Companies

For those of you who needed two hands to haul your holiday-heavy Observer in from the driveway this morning, it must sound especially odd to hear that newspapers are somewhat out of favor with Wall Street. But for more than six months, some financial analysts have shied from the stocks of publicly traded newspaper companies, unconvinced that an ink-on-paper medium can advance in the age of the...

THE Age newspaper has axed some of its most senior staff in a massive cost-cutting purge. Voluntary redundancy payouts have been granted to 36 editorial staff – most of them long-serving reporters. On Wednesday, when successful redundancy applicants were notified, a thinly veiled swipe was taken at management in the newspaper's daily news conference. On the paper's news list, under a planned...

Knight Ridder, the newspaper giant that put itself up for sale last month, received several preliminary bids yesterday from both rivals and private equity firms, according to people involved in the auction. Among the rival newspaper chains that submitted what is known as indications of interest were the Gannett Company, the McClatchy Company and the MediaNews Group, these people said. Several...

In the next day or two, the world will get a glimpse of how desirable, or not, newspapers are, when preliminary bidding begins for Knight Ridder. The fate of the company, the second-largest newspaper publisher in the United States in terms of circulation, behind Gannett, is being closely watched as a signpost for the future of other newspapers at a time of great transformation, anxiety and...

(December 08, 2005) -- Before the Tribune Co. discharges any more journalists, and before Wall Street kills any papers, let's look at the economics of newspapers. Must they be at the mercy of executives seeking bonuses and stock appreciation rather than nourishing a force for civic good? Although the obit-writers are greatly exaggerating the death of American newspapers, we've seen enough...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Newspaper publishers predicted modest growth for next year at a pair of investor conferences Wednesday, as rising costs and a volatile advertising environment continue to cloud their prospects. However, companies like Gannett Co. and Belo Corp. that also own television stations said they expected to see benefits from the Winter Olympics and the upcoming elections next fall...

It's come to this: A single wealthy investor is able to threaten the civic vitality of 32 American metropolitan areas by forcing the sale of their newspapers to new owners in order to satisfy his demand for larger profits. Because those higher returns almost certainly will come at the expense of investigative reporting, independence from advertisers and adequately staffed and skilled newsrooms...

NEW YORK, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Political lobbying group MoveOn, best known for efforts to unseat U.S. President George W. Bush in the 2004 election, protested job cuts in American newsrooms on Wednesday, saying it would stifle good journalism. At a media conference in New York, the group delivered a petition with 45,000 signatures to executives of newspaper publisher Tribune Co.(TRB.N: Quote, Profile...

When is making 20 to 30 percent profit not enough? When the stock price of the company making it is too low to satisfy the firm's major shareholders. Profit, which used to be the measure of business success, has taken a back seat to share price, even if it means the destruction of the company. That is what happened to America's second-largest newspaper chain, Knight Ridder. Private Capital...

BusinessWeek has announced that it will reposition its approach to global markets – it starts with the discontinuation of its European and Asian editions. A greater emphasis will be placed on providing online news, analysis and information and on developing local language publications while maintaining a single flagship print product, a press release issued by the ccompany said on Wednesday...