Tag Archives: finance

New/Old Media

I recently wrote an article (“Old Media’s New Might”) about whether “old media” can survive and what it must do to prosper. The article is written from a personal investment perspective (e.g., I recommend stocks and make market analysis), although a significant chunk of the text is a more general analysis. The general theme fits in with the dotcom redux that the market, tech, and many industries, are currently experiencing.

There was not enough space to expand on certain issues in the article, and one of the trends that is not receiving nearly enough attention, by tech and market types, is MySpace.com. Some have said that News Corp overpaid for it, but in two years nearly everyone will agree it was a smart move. As one discussant said at a Pulver Media show I recently attended about MySpace.com’s South Korean counterpart CyWorld, “Do you want to get laid? Well, you can’t get laid if you’re a South Korean youth without a CyWorld page.”

The article I wrote appears in the November 23, 2005 issue of Personal Finance, which is the largest personal investment newsletter in the country. PF is aimed at a general audience of investors, covering many different industries and investment themes.

The general analysis section of the article is below the jump. If you’d like the market analysis and stock recommendations, let me know and I can provide you with a trial username and password for the site.
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Rock ‘n’ Roll And Property

Ben pointed out this Marketplace clip by Ian Svenonious, who DC hipsters will know as the lead singer in the bands The Make-Up and Weird War.

In it, Svenonious explores property’s relationship to music, particularly contrasting rock ‘n’ roll with electroclash and what he calls the “semi-acoustic psychedelic folk revival.” He begins by arguing that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s policy of low, low interest rates caused property prices to dramatically appreciate and, therefore, push low-income people into cramped quarters. To deal with constraints imposed by space and neighbors, the noisiness and size of bands (compared to rock ‘n’ roll) declined significantly. Musicians turned to electronic drums to replace drum kits, which are too big for apartments, and bands evolved into groups of one or two only. This downsizing of the rock ‘n’ roll sound can be found, Svenonious argues, in electroclash and the folk revival.
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Next Wave In Telecom

I recently wrote a report detailing IP-based communications and the companies who are going to benefit, lose, and should be watched. It’s aimed at investors who are seeking to be better prepared for the coming changes to the telecom industry. The report sells for $89 and was originally released November 1.

Here’s the advertising page for it–ignore the marketing hype: