Graham, Sulzberger: Taking Newspapers Private Isn’t The Solution

We’ve talked about this before — newspapers may be the highest profit-margin, continuously successful companies to come under fire in a marketplace that rates growth ahead of consistency. The potential (is it time to say probable?) sale of Knight Ridder and the active interest of multiple private equity firms — brings the questions of why and what can be done to the forefront Douglas McCollam does a very good job exploring the conundrum in this month’s CJR. Would going private be a solution? No, say the heads of two major companies: Donald Graham, chairman and largest individual shareholder of the Washington Post Company, and Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman of The New York Times Company.

– Sulzberger: “There is a real value to companies not being artificially isolated from the demands of the market. … It enforces a certain kind of discipline.รข

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