Rapidly shriveling stock prices have produced a new misery index for the nation’s beleaguered newspaper industry: sky-high stock dividend yields. So high, some observers believe, that some cash-strapped companies will soon have to cut dividends, putting even more pressure on their stock prices.

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 is 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 most valuable assets will be the land and facilities it owns in fast-growing urban areas like Sacramento, Miami, Charlotte, Kansas City and Fort Worth.

Florida investor Bruce Sherman finds himself in the midst of another media company buyout. This time it’s Hearst-Argyle Television, which received an offer from majority shareholder Hearst Corporation.

Hearst, a privately held publisher of newspapers, magazines and Internet properties, already owns more than 73 percent of the broadcaster’s shares. It is offering $600 million for the remainder.

Relationship map of the Ridder dynasty.