Audio By Carbonatix
Weeks after completing its latest round of penny-saving layoffs, which were preceded by pay cuts and benefits trims, A.H. Belo this morning reported its first-quarter ’09 results — and they are significant. The publisher of The Dallas Morning News reports a first quarter net loss of $103.1 million, some of which is related to the cost of the layoffs and most of which attributed to a write-down in Rhode Island, but a big hunk of the figure — some $18 million — is due to a decrease in ad revenue, most of that in classified ads.
If David Carr thinks The Washington Post losing 8 percent of its online revenue is ominous, what would he make of Belo’s stats: “Internet revenues were $9.3 million, 24 percent below the same period last year,” which is happening even as the paper’s online readership is expanding. Notes Belo president and CEO Robert Decherd in this morning’s release, “Lower advertising revenues require us to continue to focus on expense reductions and operational realignment.
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