The newspaper company beat Wall Street expectations despite continued weakness in ad revenue thanks to cost-cutting moves, Reuters reports. Per-share earnings came in at 49 cents, topping a forecast of 42 cents.

Still, second-quarter net income fell to $40 million from $44 million last year. Bottomline, cost-cutting can only take you so far before revenue has to pitch in to help. And that has not happened yet.

And, personally, I’ve seen this movie before. A firm with falling revenues — sometimes falling off of a cliff — stiff-arms the Street for several quarters with cost-cutting talk, even action. Then there is nothing left to cut. And everyone suddenly realizes that at once.