Posted on 04/12/2006 8:19:19 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
AP Gannett's Profit Falls 11.5 Percent in 1Q Wednesday April 12, 10:25 am ET Newspaper Publisher Gannett's Profit Drops 11.5 Percent in 1Q; Shares Fall 27 Cents
NEW YORK (AP) -- Gannett Co., the largest newspaper publisher in the country, reported Wednesday an 11.5 percent decline in profit for its first quarter as the company began expensing stock options and recording costs from its new newspaper partnership in Detroit. Gannett earned $235.3 million, or 99 cents per share, in the thirteen weeks ending March 26, down from $265.7 million, or $1.05 per share, in the same period a year ago, which included 2 cents per share profit from discontinued operations.
The results were in line with the forecasts of analysts polled by Thomson Financial, and include a non-cash expense of 3 cents per share in the latest quarter from stock option expenses, which the company began recording in the first quarter as required by accounting rules.
Revenues rose 6.5 percent to $1.88 billion from $1.77 billion in the same period a year ago.
The increase was mainly due to the consolidation of the Detroit Free Press, which it acquired from Knight Ridder Inc. in August of last year and then combined into a partnership with The Detroit News, which MediaNews Group Inc. bought from Gannett.
Excluding the Detroit transaction other newspaper deals, Gannett's revenues would have edged down 0.5 percent in the quarter from the same period a year ago.
Gannett shares fell 27 cents to $58.55 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange. That is near the lower end of its 52-week range of $58.07 to $80.02.
The last time our paper called to try to get me to accept a free trial subscription they were still accepting those announcements, but I don't know if any were ever printed. The incredible leftist bias is my personal peeve. I'd rarely say anything about homosexuals if they would just learn to exercise their right to remain silent more.
Lower stock prices doesn't mean they are going broke.
Even with these results, Fortune (April 17) ranks Gannett No. 296 overall in the “Fortune 500: Largest U.S. Corporations” list; No. 132 in profits; No. 210 in assets; No. 149 in stockholders’ equity; No. 197 in market value; No. 51 in profits as a percent of revenues; No. 148 in profits as a percent of assets; No. 197 in profits as a percent of stockholders’ equity; No. 145 in earnings per share (1995-2005 annual growth rate); No. 433 in total return to investors; and No. 258 in total return to investors.
Stock is currently out of favor, but Gannett's death is greatly exaggerated.
This is hopefully a trend that will continue now that most publications have decided that it's too risky to continue inflating circulation figures. The sooner the dinosaur liberal news media dies off, the better the prospects for decent America to repel Democrat attempts to turn the nation into a Euro-style, secular-socialist welfare state and make it as great as.... France.
"This is hopefully a trend that will continue now that most publications have decided that it's too risky to continue inflating circulation figures."
Enron's figures were probably more correct than the circulation figures that the major fishwraps use to price their ad rates.
Each day on Free Republic we read of new deals from the fish wraps like today, free saturday fishwrap if the customer pays for the Sunday paper with a Philly fishwrap.
The corporate culture of these Fishwraps is one of lying to their readers/subscribers and the pushing of anti business bs like enviralism. Up to the past year or so, I doubt if too many CEOs and CFOs lost any sleep cooking their ciculation numbers.
Lately, a few companies have ended up in court over these inflated ciculation numbers. That probably means that the others have developed more Enron/Arthur Andersen tricks to fool their advertisers and stock owners.
I am deeply saddened. Not !!
The same feeling is oozing out here!:)
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060412/wall_street.html?.v=23
Gannett Co., the largest newspaper publisher in the country, fell $1.06 to $57.76 after it reported an 11.5 percent decline in profit as the company began expensing stock options and recording costs from its new newspaper partnership in Detroit.
And on a day when the Dow was up 40 pts...
Oh, and tomorrow, NYT and TRB report. More good news to come....
"Oh, and tomorrow, NYT and TRB report. More good news to come...."
That should be interesting to see the Enronning and Arthur Andersening with these two losers.
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