NAA 2009: McClatchy Seeing 15% of Ad Revenues From Online
Speaking at the NAA Annual Convention in San Diego, McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt says his company is now operating the leading local Internet business in each of its daily newspaper markets. Among the company’s top markets are Miami, where it publishes the Miami Herald; Sacramento, where it publishes The Sacramento Bee; Kansas City, where it publishes The Kansas City Star; and Charlotte, where it publishes The Charlotte Observer.
In all, Pruitt says the company will get 15 percent of its ad dollars from online this year, or nearly $200 million. The newspaper industry “deserve[s] credit for the considerable progress we’ve made online,” adds Pruitt. “The U.S. newspaper industry generated $3 billion in digital revenue last year.”
According to calculations in Media Post, The company said that digital revenues now make up about 15% of the total — but the percentage increase is clearly due to sharp contractions of the total. If total revenues had remained the same between 2008 and 2009, the proportion would have gone from 12.3% to 11.7%.