QVC Walked So the Modern Influencer Economy Could Run

Remember flipping through your cable channels and suddenly becoming entranced by someone hawking must-have knives or jewelry on QVC? Or maybe not, in this cord-cutting, streaming world. Bloomberg Businessweek senior reporter Amanda Mull writes in a new Buying Power column today (free link!) that, despite the company’s bankruptcy, home shopping is all around us now. Plus: How competition for hedge fund talent has created a trade of its own, and the best TV, movies and art arriving next month. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, click here to sign up.

Last week, when news broke that QVC Group Inc. had filed for bankruptcy protection in an effort to shed $5 billion in debt, it might have been the first time you’d thought about televised home shopping in a while. The company, which operates both the QVC and HSN networks, feels in some ways like a relic of the near past—a time when average Americans didn’t carry a portal to unfathomable abundance in their pocket at every waking moment. But now most US households have an Amazon Prime subscription and access to a near-endless array of product recommendations and reviews online. Who, exactly, still wants to buy from some lady on TV rapturously extolling the virtues of a rainbow rack of sporty separates?