Earnings Call: AH Belo Sees $1.2M From Yahoo's Behavioral Targeting, But Online Revs Drop
This story was written by David Kaplan.
[In progress] As he said at the UBS media conference in December, AH Belo (NYSE: AHC) Corp (NYSE: BLC). CEO Robert Decherd touted the publisher's membership in the Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Newspaper Consortium as the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal advertising season and outlook. In particular, Decherd is particularly hopeful about the full use of Yahoo's behavioral targeting tools. The company generated $1.2 million in revenue directly related to beta testing of Yahoo's behavioral targeting offerings. About 80 percent of those revenues were at the Dallas Morning News. Surprisingly, the paper saw auto ad revenues spike as a result of Yahoo's behavioral targeting assistance. "AH Belo was the first member of the Yahoo Newspaper Consortium to use all of Yahoo's behavioral targeting offerings," having implemented Yahoo's APT ad delivery and targeting system throughout all its papers since last month.
Online revs down 16 percent in Q4: Despite the needed boost from Yahoo, it wasn't enough to balance out the wider economic pressures that have been bearing down on all online advertising. Ali Engel, SVP, CFO and Treasurer, said that online contributed $11.1 million in Q4 revenues, 16 percent lower than the same period the year before. Online was down 12 percent for the full year. Banner and contextual advertising were up somewhat, but were offset by declines in classifieds. More to come
By David Kaplan