Biggest newspapers have a higher profit margin than Exxon!

If this advantage isn’t enough to stop the Big Media boo-hooing, or to lead them to go private or otherwise fight back against Wall Street, what will?

A typical newspaper with a 100,000 circulation makes a 15.6 percent annual pre-tax profit margin, according to Inland Daily Press Association and the International Newspaper Financial Executives. The Tribune Company, which owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other media outlets, for example, operates on an 18.3 percent pre-tax profit margin. Gannett, which owns 90 newspapers in the U.S., including USA Today, operates on a 21.4 percent pre-tax profit margin. By comparison, Walmart Stores Inc. operates on a 5.4 percent pre-tax profit margin, while Exxon Mobil Corporation operates on a 17.9 percent pre-tax profit margin.

So, sorry, we’re not poor. The problem is stockholders still think this is the 1920s, and CEOs won’t fight back. Of course, many of them, if they have performance bonuses, have their bread buttered in a non-editorial way, anyway.