media – Take your money and run

A last comment on the media industry from our new Wall Street colleague Maria Trombly, who just obtained her accreditation for Thomson Financial, who gave her take on what I see as huge profit-taking in the media industry, and organized the party.
“A typical reaction in a shrinking industry,” says Maria. “You do not invest anymore in R&D or improved quality of your products. You just try to raise your profits and then sell off your assets slowly.”That assessment seems correct for the traditional media worldwide, although very hard to see how this will work out in China, where traditional media are just getting used to taking market shares and are in fierce competition. For the time being it seems a rather unattractive industry for journalists. Just learned yesterday that en editor of a glossy magazine in Shanghai earns 3,000 Renminbi per month (USD 360) and freelancers 300 Renminbi for 1,000 words (USD 36). No wonder they have to make some money on the side by selling editorial space to companies