ProJo owner reports 3Q revenue increase

PROVIDENCE – The new owner of the Providence Journal reported third-quarter earnings on Thursday, showing total revenue of $165.1 million, an increase of 31 percent year over year, driven by classified print and preprint revenue.
At the same time, New Media Investment Group Inc. posted a net loss of $4.7 million, or 15 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $129.2 million, or $2.22 a share, during the prior year quarter. Despite the loss, the New York-based owner of 450 community newspapers and more than 370 related websites declared a 27 cents per share dividend, payable Nov. 20 to shareholders of record on Nov. 12.

New Media highlighted three acquisitions in the quarter, which totaled $61.3 million. The Journal was purchased for $46 million in early September.
After adjusting for expenses related to the acquisitions, financing and restructuring, and reversing tax benefits recorded in the first half of the year, adjusted net income was $4.2 million, or 14 cents per share. The acquisition, financing and restructuring expenses incurred were $4.7 million, and the reversal of the tax benefit from the first half of the year was $4.2 million, the company stated.
Michael E. Reed, New Media President and CEO said in prepared remarks, “I’m very pleased with New Media’s financial performance in the third quarter. Our investments in our newspaper and digital businesses continue to positively impact our revenue trends. We believe our results support our view that local newspapers in smaller markets remain central to those communities, and that our evolving revenue mix, with a greater emphasis on stable or growing categories, is leading to stabilization of our business.”
He said third-quarter revenue results were driven by “strong growth” in digital and commercial print businesses, which saw 6.3 percent and 5.6 percent gains, respectively.

“Our digital services business continues to see very strong growth, with third-quarter revenue up $2.9 million, or 167.5 percent, over the prior year. Our circulation and preprint revenue businesses continue to be stable, which contributes to our improving overall revenue trends,” Reed said.
He said he believes the investments in both the print and digital businesses will drive future improvement in revenue.
“Our pipeline for acquisitions remains robust and as a reminder, during the third quarter, New Media acquired three local media assets for a total purchase price of $61.3 million. Overall, we remain excited about our ability to execute on both our organic and acquisition strategy, which together, we believe will continue to drive shareholder returns,” Reed said.
New Media was trading at $17.49, an increase of 58 cents, early Thursday afternoon.

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