Denver-based ap reported Wednesday that net income rose sharply during the three months that ended Dec. 31, boosted by the newspaper company’s recent acquisitions and a decline in newsprint costs.
It reported net income of nearly $13 million on revenues of $372.5 million for the quarter. That’s up from net income of $4.7 million on revenues of $206.2 million during the comparable quarter a year earlier.
MediaNews, the nation’s fourth-largest newspaper publisher, owns The Denver Post.
The company last year acquired the San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times and other papers. Those deals also added $815.1 million in intangible assets and $198.3 million in net tangible assets, according to a filing Wednesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“They are growing through acquisitions,” said John Morton, a newspaper-industry analyst based in Silver Spring, Md. “That has been the company’s strategy, and it has served them well.”
Following those deals, MediaNews announced layoffs at some of the papers it acquired. The company said it “has not finalized all of its consolidation and workforce reduction programs or made all the announcements regarding such planned workforce reductions.”
Excluding the acquisitions, advertising revenue declined by 1.3 percent and circulation revenue declined by 4.1 percent, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Morton said those declines “were not untypical” for the newspaper industry, which has struggled to retain readers and advertisers in the face of increased competition from the Internet.
The Denver Newspaper Agency, through a joint operating agreement, oversees circulation, advertising and other business operations for The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. The newsrooms remain separate and competitive. Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Co. owns the News.
Staff writer Will Shanley can be reached at 303-954-1260 or wshanley@denverpost.com.
