You can say one thing for Gary Pruitt , McClatchy’s CEO and perhaps the most ardent defender of the newspaper business — he knows what we all want.

Here’s his comment from the analyst call he did today to discuss McClatchy’s first-quarter earnings :

We want to make sure we maintain our ability to generate revenue.

Who could ask for anything more?

Pruitt also showed off his lighter side in an exchange with Goldman Sachs’s Peter Appert. When the analyst said he was going to ask an unfair question, Pruitt responded, “That’s because I’m going to give you an unfair answer.”

Cue laughter, then cue crying because Appert’s question is at the heart of what most newspaper people want to know: Isn’t there a point where you can’t cut your way to profitability anymore?

Pruitt’s answer:

We feel we have no choice. Given the revenue trends, we’re simply going to have to reduce costs. We do believe that we can sustain a good record on costs throughout this year. We face increasing newsprint prices later in the year and that will work against us. But on the other hand, we are looking at further efficiencies throughout the company and we suspect that when you exclude any severance costs and the effect of newsprint pricing, we should be able to sustain a double-digit run rate on expense decline.

(Photo: Reuters)