Times Mirror Expects Increased ’88 Earnings
Times Mirror Co. will have improved earnings in 1988 “barring some unfavorable developments in the economy,” Robert F. Erburu, Times Mirror chairman and chief executive, said at the company’s annual meeting Tuesday.
Erburu said the expectation of increased earnings was indicated by the improved results in the first quarter, changes in tax law now in effect and gains from the sales of timberlands. Last year the company earned $266.5 million on revenue of $3.15 billion.
“It is certainly our hope that a modest improvement in the second-half business environment will allow us to achieve another record year in operating performance. However, it is too early to make such a promise, especially given the investments for the future we are making,” Erburu said. The company’s operating profit reached a record $589.4 million last year.
Times Mirror publishes the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and New York Newsday, the Hartford Courant and the Baltimore Sun newspapers among others. It also has book, magazine and other publishing interests as well as interests in broadcast and cable television.
Responding to a shareholder question about a recent decline in the company’s stock price, Erburu said analysts emphasized the newspaper publishing part of the business and the effect of recent high newsprint prices and soft advertising. Times Mirror’s total newsprint expenses have increased 22% in the first quarter, he said. Those factors led analysts to expect that the “earnings outlook might not be as robust this year,” causing some holders to make short-term decisions to invest elsewhere. Selling by institutions probably depressed the stock price, he said. “It is a condition that affects all newspaper companies,” he said.
Times Mirror’s prospects look good, Erburu said. “Overall, the restructuring program that has been implemented at Times Mirror is standing us in good stead in 1988. The declines in profits in newspapers and television have been balanced by strong performances in other areas, notably professional publishing and cable television,” he said.
During the annual meeting, shareholders elected Dr. Edward Zapanta, a Los Angeles neurosurgeon, as a new director of the company. Zapanta, 49, is affiliated with St. Vincent Medical Center, Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles and Monterey Park Hospital where he was chief of staff for 2 1/2 years between 1975 and 1977. He is also an assistant clinical professor of surgery-neurosurgery at the University of Southern California School of Medicine.
Four other directors were re-elected: Bruce Chandler, trustee of the Chandler Trusts; private investor Eli S. Jacobs; Alfred E. Osborne Jr., associate dean at UCLA’s John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management; and Times publisher Tom Johnson.
Shareholders rejected a proposal from stockholder John M. Shaefer to require annual election of all Times Mirror directors. Directors are currently elected in three classes with one class elected each year, creating staggered three-year terms.
Prior to the adjournment of the meeting, some stockholders sharply criticized Los Angeles Times cartoonist Paul Conrad for his depictions of Israeli government actions in response to the Palestinian uprising. Protesting shareholders called the cartoons “vicious, false and absolutely unjustified.” Conrad cartoons have been the subject of vigorous protest from some members of the Jewish community for months, and Times officials acknowledged the cancellation of more than 120 subscriptions as part of the protest. Times publisher Johnson defended Conrad’s right to express his opinion, but he said Conrad appears on the Op-Ed page of the newspaper and “does not speak for The Times . . . I understand your anguish over the cartoon.”
