Everyone in the publishing business knows the drill: Many ideas are thrown around during editorial meetings but only a select few actually make the cut for publication. My suggestions seem to have some sort of gravitational pull, making a habit of leaping into the reject pile and getting thrown by the wayside never again to see the light of day. Although getting the editorial heave-ho is increasingly grating week after week, there is an upside.
So, whether you're interested or not, I'm using the blog to post my rejected Personal Finance capsule ideas. That way, it's still a win-win situation: Readers still get to hear from me, and my news scouring won't be completely in vain. And, hopefully, launching "The Rejected Capsules of the Week" won't influence the powers that be to give my story proposals the cold shoulder simply to appease this blogging venture.
I've listed the topics for the rejected capsules of the week below. I'll add the full stories in a separate blog post.
- The cost of rising prices: Anti-foreigner attacks in South Africa create the worst bloodbath the country has seen in years and is the result of rising prices, poor living conditions and the flood of immigrants.
- Italian oil group Eni has discovered a large oil sands deposit in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It's expected to become Africa's first largest unconventional oil development and could hold several billion barrels of oil.
- Platinum prices could surge an additional 15 percent over the next six months to reach $2,500 an ounce. Disruptions to production in South Africa, stemming from power shortages that forced miners to cut operations, caused a severe decrease in supply this year. (The price has already surged 50 percent since January).
- Emerging market telecoms: India's Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN are currently considering a merger. The structure is part of a proposal by Bharti to buy MTN in a cash and stock deal that would enable MTN's leading shareholders to take significant stakes in the merged entity.
- Fears of economic migration: South Africa will open borders and introduce visa-free travel in time for the 2010 World Cup. The move would see nationals from the 14 members of the Southern Africa Development Community--including Zimbabwe, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as the relatively prosperous South Africa--allowed to move across the internal borders on a passport alone.
- Royal Dutch Shell is close to agreeing a deal with Nigeria that would see the company provide loans to meet funding shortfalls that have cut production at one of its most important oil businesses. The plan is designed to inject cash into Shell's joint venture with the Nigerian government. The state's failure to pay its share of costs has stalled main projects. Attacks by militants have also contributed to a slump in Shell's production in the oil rich swamps of the Niger Delta, which provided 18 percent of Shell's oil last year.
