ProJo more than doubles profit in 2Q as revenue climbs 1.1%

AN SEC FILING by Providence Journal parent A.H. Belo Corp. showed Wednesday that the newspaper more than doubled its profit in the second quarter to $2.1 million. A.H. Belo announced last week that it had agreed to sell the Journal and its production facility to GateHouse Media affiliate New Media Investment Group Inc. / PBN FILE PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD
AN SEC FILING by Providence Journal parent A.H. Belo Corp. showed Wednesday that the newspaper more than doubled its profit in the second quarter to $2.1 million. A.H. Belo announced last week that it had agreed to sell the Journal and its production facility to GateHouse Media affiliate New Media Investment Group Inc. / PBN FILE PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

(Updated, 11:30 a.m.)
DALLAS – The Providence Journal’s second-quarter profit more than doubled to $2.1 million, as revenue grew 1.1 percent to $22.3 million compared with the same period last year, according to an A.H. Belo Corp. filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made public Wednesday.

Due to the impending sale of the Providence Journal, A.H. Belo reported the Journal’s operations as “discontinued operations” in the second-quarter financial statement and did not break down the Journal’s revenue by circulation, printing and distribution, and advertising revenue.

Total A.H. Belo gains from discontinued operations in the second quarter totaled $2.3 million, of which $2.1 million represented the Journal’s second-quarter profit, more than double the newspaper’s $948,000 profit for the second quarter of 2013. The remaining roughly $200,000 in discontinued operations profit for A.H. Belo represented the company’s gains from the sale of the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., late in 2013.

The Journal brought in $43.5 million in revenue through June, an increase of 1.9 percent over the $42.7 million in revenue for the same six-month period last year. The Journal’s year-to-date net income for 2014 totaled $3.1 million, more than eight times its 2013 year-to-date income of $363,000, according to the SEC filing.

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A.H. Belo valued the Providence Journal’s total assets at $36.7 million as of June 2014, including a $21.6 million valuation for the Journal’s property assets, distribution plant and equipment.

A.H. Belo, which last week announced an agreement to sell the Journal and its production facility to GateHouse Media affiliate New Media Investment Group Inc. for $46 million in cash, stated in the SEC filing that it will continue to market for sale the land and buildings in Providence that currently serve as the Journal’s administrative headquarters and were not sold under the deal.

In addition, A.H. Belo will retain its pension obligation to certain employees of the Journal upon the sale of the newspaper operations. The sale is expected to close in the third quarter of this year. The Dallas publisher estimated that it would record a pretax gain of between $11 million and $14 million after costs on the sale of the Journal to New Media.

A.H. Belo on Tuesday reported second-quarter net income of $22 million, more than 18 times the profit of the same year-earlier period, thanks in large part to an $18.5 million pre-tax net investment gain from the sale of Apartments.com.

Net operating revenue remained roughly unchanged in the second quarter, rising two-tenths of a percent to $69.3 million from $69.1 million in the second quarter of 2013.

A.H. Belo also noted that it paid a “special dividend” of $1.50 per share to shareholders and holders of restricted stock units (instruments that are paid out to directors and those participating in the company’s long-term incentive plan, typically executives) for a total of $33.8 million. The company said that it was returning “to shareholders cash held by the company which exceeded forecasted liquidity requirements for operations, investing and financing activities.”

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