Gannett's operating revenue fell 7.5% last month from January 2007, the company said today, in the first monthly statistical report for the year. Newspaper ad revenues plunged 9.2% during the month on steep declines in classified -- especially, once more, in the real estate category.The report hit the Web shortly before President Bush told a news conference that the country is not headed into a recession and, despite expressing concern about slowing economic growth, rejected for now any additional stimulus efforts. "We've acted robustly," he said, according to the Associated Press.
In its report, Gannett said overall classified revenues were off 16.1%, with three areas especially hard hit:
- Real estate, down 25.3%
- Jobs, down 19.1%
- Autos, down 14.9%
At USA Today, overall advertising revenues rose a strong 7.3%, the company said, on fewer paid ad pages; the nation's top-circulation newspaper is the only one of Gannett's 85 dailies to break out its figures.
McClatchy Co., saying its advertising slump is deepening, reported a 14.4% decline in January revenue on Wednesday.
[Image: this morning's USA Today, Newseum. The lede story says: "Four U.S. senators have asked the Defense Department for a sweeping review of the Pentagon's failures to quickly get troops in Iraq 'the best possible equipment,' including armored vehicles that protect against some of the most lethal types of roadside bombs."]
The thing that gets me about the classified revenue is that the company seems to think it's a temporary hit due to the housing slowdown. But tons of Realtors are moving their marketing budgets away from newspapers entirely, choosing instead to put their money into personal Web sites, Google-sponsored ads or free services such as Craigslist. Sadly, I don't see how Gannett or any other newspaper company is going to win these customers back, short of a drastic change in strategy.
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