VW, BMW and Kia to run Super Bowl spots
Electric vehicles figure to play a prominent role in Super Bowl commercials from VW, BMW and Kia.
Why ‘blended travel’ gives short-term rentals a boost over hotels
By Sam Kemmis | NerdWallet
Remote and hybrid work has affected many industries, from commercial real estate to downtown restaurants. And it has impacted how many workers, unfettered by office attendance requirements, plan their travels.
Some call it “bleisure travel,” “laptop lugging,” “workations” or simply “blended travel.” The gist is the same: Remote and hybrid employees extend work trips to include leisure activities or work during their leisure trips.
Whatever it’s called, it could upend the traditional divide between leisure and business travel.
The travel lodging industry is already seeing the trend’s impact. Because bleisure travelers’ needs differ from those of traditional vacationers or work trippers, existing lodging options — particularly hotels — can fall short. This has created an opportunity and appears to be fueling a boom among short-term vacation rentals such as Airbnb.
Quarterly demand growth for short-term rentals has outpaced that for hotels since the first quarter of 2022, when travel began to fully rebound from the pandemic, according to a 2023 report from AirDNA and STR/CoStar, hospitality industry analytic services. This shift reflects changing traveler preferences and the ability of short-term rental hosts to react swiftly to these changes.
Automakers ask Treasury for leniency in EV tax credit's battery sourcing rules
In public comments submitted Thursday, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation urged the Treasury to make permanent certain leeways aimed at easing the industry’s compliance with an Inflation Reduction Act provision that blocks an up-to-$7,500 consumer incentive for new EVs that contain battery materials from foreign adversaries such as China.
Ally: Net income way down in Q4; auto applications set record in 2023
Ally Q4 earnings: Net income fell 73 percent year over year in the fourth quarter to $76 million, though the plunge was driven in part by the company’s pending sale of Ally Lending to Synchrony. Ally 2023 full-year earnings: Auto finance credit applications reached record 13.8 million.
Sports Illustrated employees left in limbo as publisher faces money troubles
By JOE REEDY and DAVID BAUDER (AP Sports Writer)
The jobs of people who produce Sports Illustrated were in limbo Friday after the company that paid to maintain the iconic brand’s print and digital products told staff that its license was revoked.
In an email to employees Friday morning, the Arena Group, which operates Sports Illustrated and related properties, said that because of the revocation, “we will be laying off staff that work on the SI brand.”
Authentic Brands Group owns the Sports Illustrated brand and had been licensing it to Arena. Authentic later said in a statement it intends to keep Sports Illustrated going. The company is negotiating with Arena and other publishing entities to determine who will do that, according to a person with knowledge of the talks who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about them.
Until those negotiations are resolved, it’s unclear which journalists would actually do the work of making Sports Illustrated. It was not clear how many jobs were affected.