McClatchy 'McClobbered' By 1Q Earnings Results

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Sacramento, Calif.-based media conglomerate, The McClatchy Company, suffered a 5.1 percent drop in advertising revenues for the First Quarter of 2012, compared to First Quarter 2011 figures, the McClatchy-owned Sacramento Bee reports.

McClatchy, whose holdings include The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Charlotte Observer, The Anchorage Daily News and The Miami Herald, lost $2.1 million in the First Quarter. A year ago, McClatchy lost $2 million during the same period, so the company is nothing if not consistent.

Advertising sales plunged 6.8 percent in the First Quarter, worse than the 5.7 percent drop experienced in the Fourth Quarter of 2011. A ray of hope in the grim results was a 2.7 percent increase in digital ad sales, the hope of the newspaper industry.

McClatchy's CEO Gary Pruitt next month will bring his non-Midas touch to the Associated Press where he will take the helm as CEO.

What Would Marlin Perkins Do?

Image via WikipediaThe Sacramento Bee today issued an apology to its readers after discovering that a photographer had digitally manipulated a dramatic image taken at the Galt Winter Bird Festival.

The Bee said the published photo depicted a snowy egret attempting to snatch a frog from a great egret that captured the unlucky amphibian in its beak. Apparently, the shutterbug snapped the photo of the sly snowy egret making a play for the frog, but merged into the image a different photo of the great egret in which the frog was more evident. Duplicated images of plants in the photograph tipped off the editors.

Even in a feature photo, as compared to a hard news photo, readers should expect a faithful reproduction, unless alerted by the newspaper that the picture was altered for illustrative purposes. The photographer in question was given the bird by the paper in the form of a suspension pending an investigation.

The Bee egrets the error.

Sacramento Bee Stung By More Staff Layoffs

Image via WikipediaThe McClatchy Co.-owned Sacramento Bee has slashed its work force by 6 percent, including nine newsroom slots among the 44 eliminated positions, according to The Sacramento Business Journal.

Bee management blamed lagging circulation and diminished advertising revenues for the latest round of cutbacks. First Quarter results in April reflected a 9.5 percent decline in  revenues and an 11 percent decrease in advertising revenues compared to corresponding figures in 2010. (See "TUOL" posts 5/4/11 & 2/1/11.)


The Sacramento Business Journal reported that the Bee has shed roughly 400 jobs over the past three years, halving its staff from 1,400 to 700 since March 2008. Those receiving pink slips are eligible for severance pay commensurate with their length of service.

The Bee is one of 30 dailies owned by McClatchy Co, the nation's third-largest newspaper chain, which overall, has eliminated more than 4,300 staff positions from its stable of newspapers dating back to June 2008, according to the Journal article.

McClatchy Co. Reports 1Q Earnings Decline

Image via WikipediaSacramento, Calif.-based media conglomerate McClatchy Co. today reported First Quarter revenues in 2011 were 9.5 percent lower than the corresponding period in 2010.

McClatchy, which counts 30 daily newspapers and numerous weeklies among its holdings, saw ad revenues in 1Q of 2011 plunge 11 percent, while circulation decreased by 5 percent compared to a year ago. Layoffs at McClatchy papers such as The Sacramento Bee and The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram have been chronicled in this blog (see "TUOL" posts 2/9/11, 2/1/11).

McClatchy Pares Bee & Observer Staffs

Image via WikipediaToday's announcement that Democrats will hold their 2012 presidential convention in Charlotte, N.C., was the only bright spot in the Charlotte Observer newsroom as publisher Ann Caulkins laid off 20 employees, including five newsroom positions, in the face of continuing declines in circulation and advertising.

Before the latest round of job cuts, the Observer boasted 530 full-time employees, including 150 newsroom slots. The Observer also plans to have workers take a one-week unpaid furlough during the first quarter of 2011 in another cost-cutting move.

The Observer wasn't the only McClatchy Co.-owned daily to receive bad news today, as the Sacramento Bee slashed 32 staffers, including nine editorial jobs.  The Bee has endured six staff reductions over the past three years that have eliminated 360 positions, roughly 30 percent of the paper's workforce.

The Sacramento, Calif.-based McClatchy chain owns 30 newspapers nationwide, including The Wichita Eagle, The Anchorage Daily News and The (Tacoma) News Tribune.

Sacramento Bee Stung By More Layoffs

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Twenty-nine employees, including sports editor Bill Bradley and two newsroom photographers, are being laid off by the McClatchy Co.-owned Sacramento Bee, according to a report in trade publication Editor & Publisher.


Circulation and Production departments are being hardest hit by the latest round of layoffs and buyouts. In the past two-and-a-half years, the Sacramento  Bee has endured five rounds of staff cutbacks in the face of shrinking advertising and flagging circulation.

Calif. Solons Pop the Paparazzi

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The Sacramento Bee's CapitolAlert blog reports that A.B. 2479 is awaiting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature following a 41-13 vote by the California Assembly that may make news photographers' jobs a little bit harder to do.


The bill is intended to target paparazzi who are the bane of  celebrities, neither group of which is in short supply in sunny California. Assembly Bill 2479 subjects violators to civil lawsuits for false imprisonment if they physically harass individuals with their photographic or sound equipment.  The measure also imposes penalties for reckless driving in pursuit of a "visual image."

Legislators no doubt were contemplating the scenes played out on tabloid tv in which paparazzi surround a "helpless" celebrity in his or her vehicle, impeding the star's departure while they furiously record the celebrity's image.  It remains to be seen whether the bill would pass consitutional muster.