Time Inc.’s Profits Up 1.7% on 12% Gain in Revenue

Time Inc. said its second-quarter profit edged up 1.7% on a 12% revenue gain over a year earlier.

Time said its second-quarter net income came to $60.2 million, compared to $60.1 million a year earlier.

Revenue rose to $864.1 million from $771.5 million a year earlier.

For the first six months of the year, Time said net income inched up 0.6% to $104.3 million from $103.7 million in the same period a year ago.

Half-year revenue increased 9.9% to $1.61 billion from 1984’s $1.465 billion.

Time’s president and chief executive, J. Richard Munro, said the second quarter included for the first time the earnings of Southern Progress Corp., which Time acquired in March.

The addition of Southern Progress’ three magazines--which include Southern Living--to Time’s magazine group contributed to the company’s pretax profit improvement, Munro said.

Without Southern Progress’s magazines, advertising revenue in the latest quarter gained 6.8% over a year earlier, the company said. That rate of gain slowed from the year’s first quarter, it said.

Time-Life Books and Book-of-the-Month Club reported higher profits for the quarter, the company said.

The publishing house Little Brown & Co. and the Oxmoor House book operation of Southern Progress suffered losses because of the seasonal nature of their business, Time said.

Home Box Office had higher pretax profits for the quarter despite flat subscriber totals so far this year, it said. At American Television & Communications, the number of subscribers and pretax profits were up, it said.