Tony Ridder
Tony Ridder
advantage business continue newspaper strong
The newspaper business is strong in most markets, and we continue to restructure culturally to take advantage of it,
biggest bought business disney form four good great history industry newspaper newspapers print
The newspaper business is a great business, ... We've just made the biggest acquisition in the history of our industry when we bought four newspapers from Disney ( DIS ). We think the newspaper business in print form . . . is a very, very good business.
delivered despite key management performance soft strong tight year
As promised, we delivered a very strong earnings-per-share (excluding nonrecurring items) performance in 1998. We did this in a year where not everything was going our way, which demonstrates our ability-and commitment-to tight management despite soft revenues in key markets.
although bombing business caused contingent couple initiation normal performance terrorist ultimate weeks
Although business started to revive a couple of weeks after the terrorist attack, the initiation of bombing in Afghanistan caused another slowdown, ... Our ultimate performance will be contingent upon resumption of more normal business patterns.
capable online paper
a nationally read paper capable of being leveraged in the online market.
few good last newspaper next strong year
The last few years have been very strong for the newspaper industry, ... And we think next year is going to be a very good year, as well.
cost discipline environment offset performance promised revenue strong tough
We promised a strong bottom-line performance this year, and we are going to deliver, ... We have offset some tightening in the revenue environment with tough cost discipline, and that will not be a one-time event.
cost fourth increase level repeated
That level of cost increase will not be repeated in the fourth quarter,
both decided develop exit knight leave positive strategy
There were things Gannett wanted to do and things Knight Ridder wanted to do, ... We decided if we could develop an exit strategy that would leave us whole, it would be a positive thing for both parties.
both company future online position print quarter steps strong took
While the fundamentals of this quarter were disappointing, we took important steps to position our company for a strong future in both print and online publishing, and our accomplishments were significant,
ad expect grew grow half rate revenue second
We expect ad revenue to grow in the second half at about the same rate that it grew in the first,
difficult disrupt greater knight lives people time trust whom worked
This is a difficult time in so many ways, but in no way greater than having to disrupt the lives and trust of Knight Ridder people with whom we have worked so closely. But I do feel we have no choice.
although auto estate remained strong turnaround
Although recruitment and real estate have remained strong all year, we did not see the hoped-for turnaround in auto in August,
across ad continue estate half industry months patterns quarter revenue second soft total
The quarter was challenging. With total ad revenue up only 1 percent, and with the persistence of the soft revenue patterns across the industry for many months now (employment and real estate excepted), we continue to look to the second half for improvement.