Hot Topic - The Walt Disney Company

Mergers And The Bluster Of Bigness, Badness - November 21, 2017
Nobody in business, media or otherwise, wants to be the little guy. Hence, all executives are schooled in thinking big. Their bankers tell them to think big because the paper work for a big deal is just the same as a small deal. There is no incentive to be anything but big.

Security In Scale Brings Opportunities, Insecurity Brings The For-Sale Sign - November 7, 2017
Strong news brands, by and large, have discovered two things recently. Number one is the fragility, to be generous, of advertising revenues, digital and otherwise. Second and just as important is the rise of subscription revenue for big news brands like the New York Times and the Guardian. In addition, though most significantly in the US market, is the Trump Effect, passionate foes and fans of US president Donald Trump are paying to see what they want to see.

Makeovers, Takeovers And Much More Fun - Hurray For Hollywood - March 14, 2016
The great digital dividend has opened vast new opportunities for film and television productions, not to forget animation, games and live events. And the demand for all that is creating more demand, a cycle, perhaps virtuous, maybe silly. Shareholders have their demands, too; sometimes not in synch with anything else. With so much fun - and money - available nobody seems to want to share.

Investors Cut The Cord On Traditional TV - August 10, 2015
With short attention spans and an anxious nature investors don’t need a lot of input for buy-sell decisions. The digital era has given them many tools. And they certainly like betting on change. They only need be right 51% of the time so the slightest nudge sets them off.

The Biggest Media Companies Only Get Bigger - June 17, 2014
Last year was generally good to big media companies. Distribution companies, largely satellite and pay-TV, benefited greatly but content companies, largely TV and film producers, held their own. The web is evermore powerful and publishing only starting to recover.

Box Opened, Tentacles Appear, Everybody’s Entertained - May 22, 2014
Brand building is an engaging business. The media world is in that business, for itself and for others. The biggest brands get people talking which, in post-modern terms, has nothing to do with actually talking. Social media has usurped than function. This is fun when the brand message is fun, happiness or shopping, less so for oil spills and bank scandals.

Games Changers And Media Killers - October 3, 2013
There’s always something behind a brand. Thinkers on the subject say it’s a story. The more potent, the more valuable. Magic has replaced fizz. Maybe things haven’t changed so much.