McClatchy Earnings Preview by Forbes

McClatchy Co. reports its second-quarter earnings on Thursday. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period.

OVERVIEW: McClatchy (nyse: MNI), the third-largest U.S. newspaper publisher and an operator of Web sites, said its May revenue declined on weak real estate ad sales. Total revenue fell 10.4 percent to $180.3 million from $201.3 million. Ad sales for the month dropped 11.5 percent to $153 million versus $172.9 million in the year-ago period, largely on declines in real estate advertising in California and Florida, where the housing market is weakening.

Last month Chief Executive Gary Pruitt told an investor conference that the company would consider selling its 15 percent stake in CareerBuilder, an online help-wanted advertising venture it co-owns with Gannett Co. (nyse: GCI) and Tribune Co. (nyse: TRB) Chris Hendricks, McClatchy's head of digital operations, said the company was "exploring other options" in the online help-wanted advertising arena, and that selling its stake in CareerBuilder was "not our first choice."

Sacramento, Calif.-based McClatchy, whose papers include The Miami Herald and The Sacramento Bee, in April joined a consortium of newspaper publishers that works with Yahoo Inc. (nasdaq: YHOO) to sell advertising online.

BY THE NUMBERS: Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expect a second-quarter profit of 43 cents per share on revenue of $584.8 million.

ANALYST TAKE: Craig Huber of Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEH) lowered his second-quarter earnings estimate in a June 21 client note by 2 cents to 45 cents per share on weaker-than-expected May revenue results.

Similarly, Deutsche Bank (nyse: DB) North America analyst Paul Ginocchio reduced his estimate by 2 cents to 44 cents per share.

STOCK PERFORMANCE: McClatchy's stock dropped 19 percent during the quarter and is down 31 percent for the year to date.