Posted on 06/15/2007 4:39:22 AM PDT by abb
CHICAGO Richmond, Va.-based Media General Inc. reported Thursday that at revenues at its newspapers fell $6.1 million, or 14.9%, in May -- led huge declines at The Tampa Tribune.
Media General President and CEO Marshall N. Morton said the economic downturn in Florida hammered results in Tampa, where the company owns the Tribune, WFLA-TV, and TBO.com. The company was also hurt by "significant weakness" in classified.
"We were very disappointed to see the retail category decline, a reflection of major retailers holding back on spending in virtually every market," Morton said in a statement. "We saw a few bright spots in May, including increases in real estate classified advertising in Richmond, a market that has not yet been severely affected by the national housing downturn. In addition, national revenues increased at The Richmond Times- Dispatch, the Winston-Salem Journal and in our community newspaper group."
Big declines at the Tampa Tribune, however, offset that growth, he added.
Newspaper classified overall fell $3 million, or 16.9% -- principally on a free-fall of 38.2% at the Tampa Tribune, Media General reported.
The Tribune's real estate linage, for instance, plummeted 46.7%.
Help-wanted linage at the company's three metro newspapers decreased 27.8% -- again pushed by Tampa, where recruitment fell 41.5%.
There were big drops in help-wanted as well at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, down 19.4%, and the Winston-Salem Journal, off 25.7%.
Automotive linage for the three metros decreased 18.8%, with the Tribune again leading the way with a 27.5% decline.
Overall real estate linage for the three metros was down 25.2%.
Retail advertising revenues in May decreased $2.5 million, or 13.1%, at the three metros. Tampa Tribune, and its associated newspapers fell 17.5% on weakened home improvement, financial, grocery store and medical advertising.
Retail was down 9.9% at the Richmond paper, on department store and drug store weakness. The Winston-Salem Journal reported a 17% decline on lower spending in the department store, grocery store and home improvement categories. Retail at General Media's community newspaper group fell 10.2%.
Media General said its total May 2007 revenues increased 2.8% to $75.4 million, including the revenues of four NBC television stations acquired June 26, 2006. Excluding the new stations, total revenues declined 7.8%, it said.
Overall publishing division revenues fell 12.8%, and broadcast, on a same-property basis, declined 1.9%.
Media General said its Interactive Media Division total revenues rose 43.1%.
The company set its outlook for the second quarter as earnings per share in the range of 20 to 25 cents, compared with 77 cents from continuing operations in the second quarter of 2006.
Ping
Loss in ad revenue goes right to the bottom line.
From the Article:
“Morton said the economic downturn in Florida hammered results in Tampa, where the company owns the Tribune, WFLA-TV, and TBO.com. The company was also hurt by “significant weakness” in classified.”
I live in Florida and consider myself in tune with whats going on. There is NO economic downturn to blame this poor performance on. My guess is that the money has gone elsewhere, moving away from a dying media company.
But the drastic drop in newsprint useage is GOOD for the trees, the planet, the environment...see..conservatives can be environmentally friendly too..
Florida real estate.. the speculative construction bubble..has burst..real estate ad lineage, and $$$ droped by almost 50%..the paper therfore assumes the economy of the area has tanked..
I see what your saying....they will assumptively convince themselves that the housing situation has tanked the economy and thus is the cause for their loss in revenue. Well, let them continue to delude themselves as it will just put them out of business sooner.
If the economy was tanked, there would be a lot of other economic indicators to support it. Like, small business foreclosures, unemployment, down earnings in other industries. And state gov’t wouldn’t be cutting taxes, as they are.
Besides killing innocent anti global warming trees in the prime of their life to print old news on the daily fishwraps, the newspaper industry probably has one of the biggest carbon footprints in America.
Gas/diesil is used in every step as well as massive electrical use during the printing phase. When we trash the old fishwraps, they have to be picked up and taken to recycle centers. Often, no one wants to buy them, so they are taken to dumps to be dumped.
I’m unaware of any economic downturn in Florida, but then I’m not aware of a lot of things...
Friday morning GRRRRREAT news! Thanks for posting!
Besides Media General's delusional logic note how the Nielsen beard known as Editor & Publisher spins by ignoring all associated expense from Media General's four new television stations.
Media General said its total May 2007 revenues increased 2.8% to $75.4 million, including the revenues of four NBC television stations acquired June 26, 2006. Excluding the new stations, total revenues declined 7.8%, it said.
Nielsen ought to drop its spin and adopt the best of breed short-and-sweet storytelling product delivered by outsourced-to-India journalism.
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