MMMM #29 Four related item$

1) "No matter what you may have heard, rest assured that our operations are strong, and that we continue to focus on enhancing our products and services" That's from an e-mail to Charter Cable customers from the firm's CEO, Neil Smit. And what you "may have heard" is that Charter will file for bankruptcy soon because of a huge load of debt. Even so, analysts seem to be comfortable with that prospect, saying the Microsoft controlled cable provider should emerge in good shape. While people tend to like the products they receive from cable companies, they tend to hate the companies themselves...perhaps that's the cumulative result of years of miserable customer service. But something is going on. In my own experience, two recent contacts with my cable operator resulted in fast and friendly service. 2) In a related story the New York headquartered "Young Broadcasting", operator of ten TV stations, is also getting ready to file for bankruptcy. [None of them are in Alabama. The closest to us are the ABC-TV stations in Nashville and Knoxville.] What happened to the days when owning just one station was considered a license to print money? Same thing that happened to the newspaper business, advertising went away. 3) ...speaking of newspapering...read an excellent N.Y. Times editorial about that aspect of the recession here. 4) And finally, Sunday marked the final edition of the Baltimore Examiner, which began publishing just three years ago, but never attracted enough advertising dollars to make it profitable. [The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]