Media General reports 2nd-quarter profit; ad revenue in publishing drops 26 percent

Media General reports 2Q profit

RICHMOND, Va. — Newspaper publisher and TV station owner Media General Inc. said Wednesday that cost cutting helped deliver a profitable second quarter despite tumbling ad revenue.

The results nearly doubled the company’s share price. The stock climbed $1.98 to close at $4.33.

Like fellow publishers Gannett Co. and McClatchy Co., Media General said layoffs, furloughs and other cutbacks helped prop up earnings even as revenue continued to suffer from both the economic downturn and the broader shift of readers and advertisers to the Internet.

The Richmond, Va., company, publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Tampa Tribune, earned $20.6 million, or 90 cents per share. That compares with a loss of $532.2 million, or $24.12 per share, a year ago, when the company took a hefty one-time charge.

Revenue dropped 20 percent to $163.8 million from $204.9 million.

The company, which operates more than 20 daily newspapers and 18 television stations, trimmed operating costs by 23 percent.

The deepest cuts came in publishing. The division posted $12 million in profit, up from $6.8 million a year earlier despite a 26 drop in advertising revenue. Expenses fell 24.8 percent excluding severance costs and other charges.

Media General also raised $7.1 million after taxes by selling a TV station in Jacksonville, Fla.