Major Media Money Losses On Monday
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
You don’t have to be financial guru Warren Buffett to know that Monday was a horrendous day on Wall Street – with the Dow dropping about 634 points.
Well, a check around the financial sector shows that media companies were not spared the gut wrenching drop in stock prices. Radio, TV and newspapers all took a beating. This becomes especially brutal because many of these stocks are way off the highs of this year. And for employees who either buy stock or get it as part of their deal, it’s bad news all around for sure.
Radio Worse Than TV
From a content and talent point of view, there is always a debate as to who is the best between radio and TV. Well, on Monday, in the stock world it was radio representing the local Providence stations here that took the biggest beating.
Cumulus who is positioning itself to take over AM station 630 WPRO, 92-Pro Fm, Lite Rock 105, and Hot 106 saw its stock price drop to $2.60 per share at the close. At the closing bell the stock was down nearly 12% on the day which is a big drop. In terms of big picture---Cumulus had a 52-week high of 5.78 per share. The value of that stock cut in half now. And so there will big plans to add more resources to the Providence stations? I don’t think so.
Clear Channel – which owns stations here including 94 WHJY, Talk Radio 920 WHJJ, and Coast 93.3 and B101 – saw a big drop at the day too. Try more than a 21% decline in its share price. At the end of the day, Clear Channel closed at $5.47 per share—way off its 52 week high of $11.00 per share.
TV Took It On the Chin As Well
Even though the owners of Providence TV didn’t suffer the same size losses as radio, it is still significant. At one time, Channel 10 was owned by NBC, which is part of the GE family now so while GE stock is not the equivalent of Apple stock – it has fallen from grace from a financial point of view. Still Channel 10 staffers who hold stock would have been better with GE stock. After the close on Monday, Media General which owns Channel 10 now, closed at $2.30 per share and had an 8% drop for the day. That’s right – the company that owns mega powerhouse Channel trading at less than what it costs to get a Starbucks medium latte with whip a cream blah-blah.
LIN MEDIA which owns Channel 12/Fox Providence was also hit fairly hard in trading. Down by about 12% for the day to close at $3.29 per share. Lin has seen a 52-week high of $6.56 per share. Like Channel 10, Channel 12’s stock price trading at incredibly low levels.
Providence Journal's Parent Company A.H. Belo was Down Big
And last on the list – The Providence Journal which is owned by A.H. Belo. That stock settled down at $5.36 per share. Down almost 9% on the day and has had a 52-week high of $9.33 per share.
But if you do have some spare cash hanging around – consider Apple which was mentioned above – a bargain at about $350.00 a share and as of last week had more cash on hand than the U.S. federal govenment.
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