Battered U.S. media prays for its bailout (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Toronto Globe & Mail ^ | November 28, 2008 | Richard Siklos

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Has there ever been a less fun time to be a media mogul?

This was supposed to be a banner year for the U.S. media industry, with the happy confluence of a presidential election campaign and the Olympics. Instead, 2008 has been pretty much a writeoff.

Some parts of the industry - particularly local U.S. media - have seen their sales fall off a cliff and their long-term viability as business models called into question as a consequence of the shakeout in the financial services companies and car makers, two of the largest advertising categories.

"It looks like 2008 will be the first year in 48 years that TV-station advertising will decline in a presidential election and Olympic year," said Michael Nathanson, media analyst at Sanford Bernstein.

Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp., one of the world's largest media conglomerates, told investors this month that automotive advertising has represented as much as 40 per cent of the advertising at his local Fox TV stations, and that category is down by 40 per cent this year, with some big advertisers such as imperilled General Motors cutting their spending by more than half.

"It is going to take time for that to come back or to come back from other sources or to be replaced," Mr. Murdoch said.

Sam Zell, the Chicago billionaire who bought Tribune Co. (which owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and 23 TV stations), told a conference in New York this month that when he took the company private last year he budgeted for a 6-per-cent erosion in newspaper advertising, which was twice the rate of recent years. Instead, he said, this year's sales have tanked 19 per cent.

snip

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"It looks like 2008 will be the first year in 48 years that TV-station advertising will decline in a presidential election and Olympic year," said Michael Nathanson, media analyst at Sanford Bernstein.

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ping

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http://www.thestreet.com/story/10450272/1/viacom-earnings-growth-stuck-in-neutral.html?puc=googlen&cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
Viacom Earnings Growth Stuck in Neutral

http://www.thecelebritytruth.com/hell-ratings-rosie-cares-manatees/005145
To Hell With Ratings, Rosie Cares For Manatees

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11292008/tv/rosie_bomb_blast_141330.htm
ROSIE BOMB BLAST

[FlingWingFlyer]

I can’t understand why Obama’s “huge army of small donors” does not come to the aid of THEIR media. It was their media that got Obama elected by sacrificiing what little credibility it had left.

[abb]

They got it for free. It’s not likely the Obamans will begin paying for it now.

[TalBlack]

I wish them dead. I wish every last one of their “business models” dead.

We don’t need them and they no longer serve good.They have thrown over their unregulated constitutional role to serve ideology. They have sent to the white house an utter unworthy who despises America perhaps even more than they do. I want tham all out of work and scraping for a living far beneath their former payscale.

And ya’ know what? There’s even money that this will come to pass!!!

Sweet.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

“2008 will be the first year in 48 years that TV-station advertising will decline in a presidential election and Olympic year”

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Well, folks, if you’d let us have Duncan Hunter at the top of the GOP ticket...what you saw happen when Sarah Palin came in as VP candidate would have been much bigger yet, from enthused Conservatives. Who’s sorry now?

All of us.

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http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117939122.html?categoryid=32&cs=1

Rosie Live

If Rosie O’Donnell and company were consciously determined to strangle the rebirth of variety shows in the crib, they couldn’t have done a better job of it than this pre-holiday turkey.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

"... a consequence of the shakeout in the financial services companies and car makers, two of the largest advertising categories."

And yet the media continues to $hit in their mess kits, pushing for more socialism and the phony green agenda.

[Paige]

Maybe their voting shares will become public and the Conservatives can buy them up. Smiling

[thinking]

The MSM, moved away from a business model to a political propaganda model, management was fat and lazy, and so turned a blind eye to obvious decline....good bye, good riddance

[Hardastarboard]

I'm calling BULLSH!T OUT LOUD. I literally cannot watch TV for the commercials. They are so frequent, with so little program between them, that I just give up in frustration and read. The "stand alone" episode of "24" last weekend was especially grievous. It was five minutes of programming followed by three minutes of commercials.

The @$$holes in the broadcast media run commercials that total up to nearly twenty five minutes of every broadcast hour. They did everything they could to get 0bama elected. They're selling commemorative plates and DVD's of his campaign, and now they want him bail them out?

Not just no; HELL NO!!

[TigerLikesRooster]

NBC = New Bull Cr*p
CBS = Current Bull Sh*t
ABC = Abominable Bull Cr*p

[Gorzaloon]

My thoughts exactly. You saved me a lot of typing! :-)

[STONEWALLS]

” It was five minutes of programming followed by three minutes of commercials.”

....Yep, and it’s getting worse....last year during March Madness the basketball games were four minutes of play and a three minute commercial timeout(six 30 sec. spots in a row)....one of the coaches commented that the game is now coached in 4 minute increments.

[bert]

Fox said recently that the army did not exist. There was no such large group. The group consisted of around 25% of doanations, about the same as McCain and W

[AD from SpringBay]

And yet the media continues...pushing for more socialism and the phony green agenda.

Because they see, down the road a year or so, government dollars coming their way with their own bailout tax dollars and fewer competitors with the fairness doctrine. I'm glad they are floundering and I hope they have to survive in the market like real businesses, but I'm not holding my breath. The next four years could see a shift in the American landscape like we have not seen in our entire lives.

[mountainlion]

Bail out the tax payer first not penalize us for poorly run liberal business.

[abb]

http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/
List of McClatchy newspapers that have closed printing facilities

[EQAndyBuzz]

The problem when the very wealth control an insustry is they choose their agenda. When the industry goes into the tank, they bail, the investor loses his shirt and then government comes in and bails out the wealthy.

Sound familar?

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer and the middle class pick up the tab.