BIG MEDIA DEATHWATCH

One of the more memorable songs from Oklahoma went like this: “Pore Jud is daid, a candle lights his haid”, sung mournfully by Curly, as he tries to convince Jud to kill himself.

Bring out the candle, folks, ‘cause if Big Media ain’t dead, it’s got it’s finger on the trigger. Media Life Magazine recently reported a Lehman Brothers forecast: the Big Four TV networks - ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX together will produce an income shortfall of more than $240 million, compared to last year. Even the “Tiffany Network”, CBS, will post the biggest loss of 5.7%, from last year.

*Side Note: Cable TV is enjoying an experience quite different from its “traditional television” counterparts. Lehman Brothers predicts an increase in profits by 5% for Cable networks this year.

Well, as dismal as the outlook appears for the tried-and-true TV media, the picture isn’t any brighter for Newspapers. Let look at June 2008.

June 24, the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press announced 7% cuts in staffing.

Further, Gannett Newspapers was downgraded by Morningstar, a Chicago based global investment firm, ending up with a fair value estimate of $23 per share, down from $32.

The Boston Globe asked for a 10% pay cut, across the board, from its employees, and the Boston Herald planned to cut 130 to 160 jobs.

The next day, the Palm Beach newspapers announced plans to cut 300 jobs;

That same day, The Tribune Company, suffering from losses to its two iconic newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, announced that the 83-year-old Tribune Tower was up for sale!!! (…deserving of three exclamation points). Along with Tribune Tower, Times Mirror Square will suffer the same fate.

Next, The Hartford Courant followed suit with a new, bare-bones format, citing the loss of: revenue, staff, and number of pages they are able to devote to news. They were forced to cut back staff and newsprint by 25%, just to stay alive.

The news seems to be getting worse for Big Media. As potential advertisers, what does that mean for you and me? We’ll examine that question in depth, during the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I’m going to check out Yahoo News and see what’s going on over there.