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Wall Street doesn't like what it sees concerning Meredith Corp. -- stemming from a fiscal fourth-quarter loss of $164 million, sharply down from a year ago. The company's stock has dropped a big 12% in mid-day trading.
Meredith Corp., the magazine and TV company, also witnessed revenue sink $346 million from $376 million. Meredith says advertising will continue to be impacted by the recession in 2010.
The company was hit with two special charges in the fourth quarter: a $295 million "impairment charge" related to its FCC TV licenses and goodwill that Meredith says will not impact its future operations. The second charge was $5.5 million, due to employee severance stemming from an earlier announced decision to restructure some of its operations.
Separate from this, the ongoing recession continues to hurt the company for its entire fiscal 2009 period -- down to $787 million in advertising revenues from $931 million.
For the second half of the year, magazine advertising declined 12% from the prior-year period, and 18% from the first half of the year. Better news came from online advertising, growing 7% in the second half of the year and 14% in the first half.
Broadcast advertising trends were similar to its magazine group -- down 17% for all of 2009. Lower automotive advertising continues to affect results.
Publishing revenues in the fourth quarter slipped to $283 million from $297 million; advertising revenues dropped from $148 million to $134 million. Net profit in its fourth quarter grew to $46 million, compared to $25 million for its publishing operation. For the year overall, profit sank to $151 million from $188 million.
The group's broadcasting results had an operating loss in the fourth quarter -- including special charges -- at $292 million, compared to operating profit of $18 million. Fourth-quarter revenues were $62 million against $79 million. For the entire year, broadcasting, including special charges, had a $258 million loss, compared to profit of $78 million in the prior-year period.
Automotive advertising, its biggest ad category, continued to drag down results in its broadcasting operations -- declining 55% in the fourth quarter and 45% for the year overall.
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