As in local sales, local news and Internet initiatives for the TV stations’ local websites. Barrington Broadcasting Group COO Jim Yager noted in the company’s quarterly conference call that the company has added more local news in six of its 15 markets this year. That is setting Barrington up for a big election year in 2008. "I feel it’s a pretty good time to be a local broadcaster," said COO Chris Cornelius, as he laid out the news programming increases and the focus on generating revenues from the Internet sites now operating in every Barrington market.
Barrington saw local ad sales rise 10.7% in Q3, although with national soft and hardly any political, total revenues declined 4.2% to 31.7 million. Broadcast cash flow was down 7.7% to 7.8 million. Barrington doesn’t provide forward guidance, but CEO Jim Yager did indicate that he expects the 2007 softness in the auto sector to continue in 2008. Barrington reports that it has had success with local dealers, but has seen cutbacks in national from the auto sector – including same cases where national spot buys were placed, but then cancelled before they aired.
