Posted on 04/21/2006 7:30:48 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
Opinion: The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week
4. Penny Ante The New York Times Co. (NYT:NYSE - commentary - research - Cramer's Take) is feeling the pinch of aggrieved shareholders.
Big investors took a shot across management's bow this week by withholding 28% of votes from the company's board slate. A 5.6% holder, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, wants to eliminate the Class B stock that gives the Sulzberger family control of the board despite its tiny financial stake.
"MSIM believes that the dual-class voting at The New York Times Company, which is an exception to the general rule of one-share, one-vote, creates special privileges as well as responsibilities," the firm says in a Tuesday press release. "MSIM contends that the board and management at The New York Times Company have failed to fulfill these responsibilities effectively."
A look at New York Times' stock performance seems to bear the critics out. Shares of the publisher are down 5% this year and have lost half their value since they peaked in June 2002, as online rivals led by Google (GOOG:Nasdaq - commentary - research - Cramer's Take) and Yahoo! (YHOO:Nasdaq - commentary - research - Cramer's Take) have grabbed more ad dollars. The stock's plunge means that $1,000 worth of Times shares bought five years ago is now worth $610 or so, plus dividends of around $70.
The Times declines to comment on the board voting or on Morgan Stanley's claims. But the company did reach out to shareholders in a gesture that seems characteristically half-baked. On Tuesday afternoon, the Times raised its quarterly dividend by a penny a share, to 17.5 cents.
"We are pleased that in a challenging advertising environment, the company has remained committed to improving shareholder return through annual increases in our dividend," said Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. "We have grown our dividend by a compound annual growth rate of 7.1% over the last five years. These dividend increases reflect our board's confidence in the Company's long-term growth prospects and our financial position."
Sorry, but it's plain to see that no one else shares that confidence.
Dumb-o-Meter score: 82. Sulzberger is looking a bit pound-foolish.
Excerpted. Only #4, the part of the article dealing with the NY Slimes.
You are correct re low paying subscribers.
However, when they inflate even these low paying subscribers with phoney #'s, some insiders in some newspaper have been getting charged with fraud by advertisers, getting sued and some of the key fraud people have gotten jail sentences.
"The Dinosaur Media is dying. The NYT is simply the Canary in the Coalmine.
If all my investments paid as well as the NYT Stock I would have a whole new career.
Financial Advisor to President Carter.
BTTT
Cheers,
knewshound"
Now we are seeing other members of the media go after the NY Slimes. That may well make the Ny Slimes the first canary in the dangerous fish wrap mine.
I use to like the NYTs; its overly bloated format was the best paper to buy or borrow when you needed some pulp to use as packing material. Pound for pound it was a bargan. It also worked great as cage liner. It looks like it has gotten a bit thinner over the years; fortunately, I have since moved on to bubble wrap.
I agree, the pulp media bias is killing them. For years they have been slanting the news and calling it balanced reporting. Yet, when they receive 10 conservative letters to the editor and 1 liberal, they print 1 con. and 1 lib.
"What is needed is some lawsuits and some Attorney Generals in conservative states investigating this ponzi game with investment $'s from retirees and owners of mutual funds."
We'll have King, coho and sockeye salmon in the Great Salt Lake before that happens.
Actually, I think that we will see some lawsuits. They will not happen in the Blue States.
Anyone who continues to hold on to NYT stock must be doing so out of compassion or for sentimental reasons.
Institutional investors, who have not divested their portfolios of NYT shares, risk lawsuits from displeased participants.
Looks like Pinch will have to break out the Moose head, hand puppet to calm things down during these troubling times.
I'll wait until they start before I get the salmon rigs off the top shelf.
B4 ranch, this is the ammo that might end up in some big time class actions suits against Mutual Fund Managers, who plowed investor $'s into the Ny Slimes turkey, of course not in the Blue States.
I invest in mutual funds very heavily and I have a list provided by the various fund managers of every company and the percentge amount that the particular fund is invested into each company.
There are many funds that I will not participate in because I strongly disagree with the company owner/leadership political or charity contributions.
I see this as just common sense investing that it is MY responsibility to be aware of where I am putting MY money and who I choose to support or not support. It is MY responsibility to analyze MY portfolio.
I refuse to stand in line with politically motivated elite limo liberal management groups whose intentions are to further Muslim and/or Communist goals to crush individual liberty. Decimating what America stands for isn't something I will do to increase my financial assets.
I'm in total agreement with you.
However, you and I are retired and have the time to checkout what stocks Mutual Funds own. A lot of people don't have that time and others don't know of a quick and easy way to find out what stocks their mutual funds own.
I posted a thread to help Freepers to determine stock ownership by their mutual funds:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1598732/posts
If your mutual funds own newspaper stock, you may have a problem
self, moneycentral.msn.com | 18 March 2006 | Grampa Dave
Posted on 03/18/2006 8:33:10 AM PST by Grampa Dave
To Jim Robinson, admin moderator, please excuse this vanity.
This is the only way of warning Freepers that their mutual funds may be invested in stocks of our enemies and real potential losers, the stocks of the lying, spinning and probable dinosaur fishwraps or newspapers.
Since, GW was re elected, the stock values of many of the major lying/spinning fishwraps have been falling like a rock dropped in a ocean.
This past week has been a very bad week for many newspaper stocks with the reports of less subscribers and the NYT and TRB may have their bond rating lowered by Moody's.
Most Freepers would never knowingly invest in the stock of these left wing enemies. However, many of these left wing fishwraps appear to massively owned by institutions and mutual funds. These mutual funds are probably holding up the value of the Enron type newspapers with the precious $'s from their investors.
Often these mutual funds are in our IRAs or 401K's or similiar deferred savings or in college funds for our children and grandchildren. Investing in these dinosaurs probably presents a clear present danger to our precious investment $s.
The links below will take us to MSN's money central for NYT, TRB and WPO, the NY Slimes, LA Slimes/Chicago Tribune and Compost. Once there you can see the institutional and mutual fund ownership of each dinosaur fishwrap.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/ownership/ownership.asp?Symbol=nyt
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/ownership/ownership.asp?Symbol=trb
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/ownership/ownership.asp?Symbol=WPO
The above links will work for any company, just delete the 3 letter stock symbol at the end and enter the stock code for the stock/stocks you are interested in.
"However, you and I are retired and have the time to checkout what stocks Mutual Funds own."
All it takes is caring enough about America to make sure you aren't helping our enemies. Just remember to ask the simple question, "What companies is this fund invested in?"
The broker will generally try to give you a list of the top 20 companies percentage wise, but ask for the complete list down to the .001%.
Divide the percentage into the fund value and you will have the dollar amount. I automatically receive these lists every quarter just for asking.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.