Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in U.S., reported an 11.5 percent decline in profit for its Q1 as the company began expensing stock options and recording costs from its new newspaper partnership in Detroit. also, Gannett’s chairman said the company wasn’t participating in the auction of 12 newspapers owned by Knight Ridder that are being sold by McClatchy.
Nothing much on the online results in the earnings release.
MarketWatch: During the quarterly earnings call with analysts, Gannett Chairman Doug McCorkindale declined to comment on whether the company would consider buying out Knight Ridder’s stake in the CareerBuilder job site, now that McClatchy has agreed to acquire Knight Ridder.
From the transcript of the conference call, by SeekingAlpha: Online revenues for the total company including PointRoll were up about 30% for the quarter. Our domestic community newspapers contribute to that growth with an increase in online revenue of over 35%. In addition, the CareerBuilder network continues to generate growth in revenues, up 46% compared to the first quarter of 2005.