An improving ad revenue picture and growing digital revenue make it clear that “we’re much closer to the en of this historic recession than the beginning,” Chairman and CEO Gary Pruitt told shareholders at The McClatchy Co.’s annual meeting Wednesday.
“We are seeing signs of an improving economy in our advertising results,” Pruitt said. “Total advertising revenues over the last three quarters have shown progressive improvement -- down 28.1% in the third quarter of 2009, down 20.5% in the fourth quarter and down 11.2% in the first quarter of 2010.” For the year, McClatchy’s total revenue fell 22.6%, Pruitt noted.
Pruitt also pointed to digital growth with digital advertising revenue in 2009 representing what he called “an industry-leading 16.2% of total advertising revenue.” For the first quarter of this year that percentage increased to 17.5%, he said.
He noted that about 44% of McClatchy’s online advertising revenue last year came from online-only sales that were not bundled with a print advertising buy.
McClatchy paid down its debt by more than $216 million from the beginning of 2009 though the end of the first quarter in 2010, Pruitt noted.
“Our total debt at the end of the first quarter was $1.9 billion,” he said. “Our leverage profile also continued to improve; our debt was 4.65 times cash flow at the end of the first quarter compared to 5.26 times at the end of 2009.
McClatchy no longer has to worry about financial covenants nor debt maturities, most of which have been pushed out to 2017 as a result of its refinancing in February.
At the meeting, shareholders reelected 12 directors to one-year terms: Elizabeth Ballantine, Kathleen Foley Feldstein and S. Donley Ritchey as Class A directors; and Leroy Barnes, Molly Maloney Evangelisti, Larry Jinks, Brown McClatchy Maloney, Kevin S. McClatchy, William McClatchy, Theodore R. Mitchell, Gary B. Pruitt and Frederick R. Ruiz as Class B directors.
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