US 2Q earnings: McClatchy profits/Tribune to cut jobs

Posted by John Burke on July 17, 2006 at 1:26 PM

As expected, most American companies have recorded second quarter revenue losses, the biggest, Gannett losing 8.3% from the same quarter last year. The Tribune Co., in the midst of a $2billion share buyback, has decided to cut 120 positions after weaker than expected earnings. On the other hand, McClatchy beat Wall Street expectations earning 6 more cents on the dollar than predicted.

The Tribune Co. has holdings in several media, but Managing Editor James O'Shea said its flagship newspaper was the main reason for the cuts. "Our reason to try to speed up our action on the cost side has to do with our Chicago Tribune results in the first half of the year, which were well weaker than we had planned."

McClatchy's results did not include its recent acquisition of Knight Ridder but announced that combined financial results will be available as of the third quarter. McClatchy is also in talks with Gannett and Tribune over CareerBuilder.com, an online classified advertising site in which KR had a stake with the two larger companies.

McClatchy's advertising revenues from the combined 32 papers it is holding on to after the KR deal jumped 1.8%.

At the same time, online ad spending soared 13.8% in comparison with the same period last year.

Sources: Chicago Tribune, Yahoo Finance, MediaPost

Update: PaidContent reports that online revenues at the "new" McClatchy will be $200 million.

Posted in :