Media Mania After Dow Jones & News Corp. Merger Talk

Stock Tickers: DJ, NWS, RTRSY, TOC, NYT, WPO, SSP, MNI, BLC, LEE, GHS, XFML

It looks like almost all media stocks are running on David Faber’s report that Dow Jones (DJ-NYSE) is now a target of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (NWS-NYSE).  Here are the companies running:

Reuters (RTRSY), Thomson (TOC), New York Times (NYT), Washington Post (WPO), EW Scripps (SSP), and McClatchy (MNI). Even some of the second and third tier names are benefiting from the move to the likes of Belo Corp. (BLC), Lee Enterprises (LEE), and GateHouse Media (GHS).  The effects could be far-reaching enough that it even benefits the recent Xinhua Finance Media (XFML) for Chinese financial news coverage that recently came public.

This is a big “IF,” but if this deal does occur and if it is allowed to go through and all the parties that be agree to terms, then this deal would be a true game changer.  This could create an entirely new consolidated environment, and it create many other deals if this comes to pass. 

Jon C. Ogg
May 1, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.