By: Mark Fitzgerald On a day when Gannett Co. and Journal Communications posted predictably gloomy January numbers, Wall Street punished nearly the entire newspaper sector -- including shaving nearly 10% off the price of Lee Enterprises shares.
It didn't seem to matter whether there was news about a publicly traded newspaper company or not, investors simply soured on the business.
Lee (NYSE: LEE), for instance, was the biggest percentage loser on the day, closing at $10.61, down $1.51, or 9.78%. The 1.7 million shares traded was more than double the stock's usual volume, as well.
Lee spokesman Dan Hayes said the Davenport, Iowa-based community newspaper publisher was not aware of any news or analysis that would move the stock price.
Journal Register (NYSE: JRC) also got hammered, dropping more than 10% during trading, but rebounding to end the day at $1.09, down 10 cents, or 8.4%.
Gannett (NYSE: GCI), which reported before the start of trading that its January newspaper ad revenue was off 9.2%, closed at $30.23, down $1.52, or 4.79%.
That was a new 52-week low for Gannett, which had traded in a range of $31.26 to $61.68.
The McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI) closed at $9.84, down 28% or a relatively modest 2.77%. After the 4 p.m. EST close of trading, McClatchy announced it was taking a $1.43 billion after-tax loss for the fourth quarter of 2007 that includes a goodwill impairment charge of $1.47 billion.
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