Some Media Stocks Take Beating On Auto Bailout News
This story was written by Rory Maher.
President Obama made it clear today that he does not plan to cut the auto industry a blank checkand that's bad news for media companies. That sentiment is playing out in the market this morning, as some big media stock are taking a hit. The media companies with the most exposure to national ad dollars (that's where the auto companies spend a lot of their marketing budgets) are suffering largest percentage declines: CBS (NYSE: CBS) (which owns national TV and radio assets) was down 18 percent as of noon EST; Gannett (NYSE: GCI) (Publisher of USA Today) was down 10 percent. A dour report by SNL Kagan on the prospects for the radio and TV industries is probably also contributing to today's decline.
The car industry is Sirius (NSDQ: SIRI) XM's single-biggest source of subscribers, which is certainly part of the reason the stock was down 10 percent this morning (though even in normal times Sirius tends to swing more widely than most media companies).
By Rory Maher