Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The bad news: “It’s no secret that the newspaper industry is in rough shape,” the Media Group told shareholders. “Our industry’s advertising revenues are being depressed by the significant declines in the industries that are most important to us — housing, real estate, employment, autos and, increasingly, retail. Some of the issues affecting our advertising revenue are economic, while others are secular. The entire newspaper industry is in a deep recession, possibly the deepest in 70 years. And it may well worsen.”
The bad news: “However, double-digit declines in advertising revenue — 13 percent in the first quarter and 14 percent in the second quarter — coupled with rising newsprint and energy costs, wiped away the benefits of those cost reductions. With no end in sight to the industry malaise, newspaper companies including yours find themselves looking for additional ways to manage costs and ultimately survive.”
