So says The McLatchy Company, which appears to have made a very bad bet by buying 49.5 percent of The Seattle Times Company a few years back:

McClatchy acquired the Times share when it bought Knight Ridder in June 2006. In 2006, McClatchy valued its Times investment at $102.2 million. At the end of 2007, the value had fallen to $19.3 million.

And now, of course, the value (or carrying value, to be precise) is zero. Keep in mind: Hearst decided to shut down the print edition of the Seattle Post Intelligencer because, among other things, the paper had lost $14 million last year alone. McClatchy’s investment in the Times has essentially lost $34 million a year in value for the last three years.

But oh, the perils of being in the 49.5 percent ownership position. If the Blethen family, which controls 50.5 percent of the Seattle Times Company, doesn’t want to sell (or close), then McLatchy is stuck with its worthless share. (Unless it can sell the share, which of course it can’t.)

Of course the bigger issue at the moment is not who controls the majority share of the Times, but who controls the family that controls that majority share. Is it Frank Blethen? Or is it his bankers, to whom the Seattle Times Company is now severely indebted?

Eli Sanders was The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won...

8 replies on “Seattle Times Valued at Zero (49.5% of it, Anyway)”

  4. FROM 100 MIILLION DOLLARS TO ZERO!
    PEOPLE SHOULD KEEP THIS IS PERSPECTIVE WHEN THEY ARE ONLINE “SURFING” THOSE FUCKING SHIT BLOGS FOR THEIR NEWS. I HOPE ALL THE STUPID FUCKING USERS OF THE INTERNETS EVENTUALLY PAY DEARLY FOR THIS.

  7. I hate money evaluations for tax and legal purposes that are a fiction. If their share of the Times is worth $0, then they should be forced to sell to anyone offering more than that. Otherwise it is just an accounting fiction so they pay less to the government.

    I’d say the same thing to people who bitch about the assessed value of their house. They bought it for $400k, but complain that the assessor taxes it at $250k. So would they sell for $300k? No, they wouldn’t. Pay up.

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