Belo Buys Some Time for Its Papers

Published: October 1, 2007, 1:36 pm

Tags: daily newspaper companies, h belo, belo, bruce sherman, dallas morning news, gannett, media general, mochila, paul tash, pcm, robert decherd, scripps, st petersburg times, worldnow, yahoo newspaper consortium

We think of companies like Belo, Gannett, Scripps and others as newspaper companies. Sure, they grew out of ink and pulp, but many have become hybrids over the years, mostly in acquiring broadcast TV stations. The names are newspaper names, but the companies are no longer newspaper companies. So Belo's announcement this a.m. that it is breaking the company baby in two is not all that surprising. Investors have pummeled the stock, looking in the familiar phrase to "release value," a concept Bruce Sherman re-taught newspaper execs as he tried to unlock Knight Ridder's value two years ago. Belo is becoming two, with the current Belo taking the 20 (many highly rated) TV stations and the new A.H. Belo taking the newspapers. Both entities keep their respective web properties. Each company will have about $750 million in revenue (the timing is such that this is the first time that the TV properties are showing signs of surpassing the newspapers in overall revenue). It's an interesting bet

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