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NEW YORK — Media company E.W. Scripps, which earlier this year shut down Denver's Rocky Mountain News, said Monday that weak advertising spending and a slew of charges led to a net loss in the first quarter.
"Ad revenues from the first quarter were flat-out terrible," said Rich Boehne, president and chief executive, in a conference call with analysts. "Let's all pray America gets its mojo back soon."
In the meantime, he added, the company must be "willing to cut costs, make hard decisions and endure some pain to protect our financial health."
Scripps, which owns newspapers and TV stations, posted a loss of $220.7 million, or $4.12 per share, compared with income from continuing operations totaling $84.1 million, or $1.55 per share, in the same quarter a year earlier.
Excluding items the latest quarter's loss attributable to Scripps shareholders would have been $13 million, or 24 cents per share. The items included a preliminary impairment charge of $192 million for write-downs at the company's TV stations, and operating losses and wind-down costs of $13.3 million at its newspapers operated under joint operating agreements and newspaper partnerships.
Revenue fell 20 percent to $205.4 million from $255.7 million.
Analysts, on average, had expected a loss of 13 cents per share, excluding items, on sales of $202.3 million, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.
The company said closing the Rocky Mountain News "eliminated significant financial risk." Expenses and operating losses related to this shutdown, Boehne said, were limited to the first quarter and the company now moves ahead "sadly but in a much better position to weather the economic storm and focus on the television and newspapers markets where we have long-term opportunity."
He added, however, that the second quarter has not shown any signs of improvement over the first. The newspaper industry has been hemorrhaging amid dismal advertising spending and rising newsprint costs that are exasperated because of the recession.
Besides the Rocky's shutdown, Scripps also suspended its 401(k) match, reduced salaries, eliminated bonuses and reduced or cut other expenses.
Revenue from newspapers managed solely by Scripps fell 22 percent to $122 million from the year-ago period. Print as well as online ad revenue declined. The company attributed the latter to the weakness in print classified advertising, because more than half of online classifieds are tied to print ads.
Revenue from the company's TV stations declined 21 percent to $60.4 million, hurt by reduced spending by advertisers in the automotive, financial services and retail categories, Scripps said.
Boehne also said the company is not seeing activity in its markets that would "allow us to boldly call a floor to the country's economic difficulties."
Shares of Cincinnati-based Scripps fell 23 cents, or nearly 11 percent, to close at $1.89.
