Media and Advertisers in Damage Control

by: Diane Mermigas posted on: October 12, 2008 | about stocks: How companies respond to unrelievedly bad economics over the next year will separate the winners from the losers. The first indications will come in troubled third-quarter earnings calls amid lower forecasts on a dramatic pullback by advertisers and consumers, and sobering admissions that it's all going to get worse before it gets better. Clearly, the purge extends to the Internet and Silicon Valley, where companies from Google and Apple to the smallest start-up are getting their first bitter taste of mainstream angst. Some of last year's double-digit online advertising growth that was halved in the second quarter is beginning to flat-line. Not even big media can find shelter in the folds of escapist entertainment for the dreary masses, with one-third of their... [read full story]