Friday, March 24, 2006

Newspaper Stocks Down

By David B. Wilkerson, MarketWatch
Last Update: 11:52 AM ET Mar 24, 2006

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Most newspaper stocks were lower Friday, including McClatchy Co. following Knight Ridder Inc.'s February revenue report late Thursday.

McClatchy (MNI) was down 1.2% at $47.81. The company agreed March 13 to acquire Knight Ridder for $6.5 billion in cash, stock and debt in a deal that will make McClatchy the second-largest U.S. newspaper publisher.

Knight Ridder (KRI) said total advertising revenue was up 1.5% in February, compared to the same month a year ago. Retail ad revenue was up 2.5%, but national plunged 21.2%.
Classified ad revenue was up 10.4%, bolstered by a 14.5% spike in help-wanted and a 26.6% gain in revenue from real estate ads.
Knight Ridder said March ad revenue is on a pace to be up by a low-single digit percentage over the same month in 2005.

Elsewhere among newspaper publishers, Media General (MEG), Tribune Co. (TRB), Gannett (GCI) and New York Times Co. (NYT) all declined.

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