BBC NEWS | USA Today owner’s profits slump — Tick-tock, tick-tock.


Gannett, the US’ largest newspaper publisher, saw profits fall 60% during the January to March quarter. The owner of USA Today and Detroit Free Press said a fall in advertising revenue of more than a third was to blame for the drop.

Net profit came in at $77.7m (£52.1m), down from $191.8m from year a earlier.

Separately, Abitibibowater, North America’s largest newsprint producer, has filed for bankruptcy after failing to restructure its massive debts. The company said that day-to-day operations would continue as normal during the restructuring process. The decision to file for bankruptcy “ensures business continuity for Abitibibowater and was made only after all other viable options to recapitalise our long-term debt were exhausted,” said the company’s president David Paterson.

Like other US newspapers, Gannett is suffering from a declining circulation as readers increasingly get their news for free online. The group reported a fall in advertising revenue of 34%. Classified adverts were hit particularly hard.

Found by Mike Cosmi.




  1. MikeN says:

    Alfred, you really should put some thought into it before you believe anything Debbie Schlussel writes. This isn’t the only time she’s written something like this, going undercover in a mosque and all the Muslims were Jew bashing, and public person X was there cheering them on.

    Phydeau, of course the media were Bush sycophants, repeating everything he said without question. Consider me corrected.

  2. MikeN says:

    >even he said that the press was easy on Bush.

    So then the demise of this press loses what?

  3. pfkad says:

    I’m bemused by the glee with which many of you view the demise of newspapers. Without the Detroit Free Press and its relentless FOIA pursuits, Detroit would still have famous felon Kwame Kilpatrick as mayor. In fact, without the Free Press who would know he was a felon?

  4. Paddy-O says:

    # 34 pfkad said, “In fact, without the Free Press who would know he was a felon?”

    While I like that paper, Detroit is like D.C. The citizens (the majority anyway) would reelect him in a heartbeat. The people in Detroit can’t read anyway.

    Detroit: “The literacy rate for adults in the city is less than 50 percent, and high school dropout rates are among the nation’s highest.”

    http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/22/broken-detroit-haunted-by-poverty-scandal/print/

  5. What an accurate term for a descriptive name for a website “Newspaper Death Watch”
    The trend may have started with the advent of TV or even radio new casts
    It has been accelerated by the internet and blogs
    Now anyone can publish
    True – accuracy is an issue and one must judge for yourself and with your own common sense
    But then again has not a lot of the media been mindless pablum directed for selling advertising dollars
    Soon to replace the newspapers as an information source local search may become a growing trend and fill in important niche

  6. MikeN says:

    >its impossible more than one public figure be involved with Islamic extremeists?

    No that is true. But how likely is it that these public figures are at large gatherings of hate speech which these people generally try to avoid, AND hardscrabble reporter Debbie Schlussel just happened to be there, AND she forgot her tape recorder?

    Her first undercover might be plausible as the speaker was Louis Farrakhan, though her description of what he said seems to change regularly. Then she happened to show up and see a mock beheading performance with John Dingell there?

  7. Paddy-O says:

    # 39 MikeN said, “But how likely is it that these public figures are at large gatherings of hate speech ”

    Like O’Mama at his church?

  8. MikeN says:

    Obama was running for mayor, so it was never an issue. We don’t see many appearances since his ambitions changed.

  9. brendal says:

    I bought a newspaper yesterday (USA TODAY) on my birthday to “give back” – felt quaint and odd.

    Got my j degree in Michigan and counted many Freep j’s as my friends. The Freep is left Dem and lots of dem are hurting…only repubs can afford media now.

    BTW, still looking for my bday post up here, John. 😉

  10. jccalhoun says:

    So the newspapers that are losing money are so leftist and in love with Obama they turned down all these revealing stories that would sell tons of papers and give them tons of credit for breaking the story?

    It seems to strain credibility to suggest that these journalists would choose unemployment over a story that would make them a lot of money…

  11. Paddy-O says:

    # 43 jccalhoun said, “It seems to strain credibility to suggest that these journalists would choose unemployment over a story that would make them a lot of money…”

    A reporter (journalist) doesn’t decide what to write about. See the LA Times editor order to reporters to NOT investigate and report on the Edwards affair when the story was coming out of LA…

    There ya go. Proof.

    T

  12. MikeN says:

    >It seems to strain credibility to suggest that these journalists would choose unemployment over a story that would make them a lot of money…

    The New York Times turned down an offer to link to Amazon in its book reviews, because Barnes and Noble might get upset. That move would have brought them millions, and they said no.

  13. MikeN says:

    http://tinyurl.com/cvpkun
    Good example of nespaper’s lefty bias, this from Australia, but exactly the sort of thing liberals do here.
    What’s with the right justification of comments?

  14. Robart says:

    Wow weird cursor action here…. this is freakie deakie!


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