Paper losses
Two very good and sobering posts about the declining value of newspaper stocks by Alan Mutter: This one analyzes the stocks of publishing companies:
In a dramatic repudiation of newspapers by investors, the shares of publicly held publishing stocks in the last two years lost nearly $13.5 billion in value, or 20.5% of their market capitalization.To put this in perspective, the vaporized value is greater than the enterprise value of the Tribune Co. or the combined value of the McClatchy, New York Times and Media General publishing companies.
The vertiginous drop came at the same time the Dow Jones industrial average soared to an all-time high and other market indicators gained by healthy double-digit percentages.
And this one points out that the sale of Knight Ridder had the quite-unintended consequence of losing yet more value:
n the six months since KRI was sold, the shares of the acquiring company, McClatchy Newspapers, have deteriorated so badly that the KRI shares swapped for MNI stock have lost nearly 7.6% of their value.
January 2nd, 2007 at 7:59 am
[...] Jeff Jarvis links to some interesting stats posted by Alan Mutter on capitalization losses by the newspapers. The numbers are breathtaking (in the way that standing on the edge of a cliff feels breathtaking): In a dramatic repudiation of newspapers by investors, the shares of publicly held publishing stocks in the last two years lost nearly $13.5 billion in value, or 20.5% of their market capitalization. To put this in perspective, the vaporized value is greater than the enterprise value of the Tribune Co. or the combined value of the McClatchy, New York Times and Media General publishing companies. [...]
January 2nd, 2007 at 5:48 pm
What’s so shocking about the financial losses of an industry that like trans fats is bad for your health. The agenda driven slop, poor quality journalism and blatant refusal to check facts with care has finally taken its toll on the MSM. It’s a trust issue and a content issue.
Even when the hacks at the NYT’s went online, their news is two days past what bloggers have been discussing. We are still buying good books in spite to the rising cost. Format isn’t the issue if the content is quality.
2007 isn’t going to be any better for print journalism. They just don’t get it.
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Penny, the press barons and their minions will twist and turn, spin this 12 ways to Sunday and blame everyone but their shoddy reporting. It’s incredible that they just refuse to get it.