Some of the nation’s top newspaper publishers reported their first-quarter earnings on Thursday. The results surprised no one.
Gannett, The New York Times Co., and Journal Register all reported drops in revenue and profit, while Media General and Tribune each took a loss.
We asked Benchmark Co. analyst Ed Atorino what happened. His answer: “I don’t want to belabor the point, but there’s a theme here: classified classified classified.”
As it turned out, Ed was on to something. Classified ads didn’t do well in general, whether you’re talking about real estate, automotive or help-wanted.
We also asked him when the long, national newspaper nightmare would end, at least as far as classifieds were concerned. ”You can’t push it. You’ve got to tighten the hatches and ride it out.”
Tough love, folks.
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