• by Wayne Friedman , May 10, 2011

E.W. Scripps eked out some television advertising gains in the first quarter -- amid an overall declining financial picture.

The Cincinnati-based media company grew 3.3% in TV ad revenue in the first quarter to $61.1 million. Local TV advertising was its consistent performer, up 3.5% to $41.1 million, with national spot advertising slipping 1% to $20.0 million. Political advertising was half that of a year ago, at $444,000 for the first quarter.

As with other TV station groups, Scripps has some tougher comparisons to a year ago when it ran the Vancouver Winter Olympics on its NBC stations. It took in $2 million in incremental advertising money from that event. Leaving out the Olympic comparison, advertising grew 4.4% in the first quarter.

Two smaller revenue categories -- retrans fees and digital advertising -- grew during the period. Revenue from retrans consent agreements climbed 47% to $4.0 million. Digital revenue improved 29% to $2.1 million. Even then, the television division's segment profit was $6.3 million, a decline of 4.8%.

Rich Boehne, president and CEO of E.W. Scripps, stated: "Television, despite a number of headwinds, reported one of the best revenue increases in the industry, leading us to believe audiences are responding to our commitment to strengthen our news organizations in the communities we serve."

Newspapers continued to be another story. Revenue from Scripps newspapers dropped 5.7 % to $106 million. The bulk of this -- print advertising revenue -- lost 7.8% to $63.1 million.

Unlike its TV group, newspaper digital revenues went south. Digital revenues dropped 5.7% to $6.3 million, mostly due to the fact that the company began reporting revenue from some of its digital offerings to its digital partners.

Overall, Scripps revenues were $180 million, a 2.1% dip from $184 million in the first quarter of 2010. Its operating loss increased to $10.5 million compared with a $1.2 million loss in the same period a year ago.