McClatchy Ad Revenues Plummet

Herald Watch has been documenting the precipitous decline in circulation at the Heralds for some time. While some of this can be attributed to readers switching from the paid print edition to the free online edition, that isn't necessarily a good thing. Newspapers need eyeballs in order to sell ads and, to date, online doesn't command the same type of ad rates as print.

Editor & Publisher is reporting that Florida ad revenues were down 14.1% for McClatchy in the month of August. In Florida McClatchy owns The Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald and the Bradenton Herald.

McClatchy's chairman and CEO, Gary Pruitt, says that "We are making progress on reducing debt in the third quarter and will continue to focus on de-levering our balance sheet." Could a sale of the troublesome Heralds in Miami be in the offing?