The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act dominated the McGraw-Hill conference call, because of its impact on the company’s Standard & Poor’s financial services business. But what little there was said about the tiny TV group was good.
The Information & Media segment – even smaller now due to the sale of BusinessWeek – saw quarterly revenues decline 5.1% from a year earlier to $224.2 million. However, excluding BusinessWeek, McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw said revenues were up 7.4%. Operating profit for the division shot up to $47.5 million from $33.1 million.
Despite its small size, the four-market TV group was a significant contributor to that growth, with revenues for Q2 up 24% to $25.3 million. National, local and political all contributed to that revenue increase, McGraw told analysts.
Later in Q&A McGraw spoke of the strong ad sales for the TV group. “Political spending has really started to pick up – and it’s picking up earlier than we would have expected,” he said.
