E.W. Scripps Reports Lower Profit:

E.W. Scripps Co., the newspaper publisher and owner of Home and Garden TV cable network, said first-quarter profit fell 22% on lower advertising sales and higher newsprint costs. Profit from operations fell to $27.9 million, or 35 cents a share, from $35.7 million, or 45 cents, a year earlier, Scripps said in a statement. Revenue fell 11% to $367.4 million. The Cincinnati-based publisher of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver joins rival media companies Knight Ridder Inc., New York Times Co. and Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. in saying that slowing ad sales are hurting results. Scripps said it has trimmed expenses across all of the company’s businesses and is reviewing the 2001 budget in search of additional cost cuts. Scripps shares fell 11 cents to $58.53 on the New York Stock Exchange. They had risen 23% in the last year.