Good Times Ahead for Media Companies

UBS is hosting a media conference this week in which, just about, every publicly traded major media company is presenting. See my write-up Stocks to Buy in a Cyclical Advertising Recovery.

There is a lot for media companies and investors to be gleeful about these days. There was a major transaction in the space that is likely to spark additional mega and smaller mergers, and as the chart below indicates, the declining growth rates of one of the major media revenue streams, advertising, bottomed in 1Q09. Barring a double-dip recession, good times are ahead for media companies.



Even newspaper companies, which as the chart below highlights, was the worst hit during the recession, has seen its advertising decline, stabilize.