PRINT JOURNALISM: BECAUSE IT STILL MATTERS. MARCH 9, 2020 VOL. 56, No. 10
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Investors were frustrated with Wall Street’s performance at the end of February.
How much money did you lose?
INSIDE PAGE
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WELCH DIES AT 84
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MOUNDS IS NEW CHIEF OF STAFF
STREAMING — ‘THE FINAL ECONOMIC BATTLEFIELD?’ BY PHIL HALL
NELSON: ‘THIS IS LIKE A 9/11 EVENT OR … LIKE A KATRINA’ BY PETER KATZ pkatz@westfairinc.com
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ust hours before President Donald Trump told a South Carolina rally of his followers that the stock market loss in reaction to the coronavirus crisis and what was being said about it was a Democrat political hoax and news media scheme to hurt
him, three local financial professionals were giving the Business Journal insights about what was happening. In the final trading days of February, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped about 12% as the COVID-19 virus continued to spread. The estimated loss in wealth globally during that period was $6 trillion with $4 trillion of the loss attributable
phall@westfairinc.com
to the U.S. March opened with a 1,294 rise in the Dow on March 2, followed by a drop of 785 points on the following day despite the Federal Reserve announcing an emergency interest-rate cut of one-half percentage point. As of March 4, the novel coronavirus had spread to 82 countries. The worldwide count of cases had risen to 94,343 with 3,222 deaths. There were nine deaths reported in the U.S. The commentary was provided by: Mario Gabelli, chairman and CEO of Gamco Investors Inc., which is based in Rye, New York; David Nelson, chief strate» VIRUS
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ver the past few years, there has been an extraordinary increase in the number of streaming services vying for consumer attention and subscriptions. The recent Fairfield Universit y discussion “Streaming Wars: Competition for Your Subscription” detailed how the major streaming services will fight to obtain and maintain a dominant role in this fast-growing sector. Bridget Williams, senior vice president of strategy and operations at Hearst Newspapers Digital Media, observed that engaging content is the prime challenge facing the streaming
services. “You’ll start to see that even if you are a subscriber to multiple services, 90% of those offerings are not relevant to you,” she said, adding the companies that will hold a leadership role in this realm will be those “who have a very clear idea of their audience and start developing content that serves that audience specifically. I think the broad categories is where there is going to be problems.” Adam Rugg, an assistant professor of communication at Fairfield University, noted the Disney media empire was relatively late in recognizing the potential of streaming, but has muscled its way into becoming a major player with popular content. » MEDIA
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