The McClatchy Company (MNI)

McClatchy is beaten to a pulp. I believe this company will eventually join forces with electronic/broadcast media, but for now this stock is strictly for long-term investors.

Newspapers enjoy certain advantages--name recognition, stability, local monopolies--but unfortunately they're glacially slow to respond to change. And yes, that is ironic in a NEWS company for crying out loud. Bloggers and TV correspondents are leading the way with investigative journalism. Newspapers do have blogs, but most are not real blogs.

The combination of our litigious, hypersensitive society and the corporatization of newspapers (Mr. Reporter, meet Mr. Bottom Line) has paralyzed this industry. Editors and publishers act as though they've been forced into a corner and all they can do is mutter "That's a nice picture Billy. Why don't you put it up on the bulletin board?"

My grandmother's advice that if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all was just fine for high school, but it's poison to a company that traffics in news. Pressure from arts organizations, political groups and big business has led to cheerleading, chamber of commerce infomercials and kittens-are-still-cute "articles" (as well as murder-is-still-bad editorials), not news reporting.

The powers that be will ALWAYS see local media as their own personal publicity department, and they will always get upset when they can't milk the paper for favorable stories. It's up to editors to stand up to them, and say: Newspapers represent the citizens, not mayors, not corporate heads, not artistic directors, not charity presidents.

It takes a leader to speak truth to power, and leaders are in short supply. Try visiting a newsroom. Blank expressions and gray hair as far as the eye can see! These disheartened journalists come to work every day like good little Bartlebys, but they're just biding their time until the elusive universal-health-care bill is signed into law. Then they're outta there.

OH IF ONLY editors would go back to it-bleeds-it-leads. Whoda thunk sensationalism would represent the good old days of newspapers? At least outrage, fear and schadenfreude have the ability to make the heart quicken.

But all is not lost. Lately newspapers have begun supplementing the daily rag with the occasional glossy niche publication for residents in tonier parts of town. (I've never heard anyone call Architectural Digest a dead tree.) I'm betting that McClatchy will someday buy a clue and partner with a company that has strong online and/or TV presence. And while they're at it, they ought to hire a few bloggers with attitude and let 'em rip.