More Trouble Ahead for The Times, The Journal and McClatchy

Trust me, I don’t relish bringing you bad news about the media industry every day, but there’s not much else in the current wave of earnings reports, resignations, and rumors of sales to work with.

The McClatchy Co.’s CEO, Gary Pruitt, admitted this morning that the big newspaper chain’s revenue is declining “at a disappointing double-digit clip,” and cash flow eroding “at an accelerating” pace…”None of us has worked through such a period of transformation in our history,” he said.

Pruitt also observed that his company may not have reached bottom yet. “At this point we simply can’t tell when this decline will end,” he said. “We must continue to cut costs. It’s no fun, but we have no choice…”

Meanwhile, New York Times Chair Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., told shareholders that the company is not on the sales block. “This company is not for sale,” he said, in response to various reports this month that “top associates” of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg were encouraging him to buy Times. The idea is that the founder and majority owner of the Bloomberg financial news agency, could help the Times fight rising competition from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Responding to the reports, however, Bloomberg said, quoted by Reuters: “I am not going to go into the newspaper business. I am not a newspaper person.”

Meanwhile, across town at The Journal, managing editor Marcus Brauchli is resigning, according to a report on the paper’s website, after less than a year on the job. Insiders say Brauchli grew tired of being undermined by Murdoch surrogate Robert Thomson, who became the Journal’s publisher after the takeover four months ago. Brauchli, 46, had succeeded Paul E. Steiger as managing editor in mid-May of last year, shortly after News Corp.’s bid for Dow Jones became public.

Steiger, meanwhile, is now running a non-profit investigative reporting group called Pro-Publica. He’s hired many long-time reporters away from The Journal and The Times, as well as other papers. But his funding source, Herbert and Marion Sandler, are prominent Democratic Party supporters with a reputation for a very “hands-on” style. So it remains to be seen whether this group can produce journalism that outsiders do not perceive as politically motivated.

So, that’s the roundup for today.

But, come to think of it, there may be one glint of good news on the horizon, although we won’t know about that until the markets close today. Yahoo is set to report its earnings, which Wall Street expects to be unimpressive.

I beg to disagree. Behind the scenes, Google and Yahoo have been working together to boost Yahoo’s Q-1 results. The goal appears to be to force would-be suitor Microsoft to raise its bid in its hostile takeover attempt.

Look for Yahoo to beat analysts’ expectations; and if it does, give due credit to the economists down on Ampitheater Parkway in Mountain View.