Media Stocks Mayday: News Corp, CBS, Viacom Hit Five Year Lows

Wall Street's rough Wednesday, which saw the Dow Jones industrial average dip below 8,000 for the first time in five years, was particularly felt among media stocks, with many media conglomerates' stocks hitting or nearing the five-year lows over the course of the day.

• CBS (CBS) fell 11% Wednesday, hitting a five-year low of 5.36 and closing just above that at 5.39.
• News Corp (NWS) fell almost 5% Wednesday, hitting a five-year low of 6.44 and closing just above that at 6.55.
• Viacom (VIA) fell almost 9% Wednesday, hitting its five-year low of 14.90 but closing above $15/share, at 15.02.
• Time Warner (TWX) fell just 3% Wednesday, approaching its five-year low of 8.01, but only hitting 8.09 and closing at 8.14.
• Disney (DIS) fell 3.5% Wednesday, approaching its five-year low of 19.58, but only hitting 19.93 and closing at 19.94.

Comments

[lmvd3]

CBS Morning "News" is nothing close to news. A more appropriate name would be "CBS Morning Fluff"? Fashion, cooking, and a whole bunch of mindless nothing. I'm sure it's intended to capture the women audience, but not even women are interested in this garbage. NEWS FLASH: Women like news! Julie needs to go; she makes everyone else uptight and is simply in it for the wardrobe. She's already chased away too many other "anchors", and is just an annoying presence on the set. The Cuban woman (can't remember her name) is terrific, but held back from doing real news stories of any amount of depth. I'd rather have no television than have to watch CBS in the morning. Awful.

[luke150]

The economic crisis will do nothing to improve the quality of news delivery at the major channels. And for the people who rejoice, let me tell you, you haven't seen anything yet. This is by far the worst crisis in almost a century. Everyone will be hit hard. That's why it will be called officially a depression - you have an idea how a depression feels. Only doctors and funeral directors will be doing well is my guess.

[Haditup2here]

I wonder if the salaries of certain news correspondents and anchors will see a decrease if stocks were to fall any lower -- or if they will instead lay off other personnel like camera persons and studio workers.

[enoch2012]

While bad for the economy, this is awesome for the 1st Amendment - these media monopolies have dominated and manipulated the public discourse for far too long. Hurray for change!

[alicetilden]

Maybe CBS stock fell in anticipation of Grissom leaving.

[TrippyWeekender]

Well played.