Wall Street Snubs Belo (And That’s A Good Thing)

The stock hit a high of $20.64 on October 1 when it announced the split. Since then, it has drifted down to today’s price of $16.51. Of course, there’s been plenty of bad news about newspapers in the intervening four months, and broadcasting isn’t setting anyone’s pants on fire either. We’ll know more when the stocks officially split (in about 30 days), but if newspaper company’s stock sinks like a stone, which I bet it does, it’s a perfect buy-back opportunity for Robert Decherd. The newspaper group won’t have any debt and will have free cash flow, so he should be able to get the financing at good terms. That would free him of the Wall Street yoke, and enable the News to right itself in a turbulent sea. Which I hope, hope, hope it does.