2017 should be a prosperous year for most media entities

By Kevin Kamen

President/CEO at Kamen & Co Group Services and Owner, Kamen & Co Group Services

Published on February 5, 2017

As a multi-media valuation firm based in New York (kamengroup.com), our team is thinking broadcast and print-digital growth this year and we expect the stock market to be the place on which to keep both eyes centered. With a new president in office, a republican controlled house and senate elected and aligned to “make America great again,” you can expect regulations to be scaled back in the coming months in DC and the stock market to continue to become a more inviting place for investors to park their investment dollars. Anything media, whether print or digital, will be a smart investment in 2017. Newspapers of the weekly variety will become more valuable than in recent years; daily newspapers that have solid digital formats will become trusted extensions for investors and social media will continue to grow in a dynamic fashion. I feel it simply makes sense that putting your hard earned dollars into broadcast and digital, and to a degree print, will pay dividends in the long haul. It has to; people need to know and want to be informed and media entities help deliver all the news as it happens, from Twitter to Facebook to every known social media dynamic on the planet today.

Talk within the beltway will be about consumerism and the rights of every consumer, including banking rights, voting rights and human rights. Public concern over these topics, regardless of how polarized the country is today, will lead to new growth initiatives and new business opportunities across almost every imaginable channel – and the media, as always, will be following and reporting on everything “Washington.” With the infrastructure of the country on the minds of many politicos and President Trump wanting to put America back to work, legal notices and all types of advertising and bidding will be highlighted once more – as soon as both major political parties come to an agreement on what to allocate in terms of dollars and where to spend those monies. You can be certain the media will be a recipient of millions upon millions – if only to get the message out and build support for such an investment.

We anticipate that Fed chief Janet Yellen, who happens to be an Obama appointee, will not be around by 2018. Her management of the Fed will again come into question as it has in recent years and the new president will request her resignation. Once President Trump shapes the government to his liking and invests in building the military, pipelines, infrastructure and inner cities, as he has promised to do, undoes a wide array of regulations affecting business and cuts back on waste throughout the government, a fair share of advertising and marketing dollars and investment in media outlets – both via the government and big business establishments – will allow for numerous media entities to take advantage of new development strategies across all sectors of the country and ultimately see growth. How ironic since all we ever hear out of the mouth of the new president is how biased and untrustworthy the liberal media has been to him. He does have a point yet it will ultimately be the media that will directly benefit from a large percentage of the dollars from many of President Trump’s bold initiatives.

Values at many broadcast entities will absolutely soar during the next four years Trump is in control of the country and for good reason. Analysts will be busy, reporters and news agencies will be working around the clock and the public will clearly be crying out for more and more in this informational age. The markets will not stay stagnant, inflation rates will be adjusted and interest rates should climb. Real interest rates will matter, meaning the current interest rate minus inflation rate will be a focus of all bankers. In essence, the Real interest rate may be calculated by comparing interest rates with present or, more often, reduced inflation rates. For example, with a bond yielding 9% and inflation of 3%, the Real interest rate of 6% would bring a return high enough to beat inflation.

This year will not only be about paywalls, payroll, links, printing costs, distribution, unique visits or buyer consumption. Instead it will be about becoming more creative, using social media initiatives to attract revenue streams like never before and enhancing your team so it is better trained, better prepared and able to adjust to the new world order within the media sphere. It is no longer important to be just good; it is necessary to be focused, idea-centric, precise, reflective and everywhere in order to become profitable and relevant to an ever more demanding, more engaged audience that requires much more as we within the publishing and broadcast sector work to be a firewall for independence and integrity, all the while keeping both eyes on the bottom line.

Kevin Kamen Kamen & Co. Group Services (kamengroup.com, 516.379.2797) is based in Uniondale, New York and provides professional financial valuations, consultation and brokerage services to the multi-media and entertainment trade on a worldwide basis