Tribune Profits Down 59 Percent on Lower Classified Sales, Will Zell Bolt?
The Tribune Co. advertising revenue took a beating in the second quarter as classified sales dropped significantly. Real Estate advertising is a big part of the classified sales and with the recent news out of Realogy that they will be cutting back on newspaper advertising the landscape will continue to get bleaker.
Now here comes the ironic part of the story. Sam Zell cashed out of his Equity Office commercial real estate empire at a great profit only to successfully bid on the Tribune company and it’s newspapers. Now that the Tribune Company is hemorrhaging money and expected to continue it’s downward slide, will this get Zell out the of the deal that is expected to close in the 4th quarter?
Newspaper ad sales companywide fell 11 percent as classifieds accelerated their migration to the Internet. Plummeting real estate ads at Tribune publications in California and Florida paced the slide. The company also owns the Orlando Sentinel and Sun- Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale.
Sales of classified ads in Tribune’s newspaper group, which includes 11 metropolitan dailies, slid 18 percent, with real estate ads sinking 24 percent. Help-wanted ads dropped 16 percent and auto classifieds fell 12 percent.
Analysts had forecast total sales of $1.34 billion, based on the average of seven estimates compiled by Bloomberg. via Bloomberg.com
My wife has actually decided to study for and get her real eatate licence just so we dont ever have ...
I like your analogy in this article. The real estate economy really is like a patient who you cannot ...
Real Estate is hyper-local. Every market is different. Phoenix has already hit bottom and is starting to recover. We have ...
Great to hear that the big boys
are predicting recovery sooner than
most think.
Thanks for the value! 
I agree--good analogy. You have to crawl before you can walk. Right now, at least in Austin, many people would ...
I live in the Philippines and I am glad we are not on the lists... 
I have a few Litograghs of Presidents homes , made by Richard V. Sebring. yr. 1990 Do they have any ...
I see the question I have, but no response. I do not have a for sale sign up ...
Comment by Jayson Gibson on 20 September 2007:
I was reading about the decline in newspaper print advertising. Thanks for the stats. I wonder how newspaper companies are going to make up for the lost income? Maybe they’ll start charging users to access news online?