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MINERAL POINT The engine exhaust experts at Cummins Emission Solutions in Mineral Point didnt have to invite the media and local political leaders to the opening of its new high horsepower facility last month.

But after 17 years of making emission-control products for global commercial markets in this small Iowa County city some 50 miles southwest of Madison, it was a good time for a public reminder of the companys enduring stake in the area, plant manager Giri Thiyagarajan said. About a third of CES 470 employees live between Mineral Point and Dodgeville, with the rest from a 90-mile radius.

This shows our commitment to this place, he said, about the expansion and unveiling of the new plant on April 16. Cummins could have pretty much put this facility anywhere. But based on the needs of our customers, as well as the expertise of our folks here, we thought this was the right place to invest.

Company officials wouldnt say how much the expansion cost. But it adds a second factory floor of some 20,000 square feet in a one-story building less than a quarter mile east of the existing facility, which includes 165,000 square feet of production space and the companys business offices at 856 Fair St.

Because workers on the new floor will weld together some of the largest equipment made by CES, the building includes overhead cranes to move products and machines to turn pieces as they are built to provide the best and safest angles for welding. It also boasts a prototype area to build and test new designs and a collaboration space featuring interactive technology that allows production workers in Mineral Point to see, talk and draw together with company engineers in Stoughton and other locations.

Our new plant is a direct reflection of our innovative mindset, said Srikanth Padmanabhan, CES vice president and general manager. While the plant is equipped for large-size (emission control) solutions and quality production, our business has placed an equally strong focus on employee and building safety.

The need for emission controls on engines for vehicles and equipment is driven by federal environmental regulations that since the 1970s have required increasingly more stringent air-quality standards.

CES is a subsidiary of Cummins Inc., a global enterprise based in Columbus, Indiana, with 48,000 employees worldwide thats best known as the worlds leading diesel engine maker.

Engine sales produced close to half of the conglomerates $17.3 billion in revenues last year, with the rest from related equipment, made by subsidiaries including CES, such as fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration and emission control.

Created to provide cleaner solutions for treating the byproducts of engine combustion, Cummins CES subsidiary is a multinational corporation, with operations in China, India, Germany, Brazil, South Africa and the United Kingdom, in addition to Indiana and Wisconsin.

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Cummins adds second factory floor in Mineral Point to make emission control systems for big engines

20 hours ago May. 9, 2014 - 2:00 PM PDT

Ask almost any professional writer who has covered the tech industry during the years from the 1990s dot-com boom to the Facebook-buying-drones-era what their most difficult assignment has been, and theyll almost universally identify one of the most iconic companies in American history: Apple.

In the years following the second coming of Steve Jobs, which saw Apple ascend to heights the tech industry had never before seen, Apples public relations effort was viewed with equal parts awe, disdain, and outright hatred. It was led by Katie Cotton, an executive who was as much an extension of Jobs brain as famed designer Jony Ive.

Apple confirmed earlier this week that Cotton is retiring. The last time I saw Cotton, she was hurtling toward me with an outstretched arm, successfully trying to ruin a photo (from an iPhone, no less) of CEO Tim Cook chatting with former Microsoft executive Steve Sinofsky on the sidelines of last years D11 conference. She leaves behind a PR department that has shaped the direction of tech PR in general, for better or worse.

Yet Apples notorious strategy of ignoring almost all media requests and inquiries unless it considered you an ally or had no choice but to deal with you was more than just the public extension of the culture of secrecy Jobs enforced. It was a response to huge demand for its products coupled with the willingness to exploit an obvious weakness in tech media business models.

The Wintel-driven tech industry of the late 1990s and early 2000s, which was the primary story in tech media during those years, was much more accepting of media coverage than Apple, even when Apple was struggling. This was an era in which the tech industry was much smaller and more business-oriented than it is today. Microsoft, Intel, and its PC partners needed the fledgling tech media to spread its message and it needed a place to advertise its products before IT managers: Intel even invested in one of the earliest versions of CNET Networks, a company that later gainfully employed me from 2006 to 2011, and where I covered Apple as a single beat from early 2007 to 2009.

A product of that earlier era, Hubspots Dan Lyons who at one point somehow thought he could parlay a hilarious blog skewering one of the most revered technology executives in history into a serious job covering that very same company with top-level access highlighted several of the changing tactics Thursday that were used by Apple during its ascent, before going off the rails with a bizarre theory about masochistic journalists.

But he did touch on something notable about the Pax Apple era of the tech industry. It is no secret that during the years from, say, 2005 (the seminal event was probably the dramatic upstaging of the Moto Rokr by the iPod nano) through the launch of the iPad, no single topic in the tech publishing generated web traffic quite like Apple, just as the web was becoming the dominant medium for tech publishing.

Around the same time, a brand new class of tech media blogs was growing quickly, groups that were less interested in traditional notions of journalism and more interested in telling readers exactly what they thought about technology. This meant there was an explosion in tech content just as it was becoming clear how much consumers wanted Apples products, and somehow, demand outpaced supply.

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Why Apples PR strategy frustrated tech media for almost a decade

Sprint product ambassador: Samsung Gear Fit Media control demo
Disclaimer: The Product Ambassadors are Sprint employees from many different parts of the company that love technology. They volunteer to test out all sorts ...

By: Paul Vu

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Sprint product ambassador: Samsung Gear Fit Media control demo - Video

In Microsoft's perfect world, the Xbox One Media Remote wouldn't exist. Everyone would be happy controlling the Xbox One using their voice or gestures, and remotes would be a relic of our TV-watching past.

In reality, the Xbox One experience -- outside of the gaming realm -- can sometimes be a frustrating one. You have to give credit to Microsoft for recognizing that with the release of the Xbox One Media Remote (US$25/20/AU$30). In reviewing the Xbox One's living room capabilities shortly after its launch, I wrote that it "cries out for a dedicated remote", and that's exactly what the Media Remote delivers, letting you do simple tasks like adjust the volume without using your voice or breaking out the controller.

The small clicker is well-designed, with nice touches like a velvety texture and backlighting that turns on as soon as you pick it up. It can't completely fix all the Xbox One's living room shortcomings -- DVR control is still an issue -- but it makes it a much more tolerable conduit for your cable box.

The Xbox One Media Remote may not be the remoteless future Microsoft envisioned, but it makes using the Xbox One fit into your living room a whole lot easier -- and that's well worth your $25.

$25 may seem like a lot for an add-on remote, but the Media Remote feels particularly well-made. It had enough weight to feel substantial, without being heavy, and it's covered in a soft, textured finish that's pleasant to hold. Pick up the remote and its backlighting immediately kicks in, making it easy to see its buttons even when your living room is dim.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The buttons on the Media Remote are unusually flat, raised ever-so-slightly above the front of the remote. Even the directional pad is just slightly recessed, except for the button in the center. Typically, remotes with such a relatively even surface is a bad sign, but there are enough subtle tactile cues that it's actually pretty easy to navigate without looking. The button rockers for volume and channel changing are large and centrally located and even the completely flush mute button in the center has a texture that lets you know it's there.

Sarah Tew/CNET

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A must-have clicker to simplify the Xbox One

Heres a question to ask yourself if you arent sure whether media mogul pay reflects merit or cronyism: DidViacom and CBS executive chairman Sumner Redstonedeserve $93M, an 80% year-over-year increase, in the combined compensation he received from the companies in 2013? The answer to this query, and others like it, seems especially relevant here in Deadlines fourth annual effort to try to make sense of the outsized sums media companies pay their leaders. Theyre among the most lavishly compensated in corporate America where CEOs made 206 times what the average worker did in 2011, up from 26.5 times in 1978, economist Thomas Piketty notes in his surprise bestselling new book about growing wealth disparities.That strikes many as fundamentally unfair: The California legislature is weighing a bill that would raise tax rates for companies that give their CEOs more than 100 times the average pay for their workers.

Heres our contribution to the discussion: a tally of the highest-paid executives in media, with metrics and analysis to help you decide what theyre worth. The chart on the right (click to enlarge) shows media execs whose compensation exceeded $10M in 2013 according to company proxies.Below youll find our in-depth look at the top 11 earners on the list. Why 11? That enables us to add Rupert Murdoch, who shouldnt be left out of any discussion of media wealth and power. Those in this Group of 11 collectively made $448.6M in 2013, +15.6% vs 2012, with their median pay +8.3% to $32.5M.

Related: Out Of Whack 2012 Out Of Whack 2011 Out Of Whack 2010

One of the things youll see is how much Redstone contributes to the high level of executive pay in media. He and other leaders at corporations he controls occupy four of the 11 spots on our list. That has a ripple effect: All companies represented here (with a caveat, discussed below, for News Corp) include Viacom and CBS in the list of peers against which they benchmark pay for their own execs. And Redstone isnt all that unusual. You frequently see high pay at enterprises, like many in media, run by families that own little equity but control decision-making by virtue of their supervoting shares.

Boards usually justify their high outlays by pointing to metrics of company success, which they credit to the CEOs. But while those on this list are smart and shrewd, its worth asking how much of their good fortune including their rising stock prices also represents good luck. Keep in mind that all of the media powers represented by this years top 11 own broadcast and/or pay TV channels. Cable and satellite companies complain that these programmers have oligopoly power to raise prices on distributors. Many are aggressively doing so, which distributors say pressures them to raise your rates. Programmers also benefit from a new source of cash: license fees from digital services including Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Our list and the charts that follow include Deadlines annual Out-of-Whack analysis. It illustrates not only that CEOs make vastly more than the public. Some boards are far more generous to the top dog than they are to others in the C-suite. Thatcould be a sign that directors are in the CEOs pocket, or lack confidence in their executive bench, many corporate governance experts say. In any case, research shows that lopsided outlays promote groupthink, damage morale, and often depress a companys stock price. Its a judgement call as to how much of a disparity is too much. Yet those who track the phenomenon typicallybecome alarmed when a CEO makes more than three times the median for the four other top execs whose income must be disclosed to shareholders per SEC rules. Eighteen of the 30 companies we monitor and that have filed information for 2013 failed the test, often miserably, up from 14 out of 31 last year.

A few notes on the data: Most comes from information that the SEC requires publicly traded U.S. companies to disclose. That means we dont have compensation info from some media powers including Sony (based in Japan) or MGM (privately held). Regulators require companies to disclose pay figures for the top execs, usually the top 5. We dont know when a high-ranking, but unlisted, leader at a very large company makes more than a top 5 officer at a smaller one. Weve tried to determine whether the CEOs were job creators, but the SEC only requires companies to report year end employment a figure that can rise for companies that buy properties and fall when they sell. We made a judgment call to include Internet companies heavily focused on content creation, AOL and Yahoo, but not giants only tangentially involved in media such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Twitter. Also, weve provided our admittedly subjective assessment about whether the exec is a flight risk, a potential justification for an over-the-top package.

Heres our tally of the media worlds top-paid execs in 2013:

1. Sumner Redstone, Executive Chairman Viacom & CBS: $93.4M, +80.5%. CBS paidthe 90-year-old executive chairman $57.2M, +83%, while Viacom awarded him $36.2, +77%. What did he do to earn such prodigious sums and raises? The proxy statements dont really say.CBS directors note that while he was executive chairman last year the Company had exceptional results in key metrics, strengthened its financial position, and executed strategies to create and deliver value to its shareholders and to positionthe Company for long-term success. Viacom was more glowing, crediting Redstones leadership and vision as factors that enhanced [the company's] financial position and continued to strengthen itsoverall business in the current economic environment.

Heres another ingredient to consider: Redstone controls National Amusements. It owns relatively little of the equity in the two media companies, but it has supervoting shares that give it and, therefore, him 80% of the votes at CBS and 79% at Viacom.Flight risk: none.

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Big Media Moguls With Out-Of-Whack Compensation: Exclusive Deadline List