E.W. Scripps Posts Loss, Shares Tumble

E.W. Scripps(SSP Quote) should know the headline. The media concern and newspaper publisher turned in ugly first-quarter results Monday, hit by the same collapsing demand for print advertising that has afflicted the industry across the board.

Shares of the company dropped 7% Monday morning, changing hands recently at $1.95.

Scripps, which shuttered the century-old Rocky Mountain News in February, reported a loss "attributable to shareholders" -- which excludes write-downs in the value of its radio stations along with other charges -- of $13 million, or 24 cents a share, wider than analysts' estimates of a 13-cent loss. In the year-ago period, Scripps reported earnings, excluding items, of $7.4 million, or 14 cents a share.

Including the charges in the just-ended period, Scripps said it lost a whopping $221 million, or $4.12 a share, more than its quarterly revenue. A year ago, the company reported a loss from continuing operations of $8.6 million, or 16 cents a share.

Revenue tumbled 20% to $205.4 million from $255.7 million last year.

In a conference call with analysts, Rich Boehne, Scripps's president and CEO, said, "Ad revenues from the first quarter were flat-out terrible. Let's all pray America gets its mojo back soon."

Scripps' newspapers reported total advertising revenue for the quarter of $85.8 million, down 28.6% from the year-ago period. That's in-line with declines at other newspaper publishers, including the New York Times(NYT Quote), which saw ad revenue fall 27% in the first quarter, and the Washington Post(WPO Quote), which said ads at its namesake organ plummeted 33% in the same period.