Alan Mutter: McClatchy down 93% in past 3 1/2 years... newspaper shares have lost nearly $4 billion in the last 2 weeks

Check out the performance of these 10 newspapers:

A.H. Belo today is worth $119 million, down 58% from $282 million when it began trading earlier this year as a free-standing newspaper publisher.

GateHouse Media, worth $59 million, down 95% from $1.2 billion at its curiously strong initial public offering in October, 2006.

Journal Communications, worth $266 million, down 78% from $1.2 billion on Dec. 31, 2004.

Journal Register, worth $6 million, down 99% from $746 million on Dec. 31, 2004.

Lee Enterprises, worth $145 million, down 93% from $2 billion on Dec. 31, 2004.

Media General, worth $248 million, down 83% from $1.5 billion on Dec. 31, 2004.

McClatchy, worth $387 million, down 93% from $5.7 billion on Dec. 31, 2004.

New York Times, worth $1.85 billion, down 67% from $5.6 billion on Dec. 31, 2004.

Scripps, worth $522 million, which was newly launched as a pure-plan newspaper company on July 1, 2008.

Sun-Times, worth $32 million, down 98% from $1.3 billion on Dec. 31. 2004.

Bonus observation: the year is just half-over.