Hasta La Ideas

Not all coin banks are piggy banks intended to encourage children to save. As a professional organizer, I became interested in these products when I saw clients with coins spilling all over the nightstand or dresser top. Sure, they could just put those coins in a simple jar, but they might enjoy using a well-designed coin bank more. 

Les Gloutons ceramic banks, designed by Atelier Peekaboo, have a top slot for inserting the coins and a spout for pouring them out. It’s a simple, functional design that would work for many users.

The coin storage dish from Ideaco has wide slot, making it very easy for people to insert their coins. The wood bottom twists off, making it easy to get the coins out (except, perhaps, for a user with arthritis). With its resting place for keys, this coin dish would work especially well for users who like to empty both coins and keys from their pockets at the same time.

For users with no patience for feeding multiple coins through a slot, there’s the Coink bank from Mint. Coins get dumped out through the same opening.

Bankabank lets users shove coins through the slot in the large front plug, which is removable when they want to get to those coins.  Since the Bankabank is made from soft PVC, there’s no worry about it getting broken as there could be with a ceramic (or glass) product. It’s also a bank that users could grab and take with them if they expected to need a lot of coins. 

The hand-blown glass banks from Roost would work well for users who enjoy seeing their coins accumulate. There’s a slot on the top for adding coins; the large cork would be easy to remove to get at them. 

The Maraca coin bank designed by João Gonçalves is a neat idea: a bank that becomes a maraca as the user adds coins. Gonçalves provides some capacity information, which is welcome; the Maraca holds about 250€ in 1€ coins.

However, this is a design where the bank must be broken to get to the coins. That’s OK for users who are using a coin bank as a savings device and need some encouragement to not raid the bank, but it’s not good for those who are simply using a bank to hold coins for future use.

The VIMB plywood money box from Praktrik is also a puzzle, although supposedly not a very difficult one. The flat-pack design allows the user to easily store the money box away if it’s not needed for a while. But I don’t know any user who really wants the assembly of a useful product to also be a puzzle. 

The New York Times calls the NOLA money box from Internoitaliano an “adult piggy bank” since it’s designed to hold bills rather than coins. However, I have yet to see anyone really struggling with a place to put extra banknotes; coins are the problem for the adults I know. So this is a lovely product that doesn’t seem to address any real need, at least for those in the U.S. It’s also unclear whether or not there’s any way to remove the bills without breaking the money box.

The Duell from Konstantin Slawinski, designed by Ding300, is intended for dueling purposes: two people competing on savings, one person working toward two different savings goals, etc. But it doesn’t have to be used that way; the two slots could be used for two different denominations (the most commonly used coin vs. everything else, perhaps) or for two different household members with no duel implied. The red silicone wrapper is removable, exposing larger slots that allow the coins to be shaken out. 

Some users may have limited space for a coin bank on a nightstand, dresser or other flat surface; such users might appreciate a design like the hanging vertical coin banks from Revol Design, available in three sizes to meet varying storage needs and space limitations. The coins are emptied out by removing the magnetic latch on the bottom.

The banks were designed for U.S. coins, with “two sheets of clear acrylic spaced precisely apart to allow the thickest coins, nickels, to fit while preventing the thinnest coins, dimes, from overlapping.” However, there is also a euro-compatible version, and the bank will work some other currencies, too. This is a good reminder of how international differences need to be accounted for in product designs intended for a global audience.

Bloomberg LP has made some editorial management changes designed to unify the newsroom. In a memo to staffers, new Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait announced that he was forming an editorial management committee.

The committee includes Micklethwait, Reto Gregori as deputy editor-in-chief and Josh Tyrangiel, who takes on the new role of chief content office for editorial. All of Bloomberg’s senior editors — on both the media and terminal sides — will report to the committee.

In addition to the staffing changes, Micklethwait laid out some physical changes too:

The web editorial team (including if we can, Media web product and R&D) will come upstairs from 4E to 5W, to site with the BN journalists. That will mean we have one unified newsroom with people who write in real time sitting beside each other. It will also mean that Bloomberg Intelligence (currently on 5W but ring-fenced from News) will move up to 6E, along with the Briefs, to be close to Bloomberg View, creating an ‘Opinion & Research’ area. We will move Markets magazine editorial to 4E to sit with Bloomberg Businessweek and Pursuits, creating a magazine floor.

You can read Micklethwait’s full memo below.

To All in Bloomberg Editorial and Research

When I arrived here, I said that I wanted to focus on helping our journalists to work as one team — so that we can produce better journalism and help our business partners across the various platforms. We have already done a lot of work in that regard, including gathering the senior editors around me in New York, rearranging the meeting schedules, and using more of each other’s work on more of our platforms. But there is still duplication and a few silos to deal with so we can all produce more great journalism. It cannot make sense that we have different people writing about the same subject in different locations. Nor does it make sense that at the moment I am the only editor with responsibility for the whole of Bloomberg Editorial. So we are going to reorganize the management so that we are more clearly one team.

That begins at the top. We will create a unified Editorial Management Committee, mirroring Mike’s management committee, composed of myself, Reto Gregori as deputy editor-in-chief and Josh Tyrangiel, who will now be chief content office for all of Editorial.

All of our main editors across the terminal and media businesses will report to me through this committee, including Laura Zelenko for Beat Reporting, Chris Collins of Breaking News, Marty Schenker for Terminal News Products, Claudia Milne for Broadcast, Josh Topolsky for Digital, Al Mayers for Radio and Stephanie Mehta for Events. I have asked Josh Tyrangiel to focus particularly on the quality of our longer features. It therefore makes sense to also keep his focus on our magazines (Bloomberg Businessweek, Markets and Pursuits).

Media CEO Justin Smith and I have collaborated closely on the editorial reorganization within Media specifically. The editorial heads in our Media businesses — Claudia, Josh Topolsky, Al, Stephanie and the magazine part of Josh Tyrangiel — will also have a business reporting line to Justin, where appropriate. I will now serve as the editorial lead in Justin’s Media management team, and Josh Topolsky and I will attend his weekly meetings. Justin and I will work together on strategy for all our Bloomberg Media properties.

I hope by bringing Reto from News and Josh from Media it will send a clear message about unity — and we will hold regular meetings together wih all the function heads. Tim Quinson, our Standards Editor, Lisa Jennings, HR, Shelby Siegel, operations, our lawyer, Randy Shapiro and Steve Ross, head of technology will also work across the organization.  David Shipley at Bloomberg View (who already partly reports to Mike) and David Dwyer (Bloomberg Intelligence) will report to me separately, in line with the distinct nature of their businesses.

I am convinced that improving our data journalism will be a crucial part of our success, so I have brought Wes Kosova into the central team, reporting to the Editorial Management Committee. He is already at work on a project with Steve Ross which has the aim of improving graphis ont eh terminal, the web and TV.

As a first step, this will involve some movement in New York York, the principles of which we will look to incorporate elsewhere. The Web editorial team (including if we can, Media web product and R&D) will come upstairs from 4E to 5W, to site with the BN journalists. That will mean we have one unified newsroom with people who write in real time sitting beside each other. It will also mean that Bloomberg Intelligence (currently on 5W but ring-fenced from News) will move up to 6E, along with the Briefs, to be close to Bloomberg View, creating an “Opinion & Research” area. We will move Markets magazine editorial to 4E to sit with Bloomberg Businessweek and Pursuits, creating a magazine floor.

Like all changes, this will involve disruption — and I am sorry for that. But I am sure that it is the right thing to do.

Reuters has named Kevin Krolicki as its Washington bureau chief. Krolicki was most recently Reuters’ Tokyo bureau chief, a role he had held for the past three years.

Krolicki has been with the company since 1996. He has previously served as Reuters’ West Coast equities editor-in-chief, West Coast bureau chief and Detroit bureau chief.

“There could hardly be a more fascinating time to take the helm of our Washington bureau,” wrote Reuters Americas editor, Dayan Candappa, in a memo. “Candidates are poised to announce runs for the White House and the Fed may be poised to raise interest rates. Foreign policy has rarely been more complex and hotly contested.”

Us Weekly is already getting criticized for a cover implying that Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx are dating, so it might as well double up.

The magazine published an EXCLUSIVE, featuring Kendall Jenner “breaking her silence” about her father Bruce Jenner’s decision to transition to a woman. The only problem is that Kendall claims she didn’t speak to Us Weekly about the subject. That’s, well… That’s a big problem.

Us Weekly has Jenner saying the following about her father:

I love my dad. He’s always been there for me and my sisters. He’s a wonderful man. And just because he’s changing shoes now, so to speak, doesn’t make him less wonderful. I will always love my dad, whether he’s a man or a woman.

Jenner took to Twitter to deny that this exchange happened.

how is it legal for someone to “quote” someone and publish it if in fact you never said what was quoted.

— Kendall Jenner (@KendallJenner) March 18, 2015

Shame on US Weekly for making up quotes. I NEVER said those things. I never spoke to them.

— Kendall Jenner (@KendallJenner) March 18, 2015

Us Weekly has some (more) explaining to do. So to speak.

Swimwear brand Onia is gradually dipping its toes into everyday apparel—and their Shaw Technical Jacket checks all the boxes. Made from the same high-performing fabric as their swim shorts, the cotton-nylon jacket is lined with sturdy but soft mesh……

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