Weekly Media Stocks Roundup: Small Moves, Slow Week

Hoo boy! It has not been a rapid-fire news week for the media sphere. In keeping with the glacial pace of news flow, shares in media companies made modest moves to end the week with mixed results, as the broader market shed a few points here and there. Over the past five days, the S&P 500 lost less than 1% to 1071.69. News Corp. (NWS), the behemoth media outfit run by noted conservative Rupert Murdoch, made headlines this week after it was revealed that the company had given -- like straight-up given -- $1 million to the Republican Governors Association. In response, Jon Stewart made some jokes on "The Daily Show," some other people fretted about whether this damages News Corp. outlets' integrity, and the stock slipped 2.3% to $14.18. Concerns over The Washington Post Co.'s (WPO), Kaplan education business continued to hinder the company. Standard & Poor's on Wednesday cut its credit-rating outlook on the company. Moody's also warned it may downgrade the company's rating. After a horrendous selloff last week, shares ticked up 1.2% to $347.68. The New York Times Co. (NYT), meanwhile, began its foray into metered-paywall territory by setting up an online subscription system for its Worcester Telegram & Gazette newspaper. The company expects its flagship paper to roll out a metered pay model in early 2011. Shares added one penny to $7.72. Weekly stock results for Time Warner, AOL and more after the jump. At Time Inc., Time Warner's (TWX) publishing arm, Lifestyle Group head Sylvia Auton is switching jobs with IPC Media honcho Evelyn Webster. The company also picked up multimedia presence and former Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria this week. Time Inc.'s People also hit the iPad this week. In what some cheer as a victory for its magazines, the company was able to grant iPad access to print subscribers free of charge. The stock fell 1.6% to $30.31. News emerged that former Time Warner subsidiary and current standalone online media entity AOL (AOL) saw big-time investor George Soros reduce his stake in the company during the first quarter of 2010. The company also announced this week that its hyperlocal Patch journalism project had launched its 100th website. Shares added 3% to $22.56. USA Today parent Gannett (GCI) this week announced the launch of more than 100 local high-school sports websites under the HighSchoolSports.net banner. Shares fell 2.7% to $12.32. More media stock results: Playboy Enterprises (PLA): Down 5.6% at $4.91 Meredith Corp. (MDP): Down 3.7% at $30.17 • A. H. Belo (AHC): Up 3.3% at $6.62 • IAC/InterActive (IACI): Up 0.8% at $23.75 • Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO): Down 2.6% at $4.47 • Thomson Reuters (TRI): Down 1.2% at $35.10 Cablevision (CVC): Down 0.7% at $35.39

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Weekly Media Stocks Roundup: Small Moves, Slow Week

Mike Taylor

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