• by Wayne Friedman , July 30, 2007

TV and newspaper company Belo Corp. saw TV revenues rise, which made up for still-weak newspaper numbers.

But in the end, it didn't move the needle higher, as its second-quarter profit was off 15% to $36.4 million. The Dallas-based media company said the comparison was affected by a one-time $7.5 million gain in the year-ago quarter. Net operating revenues slipped 3% to $391 million.

The TV group witnessed a 2.5% increase for the three months ending June 30, to $198 million. Political advertising was cut by more than half to $2.2 million, from $5.1 million against the same time period a year ago. Many station groups experiencing similar losses are expected to gain later, in the higher-then-lower, two-year cycle of political advertising.

Overall, TV ad spot revenue eked out a 1.1% increase, with local business advertising sales climbing 3.9% and national spot growing 1%. Better results came from Belo's Web-related TV activities, up 48% to $7 million.

For the newspaper group, which represents almost exactly half of Belo's business--the other being TV--it was a different story. Revenues slowed by 8.5% to $192 million.

The company blamed soft newspaper advertising conditions and the downturn in the Southern California housing market. Belo did see better results from its Web-related newspaper activities--up 19% to $13.6 million.