Earlier this month, Knight Ridder reported a sharp decline in first-quarter profits. Knight Ridder's financial goals at the San Jose Mercury News became a hot topic in the industry last month after the veteran publisher, Jay T. Harris, resigned to protest the company's cost-cutting plans there. The cuts, mostly affecting jobs outside the newsroom, have been made in the past few weeks. After enjoying several years of increasing profits since Ridder became CEO in 1995, Knight Ridder expects earnings to decline this year because of an advertising slump and a sharp increase in the cost of newsprint. I never have seen a fall-off as sudden or as steep as this one.
Newsprint typically represents a newspaper's second-largest expense after labor.
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