Posted on 03/20/2007 2:28:26 PM PDT by abb
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- McClatchy Co. (MNI) late Tuesday reported that total revenue in February fell 5.1% compared with the year-ago pro forma figure. Pro forma revenue includes the addition of newspapers purchased in the Knight Ridder acquisition, and excludes the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper, the Sacramento, Calif.-based newspaper company said. Consolidated advertising revenue for the month decreased 5.2%, McClatchy said
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Ping
That's what they get for selling off the Aberdeen American News.
Sell the Pittsburgh Pirates on e-bay...maybe they'll make a buck.
This is really good news. I have never seen a "story" attributed to McClatchy that was not full of anti-Bush or anti-Republican bias. I'm sure they print such things.... but I have never seen one.
I absolutely hate, yes hate, most of the MSM. I'm sorry to say this as it is so harsh but, if someone started taking the lying bastards out I would consider it a boon for America and those responsible as patriots. And mark my words, if the blue-state media continue to undermine democracy by omission, lies, distortions, and propoganda, someone will start leveling the playing field....by force.
It always happens, it is inevitable, when the pendulum swings too far there is always someone there to provide correction by violence.
Freegards,
PF
NO LOSS!
slight correction. i'm sure things will pick up any minute now.(checking watch . . . tapping face . . .)
Media Newsletter Closes
Louis Hau, 03.20.07, 6:40 PM ET
How bad is the newspaper business? So bad it no longer pays to pay attention to the business.
At least that's the conclusion reached by independent newspaper analyst John Morton and media economist Miles Groves, who have decided to stop writing their well-respected Morton-Groves Newspaper Newsletter. Morton has published a newsletter on the industry since 1976 and joined forces with Groves in 2002.
"I'm getting tired of producing painful forecasts,'' Groves said Tuesday. "Recently, as down as they get to be, they never seem to be down enough.''
More to the point, the industry's ongoing consolidation has robbed the newsletter of too many subscribers to continue publishing, he said. Most of those who paid the newsletter's $500 annual subscription fee were executives at newspaper companies.
"Our base is eroding,'' Groves said. "As those corporate jobs disappear, our subscriber base disappears."
The newsletter regularly tallied financial data from publicly traded newspaper companies. But with increasing numbers of papers being sold off to private owners, Groves noted that collecting data has become more difficult.
Earlier this month, troubled Tribune (nyse: TRB - news - people ) agreed to sell two newspapers in Connecticut to Gannett (nyse: GCI - news - people ) as it mulls strategic alternatives for the rest of the company. And last year, McClatchy (nyse: MNI - news - people ) acquired Knight Ridder and then sold off some of Knight Ridder's largest papers to private buyers, including The San Jose Mercury News to privately held MediaNews Group and The Philadelphia Inquirer to a local investor group.
In the newsletter's final issue, Groves struck a particularly pessimistic tone, accusing some in the newspaper industry of giving up the fight.
"Instead of making the technology, personnel, marketing and product investments critical for success, industry leaders have accepted that desirable circulation levels are not sustainable and circulation declines are inevitable,'' he said.
Related.
Merrill Lowers Estimate on McClatchy
By Jennifer Saba
Published: March 21, 2007 11:10 AM ET
NEW YORK Merrill Lynch lowered its earnings per share estimate of McClatchy in a note this morning by 10% to $2.12 per share in 2007 and $2.19 per share in 2008, based on McClatchy's weak February results.
The research firm readjusted its advertising revenue forecast for the company calling for a 3.7% decline in pro forma ad revenue for the year, compared to the original 2% drop.
And even still, analysts are cautious since classified real estate seems to be tanking -- McClatchy in particular has tough comparisons heading into this year. The company reported that real estate fell 15.4%.
Goldman Sachs is also alarmed by the state of classified advertising, especially given that the ad category was one of the few positives going for the industry.
In a note released this morning on McClatchy, analysts wrote, "Ad revenue declines have reached levels not seen in non-recession years. Despite Herculean efforts by publishers, virtually no amount of cost cutting or newsprint price decreases could yield earnings growth given this level of revenue decline."
Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch both maintained a "neutral" rating on McClatchy.
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