Despite a boost from this year’s early Thanksgiving, Tribune Co., parent of the Los Angeles Times and KTLA-Channel 5, saw consolidated revenue for the four-week period ended Nov. 25 sink 3.3% to $413 million from $428 million a year ago, with classified advertising especially hard-hit by the real-estate slump, the Los Angeles times reports.

Publishing revenue dropped 3.5% to $309 million from $321 million in 2006, with ad revenue down 4.9% to $244 million from $257 million a year ago. Revenues from retail and national advertising were up 7.3% and 1.9% respectively, primarily due to the early kick-off of the holiday advertising season, Chicago-based Tribune reported this morning.

Those gains were swamped by a 26.2% decline in classified advertising revenue. Within that category, real estate plunged 39.8%, with the biggest declines in Chicago, Florida and Los Angeles. Help-wanted ad revenue was down 28.4% and automotive down 7.6%.

Interactive ad revenue, primarily included in the classified ad category, reached $21 million in November, up 7.8%, with gains in most categories, Tribune said.

Broadcasting and entertainment revenue for the period fell 2.6% to $104 million, with TV revenue down 4.8% because of a lack of political advertising compared with the year-ago period.

Continued belt-tightening kept expenses down across the board. Publishing operating expenses were down 5.2% because of lower costs of newsprint and ink, compensation and promotion. Broadcasting and entertainment group expenses were down 2.7%, largely because of lower compensation and other cash expenses.

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