More Media Companies Predict Lower Earnings

Media groups E.W. Scripps Co. and New York Times Co. on Tuesday joined a growing number of publishers warning that last week’s airplane attacks would further dent advertising and hurt their financial results.

USA Networks Inc., the media company run by Barry Diller, also warned of lower earnings, citing lower sales at its Home Shopping Network last week.

Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. lowered its profit outlook Monday, and other newspaper publishers are expected to follow suit after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon exacerbated a decline in advertising caused by the economic slowdown.

The publisher of the New York Times said its third quarter would be adversely affected by the attacks after reporting that pro forma ad revenue for its newspaper group slumped 17.8% in August.

A Times spokeswoman said the company could not yet quantify exactly how much it would be affected by the attacks and would provide details in its third-quarter earnings statement.

“There is a great deal of uncertainty at the moment. A lot of advertisers have been pulling back, and that is certainly going to affect us,” spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said.

Scripps, a television and newspaper group that publishes the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, warned that its third-quarter earnings would come in at the low end of its previous estimates of 38 cents to 46 cents a share. Earnings were 46 cents a share a year earlier.

Scripps had projected full-year earnings per share of $2.05 to $2.25, compared with $2.20 in 2000.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, newspapers increased news coverage at the expense of ad space as businesses cut advertising; TV and radio stations went commercial-free.

USA, which operates the USA Network cable TV channel and Ticketmaster service, expects earnings before interest, taxes, amortization and depreciation to rise a less-than-forecast 13% to 17%.

The company’s Home Shopping Network lost customers last week as it switched programming to news coverage of the attacks, the company said. Ad sales at the company’s USA Network and Sci Fi cable channels weren’t hurt significantly.

New York Times shares rose 34 cents to $40.14, and Scripps fell $1.29 to $60.10, both on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of USA Networks, which also operates travel services, fell $1.90 to $16.55 on Nasdaq.

Bloomberg News was used in compiling this report.