What’s value of U. S. Newspapers?

A brief from the Guild Reporter January / February 2009 issue

Newspaper stocks have been hammered so relentlessly that the entire industry is now valued at less than Tribune Co.'s debt. As of Jan. 30, the market capitalization for McClatchy was $54.49 million; for Lee, $13.97 million; and for Gatehouse, $4.07 million. Throw in another $1.32 billion for what the market says Gannett is worth and theoretically you could own 264 U.S. dailies for less than $1.4 billion; add another $715 million, for a total of $2.1 billion, and you also could own the New York Times empire. It was just three years ago that McClatchy shelled out $4.5 billion for the Knight Ridder chain of 32 dailies, then turned around and unloaded eight of its new acquisitions for . . . $2.1 billion.

CWA has identified 29 financiallytroubled companies at which it represents more than 70,000 employees, fully a third of them in the newspaper sector.