New Media reports increases in revenue, profit in 2015, fourth quarter

NEW YORK – New Media Investment Group Inc., the parent company of GateHouse Media which owns the Providence Journal, reported 2015 results this week, showing profit of $67.6 million, or $1.52 per diluted share, reversing a previous-year loss of $3.2 million, or 10 cents per diluted share.
Revenue for the year increased 83.3 percent to $1.2 billion from $652 million in 2014.
For the fourth quarter, profit increased to $56.4 million, or $1.26 per diluted share, compared with $11.5 million, or 30 cents per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Fourth-quarter revenue grew 78.6 percent, to $333.6 million from $186.8 million a year ago.
Michael E. Reed, New Media president and CEO, said the fourth quarter was a “very busy and exciting quarter for the company and marks a solid finish to a successful year.”
The company produced cash flow from operating activities of $115.3 million in 2015, more than double the $41.4 million it generated in 2014. However, the company noted that its “same-store” revenue, that is the revenue for properties it owned by the end of the year compared with revenue for the same properties, some under different ownership, fell 3.9 percent from $1.244 billion in 2014, as compared with the $1.196 billion in 2015.

During the quarter, the company completed the sale of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and related publications for $140 million, resulting in a gain of approximately 69 percent.
To date, the company said it has completed 12 acquisitions with a gross purchase price of nearly $640 million.
In a conference call with shareholders, the Boston Business Journal reported Reed saying that that the firm has $180 million ready to use for acquisitions this year.
The company also announced a fourth-quarter cash dividend of 33 cents per share – what the BBJ described as “a rarity in the newspaper industry.”
The company, one of the largest publishers in the country, has more than 560 community publications and more than 485 websites across 31 states, reaching 19 million people on a weekly basis.

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