I posted this thread yesterday. 2005 was not a good year stock price wise for the electronic MSM, and 2005 was more of a disaster for most of the big fishwraps.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1550250/posts
Media stocks flat; majors down for `05 Big newspaper publishers' valuations slumped
Market Watch ^ | 12/30/2005 | William Spain
Posted on 01/01/2006 10:15:30 AM PST by Grampa Dave
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Media stocks ended the last day of 2005 trading pretty much flat as shares of all the big conglomerates stalled.
NWSNWS16.61, -0.06, -0.4%) , Disney (DIS: Walt Disney Company (The) (Holding Company) News, chart, profile Last: 23.97-0.20-0.83%
DISDIS23.97, -0.20, -0.8%) and Time Warner (TWX: time warner inc com News, chart, profile Last: 17.44-0.04-0.23%
TWXTWX17.44, -0.04, -0.2%) ended down less than 1%, while Viacom (VIA: viacom inc cl a News, chart, profile Last: 32.76+0.34+1.05%
VIAVIA32.76, +0.34, +1.0%) was up slightly.
The four will end the year lower than where they started it. Time Warner is down 10.3% over the past 52 weeks; Viacom is off 11.7%; News Corp. is down 13.5%; and Disney has given up 13.8%.
But that isn't a patch on the valuation drops at some big newspaper companies:
The New York Times (NYT: New York Times Company News, chart, profile Last: 26.45+0.01+0.04%
NYT abd TRB have surrendered 35.2% and 28.42, respectively, since the end of 2004.
Dow Jones, (DJ: dow jones & co inc com), parent of MarketWatch, the publisher of this report, is off 17.6%
In an interview with the Times of London, Martin Sorrell the chief executive of advertising agency holding company WPP warned that while global ad spending should be up in 2006 with the help of worldwide sporting events and U.S. midterm elections, it could be a tough year for the industry in some spots.
Shares of WPP Group (UK:WPP: news, chart, profile) were down in London as were those of both its American rivals, Omnicom (OMC: and Interpublic (IPG:
William Spain is a MarketWatch staff writer in Chicago.
Heheh----happy days are here, again.
And it couldn't have happened to a more deserving bunch.
Power of the Blogs" and the Sherpas Who Write Them.
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The article --in the business ssection-- recognizes that MSM has been filtering news, has been selectively quoting sources, and has been upended by blogs that do neither.
"The good old days" when those with the access could control the story are gone. Meloncholy is the best way to describe the air of the piece's pro agenda-journalism slant. Like a buggy maker's sighs as the cars that first annoyed then disturbed finally became not a nuisance or a challenge but an eclipse.
"They will always need buggies," I am sure the best buggy assembler said to himself:
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See link for the rest of Hugh's comments....