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How did Dennis Rodman end up having dinner with Kim Jong Un in North Korea? It was the idea of Vice Media, which has grown from a counterculture magazine into a full-fledged youth media conglomerate.

Friday night, it premieres a documentary series on HBO, a kind of coming-out moment into the mainstream.

'I Wish We Were Weirder'

Vice Media's contradictions smack you in the face as soon as you step into its Brooklyn headquarters. You're just as likely to see rapper Snoop Lion walking in as you are journalist Fareed Zakaria.

In its glass conference rooms, you might see corporate-looking PowerPoints or staff looking earnestly at pictures of nude, tattooed women. A team from the tech website holds serious meetings about reporting on the Cannabis Cup in Colorado.

"Everyone [always says], 'Vice is so weird!' and I'm like, look, I wish we were weirder," says Vice's CEO and co-founder, Shane Smith.

He's a burly, bearded Canadian who has built Vice into a hipper version of a big media conglomerate. And the company is now succeeding where other media companies have failed.

"We do music, we do books, we do magazines, we do online, we do mobile, we do television, we do film. We do what everyone else does. We do it weirder, and we do it younger, and we do it in a different way and in a different voice," he says.

Young Attraction

In its nearly 20 years, Vice has gone from a small Canadian magazine to figuring out the holy grail of media: how to capture an international audience of aloof 18- to 24-year-olds.

In the office's edit rooms, young producers work on everything from a food series, to a film about Somali pirates, to interviews about electronic dance music.

Honda is moving its North American headquarters from California to Ohio. That's just the latest bit of good news for the Buckeye State and Honda, whose fortunes have been closely tied for decades now.

Honda has been an economic heavyweight here since it was lured to central Ohio in the 1970s. The company's footprint is big, and it continues to increase.

Honda's sprawling Marysville Auto Plant opened outside Columbus in 1982. Since then, it has grown to nearly 4 million square feet and now sits on a campus of 8,000 acres.

More than 4,000 employees build 1,900 vehicles here every day, including Honda Accords and several Acura models, and the company is adding 100,000 square feet to the plant to build a new hybrid.

That means more work for nearby engine and transmission plants, and for the more than 150 Ohio companies that sell parts to Honda.

A Broad Impact

Company spokesman Ron Lietzke says with Honda's Ohio operations in a continuing growth spurt, it makes sense to move the headquarters here.

"It will increase the speed of making decisions, it'll increase the speed of introducing new models, and it will improve our communications activities throughout the organization in North America," he says.

With more cars being built here and expanding global markets, Honda of America expects to soon become a net exporter of vehicles for the first time, sending cars to Asia and the Middle East. And as Honda goes, so goes much of the rest of central Ohio's economic development.

A Boon To Housing

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There were just 88,000 jobs added to private and public payrolls in March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates.

But the nation's jobless rate still edged down to 7.6 percent from 7.7 percent. That dip wasn't for a good reason, though: Nearly half a million fewer people were participating in the labor force. That smaller pool meant the jobless rate could tick down even as job growth was weak.

The news was not in line with expectations. As we reported earlier, economists were expecting to hear that payrolls had grown by 200,000 jobs and that the jobless rate had remained at February's 7.7 percent.

We'll have more from the report and reactions to it as morning continues. Be sure to hit your refresh button to see our latest updates.

Update at 8:55 a.m. ET. Bear In Mind, There Are Really Two Surveys.

This issue often comes up when BLS issues its report: The two headline numbers — the jobless rate and job growth — can seem to signal different things because they are based on separate surveys.

BLS derives the unemployment rate from a survey of households. Basically, it asks thousands of Americans a series of questions aimed at determining how many are and aren't working.

In the other survey, it contacts public and private employers in an effort to determine how many jobs they have on their payrolls.

Update at 8:50 a.m. ET. Some Upward Revisions In Previous Months' Job Growth:

Though the March payroll employment figure was surprisingly low, BLS also on Friday revised up its estimates of growth in January and February.

Initially, it reported that 119,000 jobs had been added to payrolls in January. Now, it says there were 148,000 jobs added that month.

And it had earlier reported that 236,000 jobs were added to payrolls in February. Now, it says there were 268,000 jobs added that month.

It is possible, of course, that a month from now BLS will say there were more than 88,000 jobs added in March.

Update at 8:45 a.m. ET. Decline In The Labor Force:

According to BLS, there were 496,000 fewer people counted as being part of the labor force last month. And, the "participation rate" declined to 63.3 percent from 63.5 percent.

So, despite the weak job growth picked up in the agency's survey of employers, the jobless rate was nudged down to its lowest point since December 2008's 7.3 percent.

The always anxiously anticipated monthly employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is due at 8:30 a.m. ET and NPR's Yuki Noguchi says economists expect to hear that, as in previous months, there was "slow and steady" job growth in March.

Their forecast:

— Net growth of 200,000 jobs, down from the estimated 236,000 jobs added to private and public payrolls in February.

— A jobless rate of 7.7 percent, which would be unchanged from February.

Think of the tortoise and the hare, Yuki told host David Greene on Morning Edition. When it comes to the economy, the labor market is the tortoise — slowly moving along. On average, about 160,000 jobs a month have been added to payrolls in the past three years.

Meanwhile, the jobless rate that hit its recent peak of 10 percent in October 2009 has gradually moved down.

The hare — a part of the economy that's growing quickly — would be housing, Yuki added.

As for what's ahead on the jobs front, she said most of the possibly negative effects of the federal government's sequester (those automatic spending cuts that are kicking in now) won't be felt for months. For much more on how the sequester is affecting federal agencies, check the conversation David had this morning with six of NPR's correspondents.

Bloomberg News, by the way, says economists it has spoken to expect to hear there were 190,000 jobs added to payrolls last month — while the jobless rate stayed at 7.7 percent. Reuters' preview is in line with what Yuki's hearing: "The economy probably added 200,000 jobs last month, with the jobless rate steady at 7.7 percent."

We'll post on the news from the report right after it's released.

One other thing to bear in mind: Those figures from February (236,000 jobs added to payrolls and a 7.7 percent unemployment rate) might be revised in Friday's report.