Broadcast television holdings posted a revenue increase of 20% to $73.5M over Q1 2009’s total of $61.2M, and CATV increased 3% to $189.4M compared to $183.5M a year prior, offsetting continued by slowing declines at the newspaper. Its education division was up, but the magazine division – basically, the Newsweek division, was off 36% to $29.4M from $46.1M.
It all translated to $45.4M in net renevue, compared to a loss of $19.2M.
Total Q1 2010 revenue of $1.171B was up 11% over the $1.054B the company brought in during the same quarter a year earlier.
The $155.8M in revenue attributable to the newspaper division represented only a 3% year-over-year loss there. Advertising dropped 8% to $68.7M, but advertising at the newspaper’s related online property Slate was up 8% — but with far less volume, that translates to income of only $23.7M.
The company recently hired Allen & Co. to shop Newsweek around to potential buyers.
RBR-TVBR observation: The Post’s results tend to confirm the across the board results we’ve been seeing for television – the TV division’s gains are said to be thanks to an improved advertising climate. And it looks like WaPo is starting to figure out in general how to make the numbers work in the new reality of the 21st Century. It will be interesting to see what kind of results they can produce in Q2, particularly in newspaper.
