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WASHINGTON - The Manassas News & Messenger is no more. The paper printed its final edition after 143 years of covering the news in Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park Sunday. The paper's parent company, the Warren Buffett-owned World Media Enterprises, decided to close the paper and its website ... World Media Enterprises purchased the paper, as well as several others, from Media General in June. ... All employees lost their jobs, and

Media General Inc (MEG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported a second-quarter loss on Thursday, hurt by a severance charge and a 17 percent drop in newspaper advertising revenue, and said it would take a writedown of as much as $550 million. The publisher of the Tampa Tribune and Richmond Times-Dispatch posted a second-quarter preliminary loss of $129,000, or a penny a share, compared with net income of $5.1 million, or 22 cents a share, in the second quarter last year. The results do not include the effects of the expected non-cash writedown. Revenue fell to $204.8 million from $228.2...

Media General reported weak April newspaper financial results Thursday, largely on plunging revenues in Tampa and its other two metro markets -- which drove help-wanted classified revenues down 42% and real estate down 40%. Overall revenue at the Richmond, Va.-based publisher and broadcaster fell 10.9% to $78.7 million in April. The Associated Press now reports that Media General says it will cut 750 jobs by the beginning of the third quarter to reduce operating costs. "The Richmond company says the reductions by October are in response to an overall slowing of the U.S. economy and a deepening recession in Florida,...

CHICAGO Media General Inc.'s Florida Communications Group, parent of The Tampa Tribune and WFLA-TV, said Monday it is offering voluntary buyouts to about half of its 1,326 employees. Group President John Schueler said in an announcement on the Tribune's TBO.com Web site that the buyouts are a way to cut costs significantly in the difficult economic climate of Tampa Bay. Media General, in its latest financial report, said much of the chain's difficulties can be traced to its Tampa Bay media properties. The region, and all of Florida, has been hurt badly by a housing collapse that has spread pain...

Media General Sales Fall 11.8 Percent in Oct., Hurt by Weak Classified, Political AdvertisingRICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Media General Inc., which publishes newspapers including the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and runs TV stations, said Wednesday revenue fell 11.8 percent in October hurt by weak classified and political advertising sales.Total revenue slipped to $97.1 million from $110.2 million in the same month last year. The decrease reflects the absence of nearly $17.5 million in political advertising revenue compared with October 2006, the company said.Sales from Media General's publishing division fell 9.1 percent, mostly due to continued weakness in classified advertising, particularly in the...

RICHMOND, Va. -- Media General Incorporated says its third-quarter earnings plunged 88% as advertising revenue continued to erode and the year-ago quarter was boosted by businesses since sold. The Richmond-based newspaper publisher and television station operator said today that net income fell to $2.5 million, or 11 cents per share, from $20.6 million, or 87 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding a gain from television stations the company sold off, last year's earnings from continuing operations were $7.7 million, or 33 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected earnings of 6 cents per share on revenue of...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Media General Inc. (MEG) said Monday that total revenue in July was $83.8 million, down 3.3% from the same month a year ago. The Richmond, Va.-based communications company said revenue at its publishing division fell 6.8%, while interactive media division revenue rose 37.4%. Broadcast division revenue decreased less than 1%, the company said. "Media General's July results mostly reflected continued weak advertiser spending in our Tampa, Florida, market and lower political revenues in our broadcast division," said Media General Chief Executive Marshall Morton in a statement. "Our interactive media division generated strong growth in the month,...

Advance sales for the season that begins in September are wrapping up below last year's tally... Television advertising executives are biting their nails this year as advance ad sales fall short of last year's tally... The frenzied "upfront" period, which typically accounts for about 75 percent of total prime-time ad sales... That's down about 3.4 percent from last year... "Buyers are in control," John Moore, group media director of MediaHub... "The competitive landscape is much, much different" from previous years. Networks even tried to sweeten deals this year by offering tie-ins with their online arms or product placements in the...

Tribune Co., Belo Corp. and Journal Register Co. said advertising sales continue to slump, signaling the newspaper industry's woes may extend this year. Advertising sales in June "are soft and we expect first-half advertising to be flat," Donald Grenesko, chief financial officer of Chicago-based Tribune, the second biggest U.S. newspaper publisher in revenue and owner of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, said Tuesday at the Newspaper Association of America's Mid-Year Media Review in New York... A protracted slowdown may mean increased investor pressure on publishers including Tribune, which is fending off calls from its second largest shareholder to break apart the...

Dissident group says will continue efforts for sale or breakup of company... Tribune Co. shares gained ground Tuesday, rising as the media company that's been working to revamp operations amid shareholder unrest announced the results of a Dutch tender auction. Analysts said any gains could prove short lived, however. Chicago-based Tribune Co said that about 45 million, or 15%, of its common shares were tendered and that it expects to buy the shares at a price of $32.50 each. The number of shares tendered came in 8 million short of the maximum that the company had initially authorized in the...

Beer distributor Yusef Jackson has finally added a coveted title: publisher... Son of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition leader Rev. Jesse Jackson is attempting to resuscitate Radar, a saucy New York culture magazine that folded last year. He also said he’s hungry for other media properties, including the Chicago Sun-Times, for which he was an unsuccessful suitor in 2004, and possibly properties Tribune Co. sells off as it pares $500 million in assets amid a corporate restructuring. Mr. Jackson declined to say who his co-investors are in Radar. In 2004 he sought to buy the Sun-Times with California billionaire Ron Burkle, but he...

The Tribune Co., parent of the "Orlando Sentinel," has reported a 62 percent drop in net income to $87.8 million, or 28 cents a share, from $233.4 million, or 73 cents a share, a year earlier. Chicago-based Tribune (NYSE: TRB - News) also pointed to cutbacks from national advertisers and falling circulation ...

The numbers are starting to come out for newspaper earnings. Take a wild guess. The Tribune Company lost 62 percent of their earnings. McClatchy kept earnings about the same though they lost almost 5 percent of their circulation. Media General lost 47 percent from a year ago. Gannett lost 8.3 percent. Of course, none of the papers will admit that their bias and reportage are to blame for their problems. Instead it is all the fault of Internet activities, Craigslist, the uncooperative entertainment and auto industry, and a "weak operating environment." Leave it to journalists to blame even thier financial...

(RTTNews) - Media General Inc. (MEG | charts | news | PowerRating) said it earned $6.7 million or $0.28 per diluted share in the first quarter, compared to $9.3 million or $0.39 per diluted share in the comparable period of the prior year. Analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial expected the company to earn $0.29 per share for the quarter. Media General commenced expensing stock options at the beginning of fiscal 2006, and non-cash stock option expense reduced first-quarter pretax income by $1.6 million. The company also reported lower profit in the Publishing Division. The company's revenues for the quarter...

Media General's 4Q Earnings Dip 32% By STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, AP Business Writer Published: January 26, 2006 10:15 AM ET RICHMOND, Va. (AP) Media General Inc. said Thursday its fourth-quarter earnings fell 32%, reflecting a lopsided comparison with a 2004 quarter bolstered by political advertising and a settlement. The owner of the Richmond Times-Dispatch earned $25.0 million, or $1.05 a share, in the quarter ended Dec. 25, beating the $1.03-per-share forecast by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. In the year-ago period, Media General earned $36.8 million, or $1.55 a share, in the year-earlier period. The recent quarter's earnings were also hurt...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Newspaper publisher and broadcaster Media General (MEG) on Thursday reported net income for the fourth quarter of $25 million, or $1.05 a share, compared to $36.8 million, or $1.55 a share, a year earlier. Profit in the quarter was hurt by the absence of political advertising revenue. Total revenue in the quarter slipped to $245.5 million from $249.7 million. Analysts, on average, were expecting it to post a profit of $1.04 a share, according to Thomson First Cal

RALEIGH (AP) - An editor and two reporters at a small North Carolina newspaper resigned Thursday after the writers were accused of inventing quotes published on the front page of their newspaper. Jeff Sykes said he resigned as managing editor Thursday afternoon. He apologized to The Reidsville Review's subscribers in a column published Thursday. Reporters Brook R. Corwin and Michael Pucci also resigned, he said. Corwin and Pucci invented quotes in May for the daily "Two Cents Worth" feature, which includes a small picture of a person, along with their name and response to a question. Sykes said he learned...

RALEIGH, N.C. - An editor and two reporters at a small North Carolina newspaper resigned Thursday after the writers were accused of inventing quotes published on the front page of their newspaper. Jeff Sykes said he resigned as managing editor Thursday afternoon. He apologized to The Reidsville Review's subscribers in a column published Thursday.Reporters Brook R. Corwin and Michael Pucci also resigned, he said. Corwin and Pucci invented quotes in May for the daily "Two Cents Worth" feature, which includes a small picture of a person, along with their name and response to a question.Sykes said he learned of the...

EDEN — Dave Matthews isn’t Emma Burgin’s favorite band, so the Greensboro woman was surprised when her photo appeared in The Reidsville Review with a comment, attributed to her, saying that it was. She was surprised because no one at the newspaper ever interviewed her. Burgin’s photo, and photos of some other young people who have appeared in the newspaper, were copied from Thefacebook.com, a college social networking Web site. Burgin is one of at least six people — none of whom live in Rockingham County — whose photos appeared in the newspaper’s daily man-on-the-street feature, “Two Cents Worth,” during...

<p>LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A former Lexington television news producer sued a media company yesterday, claiming she was fired for standing up to reverse discrimination in a newsroom rife with racial tension.</p> <p>Audrey Port also claimed she was a victim of libel, slander and harassment in her suit against Media General Inc. and several former co-workers at WTVQ-TV in Lexington. Media General, of Richmond, Va., owns the station.</p>