• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, August 1, 2012

A.H. Belo, which publishes the Dallas Morning News among other newspapers, saw total revenues decrease 5% from to $109 million in the second quarter of 2012, the company announced Wednesday.
 
Total advertising revenues sank 8%, from second-quarter 2011 to second-quarter 2012, with display ads down 15% to $21.5 million, preprint revenue down 1% to $20 million, and classifieds down 13% to over $13 million. Total digital ad revenues increased 1% to $9 million, while circulation revenues decreased 3% to $34 million.   
 
Looking to the near future, A.H. Belo chairman, president and CEO Robert Decherd warned that “advertising revenue volatility may continue for the remainder of the year,” echoing similar comments from executives at other big newspaper publishers, including Lee Enterprises and McClatchy.
 
Last week McClatchy, which publishes newspapers including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Charlotte Observer, reported that total revenues slipped 4.8% to $299 million in the second quarter of 2012. For the second half of the year, McClatchy President and CEO Pat Talamantes warned: “We continue to see a very choppy economic recovery that is affecting our advertising customers, and therefore our visibility into our own advertising revenues.”
 
Lee Enterprises -- which owns almost 50 daily newspapers, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch -- said total revenues decreased 4.3% to $179 million in the second quarter of 2012, due mostly to a nearly 6% drop in advertising revenue, to $125 million.

Lee CEO Mary Junck stated: “In nearly all our markets, the slow economic recovery seems to start and stall unpredictably, producing erratic overall revenue results from month to month.”