Media companies Gannett Co., McClatchy Co. and Tribune Co. on Tuesday announced an agreement relating to their stakes in several high-profile websites, none of which belong to me.

Like most small businessmen, I would certainly entertain the prospect of selling a small stake in my vast web empire if the right buyers came along. Clearly the business world has more regard for profitable, high-traffic sites than they do my small, half-finished projects that earn a few dollars a month. Unjust and unfair are two words that come to mind. What has happened to the corporate sense of adventure?

As part of the deal to boost their stake in the sites, McLean and Tribune will each pay roughly $142 million to help expand their ownership in the sites. I can only surmise that the sole reason these firms have so far been unwilling to throw that kind of green at my sites… is that they simply have not truly spent enough time with them. Or any time. Or really even know about them.

Because of this I have drawn the conclusion that more CEO’s need to spend time on any of the various entrepreneur forums that exist to help promote small business. If Gannett’s CEO Craig Dubow would simply sign up for an account, (username DuBowDuBowDoo I’m guessing) and browse around a bit… he might find plenty of upstart companies that could just as easily become successful for a fraction of the millions that they have spent on one or two sites. Plus… you know… he could get some cheap advertising because TheBusinessForum.net I believe uses member-sponsored ads. It’s win-win!

Until then, small-site owners are doomed to live a 142-Million-Dollar-Free life. No one paying for private flights to exotic resort meetings or offering stock trades in an attempt to outbid competitors for the ownership rights to… a celebrity fan forum… or a ringtone download site. The consumers are the real losers in this story. The short-sided, “all eggs in two or three baskets” mentality of the corporate world will prevent honest consumers like you and me from having more than 600 choices in free online flash arcade options. When there could be thousands!

And that is very… very sad.