Prominent US investor say that advertisers will go back to to print

Posted by Christie Silk on July 30, 2009 at 11:36 AM

The future for the newspaper industry is brighter than analysts expected, according to John Rogers, CEO of Ariel Investments in Chicago. Rogers represents one of the leading investors in the US newspaper market, and the largest investor in Gannett production, USA Today.

Rogers expressed his conviction to Bloomberg that advertisers will return to print, encouraged by the recent announcements that publishers Gannett and McClatchy had experienced results, which exceeded expectations.

Rather than suffering predicted losses, McClatchy reported a 43% quarter net income increase on last year, while Gannet enjoyed a second-quarter profit of $70.5m, a considerable improvement on the $2.29bn loss inflicted by asset write-downs reported in the last note.

Roger enthused: "with all the cost cutting, you just have to have some reasonable growth in revenue and you'll have spectacular earnings growth. This economy is going to recover and people are going to advertise again."

Source: Brand Republic