Gary Pruitt draws some chuckles

Gary Pruitt, the CEO of Sacramento, Calif.-based McClatchy Co., drew chuckles when he said McClatchy executives considered scrapping their tradition of opening their presentation with a music video given the poor business conditions for the newspaper industry.

"Needless to say, we came down on the side of rock and roll," Pruitt said, opening his presentation with a slide show, while OK Go's "Here it Goes Again" played in the background.

Noting that the final image of the McClatchy video closed with a run-over armadillo, Pruitt offered that "everyone thinks we're roadkill." Earlier that morning, McClatchy reported that its May advertising revenue had tumbled 11.5 percent compared with the same period a year earlier and 7.1 percent in the year to date.

Pruitt was speaking at c conference sponsored by the Newspaper Association of America.

Turning more serious during a question-and-answer session, Pruitt allowed that the timing of McClatchy's purchase of Knight Ridder Inc. last year was "unfortunate," given that it coincided with a sharp downturn in print advertising, which is prolonging McClatchy's efforts to pay down its debt and turn to buying back shares.

McClatchy has performed worse than its peers recently, with its stock steadily declining this year from $43.30 at the end of 2006 to $25.95 as of Wednesday's close.