McClatchy -- a company that owns numerous newspapers nationwide -- yesterday sold the Minneapolis Star-Tribune for $530 million.

What's scary for anyone working in newspapers today (read: me) is the fact that McClatchy bought the paper in 1998 for $1.2 billion.

How in the h-e-double hockeysticks does a newspaper drop more than 50 percent in value in just 8 years? McClatchy says its just a tax dodge -- they want to write off the loss. But that makes little sense as long as the newspaper is still producing somewhere around the industry average in profits -- 20+ percent.

Both Powerline and Captain's Quarters -- Minnesota-based blogs -- comment on the sale.