• by Paul Gough , April 6, 2004

Newspapers posted a strong February with advertising revenue rising 5 percent over the same period a year ago, according to a MediaDailyNews composite of data from publicly reporting newspaper companies.

Eleven publicly traded newspaper companies totaled $1.19 billion in February 2004 compared to $1.13 billion a year earlier, according to a MediaPost analysis of data released by the companies. Year-to-date, advertising revenues rose 4 percent compared to the two-month period in 2003.

While part of the jump was due to an extra Sunday in February 2004 compared to last February, that's not the whole story. It was the strong performance of classified--including, in some regions, help-wanted--that boosted revenues. Retail and national revenues were anemic throughout most of the newspaper groups.

Advertising revenues rose for all of the groups except the New York Times Co., which turned in a 1 percent decrease. Two companies, E.W. Scripps and Lee Enterprises, had double-digit increases in total advertising revenue. Gannett's advertising revenues rose 9 percent in February 2004. The others were up between 1 percent and 6 percent.

The classified advertising index rose 6 percent, from $254.4 million in February 2003 to $270.3 million in February 2004. Journal Communications' classified revenues were flat, but others were up, including double-digit increases at Scripps, Pulitzer, Lee Enterprises, and Journal Register. The others were up slightly.

Retail rose only slightly--up 1 percent. Retail ad revenues rose from $260.7 million in February 2003 to $263.7 million in February 2004. Media General, Knight Ridder, and New York Times were down slightly; the rest were up with the exception of Journal Communications, which was flat.

National advertising has been another sore spot, with wide swings between the companies. New York Times and Pulitzer were down for the month, but the others--particularly Lee Enterprises and Scripps--were up. Media General was flat.

The MediaPost index tracks Gannett, Journal Register, Knight Ridder, Lee Enterprises, McClatchy, Media General, New York Times Co., Journal Communications, Pulitzer Inc., E.W. Scripps, and Tribune.