Wow. What a difference a few years makes. Four years ago, most of the mainstream press didn’t report business stories on Apple without using the adjective “beleaguered” and hinting at its impending demise. But now a new study measuring good and bad news coverage about 750 of the largest companies in the world lists Apple among the 10 companies with the best coverage.
The study is based on daily media analysis of 750 companies and is based on leading media coverage in the USA from Jan. 1, 2001, to June 30, 2002. The information is available from a Web site and was produced by CARMA International, a Washington, DC-based media analysis firm.
CARMA International analyzes global media coverage on the 750 companies based on key issues that appear to have the greatest impact on corporate reputation. The measurement combines both impact and positive/negative coverage to determine which companies get the best and worst media coverage.
Getting the best coverage (in order) were: NBC, General Motors, Sony, Wal-Mart, Apple, Toyota, Dell, Fox Entertainment, CBS, and Honda. The top 10 “worst coverage” getters were: Enron, Anderson Worldwide, Worldcom, Global Crossing, Tyco, Kmart, Merrill Lynch, Qwest Communications, Microsoft, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
The share prices of most the top 10 stayed nearly the same or went up slightly since the first of the year. The share prices of all the bottom 10 were either “decimated” or dropped significantly for the first half of this year, according to CARMA.