Newspapers, YPs Sing the De-Listing Blues

First it happened to Idearc and now RH Donnelley:

R.H. Donnelley Corporation, one of the nation’s leading Yellow Pages and online local commercial search companies, announced today that The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has determined that the trading in the common stock of R.H. Donnelley should be suspended in view of the fact that the Company did not maintain a market capitalization of at least $25 million over a consecutive 30 trading day period as required by the continued listing standards. As a result of the suspension of the NYSE listing, R.H. Donnelley expects its common stock to begin trading over-the-counter (OTC) on the Pink Sheets beginning on January 2, 2009 under the symbol RHDC. Pink Sheets provides the leading inter-dealer electronic quotation and trading system in the OTC securities market.

Newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises also faces de-listing. According to MediaPost:

Lee informed shareholders that it received a letter from NYSE warning of possible de-listing on Dec. 30, but also said it has a plan to increase share value and market capitalization to restore compliance. It said it would tell NYSE the details of this plan by Friday, Jan. 9; the NYSE allows a six-month grace period for noncompliant companies to shore up their stock prices, but this grace period can be canceled if market capitalization also remains too low.

What’s amazing is that Idearc and RH Donnelley have billions in revenues that are many times their market caps, which reflect their debt loads and investors’ pessimistic view of their prospects.

Separately in a move to boost ad revenues, the NY Times said it will sell display ads on the front page of the print edition. This has been done by other papers for some time, but the Times had yet to cross that line.