Projo’s revenue grows, thanks to contracts offsetting lost ads
May 8th, 2012 at 5:00 am by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
By Ted Nesi
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – The Providence Journal’s finances brightened during the first three months of this year, as the paper used higher circulation revenue and more third-party printing work to offset another sharp drop in advertising.
The Journal’s revenue totaled $22.7 million in the three months ended March 31, up 3% from $22 million in the same period last year, according to a regulatory filing. That performance helped offset weakness elsewhere within its Dallas-based parent A. H. Belo, which said companywide revenue slid 7% in the first quarter.
The Journal’s first-quarter contract work nearly doubled to $2.8 million year-over-year as the paper distributed more national and local newspapers and landed new commercial printing jobs. The paper’s circulation revenue also posted a healthy gain of nearly 6%, rising to $8.6 million.
Advertising is no longer the bedrock of The Journal’s business that it once was, contributing only 49.5% of total revenue in the first quarter. Ad sales through March 31 fell to $11.2 million, down nearly 10% from a year earlier, with declines in all categories. Digital advertising on ProvidenceJournal.com slipped 7% to $1.5 million compared with 2011.
Howard Sutton, The Journal’s publisher, president and CEO since 1999, did not respond to a request for comment. He joined the paper in 1973 as a circulation statistician and has worked there ever since.
Circulation still in decline
The financial details emerged the same week the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported The Journal’s weekday print circulation fell to 85,496 copies a day in the six months ended March 31, down 7% from a year earlier. The paper, which put up a paywall in February after limiting its website to short news briefs, said it’s sold 273 subscriptions to its new electronic edition thus far.
“All in all, the first quarter was a good one for A. H. Belo,” CEO Robert Decherd told investors during a conference call last week, and he offered an upbeat forecast. “It looks like we will be on track for the second quarter,” he said. The company also said it cut 14% of its work force over the past year.
Decherd and other executives told investors little about The Journal, focusing instead on investments in their flagship Dallas Morning News, the nation’s 11th-largest newspaper by circulation. The Dallas paper accounted for 64% of the company’s first-quarter revenue, while The Journal made up 22% and The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif., added 14%.
Decherd continued to emphasize all three papers’ importance to the company. Asked by an analyst whether he considered them all “core” to A.H. Belo, the CEO replied: “Yes. Yes. Definitely.”
Fountain Street HQ could sell
Decherd suggested that Dan Blizzard, a senior vice president at the company, may make headway in selling The Journal’s iconic headquarters on Fountain Street in Providence, which has been languishing on the real estate market for a number of years now.
“That market seems to be improving a little bit,” Decherd said of the Providence region. “That doesn’t mean that it’s gangbusters, but certainly it seems to be stabilized. There’s capital available, and we’re working that one really hard to see if there’s some viable options that could be realized in the next 12 to 18 months.”
“We’re not enamored of owning real estate – that’s for sure,” Decherd added.
The Journal’s five-story, nearly 200,000-square-foot building at 75 Fountain St. opened in 1934 and has an assessed value of $13.8 million. Two years ago, the company offered to sell the building to the city government for $9.75 million or lease it out for $1.17 million a year, but the Cicilline administration chose another bidder.
Ted Nesi ( tnesi@wpri.com ) covers politics and the economy for WPRI.com and writes the Nesi’s Notes blog. Follow him on Twitter: @tednesi
• Related: Projo hit by 61% drop in advertising since ’05; digital declining (March 14)
Tags: a.h. belo, digital media, digital news, howard sutton, journalism, media, News, newspapers, paywalls, projo, providence journal, robert decherd, Technology
Nesi's Notes covers politics and the economy in and around Rhode Island for WPRI.com. (Twitter: 
I wonder who the new owners of the ProJo will be after the Texas operation cashes out the building. Hopefully, the NYTimes will step in to save the day.
Hopefully the new owners will shut this abomination down and start over.
Does anyone really care about the Pro JO? They certainly don’t care about us. They even endorsed Cicilline.
How about telling us about the ways and the individuals who can help fix our state. There was a big Republican event last night with many new candidates introduced and yet there is nothing on your blog about it.
It is time to start reporting on solutions.
Projo doesn’t have a paywall on the website, you pay if you want an electronic replica of the paper. Dallas has a real paywall on their website. Any indication how that’s working out for them?
They say they’re “very satisfied” with it:
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2012/05/the_morning_news_is_very_satis.php
Jack, are you serious? 11 out of 113? And most of them are repeat losers from prior races?
Now here is the comical thing…what are republicans upset about? The government has been running from the right wing play book for the better part of a decade? You are getting everything you want….pension reform, tax cuts, union busting, corporate freedom, voter ID, immigration control.
Are you guys not paying attention? The democrats are giving you everything you want.
First, from what Ted reports here and from what I told by my friends who work at the newspaper, A.H. Belo is trying to sell the Fountain Street building, NOT the newspaper. However, if they do sell or lease the building, I’m told it will mean the laying off of even more people. So no, the newspaper won’t be starting from scratch with a new owner; it will continue to get smaller with the same one.
Second, I’m told that ProJo management is in one hell of fight with its union for recently outsourcing union jobs in violation of the contract.
Needless to say, my ProJo friends tell me it is not the place to be right now. And regardless if its onwer’s optimism, the newspaper’s employees fear for their future.
p.s. Regarding the illegal outsourcing, my ProJo friends tell me that if the union loses its fight, it will open the door for outsourcing of other union employees. Two of my friends who are copy editors are very concerned.
Mr. Fish, most are new, so you didn’t do your homework. Immigration control?? Tax cuts?? Corporate Freedom?? You call that real pension reform??
Wow are you way off. Democrats are reactionary at best. It’s time for some new blood and ideas.
11 candidates is only the start, once again do your homework.
Puke fish is only interested in what is best for him and not will help make Rhode Islands economy viable.
Revenue increased. That is the only thing that matters. If you are thinking they will tear down the paywall now, you are off your rocker. It used to be that only 20% of the population read newspapers, but they made money. Looks like it’s gonna be that again. Might as well delete the Washington Post, Guardian, St. Louis Post Dispatch and Journal Constitution from your bookmarks. Every paper without a paywall is losing hand over fist, and every paper with a paywall is doing much better. The Associated Press is now starting to ramp up prices it charges to news aggregators and is suing people who don’t comply. You know where this is going…get used to CNN.com and HuffingtonPost for whatever local news they provide.
The Providence Journal is not worth a dollar a copy. I would be glad to pay $.35 per paper.