ORG XMIT: NYEA122 Actress Sarah Paulson poses with HBO Films president Len Amato, left and co-author Mark Halperin at the premiere of HBO Films' "Game Change" at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)(Photo: Evan Agostini AP)Bloomberg L.P., the financial news and data company, said Sunday it has hired veteran Washington journalists, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, to create and oversee a political news and analysis website, the first major initiative in the company's efforts to boost its consumer media business.Their site, Bloomberg Politics, will run stories, commentary, polling and data analytics produced by a team of journalists in Washington, D.C. and New York and be the model for other consumer news properties the company will create in the coming months.Halperin and Heilemann, who co-authored Game Change, a best-seller chronicling the 2008 presidential election, and Double Down, a sequel about the 2012 election, will host a daily television show on Bloomberg's cable network. They also will lead political coverage across other Bloomberg platforms, including mobile, video, magazines, radio and events.In March, Justin Smith, who heads Bloomberg Media Group, a company division that includes television, radio, magazine, conferences and digital properties, announced plans to grow by seeking an audience beyond the finance industry. A key component of the strategy is to create better distribution plans -- new digital media brands, more video and radio stations, and aggressive international licensing of magazines -- for a vast amount of stories and content produced by its 2,400 journalists.While Bloomberg Politics is the first site to be announced under the new initiative, the subsequent sites that are in development will focus on the global business market, the company said."We have a new, aggressive vision for what our media products can be going forward and Bloomberg Politics is the…

Gladys Edmunds, for USA TODAY 12:13 a.m. EDT April 30, 2014 Micromanaging can waste both the time and energy of the manager and ultimately can become debilitating to the employee.(Photo: Thinkstock)Hi Gladys: My wife and I often debate on how to deal with employees. I say that employees can often behave like children and I have to keep my eye on them and make certain that they do things the way I want things done. I am the head of our family construction company that was started more than 50 years ago by my late father. My wife works in the administrative office of the company and she accuses me of micromanaging. According to her, employees must learn to manage themselves and my job is to tell them what their duties are and I should step back and let them do their jobs. What do you think? — A. N.Self-management is important. Micromanaging can waste both the time and energy of the manager and ultimately can become debilitating to the employee. This combination can create a lot of tension in the workplace for all parties and will most likely spill over to your customers, clients and even vendors.When we talk about self-management, I believe that a person's strengths and weaknesses must be taken into account. How do you identify the strengths of your employee and how do you go about developing those strengths? Keep in mind that if we want our staff to self-manage then that has to be a part of our agenda during the hiring process.I am the first to admit that managing a company and its employees is not an easy task. And I have made my own share of blunders.I once managed my company like the proverbial mother hen. I watched everything my employees did and…

Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon, at the introduction of the new Amazon Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Paperwhite personal devices, in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2012. Investors don’t appear as enthusiastic about technology earnings this morning. Here’s a look at the five tech stocks to watch Friday: Amazon.[1] Shares of the online retailer are down more than 2% in pre-market trading after reporting a 32% jump in first-quarter net income[2]. Revenue increased 23% to $19.7 billion. Earlier this week, the company announced a long term deal with HBO to host several older television series including The Sopranos on Amazon Instant Video. Pandora.[3] The streaming music service’s stock plunged 5.5% off its first-quarter earnings results Thursday. Although Pandora trimmed quarterly losses compared to last year, CNet reports[4] its second quarter outlook fell short of Wall Street forecasts. Shares of Pandora have experienced a slump since early March, when reaching a 52-week high of $39.43. The stock closed Thursday just above $28. Microsoft.[5] The tech titan’s shares crept higher Friday after its third quarter results topped expectations[6]. The company generated more than $20 billion in revenue and profits of $5.7 billion. This was the first earnings call helmed by Satya Nadella, who was named Microsoft CEO in February. Nokia.[7] The company confirmed it has completed the sale of its Devices & Services division to Microsoft. The deal is worth $7.2 billion. The division makes the Lumia smartphone, which runs Microsoft’s Windows mobile operating system. Google.[8] Vic Gundotra, the head of social network Google+, announced he is departing the company[9] after 8 years. Gundotra is credited with building Google+, which topped 300 million monthly active users. Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @bam923[10]. References^ Amazon. (www.usatoday.com)^ reporting a 32% jump in first-quarter net income (www.usatoday.com)^ Pandora. (www.usatoday.com)^ CNet reports (www.cnet.com)^ Microsoft. (www.usatoday.com)^…