Newspaper Roundup: Lee, McClatchy And Gannett July Total Revs Decline; Online Continues To Rise

Newspaper Roundup: Lee, McClatchy And Gannett July Total Revs Decline; Online Continues To Rise

By David Kaplan 

The newspaper industry dynamic of falling total and ad revenues, amid increases obtained by their online operations, can be found in the today's respective reporting of July results for Lee Enterprises (NYSE: LEE), the McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) and Gannett (NYSE: GCI). The revenue balances between print and web categories for the three did vary, however:

-- Lee Enterprises: reported its revenue results for July and while advertising overall continued its downward slide, online ad revenue grew 62.5 percent in July and 57.2 percent year to date. Despite those gains, online ad revenue was not enough to offset a total decline in ad spending brought in by the newspaper chain. Still, those losses were fairly low. By comparison, July 2006 ad revenue came in at $72.9 million versus $74.4 million the year before, a decrease of 2.1 percent. Year to date, overall ad revenue fell a slight 1.1 percent to $724 million compared to $732 million for the same period in 2006.

-- Lee's combined print and online retail advertising was up a moderate 0.6 percent in July ($36.2 million from $36 million, year-over-year) and slipped 0.4 percent year to date to $382 million from $384 million for the same period a year ago. Combined print and online classified revenue fell 4.4 percent (to $31 million from $32 million) and 1.1 percent year to date ($281 million from $284 million), with employment up 3.6 percent for the month and up 5.8 percent year to date. Combined print and online national advertising revenue was down 7.2 percent (to $4.2 million from $4.6 million) and down 6.3 percent year to date ($47 million from $50 million). Release

-- McClatchy: Advertising revenues in July 2007 decreased 9.4 percent and total revenues were down 8.6 percent in July. Reflecting the industry's trend on the opposite flow of print and internet spending, online-only ad revenues were up 8.4 percent to $14.4 million from $13.3 million. Release

-- Gannett: Operating revenues in July fell 4.3 percent to $626 million from $654 million. Total ad revenues were down 6.1 percent to $408 million from $434 million, year-over-year. While Gannett did not provide dollar figures for its online revenues, it claimed that segment gained 37.3 percent in July over the same period the year before. Release

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