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News > Companies
Tribune, Scripps warn
June 14, 2001: 5:55 p.m. ET

Tribune expects earnings to be lower; E.W. Scripps blames weak ad sales
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Stung by a slowdown in advertising, a pair of newspaper publishers warned Tuesday that their second-quarter profits will come in below forecasts.

Chicago-based Tribune Co. (TRB: Research, Estimates), the publisher of newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, lowered its earnings estimate for the second quarter to 22 cents a share, excluding one-time items and accounting charges.

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The Wall Street consensus estimate for its second-quarter earnings was 28 cents a share, according to earnings tracker First Call. Tribune said in April when it reported first-quarter earnings that it expected earnings per share of about 30 cents in the second quarter.

Tribune also announced a voluntary retirement program it expects will cut its work force by about 3 percent, with the bulk of reductions being made in the publishing group.

Retail advertising revenue fell 4 percent in May to $104 million due to lower advertising by electronics makers, department stores, grocers and drug stores.

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Meanwhile, E.W. Scripps (SSP: Research, Estimates), owner of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver and the Food Network cable TV channel, said it expects second-quarter earnings per share from core operations to be between 53 to 56 cents as compared with 60 cents a year ago.

The Cincinnati, Ohio-based company previously issued guidance calling for quarterly earnings of 55 to 65 cents per share.

The company's consolidated revenues for May were $128 million, down 1.7 percent from the same month a year ago on a pro forma basis. Revenue for Scripps Networks, the company's fastest growing division, was up 14 percent in to $33.9 million.

In addition, media firm True North Communications also slashed its second-quarter profit outlooks because of weakness in the global advertising market.

- from staff and wire reports graphic





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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.