The McClatchy Co. is the third largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. of A., and publishes 30 daily newspapers, including The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee, The Kansas City Star, The Charlotte Observer and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, etc. It also publishes 50 non-daily newspapers and dozens of local Web sites.
McClatchy is also hemorrhaging subscribers and advertising dollars.
The 1,400 jobs eliminated represent 10% of McClatchy's workforce. In Kansas City, the Kansas City (red) Star - my former employer many years ago - reports:
The Star’s reductions include about 120 full-time equivalent positions. Reductions will occur in every division, Mark Zieman, The Star’s president and publisher, said this morning in an e-mail to employees.
“We are confident in our ability to navigate to a stable and prosperous future as an integrated media company,” Zieman said in the e-mail.
Uh, huh. They tried re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. It didn't work.
The news came as McClatchy reported this morning that overall sales for May decreased 15.1 percent from the same month in 2007. Advertising revenues were down 16.6 percent compared to a year ago. For the first five months of the year, total sales dropped 14.2 percent and advertising revenues declined 15.4 percent.
In early trading today, shares of McClatchy were down 1.8 percent, or 15 cents, trading at $8.
It's all in this article, except an analysis as to why.
I'll leave that little gem up to the CY with his insightful words:
"...but perhaps McClatchy in particular wouldn't be fading as fast if they would try to address at least two points.
1. Make an attempt to remove obvious and pervasive left-leaning political biases in reporting;
2. find a less obnoxious and politically-charged slogan than the nutroots favorite, "Truth to Power."
The powers that be are not amused with the company's business sense, and many readers are immediately turned of by McClatchy's editorial stance. A flailing company should try to shore up a reader base, not alienate potential readers and advertisers, who will simply find a less-obviously biased competitor.
Enjoy "speaking truth to power" McClatchy, all the way to bankruptcy."
