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wsj.com
WSJ approves of McClatchy with CEO Gary Pruitt at the helm. Forbes, not so much. |
The Wall Street Journal has a
Page 1 article about the McClatchy Co. and
Gary Pruitt's role as CEO. It's an overwhelmingly positive piece that analyzes the results at McClatchy since Pruitt and Co. engineered the purchase of Knight Ridder and subsequent sale of 12 KR papers and the Star-Tribune of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.
Of particular interest to Tidbits readers: McClatchy says the decline in its print circulation is more than offset by a 23 percent jump in online visitors this year. Pruitt expresses confidence that McClatchy would benefit substantially from its limited participation in the Yahoo-newspaper alliance. (McClatchy is not working with Yahoo HotJobs, because it owns a piece of CareerBuilder. However, it is working with Yahoo to generate cross-traffic and cross-sales of advertising.)
According to WSJ, McClatchy tested the Yahoo relationship in Fort Worth, Texas, and saw a four percent increase in traffic in the first month. (Sure doesn't sound like a big boost to me, but it's a start.) McClatchy plans to phase in more of the Yahoo relationship in 2008.
The WSJ story contrasts sharply with a Dec. 18 Forbes article that treated Pruitt and McClatchy far more harshly. It's much more focused on the stock price and analysts' views of the stock -- although it notes analyst John Klim of Credit Suisse initiated coverage of the stock and rated it "neutral," saying it could be "the most compelling deep value play within the newspaper sector." Meaning, the stock is in the tank (admittedly) but as real estate and investors' opinions of newspaper stocks improve (if they do), McClatchy stock has a lot of rebound potential.
(Thanks to fellow Tidbits contributor Tish Grier for pointing out the Forbes story to me.)
