The debt, management, intangible assets and advertising issues are cyclical and can be overcome.
The structual issue of selling content is my concern for this stock and all other media stocks. It just doesn't seem like the model for print media can work. It's too slow and after 10 years not one single paper globally has been able to succesfully build a paywall and succeed. They risk losing their readers to another free site. And then forums such as these usually cut and paste or send links to the important stuff.
When there is a crises, say like the tsunami in Japan, I first saw it on sky news and then immediately youtube searched and found 100s of mobile phone uploaded films of the event. Advertisers are shifting their budgets from the old format of print and tv to internet.
There is also a change in push vs pull news. Comments on the bottom of stories on news.com.au are more valueable than the actual story.
20 years ago it would have been impossible to get your hands on The China Daily or The New York Post. Maybe you could get a 2 week old one at a good university. But now they are all one click away.
How can they get around it? It's bleak and not just for SWM.
SWM Price at posting:
$2.73 Sentiment: LT Sell Disclosure: Not Held
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