McClatchy Sees More Ad Sales, Profit

McClatchy Co., publisher of the Sacramento Bee and Star Tribune in Minneapolis, raised its fourth-quarter profit forecast as retail advertisement sales improve.

McClatchy expects to earn 40 cents to 42 cents a share, higher than the 34 cents to 37 cents it forecast earlier. Sacramento-based McClatchy was expected to earn 36 cents, the average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call.

The company said early results in November show improvement in retail advertising sales as companies typically spend more on ads during the holiday season. McClatchy said sales from help-wanted ads continue to be weak. Publishers, including McClatchy, have lost revenue on ads as businesses pared spending after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Shares in McClatchy rose $3.80, or 8.4%, to $48.96 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. Advertising sales for the first 10 months of the year fell 4.5% to $731.5 million, McClatchy said. The company publishes 11 daily and 13 nondaily newspapers and operates various news-related Web sites.