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The death of the mainstream media, at least the TV part of it, is much closer than you think.
Comcast, which desperately wanted to be in the cable news (so desperately it gave Al Sharpton a job) just as desperately doesn’t want to be in the cable business so it ‘spun off’ or dumped its cable business into a company called Versant.
That includes MSNBC or as it’s now called MS Now. Here’s how the shares did on the first day of trading.
Versant Media Group Inc., the parent of CNBC, USA and other cable-TV networks, fell as much as 15% in its first official day of trading after being spun off from Comcast Corp. The shares, trading at $40.78 mid-morning in New York, give the company a stock market value of $5.94 billion based on 144.2 million shares outstanding. Comcast distributed the shares, which trade under the symbol VSNT on the Nasdaq exchange, to its investors on Jan. 2.
I’m not a stock market expert, but that seems bad.
If Netflix succeeds in cannibalizing WB to launch its all-trans Superhero shows, Discovery’s cable networks into another company with a stupid placeholder name. That package will include CNN. And I think the odds are good that it’ll crash and burn too.
Are there going to be separate buyers for CNN or MS NOW? Probably not the latter and I wouldn’t bet too hard on the former.
And then how long until Comcast gets tired of NBC? And until Paramount gets tired of CBS? The ‘insiders’ attacking Bari Weiss will preside over a charnel house if they win. And even Disney at some point will tire of subsidizing ABC.
Then the TV mainstream media will be history. Likely in less than a decade.
The M.S. Media have been digging their own grave for years now their just getting ready to carve their own Tombstone and build the Coffin
One can hope, but awful ideas sometimes have an undeserved lifetime.
With the advent of the internet, it was always just a matter of time before the sun would set on the MSM. They’re now in their twilight and the darkness of night is almost upon them. Most will disappear into the darkness of night and never to be seen again.
Those that survive to see another sunrise will be markedly changed and barely recognizable from what they once were. An example of how and why that is happening is podcasting which is starting to serious encroach upon what was formerly MSM turf.
Even websites like this one, FPM, has a larger, and growing, following than the site operators probably even realize. I get all my news and info from the internet and FPM is one of my daily “must go to” websites for political opinions and commentary and stories and issues that the MSM rarely, if ever, covers.
Now hold on. Before we dance and sing Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead – 15% dip does not a crash make.
Hedge fund traders are responsible for high highs and sudden lows. Hedge fund trading should have restrictions because hedge fund trading creates a different paradigm over than the value and management of a company!
It could be a sell off because something may be cooking in the works for a change at this insane non-news news propaganda and censorship gaslighting spokeshole owned by deep state oligarchs.
Benjamin Graham wrote “Value Investing” that Warren Buffet read as Benjamin Graham was Warren Buffet’s business school professor. Benjamin Graham’s influence was steroids for the genius Warren Buffet.
Value investing is difficult with hedge fund tradings to manipulate the market and individual companies.
Then there is the gambling factor of people buy on rumor and sell on fact, which is gambling and not value investing to begin with..
I would not own shares of any legacy media or cable news outlets because of personal beliefs. This does not mean my Roth IRA USA Fund does not have CBS and other companies I do not like their souls and beliefs.
If I were MSNOW in all their aliases with no new iterations, I would run classic cartoons when children are home from school and watch their ratings increase a point or two.
MuggsSpongedice :
Good points and right on the money. I made my fortune being a “bottom feeder” in a down market. When the stock market takes a major dump, a lot of stocks with sound fundamentals get hit and gets dragged down with the rest of the market. But they’re the first to quickly recover when the market slump is over. That’s where the real money is made in the stock market.
Said another way, the real money is made when the faint of heart and the suckers get spooked out of the stock market. Any experienced stock trader sees this as a good thing and counts on it. I personally think that market crashes are orchestrated for this reason.
Someone once said that “a fool and their money are soon parted.” That’s a truism that has stood the test of time.
15% isn’t a death knell, but a business whose profits are falling and costs are rising, and will inevitably continue to do so, isn’t exactly a great investment.
Viewers are leaving, advertisers want to pay less and costs are rising.
Buying into a package of cable channels in 2026 is like investing in horses and buggies.
I just looked Versant Media up on the stock exchange. Looks like they opened in early Dec ‘25 at $59/share. As of 10:15 EST today, it was trading at $35.14/share.
That’s a 40% drop in just about a month. That’s not hedge funds. That’s investors running away quickly from the Titanic sinking.
Thank you. Ouch. That’s more like a free fall.
Liberalism no longer selling like it once did.
the demise of the socialist MM cant happen soon enough .
“Versant”??? Is that from the same genius who came up with “Venza” for Toyota? It sounds like a medical condition.