It’s painful to see… and for those who have stock in newspaper companies, excruciating to deal with… the plummeting price. In the past year, McClatchy stock has fallen 85%!
McClatchy’s money woes are attributed to the heavy concentration of newspapers in California and Florida – states that generate one third of the company’s ad revenue and which are among the hardest hit by the housing market crash. By its own admission, ad revenue is down more than 22% this year at the California and Florida papers, compared to 16.5% for the whole company.
McClatchy’s total revenue is down 15%. Its outlook is not very good. The is company dealing with more than $2 billion in debt left over from its 2006 takeover of the Knight Ridder, shrinking profits (from $44.3 million in 2007 to $18.2 this year) and massive layoffs.