Media Investing in the Aftermath of Murdoch

It is only well after the smoke clears that we begin to see what actually caused the fire. In the case of Rupert Murdoch, his Bizzaro Wikileaks approach to journalism is a pretty safe bet to be the eventual culprit. Murdoch’s always been known for tough tactics and though he never ran an investment bank, is as powerful a Wall Street player as there is. Some would argue as there has ever been.

This is precisely why his likely downfall, will have a far further reaching scope than Murdoch and Newscorp. As our friends over at Mindfulmoney.com ask, has media investing changed forever.

Just one of the many good points brought up states that:

Much was made of the fact that Murdoch has used his newspapers - and where the law allows, such as in the US, his TV stations - to influence the political and regulatory debate. Opinion divides on how ideological this all is. The Sun of course famously boasted about preventing Neil Kinnock from being elected British PM. At times, Fox can feel more like a lobbying group aligned with the Tea party than a TV station. Some commentators say Murdoch used the Sun and until last week, the News of the World, to fund the loss making but much more influential Times and Sunday Times.

Certainly, we can’t make blanket statements about an entire industry due to one major player’s gaffe. There is, however, a great divide between media and other industries in recent history. Media is changing rapidly. Some would say dying off. These people are almost certainly correct with regards to old media methods. This does help to validate suspicions that media is a field which can no longer be invested in with certainty.

As far as Newscorp themselves, we are seeing that even oligarchies which border on monopoly can fall fast in the media realm. Hell, when the Wall Street Journal has trouble turning a profit… things done changed. I don’t even want to begin making MySpace jokes but it does seem worthwhile mentioning the near $550 million dollar bath Murdoch took on that one.

So there’s you question for today. Can we still invest in traditional media? Specifically, large conglomerates? Or has the future actually arrived and newspapers are only good for warming your house until the next round of quantitative easing?