Cleveland fans are angry and still in denial, while South Florida is jumping for joy and celebrating the region's king catalyst for the housing market turnaround. On the evening of July 8th, LeBron James officially placed a catalyst for a potential bottom on the fledgling South Florida condo and housing market. Season tickets at American Airlines were already sold out in anticipation of the King James arrival to the city of Miami. In the words of Minyanville's Todd Harrison today, "Inspiration is a beautiful thing."

Nobody could be more excited and inspired with the King James confidence booster than the following employees of these six companies:

There has been talk that The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) may have to file for Chapter 11. The company quieted that talk by mortgaging part of its headquarters, cutting its dividend, and putting some of its New England properties up for sale.

Also, the Journal Register has gone bankrupt. It lost its NYSE listing months ago.

Which company in the newspaper industry is next?

Yesterday the New York Times (NYSE: NYT) suspended its dividend, following other struggling newspaper giants like McClatchy in a desperate move to save cash amidst the Perfect Storm buffeting their industry. A deep recession, sinking paid subscription rolls, and crashing classified and display ad sales caused by competition with the Internet have all conspired to put the entire newspaper business on life support far faster than almost anyone imagined possible.

A number of financial bloggers and technology titans are now saying the Times won't survive the year. Even after suspending the dividend, NYT will struggle to be cash-flow positive, particularly considering it has to service a crushing 14% interest burden on the recent Hail Mary $250 million loan package from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) reported that its Q4 profit tripled but it fell short of estimates.
• Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) met earnings estimates but it is getting more pressure from Carl Icahn.
• BP (NYSE: BP) surprised Wall Street with a multibillion dollar Q4 loss due to lower oil prices.
• Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) beat Q2 estimates but warned that incoming orders have declined.
• Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS) reaffirmed its previous Q4 guidance, which pleased investors.
• Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL) topped Q2 earings estimates and it announced job cuts.
• Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) Q4 earnings fell on higher claim expenses and lower investment income.
• JDS Uniphase Corp. (NASDAQ: JDSU) adjusted earnings were in line with estimates but revenue fell.

The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) has watched its stock price tank from a 52-week high of more than $15 to its current price of $2.20 as the company's massive debt load has been made more ominous by the precipitous decline in advertising brought on by the weak economy -- on top of all the other problems facing newspapers. In 2005, the stock traded at better than $75 per share.

So now McClatchy is looking to sell the Miami Herald, according to The New York Times. But the Times added that its sources "said they knew of no serious offers for the paper, reflecting the evaporation of major investors' interest in buying newspapers."

Shocking! I can't believe that people aren't lining up to buy a newspaper that makes its money by selling advertising in one of the cities hardest hit by falling real estate prices.

You really have to question the intelligence of the company's board of directors and management: The company has paid out enormous dividends while acquiring companies like Knight Ridder at outrageous prices. Now they're looking to dump one of their most prestigious properties at a fire-sale price. And yet the dividend remains.

It's time for the dividend to go, along with everyone who's had anything to do with the company's strategic direction. It might be too late to salvage shareholder value, but they should at least find someone who knows what he's doing to give it a try.

It has come to this: The newspaper industry is in such bad shape that one of the largest chains will sell its crown jewel. McClatchy (NYSE: MNI), the debt-heavy paper firm, is working on auctioning the Miami Herald. With its revenue falling rapidly, the move may not be enough to save the parent company.

According to The New York Times, "The people briefed on the company's plans say The Herald generates a very slim operating margin and that the most attractive part of any deal could be its prime waterfront real estate." How remarkably sad that a transaction would be one with the primary purpose of selling valuable Florida land.

McClatchy does not have much choice. Its own operating margins are tiny. The firm said its ad revenue dropped 20% in October. In the third quarter, MNI had net income of $4 million on revenue of $451 million. McClatchy has over $2 billion in long-term debt.

There is still an excellent chance that MNI will follow other publicly traded newspaper chains Journal Register and Gatehouse to the point where their shares are delisted from NYSE and they are forced to sell most of their properties to pay off debts.

Selling the Herald does not solve the problem. Newspapers are not going to rebuild their revenue.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) Q3 results were dragged down by charge-offs due to the recession.
• Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) posted stronger-than-expected results due in part to iPhone sales.
• Boeing Inc. (NYSE: BA) posted a bigger-than-estimated earnings decline due in part to the strike.
• Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) reported Q1 earnings that were in line with Wall Street expectations.
• Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) Q3 results fell more than expected due to lower copper prices.
• Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB) edged past estimates but felt the squeeze from exchange rates.
• McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI) reported dismal Q3 results as advertising revenues dry up.
• Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) posted solid Q1 results but offered conservative guidance.
• New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) reported awful earnings and announced that it might cut its dividend.
• Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) topped profit estimates and maintained its guidance.
• RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH) better-than-expected results were driven by sales of digital TV converters.
• Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) warned of a Q1 loss and acquisition-related charges.
• Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) missed estimates due to slowing mobile phone sales.
• United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) reported better-than-expected Q3 earnings.
• Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) earnings tumbled in Q3 and it announced layoffs.

For more earnings highlights from this week, see Amazon, McDonald's, Mattel, Pfizer, AT&T, Sony and others.

Watch for upcoming quarterly reports from Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Estée Lauder (NYSE: EL) , US Steel (NYSE: X), Aetna (NYSE: AET), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Qwest (NYSE:Q), Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Kellogg (NYSE: K), Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT), MetLife (NYSE: MET), Moody's (NYSE: MCO), Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), Avon (NYSE: AVP), CBS (NYSE: CBS), CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS), Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA), Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK), Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Washington Post (NYSE: WPO).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) is the third largest newspaper chain in the U.S. It is also in debt up to its eyeballs from its purchase of Knight-Ridder. Its only chance of paying that debt is to get operating income up. Because of the bad advertising environment, that has not worked out.

Things have gotten so bad that McClatchy may default on its debt and creditors may end up owning and operating the company. Investment bankers running printing presses -- nice picture.

In the last quarter, reported Tuesday, revenue at MNI dropped $100 million to $451 million. Operating income was only $40 million against debt service of $34 million. The margin for error is gone. In September, ad revenue dropped 20%, so the fourth quarter could be McClatchy's last as an independent company.

Banks that have loaned money to newspaper chains are in a bind. They can seize assets and hope to sell them to cover debt, but with the industry environment so bad, the chance of them getting their money back is slim.

The other option may be the more intelligent one. Alter loan deals to stretch out payments, take 100% of operating income to cover debt and hope that newspaper recover, even a little. That option beats selling assets in a market that does not want them.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Within the past years, several public newspaper companies have been pushed to the cliff of insolvency. They have taken on too much debt and the downturn in advertising has put them in a position where they cannot cover interest payments.

Journal Register was knocked off The New York Stock Exchange and is in the process of liquidation. The value of its properties has dropped so low that its common shareholders will get nothing and creditors will not recover the amount of their loans. Gatehouse Media (NYSE: GHS) has traded under $1 for weeks and also face delisting. Odds are that its properties will have to be auctioned off.

Banks may be employing a new tactic in the hope of getting their money out of the newspaper industry. Extend loans, let the companies cut expenses to the bone, and pray that advertising will get better. If it does, they might get their money back. McClatchy (NYSE: MNI), the nation's third largest chain, was the next company in the industry to head toward liquidation. Based on a new lifeline from its creditors, it may dodge that for awhile. According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), "The publisher of the Sacramento Bee and Miami Herald said Friday its banks agreed to loosen restrictions on the company's level of debt compared to cash flow, and its ratio of interest payments to cash flow."

The banks are making a big mistake. McClatchy's has many of its properties in California and Florida were the economies could be troubled for years. By letting McClatchy stay in business, the banks are risking that the value of the company's papers will drop even more. If McClatchy is sold off in pieces now, creditors might get most of their money back.

The holders of McClatchy's debt may have saved the company, for a few months at least. They have also put themselves in a position to lose most of their money.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says massive debt at the newspapers means they no longer work as businesses.

Maybe newspapers don't work as businesses. The shocking 10% workforce reduction announced this week by McClatchy (Cramer's Take) (NYSE: MNI), formerly the best-run chain out there, is a reminder that all of these companies have borrowed too much money and don't generate the cash flow to make it work. McClatchy, with an 8% yield, is showing signs of collapsing under its own weight, something that has been exacerbated by Wall of Shame performer Gary Pruitt, a man who is still, amazingly, the CEO.

But all of this was totally predictable. I have never seen an industry attract so many buyers with so much debt and so little equity.

Take Tribune (Cramer's Take). Sam Zell's a smart guy. He let the newspaper employees do the heavy lifting when he bought the Tribune company. That was so smart. He will be out very little if the deal fails. The workers will be out their retirement money. That was a smart deal -- unless you work there -- but I have spoken against that deal so many times I am sick of talking about it.

McClatchy could have weathered this downturn, instead of -- it is a bit unthinkable, but I think it will happen -- defaulting on its debt, if it hadn't been determined to buy a bunch of properties for much more than they are worth. The New York Times (Cramer's Take) (NYSE: NYT) and Gannett (Cramer's Take) (NYSE: GCI) spent a lot of money, but they didn't have to buy back stock. Gannett's 6% yield isn't tempting in the least.

Journal Register (NYSE: JRC) may be the first large, listed newspaper company to go into Chapter 11. With falling revenue and high debt, the company, which publishes a number of papers including the New Haven Register, hired Lazard as it faces delisting from the New York Stock Exchange.

JRC has been the most likely chain to hit trouble for some time. It bought a number of papers in Michigan four years ago and the deep trouble in the economy there has bedeviled the parent company. According to The New York Times, "If the company were to seek bankruptcy protection, as analysts said was possible, it would be a first in recent memory for a publicly traded newspaper company, John Morton, a longtime newspaper analyst, said."

The company's 10-K shows that revenue in 2007 dropped to $463 million from $507 million the year before. Industry analysts believe that ad revenue across all newspapers in the U.S. will drop another 8% this year.

Journal Register operating income before write-offs was $63 million in 2007, but interest expense was $41 million, leaving almost no margin for a further drop. The company has $625 million in debt.

The newspaper industry is dying more quickly now and there will be other defaults in the next year or two. Large chains like McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) face severe debt problems. Its lenders may end up owning the company.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Often taking a look at 52-week low gives a hint as to which sectors are in trouble. But, it also may provide investors a look at shares that could come back under the right circumstances. Bottom fishing sometimes pay dividends.

McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI): The Wall Street Journal did a major story on McClatchy last week. Its shares are down over 70%, but the company CEO insists that when weak parts of the economy in Florida and California make a comeback, newspapers will recover, too. There may be some wisdom to the observation, but probably not for McClatchy. Most of the company's newspapers are in median-sized markets and that makes it harder for the firm to have a major presence in the internet ad business. Companies like The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) and Gannett Inc. (NYSE: GCI) with their large internet operations like USAToday.com have a much better chance of offsetting falling print revenue with online sales.

Sandisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK): This tech company finds itself in the wrong place at the wrong time. At just over $33, its shares are down by almost half this year. The company is one of the world's largest producers of flash memory chips and the prices for the products are crashing. The turnaround at the company may come when prices for these chips become more stable because demand is moving up. Sandisk products are a big part of what goes into cell phones, digital cameras, and multimedia players. A bottom on flash prices should bring shares back.

Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT): Supplying infrastructure to the world's big telecom and cable companies used to look like a sexy business. But, Nortel shares are off to $15.20 from a 52-week high of $31.79. Rival Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) is doing no better. The build-out of systems like 3G and WiMax is going slower than planned and mergers of big telecom companies have taken some customers out of the picture. The market may begin to improve, but companies with more advanced tech, like Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), are likely to benefit.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI) Chief Executive Gary Pruitt was considered by Wall Street a pretty savvy operator, but his reputation has taken a nosedive following his ill-advised decision to acquire Knight Ridder last year. Now, he seems perplexed as to why Wall Street isn't as bullish on newspapers as he thinks it should be.

"Certainly newspaper stocks are out of favor on Wall Street," he told Forbes.com. "That's happened before, and that will happen again. But we're not going to go away."

Then, he defended the Knight Ridder deal, saying that it helped boost revenue and cash flow, and strengthens the company in the long-term. The problem, as he noted, is that investors aren't buying his logic. Shares of the publisher of the Sacramento Bee, Kansas City Star and Miami Herald, have tumbled more than 70% this year, underperforming rivals including Gannett Co. (NYSE: GCI) and New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT), which dropped 40% and 30% respectively.

A look at a list of 52-week lows sometimes signals market sentiment about certain sectors or broader financial trends. Here are a few critical bottoms hit last week:

Level 3 (NASDAQ: LVLT) would seem to be a poster child for the new demand for bandwidth. It has a huge national network covering 48,000 miles and a first-rate customer base including big telcos and cable companies. It also carries a lot of VoIP traffic. The company hit a 52-week low because it has something Wall Street hates right now -- a ton of high-yield debt backed by shaky cash flow. The debt is over $6.8 billion, and LVLT has had negative operating income for each of the past three years. The stock is being sold off just before earnings because any sign of weak earnings is exposure to significant balance sheet problems. Borrowing is not popular these days.

Toyota (NYSE: TM) should be riding high. It has passed General Motors (NYSE: GM) as the world's largest car company and is more profitable than any of its global peers. But, hyper-growth may be catch up with the Japanese company. It slipped from the top spot in the Consumer Reports vehicle reliability survey and had to recall 470,000 cars in its home market. GM's new UAW contract will also make it a rougher competitor.

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?