Advertising revenue was down 7 percent in the second quarter of 2014 at the McClatchy Co., which released earnings Thursday. “Audience” revenue, which is what McClatchy now calls circulation revenue, was up about 5 percent. Excluding revenue from McClatchy’s change to fee-for-service circulation delivery contracts at some newspapers, circulation revenue was down about 3 percent.
“Still, we continued to see growth in direct marketing and digital advertising revenues and together these two sources accounted for 43% of our total advertising revenue in the quarter,” McClatchy CEO Pat Talamantes said in a statement.
McClatchy’s results include $146 million it made by selling its share of Apartments.com and, “to a lesser extent,” its share in in McClatchy‑Tribune Information Services. Tribune bought out McClatchy’s share in MCT in May. McClatchy also completed the sale of the Anchorage Daily News, which recently changed its name.
For the first six months of the year, advertising revenue was down about 7 percent over last year. Audience revenue was down about 1 percent.