Hollinger mysterious about plans.(Chicago Tribune)

The list of media companies that can boast of a surging stock price is a mighty short one these days, because investors seem to be caught in a maelstrom of confusion over the future of dot-coms, television and the printed word.

But Chicago-based Hollinger International Inc., the parent of the Sun-Times and one of the world's largest owners of newspapers, can stake a claim in the upper altitudes of stock performance. For years a chronic laggard among its newspaper peers, Hollinger stock has leaped about 50 percent since April, largely due to investor anticipation of Hollinger's promise to shrink itself.

Hollinger is scheduled to release its quarterly earnings Thursday, but the company contributed to a sense of lingering mystery earlier this week when it announced the cancellation of its conference call with Wall Street analysts to discuss its …