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WASHINGTON (AFX) - Media stocks ended the last day of 2005 trading pretty much flat as shares of all the big conglomerates stalled.
News Corp. , Disney and Time Warner ended down less than 1%, while Viacom was up slightly.
The four will end the year lower than where they started it. Time Warner is down 10.3% over the past 52 weeks; Viacom is off 11.7%; News Corp. is down 13.5%; and Disney has given up 13.8%.
But that isn't a patch on the valuation drops at some big newspaper companies: The New York Times and Tribune have surrendered 35.2% and 28.42, respectively, since the end of 2004. Dow Jones, , parent of MarketWatch, the publisher of this report, is off 17.6%
In an interview with the Times of London, Martin Sorrell the chief executive of advertising agency holding company WPP warned that while global ad spending should be up in 2006 with the help of worldwide sporting events and U.S. midterm elections, it could be a tough year for the industry in some spots.
Shares of WPP Group were down in London as were those of both its American rivals, Omnicom and Interpublic . This story was supplied by MarketWatch. For further information see
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