I don’t think many of us — even though we may have intellectually known it was coming — anticipated the magnitude and the pace of value destruction we’re seeing right now in the newspaper industry. From Alan Mutter: “In a historic rout, newspaper shares have lost nearly $4 billion in the last couple weeks, an amount greater than the combined market capitalization of all but the three largest publicly-traded publishing companies.” Just one example: A.H. Belo today is worth $119 million, down 58% from $282 million when it began trading earlier this year as a free-standing newspaper publisher. “At today’s close, the total decline in value of the dozen newspaper shares trading since the first of the year was nearly $27.7 billion, a plunge of 35.7% in 6½ months,” Mutter writes. Simply stunning.
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I would point readers to the recent shareholder value destruction at joints like Gray, LIN, Nexstar and Sinclair. With GM slashing auto budgets, the pain for local TV will only get worse. Much.