaVue Travel Report, international travelers spent nearly $1.4 billion in Texas in 2008. Visa officials say international travelers spent the most money in Florida last year — $4.37 billion. New York, California and Texas ranked second, third and fourth, respectively. More

In New Post, Chief Cultural Officer’s Gotta Have Art
from Philadelphia Business Journal
The arts audience is shrinking, according to the latest head count conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts. But some of Pittsburgh's major arts groups are bucking that trend, and say that 2008 -- which was not a banner year in the NEA survey -- wasn't so bad. More

Pittsburgh Bucks National Trend of Dwindling Public Interest in Arts
from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The art's audience is shrinking, according to the latest head count conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts. But some of Pittsburgh's major arts groups are bucking that trend, and say that 2008 -- which was not a banner year in the NEA survey -- wasn't so bad. More

E-commerce Calls to Action: Design Tips
from econsultancy
Call to action buttons need to jump out at the shopper and leave them in no doubt about the next step they need to take to make a purchase. More

Shoppers Respond Differently to Store Media
from Brandweek
The way consumers respond to in-store promotional messages and media is changing, with traditional appeals losing some potency, according to the results of a new poll that surveyed 999 shoppers shortly after completing a shopping trip. The effectiveness of promotional messages depends on the age and gender of the shopper, the message vehicle and whether or not the message is found inside the store or outside the store, the survey revealed. More

In Recession, Strategy Shifts for Big Chains
from The New York Times
Shopping as we know it is on the brink of major change. Hammered by the recession, some of the nation's biggest retailers are seizing the moment to reinvent their business strategies. More

Consumer Price Index Rises Less than Expected in May
from Los Angeles Times
Consumer prices rose less than expected in May and posted the steepest annual drop in 59 years, according to recently released government data, fresh evidence that the recession is keeping inflation in check. Low prices will make it easier for the Federal Reserve at its meeting to keep a key short-term interest rate near zero, where it has been since December. More

Survey: Recession Impact Permanent
from Adweek
New research from Interpublic Group's Initiative concludes that the recession is having a far greater impact on consumer spending habits than previous downturns, and that some behavior patterns, as well as brand perceptions, will be permanently changed. Recessions usually drive short-term changes in consumer behavior, with people reverting to usual patterns once the good times return. But this time around, the Internet has changed the game. Consumers have turned more than ever to the Web to seek more information about brands -- from how to stretch household budgets to product reviews-and they're not turning back. More

America's Best Independent Retailers
from Business Week
Great location, fantastic selection, competitive prices. These are the oft-cited qualities that help one retailer prosper while another fails. But there are other, often larger forces that not only keep a store in business, but ensure that its customers return on a regular basis. In his new book, Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores in America, author George Whalin profiles 25 successful retailers and discusses why they've withstood the test of time, some for over a century. More

Hawaii Lawmakers Send Governor Bills to Tax Internet Transactions
from Honolulu Advertiser
Trying to capture some of the state taxes that go uncollected on mail-order and Internet sales, state lawmakers have sent Gov. Linda Lingle two approaches to get mainland retailers to collect and pay taxes on sales from Hawaii. More

Demand for Retail Space Not Expected to Pick Up Pace Soon
from Business First
Shopping center developers in the depressed retail real estate sector don't expect a dramatic increase in demand for space for the foreseeable future. Tommy Edwards, retail leasing representative for Hagan Properties Inc., said Louisville, Ky., has been affected by national problems unrelated to spending trends in the local market, which remain steady. More

ROI Measurement a Must
from eMarketer
According to a study by the Lenskold Group and MarketSphere, 65 percent of marketers said that CEOs and CFOs are demanding to see return on investment as a part of securing budgets for marketing initiatives. Seventy-nine percent of the marketers felt that the need to measure, analyze and report marketing effectiveness was greater in 2009 than in previous years. More

NRF Urges Congress to Resist Textile Industry Pressure to Toughen Tariff Enforcement for Apparel Imports
from National Retail Federation
The National Retail Federation today urged Congress to resist political pressure from the textile industry, saying calls to stop alleged "cheating" on apparel import duties could lead to "overzealous enforcement" that would penalize legitimate importers and have an adverse impact on small retailers in particular. More

Guggenheim Will Cut Eight Percent of Its Positions
from the New York Times
The foundation that runs the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum said that despite record attendance, it will cut 25 positions, or eight percent of the institution's full-time staff. The cuts, which will involve both laying off employees and leaving positions vacant, will be made across all departments, including curators. More

Art fraud lawsuit against Louis Vuitton over Murakami Prints to go Forward
from Los Angeles Times
Clint Arthur will get his day in court after all, in a class action claim that Louis Vuitton defrauded him and hundreds of others by repurposing leftover handbag material and selling it as fine art prints by pop artist Takashi Murakami. U.S. District Court Judge A. Howard Matz on Wednesday denied Louis Vuitton’s motion to have Arthur’s suit dismissed, and set a pretrial conference for Aug. 24. The decision contradicted one reached in April by William Highberger, a judge in Los Angeles Superior Court, who threw out a similar but separate suit that Arthur had brought against L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art. More

Institutions Try to Slow Bill to Curb Sales of Art
from the New York Times
More than a dozen major cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art, are trying to put the brakes on a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature in March to regulate the deaccessioning of collections, a controversial practice that has drawn attention as more institutions consider selling off artworks and artifacts in response to economic pressures. More

Metropolitan Museum Completes Round of Layoffs
from the New York Times
The Metropolitan Museum of Art said on Monday that it had completed a significant round of layoffs and voluntary retirements that it had warned in March would probably be necessary to contend with deep losses in its endowment. More