Projo Parent Company Loses $6.7M in First Quarter

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Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Brette Ragland, GoLocalProv News Contributor

The A.H. Belo Corporation, the parent company of The Providence Journal, announced Monday that it had cut its losses in its first quarter for 2011 due by reducing pension expenses related to the Company's move from multi-employer to single-employer defined benefit accounting.

But higher newsprint and marketing expenses offset much of these spending cuts. As a result, the company posted a fourth-quarter net loss of $6.7 million or $0.31 per share—a small improvement from last year’s first quarter net loss of $9.1 million or $0.44 per share.

A.H. Belo reported first quarter revenues of $112.2 million, a decrease of 3.1 percent compared to the first quarter of 2010.

The company also announced that it will pay a regular quarterly cash dividend to its shareholders, which it says is a sign of improvement. Robert W. Decherd, chairman, president and Chief Executive Officer, attributes this improvement to the fact that the corporation has amended its credit facility, saying that it now “enables us to execute the next step in our financial strategy reinstating a quarterly dividend. The dividend rate will be $0.06 per share or $0.24 per share on an annualized basis; our goal is to hold this rate for the foreseeable future.”

The new credit facility will permit dividends and share repurchases without restriction as long as there is no outstanding balance on the facility.

While the company continues to lose money, this quarter marks the smallest decrease in revenues since the Company's spin-off in 2008.

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