Earnings: Media General Q2 Income In Free Fall; Interactive up 13.7 Percent, But Unit Swings To Loss
This story was written by Joseph Weisenthal.
Here's the latest rough newspaper quarter: Media General (NYSE: MEG) announced Q2 revenue of $204.8 million, a decrease of 10 percent from $228.2 million in the year-ago quarter. Operating income was more than cut in half, falling to $10.1 million from $23.8 million. Net income form continuing operations fell to a loss $1.37 million from a profit of $2.39 million. The company is also in the process of measuring an impairment charge, expected to be in the range of $550-580 million. All the usual suspects are to blame here, though this line neatly encapsulates what's going on with Tampa-Bay heavy Media General: "Excluding Florida, where Publishing revenues were down 24.7 percent in the quarter, total Publishing revenues decreased less than 10 percent."
-- Interactive: Credit is due for actually breaking out some interactive numbers, unlike some which keep a real tight lid on things: Revenue was up 13.7 percent to $10.6 million. The company cited its DealTaker unit, as well as the Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) partnership, which generated $2 million in revenue for the quarter. The unit, however, lost $656,000, compares to a profit of $357,000. It's not totally clear of the loss is due to some investments made, or if it's actually reflective of declining operations. The company does cite weakness at its Blockdot advergaming unit. Online classifieds revenue also fell 4 percent.
In April, three nominees from activist investors Harbinger were elected to the company's board.
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By Joseph Weisenthal