• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, December 19, 2007

Media General, the newspaper and TV station operator, said November revenues dropped 12.5% compared to a year ago, largely due to a decline in political advertising.

Political dollars fell $11.8 million, as total revenues came in at $80.3 million for the month.

The company operates The Tampa Tribune as part of its newspaper portfolio, as well as 23 local TV stations--four of which were recently purchased from NBC Universal.

Publishing revenues fell 8.9% with the continuing slide in classified dollars, while the political-impacted broadcasting group saw an 18.9% fall.

On the plus side, the interactive division saw a 34.8% increase. CEO Marshall Morton said: "With the addition of four new NBC stations in 2006, we generated $13.2 million in political advertising last November, compared with $1.4 million this year." He says the rise was generated by "presidential campaign spending in South Carolina and Florida, state and local government races in a majority of our markets, and issue spending in a number of states."

At the broadcast group, local sales were up $2.3 million, due partly to a bump in the auto category--which other station groups have said has been on the downswing.