Alan Mutter, an astute analyst who formerly served as editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, now puts the combined value of ten major news companies at only $3.6 billion. Mutter documents the $3.9 billion plunge in the value of newspaper stocks since the first of this month – a period marked by successive new lows in the prices. Astute comments, too, on his blog.
Meantime, Valleywag ponders the five ways newspapers botched the web. On the list: New Century Network, described as “the granddaddy of fuckups,”; Knight Ridder’s Viewtron and Real Cities Network; Abuzz, and Classifieds Ventures.
“The newspaper industry has a devastating history of letting the future of media slip from its grasp,” says the Wag.
