Financial services is in the midst of a meltdown, the housing market continues to deteriorate and inflation threatens to further batter the practically worthless American dollar. In the media sector, newspapers, magazines and the big broadcast TV networks are all struggling. Worth noting, then, that reviled cable giant Comcast just paid $125 million — $50 million more than expected ! — for a large list of email addresses of female shopaholics. And it had to beat back competition from Viacom to close the deal! WTF? Maybe this heralds a new mania for digital media firms, and maybe it signals confidence in strong consumer spending. More likely, it's a signal that old-line media companies are as desperate as ever to come up with winning online strategies and are hardly above grasping at decidedly retro internet businesses like e-newsletters. [ Silicon Alley Insider , WSJ ] ...
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Financial services is in the midst of a meltdown, the housing market continues to deteriorate and inflation threatens to further batter the practically worthless American dollar. In the media sector, newspapers, magazines and the big broadcast TV networks are all struggling. Worth noting, then, that reviled cable giant Comcast just paid $125 million — $50 million more than expected ! — for a large list of email addresses of female shopaholics. And it had to beat back competition from Viacom to close the deal! WTF? Maybe this heralds a new mania for digital media firms, and maybe it signals confidence in strong consumer spending. More likely, it's a signal that old-line media companies are as desperate as ever to come up with winning online strategies and are hardly above grasping at decidedly retro internet businesses like e-newsletters. [ Silicon Alley Insider , WSJ ] ...