Jim Romenesko links to this article by Edward Wasserman for this graph:

I don’t think I ever met an owner, no matter how rich, who would pony up a nickel of his own money to cover shortfalls in the operations of a company he owned unless somebody was holding a gun to his head, and even then, not before he’d had a moment to think it over.

But I think the next is equally insightful:

True, Wall Street can be tough. Stupid, too. But generally, public investors aren’t buying today’s profits, they’re buying tomorrow’s promise. That’s what the newspaper industry has so dismally failed to articulate — and that failure will be no less vexing for hometown rich guys than it has been for stock portfolio managers.

And it will be vexing for our readers, too, as we slip further and further behind serving their needs in the manner they demand. We need to build a future that serves readers and investors (both public and private), because in reality, they have an equal stake in our future.