Media General being told how to run its business by... A HEDGE FUND?

STLIrish, yes, that's what killed off Knight Ridder. A rogue hedge fund baron who bought up a percentage (I think 18) of the shares, then raised holy hell and created a proxy battle-royale until Tony Ridder finally threw up his hands and sold off the company his ancestors helped build.

Hassan Elmasry, a fund manager at Morgan Stanley, tried the same thing with the New York Times: bought up a bunch of the Class B shares, then kicked and screamed because they had 1/10th the voting power of the Class A shares (or the other way round). That's because the Sulzbergers were smart enough to plan for this when they took the company public. Elmasry finally sold off his shares, muttering about "shareholder value" and all that.

Exactly. It's not like there's no other industries out there.

 

Good for Media General. I'm glad Marshall Morton is doing something worthwhile in Richmond.

I still haven't forgotten that proxy sent to me when I worked there, asking us how they wanted us to divide the bonus money among the suits that aren't exactly hurting.

That was ridiculous. But at least Morton said the right thing this time.

 

Leave out the journalism side of this, and it's still a lousy idea. Sell off a newspaper and a TV station in a Top 15 market when both assets are at the bottom of their values? Freaking genius.

 

and here's your three shares of jrc stock.