Gannett released its first quarter profits this morning, showing earns fell by 60 percent over the same quarter last year, "slightly surpassing diminished expectations" on Wall Street, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Gannett is blaming "ongoing weaknesses" in advertising, especially classifieds, which dropped as much as 62 percent for employment ads and nearly 51 percent in real estate. Overall retail advertising is down for the chain by more than 23 percent.

"Although business conditions remain very challenging, we continue to transform all facets of the company as we position it for a more favorable economic environment and the opportunities we see in the changing media landscape," said Gannett Chairman and CEO Craig Dubow in a statement.

Stock prices for Gannett went up 10 percent at the news, according to Google Finance.

Jim Hopkins, publisher and editor of the Gannett Blog wrote that the news "sounds slightly worse than I expected."

Gannett is the owner of The Clarion-Ledger, located in Jackson

Previous Comments

ID

145973

Comment

More details on Gannett Blog: http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-04-16T11:52:18-06:00

ID

145974

Comment

I heard that Ronnie Agnew from the CL was on Charles Evers' radio talk show last night. Did anyone hear him?

Author

justjess

Date

2009-04-16T12:32:11-06:00

ID

145987

Comment

I glad we have the JFP! They are the only one's that know how to report the news truthfully. I bet if they learn how to report the news without lying they might not lose but 50% than 60%! What do you think?

Author

Tony Davis

Date

2009-04-16T17:08:34-06:00

ID

146004

Comment

I have gotten to the point that I only read JFP anyway so it does not bother me one way or the other!

Author

Tell it!

Date

2009-04-17T07:35:42-06:00