The company cited weak help-wanted advertising as a reason for the decline.

For the year, operating income in business publications, including The Journal and Barron's magazine, fell 11.4 percent, to $100 million, reflecting weak financial advertising.

At the same time, the industry has to contend with drastically weaker advertising.

The company said weak advertising for consumer packaged goods hurt its women's magazines.

And the publishing group was off 12 percent due to weak advertising in such publications as Institutional Investor and Women's Wear Daily.

The cause everyone points to is weak advertising at the company's flagship, The Dallas Morning News, which regularly prints more column inches of advertising than any other newspaper in the nation.

She said part of the problem in Boston had been weaker classified advertising in print, attributable in part to the consolidation of department stores.

The New York Times Company reported a 52 percent decline in earnings yesterday for the quarter that ended Sept. 25, largely because of weak advertising and higher operating costs.

The results were also disappointing at the radio station group, where revenue fell 3 percent, to $551 million, and operating profits were off 10 percent, to $252 million, in part because of weaker advertising.

The ABC television network reported lower operating income in the second quarter because of weak advertising and operating costs for staff reductions.