Media General Bleeds To The Tune Of $60 Mil But Ad Spending Could Be Up

Media General (MEG) reported a loss of $62 million this quarter as revenue fell 18 percent.

The Richmond, Va.-based company, which owns U.S. papers such as the Richmond Times-Dispatch and Tampa Tribune and 19 television stations, has been slashing jobs for the better part of a year (here and here; the company has 770 fewer employees now than it did this time last year) and instituted furloughs, none of which was enough to stem the losses.

But the company sees recovery, of sorts, on the horizon: “As we enter the fourth quarter, we are seeing signs of strengthening in advertiser spending. While we do not expect to fully replace the $23.4 million of Political revenues we generated in last year’s fourth quarter, we believe that Local and National advertiser spending patterns are firming somewhat, especially on the broadcast side. September produced the smallest revenue decline we’ve seen all year, down 12 percent,” said Marshall N. Morton, president and chief executive officer.

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