Sign of the times: Netflix on, New York Times & Kodak off of S&P 500 next week

Now this is kind of a sign of the times, isn’t it? Standard & Poor will be making some pretty significant changes to the S&P 500 next week, dropping venerated companies The New York Times and Eastman Kodak among others, and adding Cablevision and – perhaps most significantly (at least to us), Netflix.

Of course, the S&P 500 is just one stock index, but there is certainly a pretty stark parallel here. Two companies that helped shape US culture in the 20th century are now being seemingly replaced by a company – Netflix – that many people (us included) feel is not only on a tremendous roll at the beginning of the 21st century, but could help shape video consumption for the next decade or longer.

Certainly not the end of the world for the companies taken off the list (they’re being moved to the S&P Midcap 400), and we doubt much will change at Netflix headquarters tomorrow, but it is certainly an interesting commentary (financial and otherwise) on the year 2010.

h/t Richard Nevins