No way to spin McClatchy’s monthly revenues other than to say they are in free-fall — in all segments, in all regions of the country. Only a slight uptick in online advertising — up $2.2m. from April of last year to all of $17.5m. — cuts the red ink. To put that in perspective, print ad revenue fell $30m. during the same period. Total revenue fell almost 15 percent.
More revealing still, print classified ads fell by $19m. Shouldn’t most of that total migrated to online forms? No, that fell as well as the bottom dropped out of the employment sector.
Locally, there is big trouble. The Southeast segment — which basically means McClatchy’s operations in the Carolinas — actually saw its online ad pace underperform the rest of the company by a tad. In fact, Southeast online revenue grew by only 13.9 percent — behind both California and Florida. Put another way, the rest of the company added $1.5m. in online revenue, the Southeast only $700K. Double ugh.
The company is clearly pinning its hopes on syndicated ad deals targeting audiences like new Web-savvy mommies, angry loners, and the unemployable. Me, I’ll go play Hungry Hungry Hippos.
