The Hugh Hewitt Show

I see the Tribune Company’s profits plummeted again, and that circulation continues to drop across the company’s papers, with a 3% decline in total newspaper circulation.

Here’s what the analysts say going forward:

ANALYST TAKE: “Given Tribune’s heavy exposure to challenging metro markets, we believe revenue growth will be muted in 2006,” JPMorgan analyst Frederick Searby said. “We are estimating flat revenue growth.”

Bear Stearns analyst Alexia Quadrani, in a note, said Tribune is likely to continue aggressively managing its costs structure amid a challenging ad outlook. But “rising newsprint prices and increased health care and benefit expenses will likely pressure results,” said Quadrani, who expects Tribune to fall just shy of analysts’ estimates with earnings of 34 cents per share.

Cue the doom music.

So what will the Los Angeles Times do?

Double the number of Joel Stein columns?