The biggest interest in the possible sale of Landmark’s media assets centers on the Weather Channel and its companion website, weather.com. That’s not surprising. In today’s Wall Street Journal, there’s some guesswork from SNL Kaine’s Derek Baine on how to value those two properties, and the result is rather amazing:
…the Web business may be valued at $3.5 billion while the television operation could be worth $1.5 billion. He notes that the channel, while generating lots of cash, is no longer a growth business.
A website that’s worth more than a cable channel. Now that’s a sure sign of how the media landscape has changed. So where does that leave Landmark’s newspapers?
Potential buyers for the newspapers could include Gannett Co., MediaNews Group Inc. or Media General Inc., said John Morton, president of Morton Research Inc., a media consulting firm in Silver Spring, Md.
Low valuations for newspapers may broaden the pool of potential buyers “but make it that much more painful for Landmark to part with them,” Mr. Morton said.
Representatives for Gannett and MediaNews Group declined to comment. Media General didn’t return calls for comment.
Print isn’t dead. But newspapers can’t command a premium in the marketplace (unless you’re Rupert Murdoch, or the Journal). The question then becomes whether Landmark will be willing to unload its papers at any price, or hold them in hopes of grinding out whatever profits it can.
