|
Knight Ridder warns on 4Q
|
 |
November 16, 2001: 2:20 p.m. ET
No. 3 newspaper publisher says drop in retail, classified ads hurts results.
|
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Newspaper publisher Knight Ridder warned Friday that it will miss fourth-quarter earnings forecasts as a drop in newsprint prices was overcome by weakness in both retail and classified advertising.
The San Jose, Calif.-based company, the nation's third largest newspaper publisher, said its earlier guidance of full-year earnings per share of $2.91 a share is about 10 cents too high. That would mean that fourth-quarter EPS would come in at about 89 cents a share, below the current 96-cent forecast of analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call. The company earned $1.09 a share in the year-earlier period.
Shares of Knight Ridder (KRI: down $1.47 to $60.33, Research, Estimates) were lower in afternoon trading Friday following the announcement.
The company said that October statistics show revenue from retail adds fell 3.3 percent in the month, while classified ad revenue was off 22.5 percent, mostly due to a drop in help-wanted ads.
The company said that the drop in ad revenue occurred across its various properties, which include the Detroit Free Press, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Miami Herald. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
