• by Wayne Friedman , April 30, 2008

Belo Corp. was spun off earlier this year from A.H. Belo and its newspaper assets, to give the company a chance to attain greater value. But the first results for first-quarter 2008 for the new company--which has 20 TV stations--was meager, given the softness in the advertising business.

Total revenues slipped 2% to $174.8 million, due to automobile advertising, and general national ad weakness.

Spot revenue was off 5% overall. Local spot was down 6.4%, and national spot was 10% lower. First-quarter 2008 political revenues of $5.1 million were up $4.3 million versus the first quarter of 2007.

Belo was also impacted because in 2007 the Super Bowl aired on five of its CBS-affiliate stations. But in 2008, the game only aired on its lone Fox-affiliate station. That dropped Super Bowl advertising revenues by $2 million.

As with other TV station groups, Internet activity at Belo continued to show positive results. Ad revenue climbed 32% to $6.9 million in the first quarter of 2008, representing 4% of Belo's total revenues.