Posted on 11/20/2005 2:53:55 PM PST by abb
On Nov. 1, Private Capital Management LP, a large shareholder in numerous newspaper companies, wrote to the management of Knight Ridder asking that the nation's second largest newspaper chain "aggressively pursue the competitive sale of the company." Two days later, two other large shareholders seconded the motion. Shortly thereafter, Knight Ridder announced that it had decided to "explore" alternatives, "including a possible sale of the company."
It is axiomatic on Wall Street that bear markets beget consolidation. The bear market in the newspaper industry should foretell a spate of mergers and acquisitions. But what if there are no buyers? This is the question that looms over Knight Ridder. Companies that might reasonably be expected to jump at the opportunity to acquire Knight Ridder, like Gannett and the New York Times, have expressed zero interest. New media companies -- Yahoo! and Google -- weren't even called for comment. In the end, it was left to a few Wall Street talking heads to announce interest, which they did by insisting that "big private equity firms" would be the likely buyers, if only to acquire the whole at a discount and then sell off the parts for a gain.
This lack of enthusiasm for a company once regarded as a money machine is evidence of how thoroughly the Internet has disrupted media business models. And with broadband now reaching into more than half of U.S. households, disruption has morphed into menace.
Knight Ridder has been publishing mostly second-rate newspapers for as long as anyone can remember. Its strategy has been straightforward: Leverage de facto monopoly newspaper status in individual cities into ownership of the classified advertising business in those communities. With high-speed broadband and wireless access now a fact for most Americans, consumers are no longer at the mercy of second-rate information providers.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The OSM (old stream media) is history (liberal print rags) and they know it.
Well FReepers..... put your money where your mouth is.
How much can we raise to buy Knight Ridder?
"ToM (Tired old Media)"
I LIKE it!
I can't take credit for that acronym. Backhoe coined it...
Not a bad idea bert. Switch all the liberal slant to conservative; buy it lock stock and barrel for 80 cents of book. If we could raise 10 % of the price, I could probably
broker/dealer the balance!
Well, somebody needs to buy it!
What will we do for fish wrap? And how will we line the bottoms of birdcages?
This could be tragic!!!!
You just can't trust what the m.s.m says. Add to that you are led by the nose by liberal anti bush anti American writers pushing the gay&lesbian,prochoice,antimilitary,crap.
So you just don't purchase the Times or Post or the local little town rag anymore.
CORRECTION: T.O.M. stands for "Trotskyite Old Media."
Even better!
ToM is the right description of The Lexington Hearld-(mis)Leader, It isn't worth a Tinkers' D@mn.
It is a chain full of papers that richly deserve to die.
What shall we now do for something useless and eminently disposable to put under our cat-litter boxes, especially when we enjoy the heck out of doing it?
I really feel kinda guilty. I'm having too much fun watching the bas#ards die...
Sold my stock a while back. Looks like a total turkey. Might better invest in GM.
"What shall we now do for something useless and eminently disposable to put under our cat-litter boxes, especially when we enjoy the heck out of doing it?"
The NYT would be delighted to sell you a subscription to their rag for next to nothing. I live in California and keep getting ads from them to subscribe for pennies. They must be hard up. I keep sending them back their ads in their pre-paid envelopes saying I wouldn't have their tripe in my house if THEY paid ME.
We have a Gannett paper here in Monroe, La. We cancelled our subscription several years ago.
The money for the subscription will pay for about 1/2 of cable internet costs and we can read their two bit newspaper online for free.
How does this differ from Gannett's strategy?
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