Business News

Media General Reports June 2008 Revenues

Thursday 17. July 2008 - Media General, Inc. (NYSE:MEG) today released its monthly revenues report for June 2008. Total company revenues were $61.8 million, compared with $68.6 million in June 2007.

The 9.8 percent decline was primarily attributable to lower Publishing Division revenues, driven by continued weakness in Classified advertising in the Tampa and Richmond markets. In the Broadcast Division, increased Political advertising revenues partially offset lower National and Local time sales. In the Interactive Media Division, revenues rose 9 percent, due to higher Local advertising and revenues from DealTaker.com, acquired March 31, 2008.

Publishing Division

Publishing Division revenues declined 15.3 percent. Excluding Florida, where revenues declined 23.7 percent, Publishing Division total revenues in June were down 11.4 percent. Revenues in Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina decreased 13.3 percent, 10.2 percent, 8.7 percent, and 3.7 percent, respectively.

Classified advertising revenues decreased $4.2 million, or 29.4 percent, reflecting reductions in all markets, but in Tampa and Richmond in particular. For the company’s three metro markets combined, employment revenues decreased 44.5 percent, automotive revenues declined 43.7 percent and real estate revenues decreased 34.3 percent.

Retail advertising revenues declined $1.2 million, or 7.5 percent, due to lower spending in Tampa and Richmond across most categories, while Winston- Salem generated a nominal increase due to higher financial and medical advertising and revenues from two new monthly magazines. National revenues decreased $610,000, or 19.6 percent, as a result of lower telecommunications and travel advertising in the Tampa market. Circulation revenues decreased $80,000, reflecting Daily and Sunday volume declines, partially offset by price increases in several markets.

Broadcast Division

Broadcast gross time sales decreased $1.4 million, or 5.4 percent, primarily as a result of lower National time sales, particularly in the automotive category, partially offset by a $570,000 increase in Political advertising revenues. The Political revenues were generated from presidential campaign spending in Ohio and Florida, U.S. Congressional races in South Carolina and Virginia and state office and issue spending in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Rhode Island.

Local time sales declined $590,000, or 3.5 percent, primarily from lower furniture store and transportation advertising, partially offset by higher spending in the health care, home improvement and telecommunications categories. National time sales declined $1.4 million, or 14.4 percent, as a result of decreased advertising in the automotive category.

Interactive Media Division

In the Interactive Media Division, Local advertising revenues increased nearly 60 percent and more than offset decreased Classified and National revenues. Increased Local online revenues reflected a focus on new products and direct sales. Revenues from the Yahoo!HotJobs partnership helped to partially mitigate a 5 percent decline in Classified revenues. National/Regional advertising declined about 10 percent, resulting from lower spending by national agencies.

In the division’s advertising services group, DealTaker.com, acquired March 31, 2008, generated solid revenues in this fast-growing sector of the online coupon and shopping business. A decline in advergaming revenues reflected a slower pace of projects compared with the June 2007 period. Media General is aggressively harnessing multiple opportunities for rapid growth in the digital world.

The company’s Web-First breaking news focus continued to drive audience growth, with page views and visitor sessions up 10 percent and 19.3 percent, respectively. Local news page views were up nearly 64 percent at TBO.com in Tampa.