The television stations in the The E.W. Scripps Company portfolio posted an 11% gain in revenue, to $66.8M, in Q1 2010, but it was not enough to pull the company’s bottom line into the black after factoring in newspaper results. Consolidated revenues of $199M represented a 3.1% decrease from the $205M earned Q1 2009.
Scripps said local TV business was up 12%, national was up 10% and political was over four times greater, going from $200K to $840K. Retransmission consent was also up, rising 37% to $2.7M.
But the newspaper division fell 7.6% to $113M. That’s not all that bad considering how steep earlier declines have been, but it’s still moving in the wrong direction. Local business was off 11%, classified was off 18% and national was off 16%.
President/CEO Rich Boehne commented, “We’re seeing steady improvement in the flow of advertising to television stations, with an expected boost from spending around political races later in the year. TV advertising is much stronger than last year, and that strength is continuing.”
“In the newspaper division, print advertising declines are moderating but remain persistent, especially in the classified categories. In response, we are well down the road in redesigning our newspaper operations through Scripps 3.0, a project that puts a strong focus on building and monetizing audiences across multiple platforms.”
“In both television and newspapers, exclusive revenue from Internet and other digital platforms is growing rapidly. These new formats for news and information are gaining consumers and advertisers, and are a key part of the reset of our businesses.”
