McClatchy posts 1st-quarter net income of $2.2 million as ad slump eases

McClatchy posts 1st-quarter profit

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. reported a first-quarter profit Thursday, helped by lower expenses and a slower decline in advertising revenue.

But the company still would have posted a loss had it excluded a one-time accounting gain related to newspapers that it sold a few years ago. Various one-time charges for restructuring and refinancing of its debt led to a loss from continuing operations of $2 million, or 2 cents per share.

McClatchy shares were down 64 cents, or 9.4 percent, to $6.19 in morning trading Thursday.

The publisher of The Miami Herald, The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee and other newspapers said earnings including the discontinued operations came to $2.2 million, or 3 cents per share. It lost $37.5 million, or 45 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier, which included charges for severance.

Overall revenue fell 8.2 percent to $336 million.

Ad revenue fell 11.2 percent in the most recent quarter from the same quarter last year, better than the 20.5 percent decline in the last three months of 2009.

Like other newspaper publishers, McClatchy is seeing the decline in advertising revenue slow as the economy improves. The company had also seen steep declines during the recession last year, dramatically lowering the bar that it must measure up to this year.

Gannett Co., Lee Enterprises Inc. and The New York Times Co. have already reported an easing in the ad slump during the first quarter. The Times Co. posted earnings on Thursday of $12.8 million, or 8 cents per share, on revenue of $588 million.