After the stock market meltdown of 2008, Wall Street brokerages aren't anyone's favorites in 2009.

But some customers said they're still happy with their online broker.

A December ChangeWave survey of 3,051 consumers found that despite the extremely difficult financial market, two online brokerages still capture high customer satisfaction ratings -- Charles Schwab (NASDAQ: SCHW) and archrival, Scottrade.

You probably think mutual funds are the least likely activist investors. While that was true in the past, the tides appear to be changing. T. Rowe Price just did something it's only done once before in its 70-year history - filed as an activist investor in order to fight the management buyout of Laureate Education, according to the Wall Street Journal.

T. Rowe Price mutual fund manager, Brian Berghuis, ran the numbers and determined that the private deal valued at $3.8 billion for this operator of universities could be valued about 80% higher. Why did he care? T. Rowe Price mutual funds shareholders could be losing as much as $210 million according the the Journal.

Management buyouts tend to work differently than the more traditional outsider takeovers. Managers want to keep the price as low as possible in these deals, while they look for the highest price possible for an outsider takeover.

Fidelity Investments took a similar stance against a deal for a private-equity buyout of OSI Restaurant Partners earlier this year. OSI manages the Outback Steakhouse chain. Fidelity's stance worked and the offer had to be increased before shareholders would approve it.

It's about time that mutual funds take activist stands to protect their shareholders. Mutual fund assets totaled $11.496 trillion in August, according to the Investment Company Institute. As managers of their investors' money, mutual funds have an obligation to make sure people who hold mutual funds get the best bang for their buck. There's power in numbers and if the mutual fund companies became more active in protecting the rights of their shareholders, both stocks and mutual funds shareholders would benefit.

Lita Epstein is the author of more than 20 books including the "Pocket idiot's Guide to Investing in Mutual Funds."

Riddle me this investors: is the smart money heading into newspaper stocks? Don't laugh but CNN/Money's Paul La Monica points out that some well-known funds are increasing their stakes in this most hated of sectors on Wall Street.

But before people start loading up on the New York Times Co. (NYSE:NYT), E.W. Scripps Co. (NYSE: SSP), Gannett Co. (NYSE: GCI), Lee Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: LEE) or McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI) consider that these shares are down double-digit percentage points because their businesses are floundering. Yes, online advertising revenue is picking up but remember that these companies will get the vast majority of their profit and revenue from dead trees for some time to come.

But has all of the bad news been priced into these stocks? Ariel Capital Management, Wellington Management, T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Management and Research seem to think the stocks have nowhere to go but up, La Monica says.

They are certainly buying low. Can they sell high?

Big money manager T Rowe Price thinks that the controlling shareholders of Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE:DJ) should take the money that News Corp (NYSE:NWS) has offered and call it a day.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Brian Rogers, the chairman and chief investment officer, said that the odds that Dow Jones management could get the stock price to $60 on their own was unlikely. T Rowe is the largest shareholder in DJ outside the founding family.

Large shareholders in the financial information company have been notably quiet about the offer. But, with a large shareholding speaking up, that could change. Earlier this year, a group of institutions, lead by Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) withheld proxies at New York Times Co. (NYSE:NYT) annual meeting, protesting that the controlling family was not doing anything to improve the share price.

T Rowe, by speaking with the Financial Times, gave its story to a direct competitor to the Dow Jones flagship Wall Street Journal. Whether there is any special message in that may never be known.

What is known is that Dow Jones has one, very large, unhappy shareholder.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

Sony Corp (NYSE: SNE) and the Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) top today's extensive list of downgrades.

• Sony was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs, citing concerns over the gaming business and the competitive electronics environment.
• Dell was downgraded by American Technology to Neutral from Buy, citing risk to 2007 estimates given the competitive pressures from Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ), Apple Computer (AAPL) and Lenovo (LNVGY).

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

Goldman Sachs downgraded the Lodging Sector to Neutral from Attractive, citing the expected industry-wide deceleration of 2007 RevPAR growth.

• In addition, Goldman noted that Marriott International Inc. (NYSE: MAR), Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: HOT) and Hilton Hotels Corp. (NYSE: HLT) historically underperform after reporting Q3 earnings.
• The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Banc of America. The firm cited valuation, a mixed outlook for specialties and the company's reluctance to accelerate share buybacks for the downgrade.
• Finally, Wachovia downgraded T.Rowe Price Group Inc. (NASDAQ: TROW) to Market Perform from Outperform, citing valuation, highlighting shares trading at a 10% premium to its peers.

Downgrade summaries provided courtesy of TheFlyOnTheWall.com.