The McClatchy Co., seeking to reverse a steep slump in advertising, today announced a five-point sales strategy that emphasizes the Internet and seeks to reconnect the company with former advertisers.
In one of the boldest moves, McClatchy will begin paying sales commissions to ad agencies, a move that will "level the playing field" with broadcasters and others that have traditionally paid commissions to agencies, said McClatchy Chairman and Chief Executive Gary Pruitt. "We haven't done that for years," he said.
In addition, the Sacramento-based newspaper chain will emphasize the Web instead of its newspapers when it comes to selling help-wanted ads. The shift is a recognition of the severe decline in help-wanted sales and the fact that "employers and job seekers are using the Internet," Pruitt said. The print papers will serve as a "complement" to Career Builder, which is partly owned by McClatchy, and other online venues, he said.
He called that strategy "a break with tradition."
Pruitt revealed the plans at McClatchy's annual shareholder meeting as a response to a three-year profit and revenue slump that has sunk the company's stock price to below $1, prompted three major rounds of staff and expense reductions and sparked talk on Wall Street that The Bee's parent is in danger of defaulting on its debts.
Pruitt told shareholders the company will prevail, but he acknowledged, "We have a serious fight on our hands."
The company's newspapers are getting hit hard by the recession and the loss of business to the Internet and other media. McClatchy lost $37.5 million in the first quarter on a 25.1 percent drop in revenue.
Besides paying commissions to ad agencies and the shift in help-wanted strategy, McClatchy is putting greater emphasis on its sales alliance with Yahoo, creating "rate incentives" to get advertisers to buy space more frequently and making a special effort to seek out former advertisers.
McClatchy stock was up 5 cents a share, to 69 cents, in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Call The Bee's Dale Kasler, (916) 321-1066.
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.