Belo reports results for first quarter 2007

by PegNews wire

DALLAS — Belo reported its earnings results for the first quarter of 2007.

Belo Corp. reported net earnings per share of $0.15 for the first quarter of 2007 as compared to $0.16 in the first quarter of 2006. Consolidated revenue for the first quarter of 2007 was $354 million, a decrease of 4.8 percent versus the first quarter of 2006, with Television Group revenue up 2.1 percent and Newspaper Group revenue down 11 percent on a reported basis, or approximately 9.3 percent after adjusting to exclude the extra Sunday in the first quarter of 2006. The company's total operating costs and expenses decreased 3.5 percent, benefiting from headcount reductions during 2006 at The Dallas Morning News and The Press-Enterprise, and significantly lower newsprint expense. Consolidated EBITDA decreased 1.1 percent.

("Headcount reductions" = layoffs. Business jargon is a trip. Also, note reference to newsprint price. The DMN is obsessed with the price of newsprint.)

Television Group

Television Group revenue increased 2.1 percent in the first quarter versus the prior year despite cycling against almost $12 million in Olympics and political revenues in the first quarter of 2006. Total spot revenue, including political, grew 0.2 percent with a 3.7 percent increase in national spot revenue and a 0.3 percent increase in local spot revenue. Advertising revenue associated with Belo's television station Web sites increased 30 percent in the first quarter to $5.2 million, up from $4 million in the first quarter of the prior year.

(They "cycled against" Olympics and political revenues. IE, they made $12 million in advertising from those two in 2006 but not 2007, but they're saying they still made money anyway. Who needs those Olympics ads? Not Belo.)

Newspaper Group

Newspaper Group total revenue decreased 11 percent in the first quarter of 2007, or approximately 9.3 percent after adjusting to exclude the extra Sunday in the first quarter of 2006, reflecting soft newspaper advertising conditions, the Southern California housing market, and difficult comparisons for Belo newspapers relative to 2006 when Newspaper Group advertising revenues increased 2.7 percent for the first quarter. First quarter 2007 advertising revenues were weakest in January and improved in each successive month, with March ad revenues down six percent versus the prior year. Decreases were noted in retail, general and classified revenues, while part-run advertising revenue increased 3.7 percent. Internet advertising revenue, a component of total advertising revenue, increased 18 percent to $12.3 million.

(Check out all the excuses for why advertising sucks ... There was that extra Sunday, and "soft" advertising conditions, the housing market in southern Cali. Where is the perennial "my cat peed on it"? At the end they try to put on a happy face with the fact that Internet advertising went up 18 percent. Thank bloody hell for the Internet!)

There's a bunch of stuff about costs and expenses for the newspaper group and corporate, and a $4 million credit from the settlement of the Company's Hurricane Katrina-related insurance claim.

Posted by TG

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