Fortune 500 Corporate Blog Review: Liberty Media #277

By Li Evans

Up next in my corporate blogging review project was Liberty Media Corporation.  Liberty Media is a holding company that owns interests in a broad range of electronic retailing, media, communications and entertainment businesses.  They use to trade under the stock symbol (L), however in the past year they've made some moves to help better for better valuation of the company.  Within the last year they've created "tracking stocks" that trade under the symbols: LINTA, LINTB, LCAPA, LCAPB.

Liberty Media owns by entirety, or in some percentage a portion of some very familiar companies.  Under it's Liberty Media Interactive it lumps QVC*, InterActiveCorp (IAC), Expedia and Provide Commerce among others.  Under Liberty Media Capital is lumps DirecTV, Starz, Encore and News Corporation.

No Corporate Blogs
Once again, as with my Target review, the search for a corporate blog was a fruitless one.  Plenty of people blog about Liberty Media or its subsidiaries like QVC, Expedia and Starz, but there is not an official corporate/company blog in relation to the holding company.

The only thing remotely related to a corporate blog in Liberty Media's "stable" is through it's 22% ownership of InterActiveCorp (IAC), in which Ask.com and Bloglines.com have actual active blogs which they communicate with to their audience.  John Caddell at the Shop Talk blog, did the full review of InterActiveCorp (IAC) #313 for the Fortune 500 Blog Project.

I searched for a blog written by John Malone, Chairman of Liberty Media or by Gregory B. Maffei - President & Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Media.  Again, no blogs written by them, but plenty written about them - especially John Malone.  Mr. Malone's been active in the financial sectors, especially when it comes to the investment in News Corp.

Liberty Media, its subsidiaries or its Chairman or CEO would benefit from a blog.  Especially since a lot of the information out on the Internet is not of the flattering nature.  With a blog, Liberty Media could actually show how its using "Interactive Technologies" to promote it's "Interactive Unit" (LINTA).

Like any kind of holding company, interest in the company usually has definitive peaks and valleys.  When quarterly financial statements are due or if members of its board or the company itself is involved in any type of acquisition talks, it sparks the blogosphere around Liberty Media.  The chart is representative of this nature.  If Liberty Media had some sort of blog, it could put a much more positive light on why their company takes the direction it does.

* Disclosure:  I am a former employee of QVC, Inc.

Comments

[Easton Ellsworth]

Li, thanks for adding this write-up to the growing pile. I love how you and others keep saying, "Company X could benefit from a corporate blog." I'm convinced that all 500 of the Fortune 500 companies could benefit with blogs of their own. They don't need blogs to survive - not yet, anyway ;) - but I think they're missing out by not having them.

[Photographer in Singapore]

I agree with Easton. With this new media, it's like having one's own press agency with regular updates on each company's activities. It helps to connect us to our clients and provides one with a greater sense of involvement (Joint participation between Client and Company).