Bruce Sherman, whose Private Capital Management (PCM) investment firm forced the sale of Knight Ridder in 2006 has gotten rid of all of his newspaper stocks.
According to E&P, in documents filed yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, PCM said it no longer owned any stock in The New York Times Co., Lee Enterprises, Belo, or The McClatchy Co.
PCM had previously owned significant ammounts of stock – 37.61% of McClatchy, 15.07% in the Times Co., 18.96% in Lee, 22.31% in Belo, as well as substantial positions in Gannett and a small amount of Tribune Co. stock.
Sherman had also been one of Knight Ridder’s largest private shareholders and when its stock price tumbled, he sent a letter to KR’s board in November of 2005 demanding the newspaper publisher “aggressively pursue the competitive sale of the company.” That set off a chain of events that led to the company’s sale to McClatchy, which in turn sold off a dozen of the dailies to other companies.