Astonishing losses

[arturo_bandini]

From Alan D. Mutter at Newsosaur:

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.

He lists 10 companies, in most cases comparing what they're worth today with what they were valued at on Dec. 31, 2004. The numbers are mind-blowing. A few examples:

:: Journal Register Co. (JRCO), worth $6 million, down 99% from $746 million on Dec. 31, 2004.

:: Lee Enterprises (LEE), worth $145 million, down 93% from $2 billion on Dec. 31, 2004.

:: Media General (MEG), worth $248 million, down 83% from $1.5 billion on Dec. 31, 2004.

:: McClatchy (MNI), worth $387 million, down 93% from $5.7 billion on Dec. 31, 2004.

:: Sun-Times Media Group (SUTM), worth $32 million, down 98% from $1.3 billion on Dec. 31. 2004.

I used to think newspaper companies had 10 or 15 years to get their act together before they faced a terminal crisis. How wrong I was. I doubt if many of them will exist five years from now.

http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2008/07/just-36b-total-value-of-10-news-stocks.html

[rknil]

Journal Register can't have more than a year or two left in it. That chain made a big mistake with its Michigan acquisitions; anyone who had done their homework would have known those papers already had been stripped of much of their value.

I thought Sun-Times also would be finished in a year, but if the Tribune keeps trying to shoot its head off, who knows?

[rknil]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003827609

In the first quarter of the year, Morningstar calculated, GateHouse EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) covered its interest expense just 0.8 times.

In the same quarter, GateHouse's quarterly dividend payment was four times greater than its free cash flow, the report said.

Amazing.

Let's read what our Hats in Reverse buddy, Howard Owens, has to say about his company:

http://www.howardowens.com/about/

Over the summer of 2006, I start talking to Bill Blevins at this ?start up? newspaper company, GateHouse Media. I?m a little unsure about this whole thing. I knew Bill by reputation and immediately take a liking to him, but what was this GateHouse and it?s wild plans to acquire lots of small newspapers?

Eventually, Bill lures me in and in Sept. 2006, I become director of digital publishing. That?s where I am today ? working for one of the few newspaper companies around that is actually expanding.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha! This moron is running around calling people dinosaurs while he's absolutely clueless about the direction of his own company.

[rknil]

More on dimwitted little Howie:

http://home.wickedlocal.com/2008/07/15/youtube-pulls-the-plug-on-beverly-parade-video/#comment-11227

To summarize: The moron who runs around telling journalists to "get wired" uses YouTube as his worthless media company's video hosting provider.

YouTube! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Say, Howie, sometimes I post YouTube video links here. Does that fall under the definition of being wired?

Priceless. The more I find out about this guy, the more clueless he appears. Apparently he also had a short stint in, of all places, Bakersfield. There have to be some good stories about that tenure.

[rknil]

OK, they did manage to get the video back through a different host:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/beverly/news/x390626366/Parade-committee-says-floats-regrettable

So until GateHouse goes broke, which could be any time now, this video will still have some life in it.

[rknil]

More on dimwitted little Howie:

http://home.wickedlocal.com/2008/07/15/youtube-pulls-the-plug-on-beverly-parade-video/#comment-11227

To summarize: The moron who runs around telling journalists to "get wired" uses YouTube as his worthless media company's video hosting provider.

YouTube! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Say, Howie, sometimes I post YouTube video links here. Does that fall under the definition of being wired?

Great comments blasting Howie:

You could, if you wanted to, run your own streaming video service. The only advantages I can see to hosting it on youtube are:

1. you don?t have to pay for the bandwidth.

2. Youtube aggregates videos by owner, so if a random youtube user found one of your videos, they could likely find your other ones.

I think the fact that you have been for a year using some third party to serve an important part of your content and you never even considered reading their (published) policies minimizes a lot of the indignation you seem to feel entitled to.

Also:

You raise good points and I can?t see why H.O. uses the comparisons of the NYTimes, AP, CBS or the Chicago Tribune in his statement since those media outlets are smart enough not to rely on a free service to post content, especially content that is supposed to help save the jobs of journalists and lead to ad revenue.

Though I understand his ?slippery slope? argument he is making, is hard for me to look past the comparison since GH is far from that level. GH doesn?t host their own videos because YouTube is free, and anything free to GH is as good as gold. It doesn?t matter that quality is sacrificed, there are plenty of other options out there but they cost money GH doesn?t have.

Sure they say that it is nice because YouTube is so easy to use, whatever, the real reason is that it doesn?t cost anything. I guess they are just now realizing that you get what you pay for.

People are finding out quickly about Howie and GateHouse.

[rknil]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080724/earns_lee_enterprises.html?.v=2

Next to plummet: Lee.

[rknil]

Howie is still blathering away on Twitter:

howardowens: @jayrosen_nyu Yes, the curmudgeons cannot be allowed to take the whole industry down. There isn't a middle ground here.

I say Howie shouldn't be allowed to bring down any more organizations. He has no plan and no solutions. He is a fraud; dump him now and do not let him back into any media organization. If he's really as innovative as he claims, he should have no trouble adapting.

And I'm starting to like these Twitter compilations. They're a fast way to pin down the blowhards like Howie and Jay Rosen.

[rknil]

http://www.howardowens.com/2008/find-me-on-twitter/

Dimwitted little Howie's beaten down. He's tired. I'm sure his attempts to brainwash young and dumb journalists have worn him out.

He has no new ideas and no solutions. His company is a failure; it's probably going to be a shell of itself in a year. His previous effort was a failure. He's had a rough couple of years, and he probably felt he needed to go the way of concoct-and-chant to shield his fragile psyche.

This is the way blowhards/wimps go out: Not with a bang, but with a whimper. Before long, we can expect the same fate for some of the other members of the Hats in Reverse bunch.

[arturo_bandini]

And I'm starting to like these Twitter compilations. They're a fast way to pin down the blowhards like Howie and Jay Rosen.

Yeah, reading Twitter posts can be fun. The result is the 21st-century equivalent of the old saying: "No man is a hero to his valet." How can anyone who thinks for himself respect these people after following their vapid tweets ? or worse, their pseudo-profound aphorisms?   

In general, though, I don't understand why or how someone would keep track of hundreds of other Twitterers. About half a dozen is my limit. The NYTimes feed, on the other hand, I find genuinely useful.   

[rknil]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003834551

One cent a share. Amazing.

I remember one dolt at The Oakland Press -- now a JRC paper -- who once offered this sage advice: "You buy toilet paper when it's cheap. Why wouldn't you buy stock when it's cheap?"

Who knew this moron's paper would soon offer stock with the worth of toilet paper? Hahahahahahahahahaha!

[rknil]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/business/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003834622

Howie Owens' GateHouse company takes another big hit. The stock is down to 44 cents a share.

[rknil]

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSWNAB710220080813

I'd call this more of a beatdown than a writedown.

Tribune Co reported a quarterly loss and a 6 percent drop in revenue on Wednesday as newspaper advertising revenue fell, while Chief Executive and billionaire real estate magnate Sam Zell said he remains optimistic about the company's future.

Sammy's little gears are grinding, but he just can't do any better. Crazy, stupid people shouldn't own newspaper companies.

[rknil]

http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2008/08/default-o-matic-update-tribco-at-most.html

Journal Register on July 31 slid from the lowest-possible junk rating to the D category when it suspended payments on its $640 million in debt.

In a complicated arrangement, JRCO?s lenders agreed to a holiday on interest payments until Oct. 31 in the hopes the company can reorganize or be sold. If something doesn?t happen by that date, there is no plan for the lenders to extend the so-called forbearance period. Given that the company has stopped paying cash interest and that its liabilities outweigh its assets, its condition is ?tantamount to an event of default,? said Moody?s.

Halloween -- when the masquerade ball will end for JRC.

[rknil]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003838271

Hanging over the second-quarter report was Journal Register's big debt burden, most of it taken on for what turned out to be the ill-timed purchase of its suburban Detroit dailies and community papers.

The Oakland Press -- a true poison pill.