Eurosif/Ethix Media Report

Interesting paper in which Ethix summarizes the ESG risks of media. This is a very tricky sector for long term sustainable investors, recent high-profile scandals highlight the crucial importance of ensuring a code of ethics in the sector is enforced. Perhaps, if I may say so, the paper walks too lightly over major megatrends affecting a large part of the sector's long term prospects: general loss of credibility by mainstream news media (often perceived as biased, prone to manipulation or even storage of private data issues), segmentation of audiences leading to lower penetration & margins, commoditization of news & entertainment and digital breakthroughs allowing media users to become ad-hoc journalists & commentators. An ESG analysis of the media sector, such as the framework provided here by Eurosif and Ethix, precisely emphasises its tremendous downside risks. But there are clearly winners, notably the new category of social media...Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Linkedin...the paradox is that in my opinion high standards of ethics will become even harder to implement through the new media than it already has been in traditional media.