St. Louis Post-Dispatch owner reports smaller loss

Lee Enterprises, which owns the St. Louis Post-Dispatch among other papers, reported results for its second fiscal quarter Thursday.
The company posted a loss, but still fared better than it did in the previous quarter, according to the Associated Press via Yahoo! Finance.

The Davenport-based company lost $51.8 million, or $1.16 per share, in the quarter that ended March 29, compared with a loss of $713 million, or $15.90 per share. Excluding one-time costs, its loss was 7 cents per share.

Advertising sales were down 24 percent, with individual categories falling anywhere from 19 percent (retail ads) to 33 percent (classified).
In line with a common trend this quarter, the company showed losses in online advertising of 27 percent. Several other companies have shown similar losses online, where they had been experiencing solid growth for several years.
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News Corp. posts results; newspaper division hit hard

News Corporation released its first quarter results Thursday, showing an operating profit of $755 million, down 47 percent from the previous quarter.
The newspaper division, however, was hit particularly hard, according to The New York Times:

The company’s newspapers in particular had a dismal performance. Newspaper operating income fell to just $7 million for the quarter that ended March 31, from $216 million a year earlier. Advertising revenue at The Journal fell 33 percent. News Corporation took a large write-down for the quarter that ended Dec. 31 to reflect the decline in the value of The Journal.

Chairman Rupert Murdoch remained optimistic, saying, "It is increasingly clear that the worst is over... The days of precipitous declines are gone."
Murdoch also stated that at least some News Corp. outlets will begin to charge for content online soon, according to Editor & Publisher.

In a conference call with analysts and journalists after the release of the media and entertainment giant's quarterly results, Murdoch said The Wall Street Journal has proven newspapers can charge for online content.
Asked specifically if he envisioned charging readers for that content from his general interest newspapers such as The Times of London or The Sun, Murdoch replied, "We are absolutely looking at that. Very much so."

As for a general time frame, Murdoch said that some newspapers should begin charging within the next year.

Click here for the Times article, and here for the Editor & Publisher article.