Historic Drop in Newspaper Shares

ByLaurel Papworth

From Alan Mutter’s blog: Newspaper share value fell $64B in ’08 In the worst year in history for publishers, newspaper shares dropped an average of 83.3% in 2008, wiping out $64.5 billion in market value in just 12 months. Although things were tough for all sorts of businesses in the face of the worst economic…

From Alan Mutter’s blog:

Newspaper share value fell $64B in ’08

In the worst year in history for publishers, newspaper shares dropped an average of 83.3% in 2008, wiping out $64.5 billion in market value in just 12 months.

Although things were tough for all sorts of businesses in the face of the worst economic slump since the 1930s, the decline among the newspaper shares last year was more than twice as deep as the 38.5% drop suffered by the Standard and Poor’s average of 500 stocks.

newspaper shares drop 83 per cent
newspaper shares drop 83 per cent

When reviewing social media sites like this one, consider some facts: who is he and is that verifiable in any way? Do the comments reflect someone of standing, how does he engage? How long has he been blogging for and would you listen to him if he was in a room or on a podium. If the blog post is about your industry – newspapers and magazines – have you even heard of this guy. If your trust quotient for this guy is high… then go ahead and read on. Some interesting charts there too.

Thanks to @KateRichardson (site) for headsup on Twitter.

10 Comments

  2. To be honest, I don’t think comparing newspaper stocks to the S&P500 is the right comparison. Shouldn’t they be comparing newspaper stocks with media stocks (ie advertising companies, publishers, digital etc) … I think then you’d find the difference isn’t as large (when you consider Google dropped over 50% in 08, Yahoo! even more, WPP even more, Omnicon, Time Warner etc – all took massive hits).

    At the same time – look at the changes in valuations for the likes of Digg, Slide, Ning and Facebook – up to 75% if you believe some estimates.

    1. oh noes! not the NYT! Anyway, I think that heritage media – those dinosaurs that stick with printed version, little regard for online, and think the classifieds and banner ads will see them through, are the ones in trouble. Mainstream media moving out of heritage into an online/offline social/professional hybrid with a real engagement strategy (not just comments enabled) will undoubtedly survive.

      We do need broadcast as well as niche – but they need to get a move on, or the models that TechCrunch and Huffinton Post are developing will bring social media proprietors to the fore.

      And don’t call me Pappy! >:( Grrrr! 😛

    1. I. am. not. PAPPY! Grrrr. Anyway, no news there – journalists can do research online and figure out identities. S’nuffin. Anyone can. It was bloggers who figured out that Lonely Girl wasn’t a 16 yr old youtuber but a 20 something NZ actress at work. I’ve seen journos pass off blogger research as their own work. Fair use has a lot to answer for. I’ve seen bloggers pass off journo articles as their own research. The date and time stamp takes on incredible import.

      By the way, if a journalist bloggers, are they journos or bloggers? If a blogger has an article published in MSM, are they journalists? What about after, 5, 10, 100 articles published in MSM? If a journo has finished a comms degree and just started work, are they more ‘professional’ than a blogger who has been blogging daily for 3 or 4 years and have 4,000 readers per day? If a journalist has just started blogging, are they a blogger yet, learnt the strange mysterious ways of blogosphere? The audience as editor does a fairly good job, along with a fair amount of abuse. Much like a ‘real’ editor. Hehe.

      Anyway, stop calling me Pappy 😛

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