Considerable risk aversion
Samuel Helbling on Good Stock Market News and the Economic Press in Crisis
Samuel Helbling on good stock market news and the crisis-ridden business press Swiss investors are currently not only unhappy with the bear and the bull, but also with numerous accompanying phenomena in the stock market world. The industry is complaining that business publications are stuck in a long, dark tunnel, abandoned by readers and advertisers. The circulation of the five Swiss-German business titles Cash, HandelsZeitung, Bilanz, Stocks, Finanz und Wirtschaft fell by a total of 30,000 copies in 2002 - more than ten percent of the total circulation (Wemf 2002). Advertising revenues also fell at an above-average rate. Paralyzed by the crisis, financial institutions are cutting their advertising budgets and leaving their customers to fend for themselves in the ongoing economic downturn. According to the advertising statistics of the Swiss press, the slump in advertisements in the first eight months amounted to
between 16 (HandelsZeitung) and 40 percent (Stocks).
It is a truism that the health of business publications, and investor magazines in particular, depends on the stock market. The circulation curve generally corresponds to share prices, which means that buyers of the business press react pro-cyclically. That
The first glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel will therefore fill the industry with joy: Prices on the major stock exchanges have risen again and the Swiss share index SMI has also increased by over 30 percent since March. However, three years of bear markets have left their mark. Shaken by the longest bear market in history
For the first time in recent stock market history, investors' speculative fever will not rise so quickly. Risk aversion is considerable.
It will be some time before the business press can lure new subscribers with hot stock market news again. Their readers and advertisers will only return when the economy is back in full swing. Investors, and therefore the stock market, only know two emotional states: fear or greed - depending on whether bears or bulls rule.
> Samuel Helbling, Editor-in-Chief
between 16 (HandelsZeitung) and 40 percent (Stocks).
It is a truism that the health of business publications, and investor magazines in particular, depends on the stock market. The circulation curve generally corresponds to share prices, which means that buyers of the business press react pro-cyclically. That
The first glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel will therefore fill the industry with joy: Prices on the major stock exchanges have risen again and the Swiss share index SMI has also increased by over 30 percent since March. However, three years of bear markets have left their mark. Shaken by the longest bear market in history
For the first time in recent stock market history, investors' speculative fever will not rise so quickly. Risk aversion is considerable.
It will be some time before the business press can lure new subscribers with hot stock market news again. Their readers and advertisers will only return when the economy is back in full swing. Investors, and therefore the stock market, only know two emotional states: fear or greed - depending on whether bears or bulls rule.
> Samuel Helbling, Editor-in-Chief
