By E&P Staff
Published: February 13, 2009 11:44 AM ET
NEW YORK Will Newsday follow Detroit’s example and cut out one of its daily editions?
That is what newspaper broker Kevin Kamen is floating. Kamen, who is president of the Baldwin, N.Y.-based company Kamen & Co. Group Services, suggests that Newsday will drop its Saturday edition to save money.
“These are different times in the newspaper industry, almost everyone is taking a bath with both classified and ROP display ad lineage dramatically down and I would not be surprised to any degree if Cablevision, who is losing millions of dollars with its recent Newsday acquisition, takes serious measures to substantially cut costs in coming months and eliminates a Saturday edition,” Kamen wrote.
A Newsday spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Detroit Media Partnership announced late last year it was cutting home delivery of the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Just about every newspaper company, certainly the public ones, is hurting from over-leveraged balanced sheets and a clamp down on the credit markets. Cablevision said earlier this week it was writing-down the value of its acquisition of Newsday by nearly 70%. Cablevision purchased the Long Island daily from Tribune for $650 million.
Kamen alleges Newsday will feel the impact of major advertisers such as Fortunoff, which filed for Chapter 11, and local auto dealers pulling back on advertising budgets and will have no choice but to align costs by making a “big change.”