Posted on 04/26/2007 9:04:22 AM PDT by abb
Belo 1Q Profit Declines Due to Weakness in Newspaper Advertising
DALLAS (AP) -- Publisher and television station owner Belo Corp. said Thursday that its first-quarter profit dropped 10 percent due to weakness in newspaper advertising. Earnings declined to $15.5 million, or 15 cents per share, from $17.3 million, or 16 cents per share, in the prior-year period.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected profit of 13 cents per share.
Revenue for the quarter fell 5 percent to $354.1 million from $371.7 million, missing Wall Street's estimate of $368.7 million.
Newspaper group revenue fell 11 percent on soft newspaper advertising conditions, the Southern California housing market and difficult comparisons to the year-ago period. Excluding an extra Sunday in the 2006 quarter, newspaper group revenue decreased 9.3 percent.
Television group revenue rose 2.1 percent.
Ping
Dumb bastards have yet to figure out why...
WOW! Thats really great news. Tansportation in Texas is still smarting from their little multi-edition hit piece on trucks. Can’t wait to see them go.
Related story.
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_11703.asp
Papers feel the heat
over classified ads
Revenue drain accelerates as other local media chase
By Lisa Snedeker
Apr 26, 2007
It’s an old story that newspapers are losing classified advertising, and it’s been going on since well before the internet.
What’s interesting is where that classified business is going. It’s not just to the internet but to virtually all forms of competing media, from radio to local TV stations to other print outlets and even to digital devices.
And the pace is accelerating, according to a new report, as the competitors go after the business more aggressively.
“It just gets tougher and tougher for a newspaper to maintain a monopoly position environment in classified advertising,” observes Peter Zollman, founder of Classified Intelligence, a consulting firm that tracks classified advertising, which released the study.
This is trouble for newspapers, and it goes beyond simply the loss of revenue, though that’s certainly a huge issue in itself. Billions of dollars are at stake.
Longer-term, the trend raises new worries about the future of local papers as the go-to destination for readers, whether in print or online, in an increasingly digital era. Newspapers are positioned to be that destination but analysts warn that many are at risk of losing out if they fail to build dynamic, expansive web sites that are true community destinations.
As Zollman notes, those competing media in some cases are simply better venues for classifieds. For example, someone shopping for a house online can learn a lot more seeing it online than by reading a newspaper print ad. Says he: “Not only can you look at how many beds and baths, you can see a video clip and look at the surrounding neighborhood online.”
Local TV stations in particular are chasing the classified business, and getting more if it, says Zollman.
Increasingly they see classifieds not just as a valuable revenue stream but as a way to build community, he says. They also don’t have to charge as much as newspapers. “If they focus on it, they can take it away from newspapers, and that’s what we are starting to see,” he says.
Classifieds are offered by TV station sites in all top 50 U.S. markets, according to the report, and by radio station sites in 47 of those markets, as well as by the majority of cable systems.
Classifieds have traditionally made up about 30 percent of newspapers’ ad revenue, and last year they brought in nearly $17 billion, according to the Newspaper Association of America. But that was down nearly 2 percent from 2005. Auto classifieds were down nearly 13 percent, for a third straight year of declines, and job ads fell 7.5 percent.
Real estate was up 11 percent but that sector is now in a tumble with the collapse of the real estate market, and some papers are now reporting steep declines.
“During the last couple of weeks what was a steady downhill slide has become an absolute torrent,” says Zollman. He reports double-digit declines in real estate and automotive, and he says recruitment is down double digits except in small markets.
“When three of your core products are down double digits, you are facing tough times,” says Zollman. “You can see that in the layoffs announcements at newspapers, and there are more to come.”
Lisa Snedeker is a North Carolina writer who covers newspapers for Media Life.
The Dallas Morning Snooz has been the tool of the downtown Democrats who never met a billion they could not find a tax break for. Highest crime rate, worst roads, miserable schools but hey, we gots us a new basketball arena at tax payer expense.
‘radio to local TV stations to other print outlets’
I don’t remember ever seeing classified ads on a ‘local’ (aren’t they all local?) TV station. Must be sum noo thang.
I liked the DMN when it was the conservative news counter balance to the liberal Times Herald. Don’t know why they, like the Orange County Register, felt they had to jump ship.
Edwin J. Kiest is smiling in Heaven today.
But they have added ‘edgy’ comics and features to satisfy a market that doesn’t read the paper anyway. The current publisher is more interested in pushing a liberal agenda than he is in selling papers.
Remeber, Belo got a cut of the arena (6.19%) in return for their support. http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=1055
It turned out to be a better investment than the cue:cat.
I was just listening to Rush and a recounting of media portraying the economy as bad and sure to get worse. Then, you declare newspaper profit declines to be good news.
One wonders if the two are related. It would seem to a rational observer that the economy is not only good but is near booming. That is booming for everyone except the poor presstitutes who are daily losing their jobs at a very discouraging rate.
Could those fearing loss of their own media job be extrapolating on to the rest of us who are actually doing well?
[MPEG-4 audio file; download and open in iTunes or similar player]
WFAA, Belo owned, just moved their news programming to all HD. Overall they have been a pain, but that’s a smart and good move.
It’s not just to the internet but to virtually all forms of competing media, from radio to local TV stations to other print outlets and even to digital devices.
.....it makes sense that they would also project the depression of their own sorry “industry” onto the rest of the economy too....
For me this is a revelation and the mantra...... The press is failing in its job and as a businss. America on the other hand is doing very well. Heed not the wails of the woebegone pressies.
“WFAA, Belo owned, just moved their news programming to all HD. Overall they have been a pain, but that’s a smart and good move.”
Hey DMN, bring back the CueCat.
“Dumb bastards have yet to figure out why...”
The pro-abortion jerks are way out of touch with Dallas
Down 14%. Good job.
USA TODAY 2,278,022; (+0.23%)
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2,062,312; (+0.61%)
NEW YORK TIMES, 1,120,420; (-1.93%)
LOS ANGELES TIMES, 815,723; (-4.24%)
NEW YORK POST, 724,748; (+7.63%)
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, 718,174; (+1.37%)
WASHINGTON POST, 699,130; (-3.47%)
CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 566,827; (-2.12%)
HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 503,114; (-2.00%)
ARIZONA REPUBLIC 433,731; (-1.14%)
DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 411,919; (-14.27%)
NEWSDAY, 398,231; (-6.91%)
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, 386,564; (-2.93%)
BOSTON GLOBE, 382,503; (-3.72%)
STAR-LEDGER OF NEWARK, 372,629; (-6.08%)
ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 357,399; (-2.09%)
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 352,593; (+0.61%)
STAR TRIBUNE OF MINNEAPOLIS, 345,252; (-4.88%)
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER, 344,704; (+0.45%)
DETROIT FREE PRESS, 329,989; (-4.70%)
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 322,771; (-0.08%)
PORTLAND OREGONIAN, 319,625; (-1.05%)
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 296,331; (-6.58%)
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 284,613; (-5.07%)
SACRAMENTO BEE, 279,032; (-4.83%)
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