Earnings: Journal Communications’ Q3 Loss Widens, Revs Fall 5.6 Percent; Interactive Up 16 Percent

imageApparently, being small and local isn’t any kind of safe haven for newspaper companies these days. While Journal Communications’ total interactive revenue was up almost 16 percent in Q3, as remains typical among its larger newspaper publisher peers, it was not enough to counter the losses on the on the print side. The Milwaukee company’s Q3 revenue was $136.3 million, a 5.6 percent decline compared to $144.4 million last year. Journal Communications’ net loss grew to $17.1 million during the period, compared to Q307’s $13.1 million.

The publisher of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — its only daily, as Journal Comm owns a few weekly community papers — said interactive ad revenue at the newspaper rose 14.1 percent to $3.8 million compared to Q307’s $3.4 million. Overall, publishing revenue fell 8.8 percent to $59.4 million. Broadcast revenue was basically flat at $54 million, while revenue at its radio properties was down 3.3 percent to $21.7 million. As a publisher, Journal Comm is hardly comparable to companies like McClatchy (NYSE: MNI), which swung to profit in Q3 and the NYT, which earlier today reported a loss for the quarter, but the pressures all are facing remain the same, even as interactive becomes a larger part of their operations.

On *Yahoo* APT: During the conference call, Journal Comm COO Elizabeth Brenner, noted that the company was trying to reduce print upsells to online — much like McClatchy, Gannett (NYSE: GCI) and others have been focusing on — and said that Yahoo’s new ad targeting and delivery platform APT got off to a good, albeit slow, start last month, producing $40,000 in revenue for its daily paper in September. That represented a small contribution to the Journal Sentinel’s 13.8 percent rise in total interactive ad revs $1.37 million last month. September revenue release.

Release | Webcast (12:00 PM EDT) | Transcript

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