• by Masha Geller , April 9, 2001

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but today was not a happy day for the media industry, at least on the Wall Street side of things. First, we learned that NBC has pulled the plug on NBCi, and will immediately begin cutting the size of its work force as it prepares to scale down the business.

NBC executives said during a telephone press conference that continued softness in the ad market, particularly a collapse in the Internet ad business, made it impossible to keep the company going. Déjà vu, anyone?

"NBCi was highly dependent on other dot-coms for advertising and they were clamoring for what was pretty good traffic," said Marty Yudkovitz, president of NBC Digital Media. "As their businesses dissolved, obviously NBCi suffered from losing those clients."

Then, as CBS.MarketWatch reported, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter released a note about the broadcasting sector, cutting revenue growth estimates for radio and television because many advertisers now see a protracted U.S. economic slowdown.

"We now expect 3% revenue growth for radio/outdoor and a 4% revenue decline for TV stations," said analyst Frank Bodenchak.

The note also said that advertisers would continue to see budgets decline for 16 to 18 months. Three weeks ago, advertisers had expected the slowdown to be short-lived as the weakened economy was largely associated with Internet companies, CBS.MW said.

Let's hope tomorrow brings better news.