News In Brief

BUSINESS HAS JUST TAKEN OFF

Let's say you're planning to open a new gas station and want a promotional gimmick that's sure to lure customers. What might it be? Well, here's what worked for Charlie Choungrangsee: a Vietnam War-era C-130 transport plane. Huh? Choungrangsee paid $22,000 to buy one from Thailand's Air Force and hoist it onto the roof of his station in Bangkok. Then he dressed attendants in blaze-orange flight suits to direct motorists to the pumps. Sales, he reports, are 30 percent higher than before.

BRING YOUR OWN AFGHAN

In their efforts to become more user-friendly to weary travelers, some major airports have installed such amenities as the moving walkway, electric courtesy carts, and - now - rocking chairs. Rocking chairs? Yes, the fourth, and latest, to introduce them is Boston's Logan International. There are 35, all painted a distinctive hunter green. They're in Terminal B, if you want to sit a spell.

Many of publishing's top movers are female: survey

Six of the 10 most influential people in the publishing industry, according to results of a new survey, are women. "We wanted to know who decides what gets published and what gets read," said Jerome Kramer, editor of Book magazine, which reports the survey in its July/August issue. His staff interviewed hundreds of people in the industry to come up with the list. The most influential people in publishing (in alphabetical order), from the survey:

Phyliss Grann, president, Penguin Putnam Inc.

John Grisham, author

Sessalee Hensley, fiction buyer, Barnes & Noble

Carl Lennertz, BookSense.com

David Remnick, editor, The New Yorker

J.K. Rowling, author

Scott Rudin, film producer

Andrea Smith, literary editor, the "Today" show

Amanda (Binky) Urban, literary agent

Oprah Winfrey, publisher, talk-show host

- Associated Press

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