The E.W. Scripps Co., new parent of local TV station WTMJ-Channel 4 and radio stations AM 620-WTMJ and FM 94.5-WLWK, today reported a second quarter net loss of $3.4 million, or 6 cents per share, compared to net income of $3.9 million, or five cents per share, in the second quarter of 2013.
The Cincinnati-based media company last week announced it will merge with Milwaukee-based Journal Communications and formed two separate publicly traded companies. Scripps will focus on broadcast and digital media, while Journal will focus on newspapers.
Scripps reported consolidated second quarter revenue of $212 million, up 2 percent over the same period a year ago.
The company attributed the loss to a $4.1 million charge to exit a multi-employer pension plan and $4.1 million of acquisition and related integration costs.
“In our television markets, good growth in local, political and digital advertising as well as retransmission revenue more than offset weakness in national advertising,” said Rich Boehne, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Scripps. “Our digital-only sales force contributed significantly to the nearly 10 percent year-over-year increase in the TV division’s digital revenue. More than half of our stations enjoyed digital revenue growth of more than 20 percent year-over-year.”
