Kelvin MacKenzie, chairman of AIM-listed marketing services and communications group Media Square, has expressed his anxiety over the current state of the media sector, which he sees as undergoing ‘a very strange period’.

Speaking on the subject of investing in the sector, Mackenzie advised investors to ‘keep out of media right now, [as] nobody's sure what the consumer is doing. We are experiencing something like an old fashioned gold rush at the moment,’
he said, ‘and I'm quite concerned about where it is heading.’

The radio business was branded a ‘shocking area’ and ‘a brick wall’ to keep clear of. According to MacKenzie, consolidation in the regional newspaper market has ‘come and gone’ with classified advertisement increasingly heading online.

Local music radio and television ‘continues to splinter’ with the online world ‘taking over’ and experiencing ‘tremendous growth’.

Mackenzie went on to recommend that shareholders follow the adage and ‘sell in May and go away... until about late 2007.’

‘You could argue this is the time to invest, but people aren't even sure what's happening in their own businesses. What I can say is that any company not in broadband at the moment is clearly nuts!’ The former Sun editor and current Sun columnist did temper his gloomy outlook with a few positives for his proprietor though, tipping a couple of companies to do well in the coming media revolution, namely Myspace (owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation) and BskyB’s business broadband concern Easynet. He added that in the current climate media companies need to show their worth today and not rely on precarious predictions, saying that he doesn’t ‘care about the value in five years, where’s the cash today?’

Media Square	AIM	£17.25m	53.50p	0.00p
Click here for interactive charting
Other company articles:
Media Square			13/06/2008
Ad spend falls, says IPA			08/02/2008
In the hot seat by Marc Barber			07/02/2008
Media Square			13/11/2007
Middleton quits the square			02/07/2007