Corporate Media

I don't know what to make of this--we can expect fewer corporate types taking control of newspapers? Or are we washed up? I don't know.

U.S. no place for private media
By Mimi Turner
Hollywood Reporter
NEW YORK -- Private-equity expansion in traditional media will be focused on high-growth and high-risk developing markets rather than the U.S., senior executives said Wednesday.

"Media is what we do, and in the last two years we have not invested in newspapers or radio or cable in the U.S.," said Julie Richardson, managing director of Providence Equity Partners, which was a partner in the acquisition of MGM.

Speaking at the Dow Jones/Nielsen Media and Money conference, Richardson said emerging markets offered higher potential returns.

"One of the things we've found that worked really well is traditional media deals in emerging markets. We are seeing real opportunities in high-risk economies, but ones which also promise high growth," she said, noting Providence's recent investment in Turkish pay TV platform Digiturk.

That investment was going "gangbusters," she said. Providence also has made substantial cable investments in emerging markets in Europe.