Key Takeaways from Tribune's Q3 Conference Call

By: Jennifer Saba The Tribune Co. announced Q3 results this morning on a call with analysts and investors. Here are some key highlights from the question and answer session with Tribune executives.

Circulation revenue for the company was down 7% for the quarter. Total net paid circulation for Tribune's 11 metro newspapers averaged 3 million copies daily and 4.3 million copies on Sunday, down 2.3% and 3% respectively, from the same quarter last year.

For the September FAS-FAX report to be released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations in November, Tribune expects an overall decline of 4% for daily and Sunday copies -- excluding Newsday. Individually paid copies for both daily and Sunday also declined 3.5%.

When asked to break out the circulation numbers for The Sun in Baltimore and the Los Angeles Times, executives declined to give the details (unlike the last call before the release of the March FAS-FAX).

Circulation revenue may be down -- mostly because Tribune is discounting circulation -- but management said that decline is narrowing. They continued to hammer home that Tribune is concentrating on home delivered and single copy sales -- where the company is seeing the most improvement in circulation. Other paid circulation for Tribune is under 5% both daily and Sunday.

On the Newsday front, executives said that the paper is cycling through rate reductions and that they are seeing some improvement on ROP revenue. As for the auto dealer litigation against the newspaper, they have "made progress" but "nothing is official." Of the $90 million reserve set aside for compensation for advertisers, about $75 million has been assigned.

At the Los Angeles Times, national is lagging. Though General Motors is once again advertising in the paper, the auto manufacturer is not advertising as much as earlier in the year. It remains unclear whether GM and other manufactures will pick up their spend. The paper is getting some lift from the movie category, however.

Executives restated that they are scaling back their share repurchase program due to the Mathew Bender tax case, which requires the company to pay the Internal Revenue Service approximately $1 billion.

Executives were also vague about future staff cuts, saying only that they are "identifying opportunities" to run the company more efficiently. Dennis FitzSimons, Tribune chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement that while Tribune circulation trends are improving and stabilizing, the current advertising environment is soft. "We will continue to focus on our cost structure in both publishing and broadcasting," he said.