Media celebrities, from on-air personnel to executives, reaped the high salaried rewards of a high margin business model based on promoting “air” time.
Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman suggests that the CNBC decision to part ways with ex-news chief Jonathan Wald reflects the new budget reality predicated by the slow decline of the broadcast media combined with an advertising recession:
The Wald story is a defining moment. You can call it, with apologies to author Malcolm Gladwell, the tipping point of the news industry.
CNBC put a line in the sand for all media companies. It’s sending a message to the world that it wouldn’t pay up to keep Wald, one of the brightest executives around..
Today, there’s further evidence of media retrenching… Harper Collins Lays Off Two Executives. It’s notable that “superstar” industries are downsizing top down, presaging a new management structure that processes instead of making deals.
