Super Bowl Update

The E.W. Scripps Company, owner of the Evansville Courier & Press, Henderson Gleaner and Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV, on Friday reported operating results for the third quarter of 2012 that were substantially stronger than the year-ago quarter, led in large part by higher political revenues and its recently-acquired television stations.

Consolidated revenues rose 31 percent to $220 million from $168 million in the third quarter of 2011. The 2012 quarter included revenue from television stations in Indianapolis, Denver, San Diego and Bakersfield that were acquired on Dec. 30, 2011. Excluding the new stations from the 2012 performance, consolidated revenues increased 15.0 percent to $193 million, led by the strongest third-quarter revenue performance ever reported by the company’s television stations.

Consolidated expenses for segment, shared services and corporate rose 13.7 percent to $185 million. Excluding costs associated with the new stations, expenses increased 1.1 percent to $164 million.

Operating income in the 2012 quarter was $18.3 million, compared with an operating loss of $17.9 million in the third quarter of 2011. The year-ago quarter included a non-cash, pre-tax charge of $9 million for the impairment of long-lived assets at four of the company’s newspapers.

At $3.3 million, interest expense in the 2012 quarter was higher than in the prior-year quarter due to the acquisition of the television stations.

The provision for income taxes was $2.1 million in the third quarter of 2012, compared with a tax benefit of $7.5 million in the year-ago quarter. The tax provision for the 2012 quarter includes a $3.7 million reduction in the company’s reserve for uncertain tax positions.

Net income in the third quarter of 2012 was $12.0 million, or 21 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $10.7 million, or 19 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2011.

“An aggressive realignment of our company over the past two years has positioned us to take advantage of improvements in our core television business, growth in digital audiences, and a huge surge in political advertising,” said Rich Boehne, Scripps president and CEO.

“In the television division, our investments in local news content, original programming to replace underperforming syndicated shows, and in sales infrastructure to maximize political dollars are all showing strong returns on investments. Also ahead of expectations are the four additional markets – Denver, Indianapolis, San Diego and Bakersfield – which we acquired at the end of last year.”

“In the newspaper division, we saw a positive upturn in real estate advertising driven by improvement in Florida, which is particularly critical to Scripps. Overall expense control was good, and we’re approaching the beginning of a move to bundled subscriptions for print and digital products, which we believe is both critical to the future health of the business and in line with growing consumer demand.”

“Across our entire portfolio of attractive local markets we are rapidly rolling out new, market-leading digital products and services. A new round of improved apps for smartphones and tablets recently were released, and market by market we are expanding our advertising sales force to increase our share of the growing digital advertising pie.”

“Enabling Scripps to seize these opportunities and build the value of the enterprise is one of the industry’s strongest balance sheets. With no net debt and a growing pool of cash, we have the financial flexibility to consider a wide range of options that will produce the best returns to our shareholders.”

To read the company's full report, click here.

From Indianapolis today comes word that WRTV Good Morning Indiana anchor Grace Trahan has announced that she is stepping down at the end of this week.

Trahan joined RTV6 in 1994, and has co-anchored GMI for the past 14 years.  She said in a statement that she wants to spend more time with her family.  "After much thought and consideration, I have decided that my family time is suffering and I cannot be the kind of mom I want to be to my three children. While I have enjoyed 23 wonderful years in the news business (18 of those right here at RTV6), I have decided it is time to put my family first," Trahan said.

She also wrote on her Facebook page that she plans to join the corporate world, although she did not divulge specifics.

Meanwhile, back at RTV6, a former 14WFIE reporter and anchor will step in to fill Trahan's shoes in the morning, at least for now.  Tanya Spencer (who Tri-State viewers will remember as Tanya Jourdain during her time in Evansville) will fill as the morning newscast's co-anchor on an interim basis until a permanent replacement is named.

Spencer joined WRTV in 2005.

Right This Minute, the video joint venture show produced by Cox Media, Raycom and Scripps, will begin its second season on Sept. 10 with a handful of new stations added to those which carried it last year.

Six of the seven new stations carrying the program are Scripps-owned stations, including WRTV 6 in Indianapolis and the other stations the company purchased from McGraw-Hill last year.

The program airs locally each weekday on 14Xtra (WFIE 14.2 / 5 and 8 p.m.), The Heartland's CW (KFVS 12.2, WQWQ 9 and WQTV 24 / 4 and 4:30 p.m.) and This TV Louisville (WAVE 3.2 / 3 and 3:30 a.m.).

“We’re still endeavoring to sell the show beyond our partner markets,” says Phil Alvidrez, general manager of MagicDust Television, which partners with Cox, Raycom and Scripps to produce RTM. “But Scripps is totally on board. We are in all their markets. And we’re in half of the Raycom and Cox markets.”

In its original form, RTM was a one-hour program in which they showed clips and then talked about them into two half-hours where they track down videos before they go viral, like a recent clip of a woman in her military uniform breastfeeding her baby.

“You see a pop in the ratings with a great video that people haven’t seen in a lot of places,” says Lisa Hudson, who is RTM’s co-executive producer with Dennis O’Neill. “The website gets a lot more traffic and our name gets out there. People talk about us more.”

The show is moving from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism to a bigger production facility with a more intimate set. Instead of looking like a newsroom as before, the set now looks like a coffee shop, where the hosts sit on barstools around a tall table while watching videos on a computer.