Survey: Postage could affect advertising

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OMAHA  — Higher postage prices are a concern for small business executives, who say they might have to scale back their advertising plans because of them.

InfoUSA sent e-mails to small businesses to gauge how they felt about the recent postage hike.

About 43 percent of the businessmen say the higher postage will affect their advertising spending.

But about 36 percent said it would not affect their advertising spending.

Corn price drop won’t lower food prices

LINCOLN — Higher corn prices have been blamed this year for part of the increase in food prices.

Corn prices have dropped by about $2 per bushel since this spring. But the Nebraska Corn Board says it doesn’t expect to see much, if any, decrease in food prices because of it.

The Corn Board says energy prices and the cost of transportation play a much larger role in food prices than grain prices do.

The Corn Board’s executive director Don Hutchens says the food companies are trying to blame farmers for the increase in food costs when it’s the companies that are raising prices.

JetBlue to auction off flights, vacation deals

NEW YORK — JetBlue Airways Corp. is auctioning off more than 300 roundtrip flights and six vacation packages this week on eBay, with opening bids set between 5 and 10 cents.

The flights are to more than 20 destinations, including four “mystery” JetBlue Getaways Vacation packages to undisclosed locations.

The three-, five- and seven-day auctions include one- and two-person roundtrip, weekend flights in September from cities including Boston, Chicago, New York, Orlando, Salt Lake City, Fort Lauderdale and Southern California.

Each auction will have a specific range of dates in which customers can travel. The travel dates, times and flight numbers will be posted when the customers bid.

Customers can access the auctions through www.jetblue.com/ebay.

Altria buys UST for $10.4 billion

NEW YORK — After failing to grab much consumer attention for its own smokeless tobacco products, Altria Group said Monday it would buy the maker of Skoal and Copenhagen for about $10.4 billion.

Altria’s acquisition of UST will give it a strong position in smokeless tobacco, a segment of the U.S. market that is growing as cigarettes decline. Altria owns the Marlboro brand and the nation’s biggest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA.

American smokers are buying fewer cigarettes as smoking bans and health concerns dampen demand by 3 percent to 4 percent a year. But smokeless tobacco sales are growing by about 5 percent to 6 percent a year.

— From wire reports