It's not often that you hear radio was the strongest performing asset in a media portfolio. That's exactly what Journal Communications reported Tuesday when the company checked in with quarterly earnings. Television and publishing were a drag on Journal and radio was the bright spot. Journal reported a 4.4% decrease in revenue for Q3, more importantly earnings were down nearly 27%.
On the Publishing side revenue for Journal dropped 6%, in Television revenue dropped 6.8% and on the radio side revenue was up 2.7%. Radio highlights from Q3 for Journal include an increase in revenue from the Milwaukee Brewers making the baseball playoffs. Journal broadcasts the Brewers games and CEO Steve Smith says in addition to the revenue from the additional games, there's a "significant cumulative audience" driven by the games to the radio station (WTMJ).
Smith also says "the radio business has gained momentum." Those words are always followed by "visibility is limited" and "the advertising environment continues to be challenged." He did say "October revenue is turning out to be better than we expected and September was up 5%." But, of course, there is limited visibility looking into December.
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