Time Warner Profit Falls 14% (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | April 29, 2009 | Kerry E. Grace

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Time Warner Inc.'s first-quarter net income fell 14% on weakness at its America Online and publishing businesses, but results topped analysts' expectations.

Media companies continue to be hurt by worries about declining advertising sales and uncertainty over the transition to digital content.

With its spinoff of Time Warner Cable Inc. complete, Time Warner's next challenge is deciding what to do with AOL, the struggling Internet unit. Time Warner cleared another hurdle earlier this month by winning approval from bondholders of $12.3 billion in debt to adjust covenants that limit the media giant's ability to dispose of AOL's assets.

snip

Time Warner posted net income of $661 million, or 55 cents a share, down from $771 million, or 64 cents a share, a year earlier, adjusted for March's 1-for-3 reverse stock split. The results included 9 cents and 18 cents, respectively, in earnings from discontinued operations related to the cable business.

Revenue decreased 7% to $6.95 billion, assuming the cable operations weren't part of either year's results. The company didn't give figures including the cable business.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 38 cents on revenue of $6.78 billion.

AOL revenue fell 23% as ad revenue dropped 20%. U.S. dial-up subscribership fell another 570,000, putting the figure at 6.3 million. The unit has cut jobs as the sharp decline in ad spending continues to pressure its transition from an Internet-service provider to an advertising business.

Time Warner's television business, which includes Turner Broadcasting and HBO, chalked up growth despite a 2% drop in revenue from ads. Movie earnings rose 17% despite a 7.3% drop in revenue and the publishing group saw revenue fall 23% as it swung to a loss on an increase in bad-debt reserves related to a newsstand wholesaler and higher pension expenses.

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TIME

"TIME, oh, TIME
Where did you go
TIME, oh, good, good TIME
Where did you go"

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ping

[pnut22]

Lose your job and the cable is the first thing to go.

[abb]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/af1e4960-349c-11de-940a-00144feabdc0.html?referrer_id=yahoofinance&ft_ref=yahoo1&segid=03058

Revenue at magazine publishing, which has been hurt by an industry-wide scarcity of advertising spending in categories such as automotive, fell 23 per cent to $806m. Lower revenue from a 30 per cent drop in advertising and higher pension expense pushed profits down 92 per cent to $12m.

[bert]

I haven’t received an AOL CD in the mail for some time now. Maybe they need to start sending them out again to drum up some customers. Maybe they should offer a free hour. Maybe they should have clubs

[abb]

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217200462
Google Starts Twittering News Headlines

http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/
World Without Media: the Slides

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TIME (Clock Of The Heart)

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http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/
A tale of two very different journalism start-ups

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=105030
Publicis Boasts Bigger Slice Of Shrinking Ad Pie, Cites Digital

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=104990
TV Buyers Call Upfront ‘09 ‘Unprecedented’

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=104999
Ex-Newspaper Staffers Create Online News Sites

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=105005
Agencies, Nets Debate Online Video Status

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http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003967275
And Then There Were 7: American Community Newspapers Files For Bankruptcy

[OrioleFan]

People used to use those CDs for Christmas ornaments on their outside trees.

[bert]

I have a very large collection and am waiting for AOL to die so They will rapidly appreciate and....I’ll be Reich!!

[abb]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Time-Warner-Inc-Reports-bw-15065014.html?.v=1

PUBLISHING

Revenues decreased 23% ($239 million) to $806 million, due to declines of 30% ($167 million) in Advertising revenues, 16% ($58 million) in Subscription revenues and 18% ($21 million) in Other revenues. The decline in Advertising revenues reflected decreases in print magazine revenues, including the impact of unfavorable foreign exchange rates at IPC, as well as lower custom publishing revenues and declines in online revenues. Subscription revenues decreased, due primarily to the negative impact of foreign exchange rates at IPC and lower magazine newsstand sales, resulting in part from wholesaler disruptions, and lower subscription sales. Other revenues decreased, resulting mainly from declines at Synapse and Southern Living At Home, which is held for sale, offset partly by the impact of the acquisition of QSP, Inc.

Operating Income before Depreciation and Amortization declined 92% ($133 million) to $12 million, due mainly to the decrease in revenues and an $18 million increase in bad debt reserves related to a newsstand wholesaler, as well as higher pension expense, offset in part by lower overhead expenses, including cost savings related to the reorganization in the fourth quarter of 2008. The prior year quarter also included restructuring charges of $10 million.

Operating Loss of $32 million reflected a decline of $125 million compared to the year-ago quarter’s Operating Income of $93 million, resulting primarily from the decline in Operating Income before Depreciation and Amortization.

[Dr. Sivana]

Lose your job and the cable is the first thing to go.

In my time as a visitor for a religious charity organization, I have noticed that is often NOT the case.

[bert]

.....an $18 million increase in bad debt reserves related to a newsstand wholesaler.....

“He had been a such good customer for so long we just had to carry him. Deeetroit was such a good market”

[abb]

From what I can tell, HBO and cable is carrying the company. Publishing (TIME, Inc.) is not long for this world.

[pnut22]

Ok.. I was just stating what would happen at my house!

[abb]

As TIME Goes By

[Hardastarboard]

If there’s any “journal” in the whole world I want to DIE, EFFING DIE NOW, it’s Time magazine. These G-d D@mn commie shills deserve to be eating out of dumpsters, even the janitors. I still fume over the cover they ran after Colin Ferguson shot up the Long Island commuter train. It had a picture of a gun, with the giant caption “ENOUGH!”, signaling that they were going to use that hideous crime as a way of trying to push for more gun control. Die now, not later, you evil propaganda pushing b@st@rds.

[abb]

http://www.dcrtv.com/
15 Cut At Baltimore Sun

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/mcintyre/blog/2009/04/a_good_run.html
A Good Run

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i9c779034c7476d10c73aeaa7428ad784
eMarketer: Blogs Are Now Mainstream Media
Marketers must join the conversation or get left behind

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20090429/will-time-inc-have-to-cut-again/?reflink=ATD_yahoo_ticker
Will Time Inc. Have To Cut Again?

by Peter Kafka
Posted on April 29, 2009 at 5:28 AM PT

Time Warner’s AOL (TWX) can spin positive news out of the miserable results it offered up today: Our wounds are self-inflicted, and we can heal them.

But Ann Moore, who runs Time Warner’s Time Inc. publishing business, will have a tougher time selling that story to investors. Her magazine company performed as badly as the rest of the industry did in the last quarter.

Time Inc. saw ad revenue drop 30% in the first three months of 2009, which corresponds, roughly, to the 26% drop in ad pages that the overall magazine business recorded during the same time.

That drop is much worse than what industry executives had braced for last fall, when nearly every publishing company, Time Inc. included, made a round of layoffs. And as this quarter’s miserable numbers trickled in, publishers from Forbes to Conde Nast have made a second round of cuts to adjust to the new reality.

Time Inc. hasn’t done so, or at least not in a significant manner. But they may have to. One suggestion, offered up to me by a Time Warner executive yesterday: “Time has way too many magazines. They should fix that”.

For the record, Time Inc. has “more than 115 titles” or “more than 120 magazines” worldwide, depending on which part of the corporate site you look at.

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