"Start shredding the news..."

Gun mouth trigger pull, continued:

This sale, if it happens, will constitute the first big-time hostile takeover of a U.S. newspaper company. But maybe not the last. Some on Wall Street are hoping it could trigger a broader wave of consolidation, with all of the investment banking deals, lawyers' and consultants' fees and stock windfalls that this implies. Many who work at newspapers - especially those belonging to Knight Ridder - worry now about their careers and the future of their profession. The assumption is that whoever buys Knight Ridder will make drastic cost cuts, to the detriment of good journalism and the company's long-term strength - a sad end for an organization whose 32 daily papers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald and San Jose Mercury News, have won 60 Pulitzers over three decades. But for Sherman, the sale is an exit strategy. It could bail him out of a tough spot, maybe with a decent profit.
…
Had [possible hostile takeover frontman Bruce Sherman] steered a different course in life, he might have made a pretty good investigative reporter. He has the smarts and determination, plus the suspicious turn of mind. His business partner, Gregg J. Powers, told author Tanous: "One way I describe Bruce is, there are people who think the glass is half full, others, like me, who tend to think the glass is half empty, and then there's Bruce, who wants to know who is going to steal the damn glass."
……
Sherman is what they call a "value" investor. This means, as PCM explains on its Web site, that he looks to invest in companies with inherent value that the stock market has overlooked. He typically holds a stock for a period of years, until the price approaches what he thinks is the company's actual worth.

The difference comes if you view the "value" of Knight-Ridder to have something to do with the quality of its journalism, and not just its bottom line.

Anyways, like Gandalf says, this all may be just the deep breath before the plunge:

Fink of the University of Georgia says he thought Sherman's move against Knight Ridder might set off a chain of such events. He notes that Sherman is also a major holder of other newspaper chains; he owns 37 percent of McClatchy, for instance.
"If this guy can break Knight Ridder loose and pick up the shares to $75 or $80 or even more," Fink says, "what's he going to do with McClatchy and others? It seems to me that this is just the first in a series."

Agita.

God bless New York. As long as there's an MTA, newspapers will always matter here. Every morning, I make a point of looking up and down my F train car: consistently, almost 50% of people are reading a local paper. The broader economics of the country may rip the industry to shreds, but we're always going to have a use for ink and paper and New York.

We may eventually seem like quaint luddites. But then so was the guy who came up with Gandalf. So screw it.