International Entertainment News: Media General Reports December 2007 Revenues

Media General Reports December 2007 Revenues

RICHMOND, Va., Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Media General, Inc. (NYSE:MEG) today reported December 2007 total revenues of $70.6 million, a decrease of 3 percent from approximately $73 million in December 2006, excluding about $18.5 million in revenues from an extra week in fiscal December 2006, composed of about $10.6 million in the Publishing Division, approximately $7.6 million in the Broadcast Division and about $300,000 in the Interactive Media Division. Although it is difficult to precisely quantify the impact of the additional week, the company has estimated the impact on key metrics throughout this release in order to allow meaningful comparisons. By business segment, Publishing Division revenues decreased an estimated 9 percent, Broadcast Division revenues increased approximately 3 percent and Interactive Media Division revenues rose approximately 50 percent.

Publishing Division

Newspaper advertising revenues in December decreased approximately $4 million, or 11 percent. Most of the decline was attributable to the Tampa market, driven in particular by lower Classified revenues.

Classified advertising revenues decreased approximately $2 million, or 19 percent, with real estate, employment and automotive Classified all lower in the company's metro markets. In the Tampa market, Classified revenues decreased approximately 38 percent, the Richmond market declined about 17 percent and the Winston-Salem market decreased an estimated 8 percent. The Community newspaper markets decreased approximately 5 percent. For the company's three metro markets, real estate revenues were down about 40 percent, employment revenues decreased approximately 36 percent, and automotive revenues declined an estimated 7 percent.

Retail advertising revenues declined by less than $1 million, or 4 percent. The Tampa market reported an approximate 9 percent decrease, due to lower spending in most categories, and the Richmond market experienced an estimated 3 percent decrease, reflecting a decline in home improvement, drug store and furniture store advertising, offset in part by revenues from a weekly newspaper acquired in 2007. In Winston-Salem, Retail revenues were down about 2 percent, with lower spending in the department store and home improvement categories. The Community newspaper group saw a nominal decrease.

National revenues decreased an estimated $1 million, or 28 percent. The Richmond market generated an approximate 17 percent increase, due to higher spending in the insurance and telecommunications categories. The Tampa market declined approximately 46 percent, due to lower telecommunications, medical and financial spending. National revenues in Winston-Salem increased about 9 percent, reflecting higher automotive and medical advertising.

Circulation revenues were down less than $100,000, or 2 percent, as Daily and Sunday net-paid circulation declines for the month were partially offset by rate increases at the metro newspapers. Four Media General newspapers generated increases in net-paid Daily Circulation, and four did so for Sunday.

Broadcast Division

Gross time sales increased approximately 1 percent, reflecting higher Local time sales.

Local time sales increased just under $500,000, or 2 percent, primarily from higher grocery store and drug store advertising, partially offset by lower spending in the automotive and fast food categories.

National time sales declined approximately $700,000, or 7 percent, as a result of decreased advertising in the automotive and corporate categories, partially offset by increased spending in medical and specialty store advertising.

Political revenues of $980,000 compared with $385,000 last December, and were generated from strong Presidential primary campaign spending in South Carolina, Florida and Georgia, U.S. Congressional races in Mississippi and Kentucky, and issue spending in a number of states.

Interactive Media Division

Interactive Media Division revenues increased approximately 50 percent, due to significantly higher revenues from the advergaming business, solid growth in National/Regional and Local advertising and revenues from the Yahoo!HotJobs employment Classified partnership. Revenues from Yahoo!HotJobs helped mitigate overall softness in Classified revenues, which declined about 9 percent.

Local online revenues grew about 78 percent over December 2006, reflecting a continued focus on direct sales. National/Regional advertising increased approximately 58 percent, resulting from higher spending by national agencies. Advergaming revenues nearly tripled from last year. Page views and visitor sessions in December increased 12 percent and 17 percent, respectively, excluding the new NBC stations. The improvement is due, in part, to increased audience associated with locally produced content in some markets.

About Media General

Media General is a multimedia company operating leading newspapers, television stations and online enterprises primarily in the Southeastern United States. The company's publishing assets include three metropolitan newspapers, The Tampa Tribune, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and Winston-Salem Journal; 22 daily community newspapers in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama and South Carolina; and more than 150 weekly newspapers and other publications. The company's broadcasting assets include 23 network-affiliated television stations that reach more than 32 percent of the television households in the Southeast and nearly 9.5 percent of those in the United States. The company's interactive media assets include more than 75 online enterprises that are associated with its newspapers and television stations.

MEDIA GENERAL, INC.
Revenues and Page Views

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December
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2007 2006
(4 Weeks) (5 Weeks) % Change
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Revenues (000) $70,576 $91,194 (22.6)%
Publishing 40,025 54,519 (26.6)%
Broadcast 28,476 35,128 (18.9)%
Interactive Media 2,690 2,094 28.5 %
Eliminations (615) (547) (12.4)%

Discontinued Operations(1) 1,461 1,617 (9.6)%
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Selected Publishing Revenues (000)
By Category
Advertising $32,825 $45,841 (28.4)%
Classified 9,397 14,691 (36.0)%
Retail 19,599 24,632 (20.4)%
National 2,890 5,377 (46.3)%
Other 939 1,141 (17.7)%
Circulation 5,943 7,550 (21.3)%
By Property
Richmond 9,705 12,655 (23.3)%
Tampa 10,751 17,326 (37.9)%
Winston-Salem 4,100 5,106 (19.7)%
Community Newspapers 15,158 19,102 (20.6)%
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Advertising Revenues (000)
Richmond $7,580 $9,965 (23.9)%
Tampa 9,120 15,734 (42.0)%
Winston-Salem 3,268 4,092 (20.1)%
Community Newspapers 12,556 15,727 (20.2)%
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Broadcast Time Sales (gross) (000) $28,237 $35,512 (20.5)%
Local 17,165 21,366 (19.7)%
National 10,094 13,762 (26.7)%
Political 978 384 154.7 %
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Selected Online Total Page Views
Total Web Sites(2) 41,193,764 45,963,596 (10.4)%
(Excluding Game Sites)
TBO.com 15,104,333 16,469,103 (8.3)%
(Tampa, Fla.)
inRich/TimesDispatch.com 7,029,756 11,282,114 (37.7)%
(Richmond, Va.)
JournalNow.com 3,067,754 3,719,910 (17.5)%
(Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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Year-to-Date
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2007 2006
(52 Weeks) (53 Weeks) % Change
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Revenues (000) $932,181 $964,857 (3.4)%
Publishing 544,757 601,144 (9.4)%
Broadcast 358,367 343,118 4.4 %
Interactive Media 36,181 27,113 33.4 %
Eliminations (7,124) (6,518) (9.3)%

Discontinued Operations(1) 19,071 50,409 (62.2)%
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Selected Publishing Revenues (000)
By Category
Advertising $450,494 $505,426 (10.9)%
Classified 179,671 219,196 (18.0)%
Retail 225,728 234,845 (3.9)%
National 38,357 43,317 (11.5)%
Other 6,738 8,068 (16.5)%
Circulation 78,190 81,885 (4.5)%
By Property
Richmond 136,162 141,709 (3.9)%
Tampa 158,337 197,398 (19.8)%
Winston-Salem 51,622 55,105 (6.3)%
Community Newspapers 196,033 204,495 (4.1)%
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Advertising Revenues (000)
Richmond $108,263 $112,041 (3.4)%
Tampa 136,985 179,103 (23.5)%
Winston-Salem 41,037 44,288 (7.3)%
Community Newspapers 161,870 167,705 (3.5)%
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Broadcast Time Sales (gross) (000) $371,336 $355,689 4.4 %
Local 226,691 195,407 16.0 %
National 137,070 111,874 22.5 %
Political 7,575 48,408 (84.4)%
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Selected Online Total Page Views
Total Web Sites(2) 590,626,285 553,826,557 6.6 %
(Excluding Game Sites)
TBO.com 222,837,372 205,518,112 8.4 %
(Tampa, Fla.)
inRich/TimesDispatch.com 116,440,503 134,036,554 (13.1)%
(Richmond, Va.)
JournalNow.com 44,825,717 43,860,023 2.2 %
(Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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Notes: All data are subject to later adjustment.
(1) Revenues from certain broadcast and interactive media operations that
the Company is currently divesting as well as those the Company
divested in 2006.
(2) Web site page views exclude four NBC sites purchased in 2006 that were
previously hosted by a third party.

MEDIA GENERAL, INC.

Daily Newspapers Advertising Linage

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December
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2007 2006 % Change
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Richmond Times-Dispatch
Retail 30,738 36,286 (15.3)%
National 10,866 11,692 (7.1)%
Classified 52,268 61,962 (15.6)%
Total 93,872 109,940 (14.6)%
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The Tampa Tribune
Retail 42,434 63,631 (33.3)%
National 9,481 20,588 (53.9)%
Classified 63,297 108,652 (41.7)%
Total 115,212 192,871 (40.3)%
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Winston-Salem Journal
Retail 28,880 42,090 (31.4)%
National 7,891 9,533 (17.2)%
Classified 37,871 49,092 (22.9)%
Total 74,642 100,715 (25.9)%
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Community Dailies
Retail 317,722 419,997 (24.4)%
National 16,176 41,526 (61.0)%
Classified 356,991 430,053 (17.0)%
Total 690,889 891,576 (22.5)%
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Media General Dailies Total
Retail 419,774 562,004 (25.3)%
National 44,414 83,339 (46.7)%
Classified 510,427 649,759 (21.4)%
Total 974,615 1,295,102 (24.7)%
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Year-to Date
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2007 2006 % Change
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Richmond Times-Dispatch
Retail 374,805 389,417 (3.8)%
National 115,655 115,900 (0.2)%
Classified 823,298 852,524 (3.4)%
Total 1,313,758 1,357,841 (3.2)%
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The Tampa Tribune
Retail 504,253 565,331 (10.8)%
National 107,816 158,094 (31.8)%
Classified 1,077,427 1,596,977 (32.5)%
Total 1,689,496 2,320,402 (27.2)%
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Winston-Salem Journal
Retail 360,462 442,466 (18.5)%
National 92,188 97,600 (5.5)%
Classified 593,171 687,141 (13.7)%
Total 1,045,821 1,227,207 (14.8)%
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Community Dailies
Retail 3,981,157 4,211,360 (5.5)%
National 224,121 272,773 (17.8)%
Classified 5,001,726 5,402,083 (7.4)%
Total 9,207,004 9,886,216 (6.9)%
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Media General Dailies Total
Retail 5,220,677 5,608,574 (6.9)%
National 539,780 644,367 (16.2)%
Classified 7,495,622 8,538,725 (12.2)%
Total 13,256,079 14,791,666 (10.4)%
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