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Belo Corp Reports Q4 Profit Increase

Feb 10, 2005  •  Post A Comment

Belo Corp. on Thursday reported a 26 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit, as robust political advertising spending more than offset weakness in the newspaper group and a series of charges taken for discontinued operations and severance.

The Dallas-based owner of 19 television stations, posted a profit of $53.5 million, up 26 percent from a year-earlier profit of $42.4 million. Revenue was up 6 percent to $412.7 million.

For the year, Belo’s profit rose 3 percent to $132.5 million on a 5 percent revenue increase to $1.5 billion.

Included in Belo’s fourth-quarter results was $1.3 million in charges related to severance from layoffs at the company’s Dallas newspaper as well as the reorganization of Texas Cable News.

Driving the growth at the company was political advertising revenue, which hit $28.4 million in the quarter and $52.8 million for the full year. Excluding political spending, Belo’s TV stations’ local ad revenue rose 0.9 percent for the quarter and 5 percent for the year, while national was off 1.7 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.