NEWS
By Lorraine Mirabella | October 27, 2009
The Baltimore Sun's average daily circulation for the six months ended Sept. 30 fell nearly 15 percent, compared with a year earlier, as newspaper sales declines accelerated across a struggling industry, the Audit Bureau of Circulations said Monday. Nationwide, average daily newspaper circulation slid 10.6 percent among 379 dailies, while average Sunday circulation was down 7.5 percent for the 562 newspapers reporting, the ABC said. Those drops are steeper than in the previous six-month period through March, when daily circulation fell an average 7.1 percent and Sunday circulation declined 5.4 on average at U.S. newspapers.
NEWS
By Andrea K. Walker | September 25, 2009
Spicemaker McCormick & Co. said third-quarter profit increased 9.5 percent as it began to see the benefit from its acquisition of Lawry's seasoning company last year. The Sparks-based company was also helped by cost-cutting measures and price increases on some of its products. On Thursday, the company reported net income of $75.1 million, or 57 cents per share, for the quarter ended Aug. 31. That was compared with $68.6 million, or 52 cents per share, for the same period a year ago. Sales increased 1 percent to $791.
NEWS
By Eileen Ambrose | September 16, 2009
New-car sales registered in Maryland last month reached 25,251, several hundred less than a year earlier despite the wildly popular "Cash for Clunkers" program, according to figures from the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration Yet some dealers say they are happy with the clunker program, especially now that the government is finally reimbursing them for cash incentives they gave upfront to buyers. "It worked very well. We sold 20 percent more cars than we did the year before," said Ed Dreiband, president of Northwest Honda and Northwest BMW in Owings Mills.
NEWS
By Jamie Smith Hopkins | September 11, 2009
Home sales continued to rise in the Baltimore metro area last month, though the velocity slowed. Buyers got the keys for about 5 percent more homes in August than a year ago, the third month in a row that year-over-year sales increased, according to numbers released Thursday by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems. Year-over-year home sales rose about 10 percent for July and 2 percent for June. It's the first stretch of increased buying since 2005, a frenzied time with fast-rising prices and go-go lending.
NEWS
By Andrea K. Walker | September 3, 2009
You can pretty much count on sales most days at a Jos. A. Bank men's clothing store - part of the Hampstead-based retail chain's strategy is to draw people in with bargains. Company executives said those promotions have helped them continue to record sales increases, while most retailers have seen a decline in business as the recession has caused consumers to pull back on spending. The retailer said Wednesday that second-quarter earnings increased 41 percent as the company continued to draw in shoppers with discounts.
NEWS
By Andrea K. Walker | August 25, 2009
Car dealers and manufacturers said the federal "Cash for Clunkers" program did its job in giving a much-needed boost to the struggling industry, but now they're bracing to see how long-lasting the effects will be. The program, which gave consumers as much as $4,500 to junk their inefficient vehicles for new models, ended at 8 p.m Monday with the Department of Transportation estimating that 700,000 to 800,000 vehicles sold under the program in just a...
NEWS
By Jamie Smith Hopkins | August 11, 2009
Buyers snapped up 10 percent more homes in the Baltimore metro area last month than they did a year earlier, the biggest increase since 2005 and a sign that the long-depressed housing market could finally be turning a corner. July was the second month in a row that home sales rose year-over-year, according to numbers released Monday by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems. In June, the increase was 2 percent. The Baltimore-area housing market hasn't seen two back-to-back months of improving sales since the peak of the buying frenzy four years ago. But home sellers eager for values to follow suit could be in for a long wait.
NEWS
July 28, 2009
Verizon plans to cut 8,000 jobs; loss in Md. unknown Verizon said Monday that it will accelerate plans to reduce its work force by 8,000 people, with the job cuts to come in the second half of the year and likely to include reductions in Maryland. The New York-based telecommunications company, Maryland's 10th-largest employer, has been shrinking its Wireline business, which provides traditional land-line phone services, as customer demand has fallen. Bob Varettoni, a Verizon spokesman, said most of the 11,500 Maryland workers do work in the Wireline sector, but he did not know how many job cuts might be made in Maryland.
NEWS
By Jamie Smith Hopkins | July 11, 2009
Sellers handed buyers the keys to more homes last month than they did a year ago, the first sales increase in the Baltimore metro area in 2 1/2 years and a hopeful sign for a housing market caught in the worst downturn since the Depression. The uptick was modest - 2 percent - but every local jurisdiction saw a gain except Baltimore, and there the loss was just 1 percent. Multiple-listing service Metropolitan Regional Information Systems said Friday that 2,375 homes changed hands. And pending deals, which aren't counted as sales because they haven't closed, were up 16 percent from a year ago. This comes as average prices continued to fall, down 10 percent compared with June 2008.
NEWS
By Sun staff and Tribune Newspapers | July 2, 2009
Auto sales in the U.S. remain severely depressed, but results released by automakers Wednesday pointed to what could be the first signs of a recovery after a long and bleak run. The industry as a whole declined 28 percent in June compared with a year ago, according to Autodata Corp., with 859,847 cars and light trucks sold, its smallest dip since September. Ford Motor Co., the nation's second-largest automaker, led the way, with a modest 11 percent decline in sales in June, compared with a year earlier, its smallest slide in more than a year.