Times Mirror Reports Return to Profitability After ’92 Loss

Times Mirror Co., its newspaper group beginning to recover from the recession, Thursday reported a fourth-quarter profit of $161.8 million, contrasted with a year-earlier loss of $61.7 million.

The Los Angeles-based publishing and cable television concern said the latest earnings, equal to $1.26 a share, were aided by a $131.7-million gain from the sale of its broadcast TV stations to Argyle Television Holdings Inc.

The results also reflect a variety of restructuring charges--including voluntary employee-separation programs--that totaled $76.4 million in the latest quarter and $183.7 million a year earlier.

Times Mirror’s fourth-quarter revenue climbed 4% to $1.02 billion, from $980.2 million.

The company’s overall profit for 1993 totaled $317.2 million, or $2.46 a share, contrasted with a $66.6-million loss in 1992.

Excluding the onetime gains and various restructuring costs, Times Mirror’s full-year income from continuing operations rose 5% to $161.5 million, from $153.5 million the year before.

Times Mirror’s annual revenue edged up 3% to $3.71 billion, from $3.59 billion.

The company owns the Los Angeles Times and several newspapers in the East, including Newsday in New York and the Baltimore Sun. It also operates cable TV stations and publishes books and educational products.

“A strong performance by our newspapers in the fourth quarter helped boost earnings for the year,” Times Mirror Chairman Robert F. Erburu said in a statement. “Fourth-quarter advertising revenues rose almost 6%, spurred by a 10% increase in December.”

Despite the latest gains, Erburu said Times Mirror remains cautious about its outlook for 1994.

The company still faces “a weak Los Angeles economy, which lags behind the improvement on the East Coast,” Erburu said, along with the impact of rate re-regulation in the cable industry and an ongoing restructuring of its Matthew Bender & Co. legal publishing group.

Advertising revenue at the Los Angeles Times for all of 1993 fell 3.3% from the prior year to $775.7 million, but it rose by the same percentage at Times Mirror’s Eastern newspapers, to $689.4 million.