Unhappy New(s) Year

Alan Mutter has the hard numbers on just how bad 2008 was for newspaper stocks (with a bonus post about Lee's troubles). 

In the worst year in history for publishers, newspaper shares dropped an average of 83.3% in 2008, wiping out $64.5 billion in market value in just 12 months. Although things were tough for all sorts of businesses in the face of the worst economic slump since the 1930s, the decline among the newspaper shares last year was more than twice as deep as the 38.5% drop suffered by the Standard and Poor’s average of 500 stocks.

. . .

Times changed, newspapers didn’t and investors lost faith in the long-term viability of the industry.

And venture capitalist John Thornton, bringing a cold financial analysis to bear on the situation, explains in stark terms why 2009 is going to make 2008 look like a good year in the newspaper business.

2008 might have been an annus horribilis like none ever experienced before in the newspaper industry.  But 2009 will be the year that the newspaper industry ceased to exist, much as 2008 was the year Wall Street became no more.

Both are well worth reading. We're heading into a maelstrom far worse than the troubles the industry just (barely) survived.