DALLAS – The Belo Corp., parent company of The Providence Journal and projo.com, says its second-quarter profits were $41.9 million after taxes or 36 cents per share, down 8 percent from last year, due primarily to a drop in political ad revenues at its television stations.
Operating profits for Belo’s TV segment, which includes stations in Dallas, Houston and Phoenix, but not Rhode Island, dropped 10.6 percent, to $64.7 million. Political TV spot ad revenues in the second quarter of last year, during the presidential campaign, were $7.5 million, Belo said, but they were only $1.9 million this year.
Belo’s newspaper segment, which includes the Journal as well as the Dallas Morning News and the Riverside Press-Enterprise in California, yielded $41.4 million in operating profits, down 2.3 percent. Newspaper ad revenues were up 2.7 percent, but retail and general ad revenues were down 1.7 percent and 11 percent, respectively, while classified revenues were up by 10 percent, led by a 34-percent increase in classified real estate revenue and a 14-percent increase in classified employment revenue, Belo said.
Revenues associated with Belo newspapers’ Web sites, including projo.com, increased almost 40 percent in the second quarter.
Robert W. Decherd, Belo’s chairman, president, and CEO, said the company was “pleased” with the overall results, which included only minimal expense increases “as we continue to manage controllable costs in a disciplined manner.”
The company is predicting ad revenues at the Journal to increase in the “mid-single digits” in the third quarter. Earnings per share for the full 2005 are expected to be “in the range of $1.17 to $1.24,” Belo said.
A detailed earnings report is available on the Belo home page.
