New York Times Company Stock Plunges to New Depths

Lost in the overall cratering in the stock market yesterday in reaction to Tim Geithner’s awful “soiled the bed” TARP II presentation yesterday — New York Times Company stock closed at $4.23. As of 3:30 PM today, the stock was up 12 cents.

Yesterday’s close is the stock’s lowest point since the company went public in July 1986 (down over 50% in real terms):

At yesterday’s close, the company was worth just over $600 million, down from over $800 million less than three months ago.

That’s probably less than the value of its stake in the Boston Red Sox (perhaps $150 million) and its Manhattan headquarters building (Business Week estimated it was worth $750 million after taxes in July of last year; even with a horrid real estate market, there’s little chance it’s worth less than $500 million).

This means that the Times Company would have to pay someone to take the Times, the Boston Media Group (including the Boston Globe), and About.com off its hands.

We’re supposed to believe that the Times’s non-stop Bush-bashing that begin in earnest in mid-2002 as that administration made its case for invading Iraq “just so happened” to coincide with the stock’s fall from its all-time high to its current all-time low, and had no actual influence on the stock’s dive:

We’re also supposed to believe that the stock’s loss of over 75% of it value since mid-September 2008 only relates to economic conditions, and can’t possibly have anything to do with its over-the-top Barack Obama cheerleading, cover-ups, and apologetics.

Uh huh.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

________________________________________________________

UPDATE: Commenter #1 claims that the following graph for NewsCorp shows that it “has fared just as poorly” as the New York Times Company:

NYT is at an alltime low, while Newscorp is currently at about twice its alltime low.

Newscorp is about 80% off of its 2000 peak, and well above its IPO debut. NYT is down well over 90% from its 2002 peak, and is at about 70% below its IPO debut.

Newscorp grew in value from 2002-2007 as its New York Post increased its subscriber base and Fox News’s domination of cable news continued and its fair and balanced approach drew more fans. NYT stock consistently fell during that period.

Other than all of that, Newscorp stock “has fared just as poorly” as NYT stock (/sarcasm).

Commenter #1 is clearly in need of vision correction, over and above a major dose of economic truth serum.