Philly Newspapers on the Block? 1
According the Blinq, the Philadephia Newspapers (the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily News) may be up for sale. Apparently the huge profit margin of Knight-Ridder, the current owner of the papers, is not enough for them.
I have read the Inquirer for years. It has had its ups and downs, like any enterprise, but it ranks among the ten best papers in the country, as far as I am concerned–and, as a traveling man, I read papers from all over the country; wherever I go, I read the local rag, because it’s always more interesting than USA Today, the MacDonald’s of Newspapers.
It seems, however, that providing a quality product and making a profit is no longer the issue. The issue is making some ginormous profit that meets Wall Street’s “expectations,” whatever that means, and quality be damned.
November 1, 2005 at 11:01 pm
Linda Ellerbee once called USA Today “the newspaper for people who find television news too trying.”
Knight-Ridder shares were up today on the speculation of dumping said newspapers. On the year, though, their stock is way down.