• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, November 9, 2015

Against the backdrop of continuing controversy over the firing of Los Angeles Times publisher Austin Beutner, Tribune Publishing revealed that total revenues were flat — advertising revenues fell yet again the third quarter.

The company attributed the slump, in part, to a steep decline at the company’s beleaguered Southern California operations.

Tribune’s total revenues were basically unchanged at $404.3 million in the third quarter of 2015, up slightly from $404.1 million in the third quarter of 2014. Over the same period, total advertising revenues slipped 0.5% to $219.8 million -- however, when results from the recently acquired San Diego Union Tribune are excluded, ad revenues actually fell 9.6%.

Within the ad revenue figure, retail ad revenues increased 1.3% to $116.1 million, while national ads fell 2.2% to $36.8 million and classifieds fell 2.4% to $66.9 million.

The ad declines were somewhat offset by growth in circulation revenues, which increased 11.6% to $120 million.

Discussing these results, Tribune Publishing CEO Jack Griffin noted that the company’s southern California division, centered on the LAT, saw revenues fall by “low to mid-double digits,” in contrast to its divisions in the other parts of the country, which he said were only down by single digits in percentage comparisons.

Griffin added that the Southern California division’s performance has improved since the appointment of Tim Ryan, formerly publisher of the Baltimore Sun, as LAT publisher.

Tribune also revealed plans to implement metered paywalls for online content at all of its newspaper Web sites, taking a page from The New York Times, which gives visitors free access to a limited number of articles before requiring them to buy a digital subscription.

The transition is being led by Denise Warren, who helped implement the NYT’s digital paywall and joined Tribune in May 2015 as executive vice-president president of digital, and CEO East Coast publishing.

Finally, Griffin confirmed Tribune’s interest in acquiring another Southern California property, the Orange County Register, from Freedom Communications, which recently declared bankruptcy.