The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT)

With a PE ratio of 40, negative long term growth, and constantly bleeding market share to free online news sites, it's a terrible investment. The only rational reason for anyone to own this stock would be to indirectly influence the news coverage by appointing directors and officers of a certain political bent. Carlos Slim isn't so stupid as an investor that he would think of making money directly from NYT. NYT as only a business is worth under $7 per share. But as a propaganda organ, how much is it worth? The total amount spent on US lobbying in 2017 was about 2.1 billion. Let's estimate the value (P) of using NYT for propaganda as about 10% of the total lobbying expenses, or $210M per year. Add this to the net income of $98M and you get a P/(E+P) ratio of 12.62, which is much more reasonable than the PE ratio of 40.

However, the value of the NYT for propaganda purposes will decline as its reputation declines and people wise up to how it's being used. I suppose the P term will shrink by 10% per year, which means the overall E+P will shrink by 6% per year. So I use a DCF calculator, plugging in E+P of $1.9 per share, -6% growth for the first 10 years and 0% thereafter, and a discount rate of 7%. I get a fair value of and I get a fair price of $13.63.

To arrive at the current price of $24 from an E+P of $1.9 per share, you have to plug in a growth rate of 2%, which is overly optimistic imo. To get to $24 from E alone, you have to plug in 14% growth, which is absurd.

In the world of increasingly "fake news", the best newspaper in America will thrive.