David Caploe PhD, Chief Political Economist, EconomyWatch.com. In the first part of this series, we discussed the general ways media of all sorts has become an inescapable structural feature of today's global political economy, creating what we call economedia ©, which links together markets / investors / analysts all over the world in a 24-hour-a-day world-wide trading network that literally never stops.
In this context, we highlighted how the centuries-old phrase, 'buy on the rumor, sell on the news', has become more urgent than ever in this new economediatic © environment.
Today, in the second part of this series on the emerging world of economedia, we will take a look at how the timing of the publication / release of a particular item of media can make a HUGE difference in the effect the substance of that item has on both the subject and those affected by that subject, whether as clients / investors / regulators / whatever.
Let’s begin with the GENERAL rule that governments / politicians / companies / organizations of all sorts almost ALWAYS release bad news on a Friday afternoon.
Why?
Because most people – admittedly not nerds and others glued to the computer their every waking moment, but most people with lives - are MORE than ready for a long and liquid happy hour by the time Friday afternoon rolls around, and the last thing in the world they want is to pay any more attention than necessary to something outside their own immediate lives and concerns.
Tie this to the fact that, the next day, people with children are usually involved in some kind of activities with them [organized or not], and both they and everyone else are busy doing the weekly chores like shopping / laundry etc etc etc, and the result is Saturday is the day when the level of media consumption is lowest.
Therefore, if you want to maximize the chances people DON'T see something bad about you, releasing it on Friday afternoon is the best time, so whatever it is you’re simultaneously 'letting everyone know' – while desperately hoping they DON’T see it - will have run its course through the news cycle – always fast on the weekends, and now, with the plethora of “news” sources, running even faster - by the time people have a chance to catch their breath, usually on Sunday afternoons, they won’t see whatever it is you’re praying they’ll miss.
Now, take this GENERAL rule of 'managing bad news', aka 'media manipulation', and multiply it at least three-fold when it comes to big holiday weekends - which, in the US at least, are almost always three-day affairs - and ten-fold or more when it comes to year-end holidays like the endless round that begins in late November with the US Thanksgiving, and then accelerates into hyper-speed with the Christmas / New Year’s bacchanalia of late December / early January.
This can last anywhere from a week - if Xmas and New Year’s are on a Saturday or Sunday - to times like this year, when they fell on Fridays, meaning people stop paying attention to anything by Wednesday night, as the Thursday “eve” is devoted to intense logistics and/or partying, with the result of a good 10 or 11 days when no one is paying attention to much of anything except themselves and their families / friends.
In this context, probably the best way to “bury” something you really DON’T want people to see is to publish / release it on Christmas Eve, the start of a more-than-week-
So guess WHEN the New York Times decided to publish a truly shocking and LONG investigative expose of the way in which, for years, the too-big-to-fail [TBTF] banks and hedge funds, above all, the ever-inventive Goldman Sachs,
were selling their own clients packages of mortgage-based securities they KNEW were bad –
AND, at the exact same time, making bets against those very same packages of bad debt, so they themselves not only wouldn’t be hurt, but would profit nicely when the grim reckoning finally came ???
That’s right, Christmas Eve 2009 – the start of a 10-day period when the chances of most people seeing this CRUCIAL piece of investigation and analysis – let alone having the chance to discuss and digest it – were just about ZERO.
To read the full article, go to:
http://www.economywatch.com/
