Posted on 06/28/2013 10:28:24 PM PDT by Steelfish
Profit At L.A. Times Owner Tribune Co. Plummets 41%
Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times, KTLA-TV and other media properties, reported declines in first-quarter income and revenue.
Activists outside L.A. Times building protest potential sale to Koch brothers
Tribune Co. hires investment bankers to explore sale of newspaper unit
By Walter Hamilton
June 28, 2013 Earnings at Tribune Co., parent of the Los Angeles Times, fell sharply in the first quarter as advertising revenue continued to slide and the company incurred a big tax bill.
The company reported net income of $58.4 million in the three months, a 41% plunge from the $99.1 million in the year-earlier period. Revenue slid 3.3% to $705 million and pretax income declined 7.8% to $80.2 million.
The company’s bottom line was reduced by its payment of $21.8 million in income taxes in the quarter. By contrast, the year-earlier income was boosted by a net tax benefit of $12.2 million.
Tribune reduced operating expenses by $49.4 million to $621.5 million, a 7.4% decline compared with a year earlier.
But advertising revenue in the company’s core publishing unit continued to skid, a reflection of the ongoing erosion of the newspaper business.
The newspaper unit’s ad revenue sagged 9% to $254 million. Retail advertising, which includes department stores and home-improvement stores, dipped 7% to $129 million. Classified ads fell 7% to $69 million.
National ads, including those from cellular carriers, movie companies and financial services providers, plunged 13% to $56 million. Digital advertising declined 2%.
Besides The Times, Tribune owns the Chicago Tribune and six other newspapers. It also owns radio and television stations and other media properties.
Results were also weaker in the company’s broadcast division. Operating profit slid 26% in the first quarter to $47 million. The unit’s revenue was off 4%.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
LATimes has been using its “news” sections to promote its political causes and candidates for many years. It is basically unreadable.
A potentially-great paper turned into trash by its editor.
Perhaps their $$$ woes are karma for suing JimRob that time.
Payback’s a bitch :-)
Are the Koch brothers still in the picture? I don’t want for the LAT to go out of business, I want for it to be a reliable, credible newspaper instead of a leftist propaganda rag.
at least the liberal side has its casualties, suffering the consequences of their own smug liberalness.
Oh, oh my. ...
Oh ho ho
HaHaHa ...
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
GIGGLE FART.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
They look real good with that broke off in their arse.
Koch Bros should say they are thinking of buying the NY Slimes, just for the LOLZ....
...I hear the Kochs are thinking about buying the New York Times. :):):):):)
“LA Times has been using its “news” sections to promote its political causes and candidates for many years. It is basically unreadable.”
I experience the same thing here in the Twin Cities with the Minneapolis StarTribune (aka “The Red Star”).
Years ago, they threw away journalistic integrity in favor of being the media arm of the state Democrat party.
There was a time when their liberalism was restricted primarily to their editorial pages - but no more. There seems to be little distinction between the editorial pages and the news pages.
“I don’t want for the LAT to go out of business”
Why? It’s a POS! If it ceased to exist tomorrow, it would be a good thing. Ditto for most all the rest of them. And just think of the positive impact on our forests! There is no way that the Kochs would turn these anachronisms around. The would come with the $hit that works there, all their union nonsense, and liberal/marxist bias. Let them completely fail, then buy the physical assets that are left out of the failure.
That’s the problem. If they kept their political advocacy to their editorials it would be fine.
At one time, these cities had multiple papers, each with a different political slant. At least you could choose, or get a balance if you wished.
Now that most cities are monopoly markets for newspapers, or nearly so, if a paper uses its news sections for its politics... we the public are subjected to that one political opinion over and over and over again.
And we don’t get honest news reports.
It is not journalism. It is just propaganda.
Profit At L.A. Times Owner Tribune Co. Plummets 41%
Aw. How sad.
You believe that the liberal rot is so deep in the LAT organization that it can't be excised. You may be right, but it doesn't sound all that hard to me. The worst of the worst propagandists will simply quit if the Koch brothers buy the paper. Think what a wonderful day that would be! It should be an easy job to identify other problem employees by their work product. I bet Patrick Frey of Patterico's Pontifications could write up a list of the worst Times reporters and editors off the top of his head. A single FR thread asking for Freeper opinion might also produce a good to-be-fired list.
There are undoubtedly conservatives working at the LAT doing what conservatives working for liberals do, keeping their heads down and their mouths shut, and performing their jobs very well. Promote them! In this economy it should be easy to find competent repacements for fired staff.
It’s a POS! If it ceased to exist tomorrow, it would be a good thing.
I want to agree with you, but the problem is that it will not cease to exist. Somebody will buy the damn thing. If George Soros buys it, that hurts us. If the Koch brothers buy it, that helps us.
When Harry Chandler ran the Los Angeles Times, it was Republican in orientation and was, on occasion, actually genuinely Conservative. The paper, under his guidance, was strongly pro-Nixon and arguably was a factor in his political success.
well, very soon after that the LATimes attained an effective monopoly in the region.... and went left wing, always for higher taxes and more government .. and antiAmerican in its foreign policy positions sometimes too
but yes the paper may have helped Nixon, back in that day.
i was, of course, just a baby
Readership is down because there are not to many who can in mexicalifornia
Good. Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
It’s difficult to sell a newspaper when half the people in your circulation area either can’t read English or can’t read at all.
Maybe the LA Times can change to a cartoon format with no words. Call it the LA Mimes.
“I want to agree with you, but the problem is that it will not cease to exist. Somebody will buy the damn thing. If George Soros buys it, that hurts us. If the Koch brothers buy it, that helps us.”
We’re on the same page
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