Newspaper industry growth in question
The New York Times is looking to sell its stake in the Boston Red Sox and New England Sports Ventures according to this Reuters article. In the article, the author writes that in today’s market it’s hard to sell newspapers because “Their valuations are at historic lows, but most bidders regard them as toxic because of their low prospects for growth. ”
I agree that newsPAPERS have low prospects for growth given the now undeniable shift from newspaper advertising to the Internet especially from the high-margin classified business. But, I don’t agree that media companies who happen to own newspapers have low prospects for growth.
At Times-Shamrock’s 15 Web sites (that we track), we attract more than a million unique monthly visitors. That’s a fairly compelling audience that local advertisers in those markets would most certainly benefit from attracting. Add in the fact that those Web sites are more than just the local source of information — they have local video about local newsmakers, high school sports statistics and game analysis, information about advertisers, maps, search, archives, etc. — and the story local media companies who happen to also own profitable newspaper operations is pretty bright in the growth area.
IMHO
Kathy