As noted in my post, please excuse this vanity.
This is the only way I know how to warn Freepers about these potentially bad investments.
Thanks
Fyi.
If you feel this is of value please ping it to your ping lists.
Your relatives and friends might be interested in this and the links. I will be emailing to my email list.
Thanks
This is not the usual thread I ping you with.
However, this might be very important re any mutual fund investments you may have.
Dave
Ny Slimes link to institutional/mutual fund ownership:
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/ownership/ownership.asp?Symbol=nyt
To add to your list, the Washington Compost just layed off 80 people last week, lol.
http://savethemerc.com/
I don't think so....
Pre-tax earnings yield = 10%
Pre-tax return on capital > 50%
PE = 12
Sounds like a buy to me.
I never thought that I would live to see the day that these
leftist baffoons would die a slow, lingering death.
I'm in small caps - up 20% in 10 mos and getting ready to go short unless oil continues its death spiral.
Go Nukes!
I susbscribe to the Morningstar website and use their "x-ray" tools. They will break down the mutual fund investments for you in great detail. You can determine what companies or what industries you are investing in (and if it is foreign or local, etc...).
a thread for the ages
I suspect that the internet will end up being to newspapers what the digital camera was to 35mm film.
The link below takes you to a current thread on the massive problems facing the Compost, the Washington Post, WPO.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1598610/posts
Big hurt: Washington Post's struggle
Media Life Magazine ^ | 3/17/06 | Barton Biggs
Posted on 03/17/2006 9:54:14 PM PST by LdSentinal
It’s the plight of so many American newspapers: declining circulation, flat or declining advertising revenues, rising newsprint costs. But it's a plight that seems to be hurting The Washington Post more.
The Post announced just a week ago that it would be eliminating some 80 newsroom positions over the next year. That’s close to 10 percent of its reporters and editors.
In some ways, the move isn’t really a surprise. Cuts and layoffs are increasingly common elsewhere. Not a week goes by that some paper somewhere in America isn't announcing yet another round of newsroom cuts.
What's significant is who’s making the cuts. The Post is one of America’s most celebrated newspapers, a Pulitzer Prize winner times over, and also among the best-managed. Which raises the question: If one of America top papers is suffering so, what does it say for the future of all the rest?
Post management is downplaying the staffing cuts, pointing out that they will come through attrition and buyouts, not layoffs. They also insist that the Post is in better shape financially than many papers. It's positioning the cuts as part of a larger plan that will actually improve overall news coverage.
But the paper’s publisher is candid about the financial realities.
"During the past year newspaper revenues have flattened while expenses--particularly newsprint--have continued to rise," Boisfeuillet Jones Jr. wrote in an internal memo to staff.
The Post will not reveal circulation and ad revenue figures to Media Life, but data available elsewhere paints an alarming picture. Ad revenue is up just slightly over the past five years, to $783.5 million last year from $770.6 million in 2000, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
But circulation has tumbled, falling by 137,695 for the weekday paper in the past decade, from 816,474 for the year ended Sept. 30, 1995 to 678,779 for the six-month period ended Oct. 2, 2005. That's a decline of 17 percent. That's according to numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the latter of which has not been audited yet and is based on publisher statements.
If the Post must struggle to hold onto readers, other papers must be in real trouble, or so it would seem.
Analyst John Morton says what the Post is experiencing is in some ways typical, the result of online publications taking a bigger bite out of print newspapers. He does not see that changing.
“Generally speaking, their circulation will continue to decline,” Morton said yesterday. “I don’t know that there’s any solution.”
What makes the Post unusual is that its circulation is sinking faster than that of many other newspapers around the country.
And there are several reasons for it. One is sheer size. With such a huge circulation, among the largest in the country, the Post's subscriber losses will be that much greater in total numbers.
Another, as Morton points out, is that the Post has enjoyed a deeper household penetration in its market. So as the city and the region change, as the ethnic mix shifts, the paper faces even greater challenges in maintaining those penetration levels.
Too, the Post faces increasing competition, and not just from the internet. It now competes against two other dailies, the Washington Times and now the Washington Examiner. There are then a whole slew of free papers and magazines.
“Big city newspapers are feeling it more because there are more choices in big cities,” says Morton. “There’s an awful lot of competition.”
It’s still unclear how much the new, free, Washington Examiner is cutting into the Post’s readership. But Morton says that anytime you get a new entry into the market it’s bound to increase the pressure.
Post management insists they will not cave into the pressures by compromising their high editorial standards, or allowing the overall quality of the paper to decline. But, if there’s a lesson in the Post’s woes, it’s that quality does not neccessarily hold the key to salvation.
It certainly doesn't hold the key to halting the Post’s declining circulation numbers.
So, how low could they eventually go? “I don’t have a clue,” Morton says. “And neither does anyone else.”
Below is a thread which I posted yesterday about the impending lowering of credit rating/bond rating by Moody for the NY Slimes and Tribune/LA Slimes.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1598307/posts
Newspaper Stocks Slip As Big Names Face Credit, Share Downgrades
biz.yahoo.com ^ | 17 March 2006 | staff
Posted on 03/17/2006 11:50:40 AM PST by Grampa Dave
Newspaper Stocks Slip
Friday March 17, 2:31 pm ET
Newspaper Stocks Slip As Big Names Face Credit, Share Downgrades
NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of newspaper stocks fell Friday, after credit ratings agency Moody's Investors Service warned that it is considering downgrading Tribune and the New York Times Co. It also follows a stock downgrade on Tribune, whose papers also include the Chicago Tribune and Newsday in New York.
Tribune shares fell $1.10, or 3.6 percent, to $29.67 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, putting the Chicago-based company's stock down 3 percent for the year so far.
Moody's earlier Friday said it is reviewing its debt rating on Tribune's unsecured, long-term debt, saying it has ongoing concerns about the outlook for the newspaper sector. Moody's also cited Tribune's high debt burden, versus its cash flow.
"Fundamentals in the newspaper sector will remain weak for the foreseeable future," Moody's said. "Of particular concern is the continuing downward trend in circulation and intensifying competition from online rivals."
On Thursday, Deutsche Bank analyst Paul Ginnocchio recommended that investors sell Tribune's stock, saying the company's February newspaper revenue was worse than expected, and that the second-half of 2006 "could significantly deteriorate from here." Ginnocchio previously recommended investors hold the shares.
The New York Times also faces a possible credit downgrade by Moody's. The ratings service earlier Friday said that it is concerned about the company's high financial leverage, deteriorating operating margins and weak free cash flow available for reducing debt.
New York Times shares fell 61 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $26.02 in recent trading.
The reports pulled other newspaper stocks lower as well.
Washington Post Co. shares fell $36.49, or 4.83 percent, to $718.50, while shares of local newspaper company Media General Inc. fell $1.59, or 3.2 percent, to $47.56.
USA Today publisher Gannett Co.'s stock fell $1.20 to $59.37.
Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, was down 62 cents at $40.15 in recent trading
Here is a link to another thread posted yesterday by Abb about real problems with the NY Slimes re its up coming credit rating/bond rating.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1598135/posts
Moody's may downgrade New York Times ratings (Dinosaur Media Extinction Alert)
Marketwatch.com ^ | March 17, 2006 | Carolyn Pritchard
Posted on 03/17/2006 7:32:03 AM PST by abb
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Moody's Investors Service on Friday placed New York Times Co.'s (NYT) A2 senior unsecured long term debt, and P-1 commercial paper ratings on review for possible downgrade. The agency said the review is prompted by Moody's growing concerns about the media company's high financial leverage, deteriorating operating margins and weak free cash flow available for debt reduction, combined with concerns over intensifying cross media competition, including the Internet, and growing event risk in the newspaper sector. A multi-notch ratings transition will be considered in light of the company's financial and operating challenges, Moody's said.