Wordblog

Earlier today I mentioned the fall in the value of shares in Gannett, the American owners of Newsquest. Now I read at Reflections of a Newsosaur (via Romenesco) that the value of 11 US newspaper companies has dropped by $23bn in the first half of this year.

This is more than a credit crunch thing as they fell just as much in the previous three years. Alan D Mutter writes that:

Wall Street’s intensifying repudiation of the industry means that the companies in the group have lost a cumulative $49.7 billion in market capitalization in 3½ years, vaporizing 51% of shareholder value since Dec. 31. 2004.

He also notes that there has not been “a commensurate impact on the compensation enjoyed by chief executives…”

Mutter, who fears news companies are stumbling towards extinction, concludes: “Mere words cannot do justice to the carnage. You can click on the image to make it bigger, but the numbers won’t get any better.”

Meanwhile, in the UK where Trinity Mirror is suffering similarly, the management has amply demonstrated its incompetence by issuing a “vision and values” statement to stafd, the Guardian reports. With hardly believable crassness it tells staff that the the Mirror Group is “undergoing great and exacting changes” and that 2008 is a crucial year of transformation”.

There does seem to be a death wish in some boardrooms. But not all, thank goodness.