Media star Cramer "hates" media stocks

By Paul Bond

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Jim Cramer is an Internet entrepreneur, a co-founder of magazines and star of his own TV show. Now, with a clever portrayal of himself in "Iron Man," he's also a film actor.

So why does this king of all business media beat up on media companies so regularly during his "Mad Money" show on

CBNC?

Because, he told The Hollywood Reporter recently, "I hate media stocks."

Well, maybe not all of them.

Cramer, possibly the most influential stock-picker on television, is bullish on Walt Disney Co. and Discovery Holding Co. and a semi-bull on Viacom Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.

More on those picks later. First, the bad news as Cramer sees it for people whose investments are tied up in traditional media.

"The world got changed by two companies," he says. "Apple is taking away the profitability of TV, and Google is taking it away in print. And it's never going to reverse."

In the near term, Google is the bigger villain.

"It's just a parasite," he says. "It doesn't create content, it steals it, borrows it, shares it."

It's no secret that print media is in trouble. It's why Gannett Co. Inc. has gone from $80 a share in 2001 to less than $30 nowadays, and why the New York Times Co. has gone from $50 to less than $19 in the same time frame.

Time Warner Inc., too, is saddled with print by way of a huge magazine business.

"Time Warner is a content company for old people," Cramer says. "I try to get my kids to read magazines and newspapers, but no kids do. It's a tragedy."

Print's woes also are why News Corp.'s purchase of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. Inc. didn't make much sense to Cramer, even though he loves the paper.

"Since (News Corp. Chairman) Rupert Murdoch got in, it takes me 15 minutes extra each day to read the Journal because it's so much better," he says. "Murdoch made it great, but that doesn't mean it's good for the stock. That business isn't growing."