The rapper-turned-mogul Jay Z finds himself square in the middle of a tabloid and social media assault over his business association with Barneys New York, which has been accused by at least two customers of racial profiling.

The 69-year-old German-born designer Jil Sander is striking out from the eponymous label she founded in 1968 after a short-lived, but generally well-received, return as creative director. Citing "personal reasons," her exit "raises questions for the brand," as the "Women's Wear Daily" headline perhaps understates.

Panera Bread has been a victim of its own success, co-founder, executive chairman and CEO Ronald Shaich indicated yesterday, and, after a period of "intense self-examination," it intends to address its customers' No. 1 complaints of slooooow lines, screwed-up orders and a multipart plan to "bend the arc of our sales growth trajectory."

Once upon a time not that long ago, shipping news was a staple item in many a daily newspaper so that merchants could keep track of when the vessels bearing their bolts of cloth and barrels of molasses would arrive. Now that the principle way of conveying both goods and information is on the cyberseas, the battle is over delivering goods direct to the customer as quickly and cheaply as possible without losing a ton of money in the process.

To riff on Brian Stelter's lede in the "New York Times" this morning, in a world where everyone with a smartphone seems to be a content creator, Netflix' quarterly results released yesterday reinforced the notion that well-executed "content is the new black" - black halo, that is.

Apple, Nokia and Microsoft are each poised to unveil tablets tomorrow that they hope will make it under the boughs of a lot of evergreens this holiday season. Amazon, Google and Samsung recently released their own versions of the devices, points out the "New York Times"' Brian X. Chen, and Reticle Research analyst Ross Rubin tells him that "each manufacturer had developed slightly different approaches...."

How's this for damning a marketing strategy with faint praise: the late Steve Jobs was right and current Apple management is wrong, according to journalists and pundits analyzing tepid sales of Apple's low-end iPhone: "Last month, [Apple CEO] Tim Cook introduced the colorful iPhone 5c, a less-expensive version of Apple's smartphone, to 'serve even more customers' around the world. It turns out people so far are more interested in its pricier, feature-rich cousin, the 5s," writes Bloomberg's Adam Satariano after pointing out the Apple co-founder famously "emphasized high-end consumer gadgets over cheaper ones."

We can add another notch to the "Joel Ewanick Disaster Timeline" that Business Insider put together in July 2012 after General Motors "ousted" its short-tenured global marketing chief over what was reported to be an internal flap involving his "failing to properly vet the financial details," as the "Wall Street Journal" put it, of a sponsorship deal with Manchester United.

Hans Riegel, who with his brother transformed a company founded at their father's kitchen sink in Germany in 1920 into a global brand after World War II, is being remembered today as a marketing genius who made Haribo's principal product - Gummi Bears - a warm-and-chewy global treat for kids and the adults who pay their dental bills. He died in Bonn at 90 yesterday from heart failure while recovering from an operation that removed a benign brain tumor.

Angela Ahrendts, an American who is has been widely hailed for her savvy and suave reversal of brand erosion and fortune at the British luxury fashion brand Burberry, is taking the new position of SVP of retail and online sales at Apple and will be reporting to CEO Tim Cook starting next spring.