The traditional publishing business is grim, but if you broaden your perspective and look at the rest of the media business, things are starting to look… not horrible.
Granted, “not horrible” doesn’t equal “good times are here again.” But I keep hearing that the sickening decline in advertising spending has stopped, at least, and that some marketers are actually spending money again.
Broadcast TV’s “upfront” season–the odd tradition whereby the networks try to get advertisers to buy much of their inventory in advance for the coming year–doesn’t start till next month. But once it does, it’s likely to be grim.
Everyone has been expecting cuts at Disney and its operating units for quite some time. Now they’re here: ABC is firing 200 people and leaving another 200 positions vacant. And ESPN is cutting 200 jobs of its own.
Glad to see that Google had a decent quarter. But things look grim for everyone else who makes a living selling ads, and there’s plenty of lousy news to come. Just ask Meredith Corp., which says its local TV ads are down 40 percent this quarter.
You don’t need a particularly good crystal ball to foresee that big media are in for a bad year (at least). But Wall Street singled out Sumner Redstone’s Viacom and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. for special treatment this morning, by whacking estimates for the next few quarters. The short story: The lousy ad market will be even worse than people think.
Yesterday, two of the world’s biggest media companies fired 1,350 people. Which just means there are many more to go. Barclays Capital analyst Anthony DiClemente predicts that Disney will follow in the footsteps of Viacom and NBC and will focus the brunt of its cost-cutting/firing at its ABC network.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
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