Media Companies announce results

Tribune Co.

Journal Register

Media General

Scripps

Pulitzer

Sale of Golf Channel, slight ad revenue gain contribute to earnings increase for Tribune 

The Tribune Co., with holdings of newspapers, television stations and the Chicago Cubs, reported a 75 percent jump in fourth-quarter earnings. 

Net income for the last three months of 2003 was $338.4 million, or $1 per share, compared with $193.5 million, or 57 cents per share, for the same period a year earlier. 

The results included a $114 million non-operating gain, $100 million of it from the sale to Comcast of its 9 percent stake in The Golf Channel. Excluding that sale, operating earnings were 66 cents a share, 2 cents better than the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. 

Revenues rose 3 percent to $1.47 billion from $1.43 billion. 

"Our financial results reflect solid growth at Tribune's publishing and broadcast groups,'' said Dennis FitzSimons, the company's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "We achieved these results despite a continuing uncertain advertising environment.'' 

The newspaper group, which includes the The (Allentown) Morning Call, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday, The (Baltimore) Sun and the Spanish-language Hoy, saw revenues increase 2 percent, to $1.08 billion, and profits climb 8 percent, to $260 million. 

Advertising revenue posted modest, single-digit percentage increases, providing hope for more significant growth in 2004 after a long lean period due to the unsettled economy. 

Operating revenues also rose 4 percent in the broadcasting and entertainment unit as well as television. 

For the full year, net earnings were $891.4 million, or $2.61 per share, compared with $443 million, or $1.30 per share, in 2002. Revenues increased 4 percent to $5.6 billion from $5.4 billion a year earlier. 

Journal Register profits higher. 

Newspaper publisher Journal Register Co. reported higher fourth-quarter profits Jan. 29, with a gain in advertising revenue aided by decreased interest and tax expenses and nearly flat costs. 

The Trenton-based publisher reported net income of $16.4 million, or 39 cents a share, up 15.1 percent, for the three months ended Dec. 28. A year earlier, net income was $14.2 million, or 34 cents a share.

Journal Register owns more than 70 publications that are members of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, several of which are concentrated in its Greater Philadelphia cluster.

Without the effect of one-time items such as an accounting gain, earnings were 35 cents a share for the quarter, matching analysts' expectations and up from 34 cents in the same period in 2002. 

For the year, the company had net income of $72 million, or $1.72 a share, up 46.2 percent, compared to 2002, when net income was $49.2 million, or $1.18 a share. 

Excluding one-time items, 2003 profit was $1.19, up from $1.14 in 2002, which matched analyst expectations. 

Journal Register chairman and CEO Robert M. Jelenic said in a statement that "we are optimistic that the improvement in advertising revenue trends will continue to build momentum in 2004." He said classified employment revenues improved in the second half of 2003 and the company expects continued improvement in retail advertising revenues in 2004.

Quarterly revenues fell 0.4 percent to $104.4 million, while annual revenues fell the same percentage, to $406 million. 

That included quarterly advertising revenue of $78 million, up 0.5 percent, and annual advertising revenue of $299 million, up 0.6 percent.

Among properties the company has had for at least a year, fourth-quarter revenues declined 0.5 percent to $102.8 million, and annual revenues fell 1 percent to $399.7 million. 

Non-newsprint cash operating expenses for those properties were nearly flat for the quarter, and rose 0.7 percent for the year. 

Media General earnings rise 41 percent to $31 million

Cheap newsprint and unexpectedly heavy political advertising helped Media General Inc. earn $30.5 million in the final three months of 2003, a 41 percent increase from a year ago, the company reported Wednesday. 

The earnings of $1.29 a share include a one-time gain from the sale of Media General Financial Services in October. In the final quarter of 2002, net income was $21.6 million, or 93 cents a share.

Excluding one-time gains, Media General earned $23.7 million, or $1.00 a share. That's an 11 percent increase from the $21.3 million, or 92 cents a share, from continuing operations in the year-ago quarter. 

Chairman and chief executive J. Stewart Bryan III said the better-than-expected results stem from lower newsprint costs in the company's publishing division, higher than expected political advertising on its television stations and lower than anticipated health-care costs. 

Media General publishes 25 daily newspapers, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Tampa Tribune. The company also has 26 network-affiliated television stations, mostly in the Southeast. 

For the year, net income swung to a profit of $58.7 million, or $2.50 a share, in 2003 from a loss of $72.9 million, or $3.14 a share, in 2002. 

E.W. Scripps Co.'s earnings rise 34 percent

CINCINNATI (AP) — The E.W. Scripps Co.'s fourth-quarter profits increased 34 percent, driven by robust revenues and earnings from the company's cable television channels including Home & Garden Television and the Food Network. 

The board of directors on Jan. 22 approved its first quarterly dividend, from 15 cents to 17.5 cents per share, since the first quarter of 2001. 

The company earned $101.5 million, or $1.24 per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with $75.8 million, or 94 cents per share, a year ago. 

Excluding tax adjustment gains and a charge for employee severance expenses, Scripps earned 92 cents per share, 1 cent lower than the expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. Excluding special items, Scripps earned 90 cents per share a year ago. 

Fourth-quarter revenue increased 13 percent to $514.3 million from $456.3 million in 2002. 

For all of 2003, Scripps earned $270.8 million, a 44 percent increase from $188.3 million a year earlier. Earnings per share were $3.32, up from $2.34, and revenues totaled $1.9 billion, compared with $1.5 billion for 2002. 

At the company's newspapers, profits were $77 million, up 3 percent, and revenues were $182 million, up 1 percent. Higher newsprint prices and sluggish advertising revenues hurt profits. 

Scripps, based in Cincinnati, operates the cable channels and 21 daily newspapers, cable and satellite TV programming services, Scripps Howard News Service and United Media, which licenses and syndicates the Peanuts and Dilbert comic strips. 

Pulitzer earnings up 17 percent

Pulitzer Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit rose 17 percent, the company reported Jan. 20, beating analyst's expectations on increased advertising and circulation revenues. 

The publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Arizona Daily Star in Tucson had net income of $14.3 million, or 66 cents per share, beating by 2 cents per share the expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. A year ago, Pulitzer's fourth-quarter net income was $12.2 million, or 57 cents per share. 

For the year, the company earned $42.2 million, or $1.95 per share, compared with $34.7 million, or $1.62 per share, in the year-ago period. 

"We enter 2004 with the momentum of a strong 2003 fourth quarter, propelled by a particularly strong December," said Robert C. Woodworth, president and chief executive. 

Pulitzer said local retail revenues from advertising were up 19.2 percent in St. Louis and 10.2 percent in Tucson during the fourth quarter. The company also plans to announce a direct-mail initiative shortly with two of the St. Louis area's largest grocery chains, Woodworth said.