From Wall Street to stock speculators, everyone's taking shots at traditional media these days. On Feb. 27, the highest short interest ratio on the New York Stock Exchange belonged to struggling newspaper publisher McClatchy
Did I lose you at "short interest ratio?" It's a popular gauge to measure market pessimism. You take the number of shares currently being shorted in a particular company, and divide it by the average daily volume. The result is a stock's short interest -- theoretically, how many days at current trading levels it would take for shorts to cover their positions, i.e. buy back all the shares they borrowed.
Let's go over a few of the old-media companies in Mr. Market's crosshairs.
Company |
Short Interest |
Avg. Daily Volume |
Short Interest Ratio |
---|---|---|---|
Crown Media Holdings |
3,959,318 |
27,908 |
142 |
Cumulus Media |
5,198,296 |
73,691 |
71 |
McClatchy |
16,620,719 |
271,608 |
61 |
Harte-Hanks |
6,755,826 |
237,286 |
28 |
The short interest ratio is more important than just the sheer volume of shares sold short. Sirius XM Radio
The same can't be said for the old-school media operators, where the pessimism has remained fairly constant lately. With newspapers scaling back on their circulation and the sucker-punched ad market bruising media sponsorship opportunities, the shorts might have it right here. The best old-media companies will evolve, but the rest of their peers will just fade away into irrelevancy.
Even the larger newspaper companies like Gannett
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