2008 brought record political advertising to the television group at McGraw-Hill and helped power an 11.3% TV revenue increase in Q4. The company says, though, it expects 2009 to be “challenging.” For all of McGraw-Hill, 2008 revenues declined 6.2% to $6.4 billion and net income declined 21.1% to $799.5 million. Earnings per share for the full year were $2.51, including a 14-cent restructuring charge.
That record political take was $27 million for McGraw-Hill’s four ABC affiliates. That helped boost 2008 TV revenues 4% to $107.1 million. Q4 revenues rose 11.3% to $31.8 million.
Q4 revenues for the Information & Media segment grew 4.1% in 2008 to $1.1 billion. For Q4, the gain was 1.3% to $285.8 million. Obviously, television is only a small part of that. The larger contributor is the Business-to-Business Group, including BusinessWeek, Aviation Week, JD Power & Associates, McGraw-Hill construction and Platts.
McGraw-Hill did not provide any pacing information for TV. The company told Wall Street to expect the entire Information & Media segment to post a low single digit revenue decline for 2009.
Companywide, 2009 revenues are expected to decline 1-2%. McGraw-Hill told investors to expect EPS of $2.20-2.30.
