Media Navel Gaze: October 28, 2013
The Week Unpeeled
Twitter continued to gain (in my opinion, an inordinate) amount of coverage for its upcoming IPO (media loves to cover the media more than anything, right?), with per-share pricing valuing the company at more than $11 billion (hardly, the total in fines or near the legal bills for JP Morgan this year, by the way). In fact, JP Morgan agreed to more settlements last week, this time with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at $5.1 billion, for misleading the housing-financing agencies about the quality of securities sold. #seriouslywhatsnext?
Elsewhere:
- President Obama admitted the government health web site was botched, and the failed launch was blamed on poor coordination;
- Housing refinancing is slowing and banks like BoA are laying off;
- The US was called out for allegedly monitoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone #canwehearyounow?;
- Time Warner will begin distributing Al Jazeera America;
- Senior New York Times Editor Richard Berke is leaving the Grey Lady for Politico;
- The US unemployment report was released, delayed by weeks because of the government shutdown, with only 148,000 jobs added in September (but did anyone really notice the delay?);
- Prada joins the literati set by launching Journal Prada: A Place for New Stories, a showcase for writers who won a Prada literary contest #readytoread; and
- Stocks ended higher last week, amid signs that the Fed will continue with its easy credit stance and strong tech-company results, with the Dow up 1.1 percent to close Friday at 15,570.
