AD DROUGHT CONTINUES IN APRIL; NO MAY FLOWERS Some publishers point to Easter's 2005 date shifting to March.

While April showers may bring May flowers, the newspaper advertising drought seemed to persist last month, with the first six companies reporting generally parched results. Many of the companies noted that the ad-rich Easter holiday fell in March this year, making comparisons with last April seem worse than they actually were. By the numbers:

* Dow Jones & Co. Inc.: Financial advertising at its flagship Wall Street Journal continued to be a sore point in April, as volume in the category dropped 27.3 percent when compared to April 2004.

Overall linage at the paper was off 4.6 percent, with the only bright spot coming in "classified and other," which grew in volume by 8.4 percent. Also down was the technology volume, which was off 7.4 percent. Volume in the general category was flat.

At the European edition of the Journal, volume was off 8.8 percent, though at the Asian edition, it was up 5.2 percent.

The company's community newspaper group, Ottaway Newspapers Inc. of Campbell Hall, N.Y., said that total volume was flat, with a 3.2-percent increase in volume at its dailies, but an 8.2-percent decrease at its non-dailies.

Barron's, the company's weekend financial tabloid, lost 14.4 percent in volume over last year.

* Gannett Co. Inc.: New newspapers and a favorable currency exchange rate in Period Four, which ended May 1, helped make the McLean, Va.-based multimedia company's monthly results look pretty good.

Total ad revenue grew by 4.2 percent, to $470.7 million, when comparing Period Four 2004 to the same time this year.

When the new papers are pared off of the income statement, revenue for the period was up only 2.3 percent and if you take off the exchange rate for pounds sterling, that number is whittled down to 1.8 percent.

Combined newspaper results had classified ad revenue up 8.4 percent, to $196.4 million, while local was up 2.2 percent, to $201.7 million, and national was off one percent, to $72.6 million.

Volume for all currently owned papers was down 1.7 percent, with national off 8.4 percent, local off 3.2 percent and classified flat. Pre-print distribution was up 4.6 percent, to 1.1 billion pieces.

* Journal Communications Inc.: Strong classified growth both at its flagship Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and its community newspaper division helped propel the company's Period Four newspaper ad revenue up four percent, when compared to the same period last year.

For the four weeks ending April 25, total ad revenue hit almost $20 million, with classified growing 8.8 percent, to $6 million, the ever-popular "other" category up 4.1 percent, to almost $2 million, retail up 1.9 percent, to $11 million and general flat at $926,000.

The company said that its total revenue was up 1.7 percent for the period, to $39 million, and said that broadcast revenue was flat at $12.8 million, when a new TV station's revenue is rolled in.

Classified revenue at the Journal Sentinel grew 9.5 percent in the period, to $5.3 million, while it grew 4.7 at the community group, to $758,000.

Total linage was down 6.1 percent for the period, with general off 14.3 percent, retail off 9.4 percent and classified off 6.9 percent. Pre-prints were up 20.2 percent, with 66.7 million pieces distributed.

* Knight Ridder: A modest gain in classified advertising revenue helped offset flat retail revenue and a $1.5-million loss in national advertising, the San Jose-based company said, when comparing the four-week period ending May 1, 2005, to the same period last year.

Total ad revenue was up two percent, to $229.5 million, year-over-year. Classified revenue was up 6.3 percent, to $90.1 million and retail was flat at $104.9 million. National was off 4.3 percent, down to $34.4 million.

Volume was off 2.2 percent, with classified flat, retail off four percent and national off 8.4 percent. The number of pre-prints inserted was flat as well, at 768.8 million.

Double-digital percent gains in linage at the company's papers in Miami and Wichita, Kansas, were offset by double-digit losses at its papers in Philadelphia and San Jose (supplemented by high single-digit losses at papers in Fort Worth, Texas, and St. Paul, Minn.).

* The E.W. Scripps Co.: As the growth of its cable television network begins to stabilize, the new fair-haired child at this Cincinnati-based multimedia company is its "television retailing subsidiary," Shop at Home, which showed a 41.5-percent revenue growth, to $30.5 million, when comparing April 2004 to this April.

Of course, the Scripps Network division didn't do too badly either, where overall revenue was up 22.9 percent, year-over-year, to $78.7 million.

More modest gains were found in the company's newspaper division, where total ad revenue was up 5.7 percent, to $48.6 million. And outright losses were shown at its broadcast TV operation, whose revenue was down 8.4 percent, to $26 million, and its licensing and other media group, where revenue was off 16.8 percent, to $8.1 million.

Newspaper classified revenue was up 9.8 percent, to almost $20 million, for the month, while pre-prints and other ad income was up 3.8 percent, to $11.1 million, local was up 2.8 percent, to $14.3 million and national was up 1.4 percent, to $3.3 million.

* Tribune Co.: With its publishing division producing flat revenue, the Chicago multimedia giant wasn't able to sustain losses in its other two main divisions, TV and radio/entertainment and lost an overall 2.2-percent in total revenue for the four weeks ending April 24, when compared to the same period last year.

Publishing revenue was $317 million, while TV revenue was off 7.1 percent, to $99.7 million, and radio/entertainment was off 3.6 percent, to $20.7 million.

National volume was down 11.4 percent, while classified volume was down 4.3 percent and retail was down 1.9 percent. The total number of pre-print pieces distributed was up eight percent, to 1.2 billion.

Full-run volume was off five percent at the company's newspapers, with the biggest drop coming at its Los Angeles Times, which was down 12 percent when compared to last year's period. The Chicago Tribune was off 4.2 percent and 4.9 percent at all its other dailies. The only bright spot was at its beleaguered Newsday, which showed a volume gain of 3.4 percent.

Classified continues to be the driver in any ad revenue growth that's being reported. Gannett said that employment was up 13.1 percent and real estate up 9.1 percent, with the spoiler being automotive advertising, which was down 2.9 percent. And the shift in the date of Easter obviously hurt overall revenue as well.