Times Mirror Posts a 53.5% Rise in Profit

Times Mirror Co., parent of the Los Angeles Times, reported a 53.5% increase in second-quarter profit, despite costs associated with an employee buyout program at its Newsday newspaper and continued weak newspaper advertising revenue.

The profit gain--to $47.2 million, or 37 cents a share, from $30.7 million, or 24 cents a share, a year earlier--reflects the success of an ongoing, companywide cost-cutting program plus improved results in non-newspaper operations, said Robert F. Erburu, chairman and chief executive.

Second-quarter revenue was $911.4 million, compared to $900.9 million in the second quarter of 1991.

Newspaper publishing revenue for the second quarter declined 1.8% from the year-earlier period, and operating profit dropped 23.4%. Without the $19-million charge (10 cents a share) for Newsday’s voluntary buyout program, operating profit would have risen 19.3%. When the buyout program, affecting 300 employees, is completed, Newsday’s staff will be down nearly 8% from the prior year.

Buoyed by steady revenue gains in professional publishing and increased advertising sales at consumer magazines, Times Mirror’s book, magazine and other publishing groups posted a 5.4% increase in revenue and a 16.5% increase in operating profit in the second quarter.

Cable television group quarterly revenue was up 6% and operating profit up 10.6%, thanks largely to an increase in basic subscriber revenue.

In the broadcast television group, recent ratings improvements led to increases of 9.3% in revenue and 27.3% in operating profit.

“Newspaper advertising revenue continues to suffer from weakness in the Southern California and New York regional economies,” Erburu said. “Thus, while we are very pleased with the performance this quarter, we remain cautious about the outlook for the year.”

Profit for the first half of 1992 rose 55.2% to $83.8 million, or 65 cents a share, from $54 million, or 42 cents a share, in the first half of 1991. Revenue was $1.78 billion for the period, compared to $1.76 billion last year.

Besides The Times and Newsday, Times Mirror publishes New York Newsday, the Baltimore Sun papers, the Hartford Courant and three other newspapers.