RICHMOND, Va. – Newspaper and broadcasting giant Media General Inc. (NYSE: MEG) today posted a loss of $631.85 million for 2008, compared with a 2007 profit of $10.69 million, on full-year revenue that shrank 10.99 percent to $800.03 million. Earnings plummeted to a 2008 net loss of $28.57 per diluted common share from the previous year’s earnings of 47 cents per share.

The report came hours after Media General – the parent of Cranston-based WJAR-TV NBC Channel 10 – announced the signing of “a definitive agreement” for Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. to purchase WCWJ, a television station in Jacksonville, Fla., that the company has owned since 1982.

“We are pleased to sign an agreement for the sale of the last of the five stations we planned to divest,” said Marshall N. Morton, Media General’s president and chief executive officer.

Total proceeds from the sale of WCWJ-TV and the other four stations – WTVQ in Lexington, Ky.; WMBB in Panama City, Fla.; KALB/NALB in Alexandria, La., and WNEG in Toccoa, Ga. – are estimated at $95 million to $100 million, the company said. Media General pledged to provide aggregate financial details when it finalizes the sale of the Jacksonville station. “When the sale is completed, we will use the proceeds to pay down debt,” Morton said.

“Economic conditions in the company’s markets continued to decline in the fourth quarter of 2008,” Media General noted in a statement accompanying its unaudited annual report. “Additionally, the market’s perception of the value of media stocks remains negative. As a result …the company recognized a pre-tax non-cash impairment charge of $130.4 million, primarily to write-down the value of FCC licenses and network affiliation agreements in the Broadcast Division to their estimated fair values.”

Despite those write-downs – as well as severance expenses related to the TV-station layoffs announced in May (READ MORE) – the Broadcast Division posted a full-year profit of $61.78 million on segment revenue of $324.69 million. Meanwhile, the Publishing Division posted a profit of $33.81 million on revenue of $443.33 million, and Interactive Media posted a segment loss of $5.35 million on revenue of $38.67 million.

For the three months ended Dec. 28, the company posted a loss of $85.53 million, compared with a profit of $9.59 million in the 2007 period, on revenue that fell 11.92 percent compared with a year ago to $206.98 million. For the quarter just ended, Media General posted a net loss of $3.86 per diluted common share compared with the 2007 fourth quarter’s profit of 43 cents per share.

The Broadcast Division posted a fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $21.62 million on segment revenue that fell 7 percent to $87.48 million. Net income rose 2.6 percent year over year, before severance charges in both years, the company said.

Publishing posted a profit of $8.45 million on segment revenue that fell 16.8 percent year over year to $111.19 million. Excluding severance charges, net income fell 57.2 percent, the company said.

Interactive Media posted a segment loss of $1.61 million – compared with its year-ago loss of $2.6 million – on segment revenue that rose 10 percent to $10.07 million.

“The Publishing Division’s lower fourth-quarter results were due to the continuation of the declining economic trends that we have experienced all year, particularly in Florida,” Morton said.

“In the Broadcast Division, strong political revenue largely offset lower national and local transactional sales,” the CEO added.

“The Interactive Media Division generated revenue growth of 10 percent … driven by strong holiday sales on our new online-coupon and shopping Web site DealTaker.com and a 43 percent increase in local advertising,” Morton added. Our total online-audience growth continued in the fourth quarter, driven significantly by continuous news offerings on all sites. Page views were up 10.1 percent, visitor sessions increased 23.2 percent and unique visitors rose 30.1 percent.”

The company today announced that, given the uncertain economic outlook, its board of directors has voted to suspend the dividend on the company’s Class A and Class B shares. “While we regret having to take this action, this allows the company to direct additional cash flow to the reduction of our debt,” Morton said.

Earlier this month, Media General announced plans to spin off the printing and distribution functions of its various publications into a new Operations and Distribution Solutions Group effective Feb. 1. The group, which will remain within the Publishing Division, will aim to achieve savings by consolidating newspaper production. It also will seek to expand outside sales of commercial-printing services, primarily to other newspapers and specialty publications. The company already has consolidated its printing of its daily newspapers at 11 sites, down from the previous 25.

Media General Inc. (NYSE: MEG) is the owner of 19 network TV television stations – including Cranston-based WJAR-TV NBC Channel 10, one of four stations it bought from NBC Universal in 2006 – plus 24 daily and about 275 weekly newspapers and other publications, mostly in the Southeast. Additional information is available at www.mediageneral.com.