The good news is relative, of course. Most newspaper companies were down Monday, but less than the stock market average. The New York Times Company's Class A stock was down 3.8% to $14.35 late Monday afternoon, and Gannett's was down 6.6% to $17. McClatchy's stock was up 1.78% to $4.50.
All these figures compare with the stock market in general, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 6.98% and the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index fell 8.7% by the end of the day.
Fittingly, in the final analysis, the stock market tanked in part of because of the same trend that has steadily undermined newspapers: the steep downturn in the housing market.
The single biggest area of revenue loss for newspapers has been the real estate classified listings, which turned south over a year ago and never got better.
Now investors -- and the market -- are panicking anew. Congress refused to approve a giant $700 billion bailout for banks pushed to the brink of failure by bad loans -- mostly in the form of sub-prime mortgages.
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