Scripps Earns $75.8 Mil. in Fourth Quarter

By: (AP) The E.W. Scripps Co. reported fourth-quarter earnings ahead of expectations Thursday, helped by strong performances in its cable television channels and political advertising on its broadcast TV stations.

For the three months ending Dec. 31, net income was $75.8 million, or 94 cents per share, compared with $9.5 million, or 12 cents per share. Excluding special items, the company had 2002 fourth-quarter earnings of 90 cents per share, 4 cents ahead of the comparable expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

Scripps projected first-quarter earnings per share to be between 60 and 70 cents; Thomson First Call was predicting 70 cents for the period.

Wall Street appeared to like what it heard. In afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, shares of Scripps rose $1.30 to $82.36.

For all of 2002, Scripps earned $188.3 million, or $2.34 per share, up 36% from $138.0 million, or $1.73 per share, last year.

Revenues also improved, rising to $478.1 million in the fourth quarter, from $372.4 million a year ago. For the year, they were $1.61 billion, compared to $1.44 billion in 2001.

Scripps Networks, the company's fastest growing division, had a 41% increase in fourth-quarter 2002 revenues, which grew to $118.7 million. The division includes the Home & Garden Television, Food Network, Do It Yourself Network, and Fine Living cable channels.

Revenues from broadcast television increased by 19% to $91.2 million. Political advertising revenues were $17.3 million during the quarter, up significantly from $1.4 million a year earlier.

The company's newspaper group reported a 6% increase in revenues to $202.0 million, helped by improved advertising sales. The results also reflect a $6.5 million increase in the company's share of profits from the Denver Newspaper Agency. Scripps has a 50% share of the profits generated by the agency, which publishes the Scripps-owned Rocky Mountain News and MediaNews Group-owned The Denver Post.

Scripps operates 21 daily newspapers, 10 broadcast TV stations, the four cable television channels, and a home shopping network. It also operates Scripps Howard News Service; United Media, which licenses and syndicates the "Peanuts" and "Dilbert" comic strips; and Web sites including hgtv.com, foodtv.com, diynet.com, fineliving.com, and comics.com.