What to look for in today's earnings report

A reader emailed yesterday with a good pointer on how to evaluate McClatchy's 3rd quarter report -- look at revenues, not earnings:

Pay attention to the top line (revenues) number they announce tomorrow, as opposed to the bottom line (profit or loss). The only way they can show improvement when revenues decline is to cut people. That has to stop at some point as you approach zero employees. Also watch comps to comparison quarters.

From what I've seen so far, NYT, GCI, MNI, etc all will have revenue declines nearly as bad as any quarter ever reported.

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