DALLAS – Newspaper publisher A.H. Belo Corp. (NYSE: AHC), parent of The Providence Journal Co., today reported a net loss that narrowed to $62.30 million last year from $347.01 million in 2007, despite revenue that fell 14 percent to $637.3 million.

Its loss per diluted share also narrowed sharply in its first full year of operations to $3.04 from the year-ago $16.97. (READ MORE) The company, formerly the newspaper division of Belo Corp. (NYSE: BLC), was spun off from its former parent early last year.

“A.H. Belo and all advertising-based businesses faced an unexpectedly difficult business environment in 2008,” said Robert W. Decherd, the company’s chairman, president and chief executive officer.

“By realigning our expense structure to meet rapidly changing revenue conditions, A.H. Belo was able to stabilize EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization]. The combined efforts of our corporate management team, operating company leadership and every A.H. Belo employee enabled the company to reduce ongoing cash operating expenses by $45 million … versus 2007, despite significant increases in newsprint prices.”

The company added that, “for the full year, expense-reduction initiatives resulted in a 2.7 percent or $18 million decrease” in operating expenses, “despite $12.6 million in voluntary severance and reduction-in-force costs” and a $14.0 million one-time charge related to pensions.

In 2008, A.H. Belo pared its work force by 500 jobs, including 53 at The Providence Journal, leaving the company with about 2,950 full-time and 400 part-time staffers nationwide. Those cuts are slated to continue this year, with the elimination of another 500 jobs company-wide, although the local impact of those cuts is not yet clear. (READ MORE) The company also has “substantially” reduced its cell-phone reimbursement for eligible employees, to $35 per month, A.H. Belo executives said in their fourth-quarter conference call today.

Meanwhile, in another budget-bolstering move, the company is seeking to sell several of its properties in Providence, including the Fountain Street building where the Journal has its headquarters. Those properties, being marketed by C.B. Richard Ellis-New England, have a combined assessed value of $33.2 million. (READ MORE)

Nearly half of A.H. Belo’s 2008 loss, and most of its 2007 loss, came in the year’s final quarter.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, the company posted a loss of $33.13 million, down from $343.63 million a year ago, on revenue that fell 15.21 percent to $160.04 million. The company’s loss per diluted share shrank to $1.62 from the 2007 fourth quarter’s $16.80.

Results for the 2008 fourth quarter included one-time expenses of $14.0 million for a non-cash pension obligation and $1.5 million in expenses related to the company’s work force reductions. Yet despite those charges, “total consolidated operating expenses in the fourth quarter were $167.5 million, or 0.7 percent, less than the same period last year,” thanks to declines in spending on payrolls and outside services, A.H. Belo said.

Fourth-quarter circulation revenue rose 12 percent, the company said, “primarily due to increased prices for The Dallas Morning News,” the company’s flagship paper. Total print and Internet advertising revenue fell 22 percent compared with the 2007 fourth quarter, “driven primarily by declines in classified revenue at The Dallas Morning News,” the company said. Internet revenue fell 16 percent to $11.1 million, or 6.9 percent of total fourth-quarter revenue.

“While the challenges facing the newspaper industry are well-chronicled,” Decherd said, “we believe that A.H. Belo’s distinguishing characteristics – which we have described in the months before and since the spin-off – are significant attributes as the company moves forward.”

A.H. Belo Corp. (NYSE: AHC) owns and operates The Providence Journal, The Dallas Morning News, The Denton Record-Chronicle and The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif., and as well as a variety of specialty publications for the youth and Hispanic markets; the Web sites associated with its publications; and direct-mail and commercial printing businesses. For more information, visit www.AHBelo.com.