Gannett numbers get worse


In a sign that the newspaper industry's problems are accelerating, Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), the largest newspaper chain in the U.S., posted awful numbers for April. The information makes it more likely that the stocks of smaller paper companies like The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) will take a dive over the next several weeks.

GCI revenues for the period ended May 4, 2008 declined 7.7 % compared with the same period in 2007. Revenue in the big publishing division fell almost 11%. Real estate classifieds fell almost 24% as home sales in most regions fell apart.

According to Gannett "At USA TODAY, advertising revenues were down 6.4%." As odd as it may seem, falling revenue is not the industry's single biggest problem because most companies like Gannett still have good profits. However, falling operating cash flow is killing companies that took on debt over the last decade to buy other newspapers in the hope of building scale and cutting costs. McClatchy has over $2.4 billion in debt after buying rival Knight-Ridder.

Banks may end up owning some of the newspaper chains.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-89.2312,801.23
NASDAQ-23.352,903.88
S&P 500-9.311,342.64

Last updated: February 12, 2012: 07:12 PM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

18.875-0.255(-1.33)

Alcoa

10.29-0.35(-3.29)

Apple Inc

493.42+0.25(+0.05)

Google Inc 'A'

605.91-5.55(-0.91)

Bank of America

8.07-0.11(-1.34)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.90-0.06(-0.10)

Exxon Mobil Corp

83.80-1.08(-1.27)

Ford

12.44-0.25(-1.97)

Citigroup

32.925-0.735(-2.18)

IBM

192.42-0.71(-0.37)

Yahoo

16.14+0.14(+0.88)

Starbucks

48.82-0.38(-0.77)

Microsoft

30.495-0.275(-0.89)

Home Depot

45.33+0.06(+0.13)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1329091948917 ms.