Several Top Newspaper Companies Joined Race -- to Bottom of Stock Performance in 2007

By: Mark Fitzgerald Journal Register Co. (NYSE: JRC) narrowly edged The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) to capture the unenviable title of 2007's biggest stock price loser among publicly traded newspaper groups.

In calendar 2007, Journal Register stock ended the year down 75.9%. For good measure, Wall Street hammered the stock down 9.1% from today's opening on Wednesday, another bad for newspaper stocks.

That was enough to best McClatchy, a former Wall Street darling whose stock price collapse was well publicized during the year. McClatchy ended the calendar year down 71.1%. In addition to skepticism about newspapers in general, McClatchy's exposure in California and Florida, where the housing collapse evaporated whole classified categories, soured Wall Street on a company it once applauded for acquiring Knight Ridder Inc.

Wednesday, on a down day that drove the Dow down another 200 points, McClatchy was bid to a new 52-week low, closing at $12.00, down 52 cents from the open, or 4.15%.

Journal Register's stock fall attracted less attention, but was caused by a similar geographic misfortune. Its cluster of papers in Michigan have suffered along with the state's recession.

If it's any comfort, nobody else with a fared very well in 2007, either.

Another high-flier on Wall Street, the acquisitive GateHouse Media Inc. (NYSE: GHS) fell precipitously in 2007, its first full year on The Street. GateHouse ended the year down 52.7%. On Wednesday, it, too, fell again, trading 4.78% off its opening.

Like GateHouse, Lee Enterprises has nearly all its newspapers in small to mid-sized print monopoly markets, although it also has the big metro St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Wall Street walked away from Lee (NYSE: LEE), hammering its stock down 52.8% for the year. Lee was down 1.2% on Wednesday.

Sun-Times Media Group Inc. stock (NYSE: SVN) also lost more than half its value in 2007, falling 55.2%.

In the closing weeks of 2007, STMG had been rebounding, but Wednesday the Street took away much of the gain, pushing it down 10.9%.

Wall Street winners were redefined in 2007 as modest losers. For instance, Belo (BLC) ended the year down just 5.1%. The Dallas company has said it will soon split into two publicly traded companies, A.H. Belo, a newspaper pure-play that will start with virtually no debt; and Belo, which will own its collection of more profitable broadcast TV stations.

Common stock in Rupert Murdoch's diversified News Corp. (NYSE: NWS-A), which successfully acquired Dow Jones & Co. during the year, did even better, ending the year down 4.6%. On Wednesday, it declined 2.34% from the day's opening.

Similarly diversified E.W. Scripps (NYSE: SSP) also was down modestly in 2007, declining 9.9%. It ended Wednesday down 3.62%.

The nation's biggest newspaper chain, Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI) ended the year down 35.5% from its opening price in 2007. Wednesday, it also fell, declining 3.36% on the day.