Planet Business

LAURA SLATTERYlooks back at the week in business

Dictionary corner: Trusted commenter 

The New York Timeshas launched a "trusted commenter" pilot scheme, which is essentially its method of encouraging online readers not to succumb to the temptation to troll.

The invitation-only status allows the chosen ones to post comments without being moderated in advance, and to win this particular Blue Peter badge, NYtimes.com users must “have a lengthy history of comments that are thoughtful, discuss the issues politely and address the topics covered in the article or blog post”. No tangents! Users are also required to connect their Facebook accounts to their commenting profiles in order to become a trusted commenter.

But what if you're having an "angry" day and wish a plague on the houses of all New York Timesjournalists?

“Your status as a trusted commenter may be revoked at any time.”

Pay day

Former Thomas Cook chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa earned £15 million over the past four years, a fact that isn’t being seen in too kind a light by the thousands of employees whose jobs are at risk, but should be enough for him to book a few of those holidays that lesser mortals, or customers as they were once known, can no longer afford.

Fontenla-Novoa was shown the emergency exit in August, after the travel group had issued a hat-trick of profit warnings. He is expected to have received £1.1 million on his departure – a rather more generous redundancy payment than that for which Thomas Cook is generally known, both in Ireland and beyond.

Now corporate governance group Pirc is talking about “provisions to claw back unmerited bonuses” – a kind of reverse pay day, then.

$100 bn

The expected valuation of Facebook, the world’s largest social network, if it is obliged to float on the stock exchange next year. This would make it twice as valuable as Tesco.

"George Osborne is like a pilot who has put his plane into a tailspin and is now wrestling desperately with the controls as the aircraft rapidly loses height"

Len McCluskey, general secretary of trade union Unite, gives a pithy review of the British chancellor’s performance.

STATUS UPDATE

Competitive peeing: Captive Media has developed a urinal-based games console that encourages men to aim, shoot and fire at targets – an incentive not always provided by the urinal alone.

Solid as a rock:Australia's economy is now rated triple-A by all three major credit ratings agencies, after an upgrade from Fitch citing strong fundamentals. The only way is down.

Digital doom:Publishing house Penguin, a unit of Financial Times publisher Pearson, sees "dark clouds" gathering in 2012, with poor visibility as the industry enters a higher level of flux.

THE QUESTION: Can a global advertising campaign help boost visitors to nine million by 2015?

Well, a lot of people do seem to like Snow Patrol, whose music will soundtrack the “Jump Into Ireland” television advertisements that will be broadcast in Tourism Ireland’s main target markets of Britain, France and Germany. Cinemagoers in Britain, the US, Spain and Italy will also be treated to the spot, while online marketing activity will extend the campaign to 22 countries in total.

Tourism Ireland says “the sheer diversity of our icons and activities, coupled with the engaging and welcoming nature of our people, leaves our overseas visitors with a lingering smile that lives long into the memory” – well, at least until they reach their boarding gate.

Next year, incidentally, is a Titanicyear, when Ireland and its maritime tourists will celebrate Belfast's fine shipbuilding tradition and not mention the iceberg.