Canwest papers sell for C$1.1 billion
Canada’s largest newspaper chain, Canwest LP, has been sold for C$1.1 billion to a bondholders group led by National Post president Paul Godfrey. The newspaper assets of the Asper family’s Canwest Global Communications Corp. had been up for auction, after receiving creditor protection in January. The winning bid trumps several other offers, including one from Torstar Corp. Here’s news coverage from the Post, Globe and Mail and Toronto Star — and some financial opinion from the Globe and Mail here. (And a Bruce Annan blog item below.)
Ad revenue up 25 percent at WSJ, says News Corp
News Corp.’s third quarter revenue of $8.8 billion reflects a 19 percent year over year growth, with improvements in film, cable and newspaper divisions. Filmed Entertainment increased its operating income 78 percent year over year, and Fox Television jumped 90 percent for the same time period. Automotive and telecom advertising drove an 18 percent growth in local advertising for the Fox stations. Cable network programming increased its operating income by 38 percent as a result of double-digit contribution increases from the Fox News Channel, The Regional Sports Networks, the Fox International Channels and Star.
Advertising revenues up 25 percent at The Wall Street Journal and improvement in the UK as well drove growth in the newspapers and information services segment of News Corp, jumping operating income year over year from $29 million to $131 million.
Digital Media Group operating losses increased from 2009, primarily due to lower search and ad revenue. HarperCollins improved the book publishing division YOY, from last year’s $8 million loss to the current $4 million in operating income.
“Today’s earnings confirm that no content company is stronger than News Corporation at building both fiscal and operational momentum,” said CEO and chair Rupert Murdoch,” in the earnings release. “Our global portfolio of sought-after content is ideally situated to benefit from the increase in consumer spending, advertising and access to new platforms we are seeing across our regions. The unique strengths of our cable channels – young, vibrant franchises with phenomenal growth and potential – now generate almost half of our operating profit.”
Gatehouse advertising rebounds some, even print classifieds
GateHouse Media Q110 revenues were down 3.9 percent year over year, according to its latest earnings release. Net loss for the quarter was $119.4 million, a 45.3 percent improvement from Q109. Advertising revenue was stronger this quarter, with online advertising growth of 9.7 percent over the same time last year and classifieds improving 0.9 percent. Classified revenue for the month of March grew 3.6 percent, and online ad dollars jumped 16.5 percent for the same period.
Circulation and printing services declined 3.7 percent and 24.4 percent respectively, though were offset somewhat by a 31.8 percent reduction in newsprint expense.
“We are encouraged by the signs of economic recovery and the improvement in our revenue performance during the first quarter,” said Gatehouse Media CEO Michael E. Reed, in the announcement. “Our first quarter same-store revenue decline of 3.8 percent was our fourth consecutive quarter of improving revenue trends. Particularly encouraging was our print classified advertising, which increased slightly from the prior year and demonstrated improvement each month of the quarter. Also encouraging was that each month within the quarter got stronger with March showing overall advertising revenue growth versus March 2009.”
SPH revamping print facility
Singapore Press Holdings is showing faith in the future of print, spending S$45 million (US$33 million) to upgrade its print presses.
SPH says the upgrade, due to be completed next year, involves both software and hardware upgrades and will take the company’s print facilities “to a new level of excellence.”
“While we continue to venture into other arenas, our core business is in print, and our newspapers and magazines still bring in the bulk of our revenue and profits,” SPH Chairman Dr Tony Tan said. “This is why we have been, and will continue improving our print products and facilities.”
SPH is so dominant in the Singaporean media market that an estimated four out-of-five adults living in the island state read one of its publications daily. Its stable of newspapers includes English language daily The Straits Times, as well as Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao, The Business Times and tabloid The New Paper.
Atex snags biggest newspaper advertising, editorial client
Freedom Communications Inc., owner of more than 100 newspapers, magazines, and broadcast stations just announced its choice of Atex for editorial and advertising content management. Atex is now majority owner of Kaango Classifieds, we recently reported.
Under the SaaS model, Atex will install, maintain and support Freedom’s advertising and editorial systems in an Atex Data Center, and Freedom newspapers will operate the Atex software.
“We recognize that having Atex host our editorial and advertising systems will greatly strengthen our capabilities in publishing our content seamlessly across our platforms,” said Burl Osborne, Freedom Communications’ Interim President and CEO, in the announcement.
On the editorial side of the Atex system, reporters and editors will be able to create, edit and publish content from a single system to any print or digital channel, including the IPad, mobile devices and e-readers.
The Atex Advertising system will enabled ad booking and placement in print or online. The Atex “one system” model will also simplify and enhance cross-selling into any or all Freedom newspapers.
ABC, Verve to audit mobile newspaper distribution
With the use of and demand for mobile media growing dramatically, the Audit Bureau of Circulations’ interactive unit, ABCi, recently announced its team-up with Verve Wireless. Now ABC will be able to audit the mobile content of the more than 600 newspapers using the Verve publishing platform. This means that ABCi can now provide independently-verified mobile usage data generated from newspapers’ mobile apps, e-readers, and mobile browsers. This is important new information for advertisers, which makes it a real plus for publishers.
It also makes it an excellent marketing tool for Verve Wireless, which also noted a 30 percent increase in mobile ad revenue for its media partners each of the last five months.
“It’s clear that mobile represents the next generation of publishing,” said Art Howe, CEO of Verve Wireless, in the announcement. “In order for advertisers to have confidence in the medium, there has to be accountability and verifiable usage statistics. ABC’s interactive audit services are ideally suited to audit user data across all mobile technology platforms, all devices and all networks.”
“With all the buzz around the iPad and with use of mobile browsers exploding, newspapers and their advertisers are increasingly interested in seeing mobile metrics detailed in ABC reports,” said Michael Lavery, ABC president and managing director. “We’re pleased to be working with Verve to provide a valuable new audit service to our members in the U.S. and Canada.”
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