Minyanville's top dog, Todd Harrison, dares to ask in public what Wall Street types quietly consider in private. For more insight and ideas, visit www.Minyanville.com.

Yikes, Lehman downgrades Scripps (NYSE: SNI), Gannett (NYSE: GCI) pooped the bed. What the heck is happening to these paltry little rags?

Some thoughts:

• The internet is the single biggest deflationary force ever invented and the "information deflation" is in full force.
  
• Without a doubt, my bullish bent on the newspaper names was my single worst "call" of the year.
  
• The thesis was that portals will buy the papers to feed content into their pipes.
  
• That remains a viable option for some of the franchise properties, although it will seemingly happen -- if it happens -- from lower levels.
  
• I still own some GCI January calls but have quickly become lottery tickets.

R.P.

Position In GCI

Gannett, read all about it! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.