Shares of McClatchy stock hit their lowest price in a couple decades Friday, reducing the market cap of the nation’s third largest publisher of newspapers to about $900 million.
That’s a stop-the-presses number. Ten years ago, McClatchy paid one and a half times that amount for just one newspaper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which it is has since sold.
McClatchy’s stock price fell more than 70 percent in 2007. If the trend continues, it won’t be long before one of the company’s dominant assets will be the land and buildings it owns in fast-growing urban areas like Sacramento, Miami, Charlotte, Kansas City and Fort Worth.
Investors may not value newspaper operations anymore, but there is a steady appetite for prime commercial real estate. And McClatchy, with 31 dailies in 29 markets, has some.
CEO Gary Pruitt isn’t ready to put on his Realtor’s jacket just yet. He told The Wall Street Journal in December: “I think the future is bright for newspapers.”
But in the news business these days, it’s always good to have a Plan B.
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