Projo Biz Blog

The decline in Belo Corp.'s newspaper revenue accelerated in the last three months of 2007, but the pace of the decline will slow this year, chairman and chief executive Robert W. Decherd said yesterday in New York.

Newspaper revenue fell 9.7 percent in 2007, including an 11.5 percent drop between October and December, according to preliminary figures.

But Decherd, in New York to sell Wall Street on his plan to separate the company's newspapers from its television stations, said the newspaper industry will eventually emerge from its long slump.

"2008 isn't going to be a pretty year for any newspaper company," he said. But, he added, "while the industry is presently undergoing profound and fundamental changes, there will always be demand for the high-quality, in-depth local news and information that our newspapers provide."

Belo plans to spin off its newspapers to a new company called A.H. Belo Corporation, which will publish four dailies, including The Dallas Morning News and The Providence Journal. Belo will retain its 20 television stations.

The A.H. Belo spinoff, scheduled to occur Feb. 8, will come in the middle of an economic slowdown that may hurt media companies' results, especially in the first half of 2008, analysts said.

Full story ...

-- Brendan M. Case / The Dallas Morning News

---