Thursday, April 16, 2009

The coming flood of bad news for newspapers

Mark Potts says reports for the first quarter of 2009 are coming in and it could be a flood of bad news.
Advertising revenue at industry bellwether Gannett plummeted 34 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier. That's a big hit—unless you compare it to Gannett's classifieds revenue, which dropped a whopping 46.5 percent. Wow.


Analysts are
expecting similar drops as other companies report their quarterly numbers over the next few days; The New York Times described the industry's ad revenue decline this week as "the sharpest drop in generations."

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Should we call this the anti-tea party?

Is this where we get to say the laid off Marxists will be teabagging?

How should we celebrate this?

Like tea parties, will the MSM notice or report this?

Anonymous said...

I imagine it will hold true for all papers including McClatchy.

Supposedly the last cut was as deep as it was in anticipation of another drop so if they come in at 30% or less YoY then things are as planned.

Anonymous said...

AWWW. More bad news for fishwraper


AbitibiBowater Files Bankruptcy as Refinancing Fails April 16, 2009

AbitibiBowater said it will restructure under court supervision under the Chapter 11 bankruptcy law in the United States and the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act in Canada.

The company produces 43% of all North American newsprint. U.S. newsprint demand has been falling for more than 20 years. After peaking at 12.3 million tonnes in 1987, sales were just 6.8 million tonnes in 2008.

Anonymous said...

LESS DNC TALKING POINTS New York Times cuts sections to save money

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Times Co's flagship newspaper plans to eliminate several weekly sections and cut freelance spending to save millions of dollars in annual costs, according to a memo obtained by Reuters.

"Taken together, these moves will save millions of dollars -- savings that would otherwise have to come out of payroll," Executive Editor Bill Keller wrote to employees on Thursday.