Carpenter Media Group Buys 10 Southern Newspapers (mediapost.com)

From The Mountains to Raised Southern, from Feel Free to RV Today and I Love RVing, from Western Life Today to EV Builder’s Guide the field of magazines (keep in mind my definition of magazines: ink on paper) gained 22 titles on the nation’s marketplace including the return of some favorites that took a break from print or life for some time. Creem, the original rock and roll magazine, made a great comeback (only by subscription) and so did Mad and Marie Claire. So far 2022 has witnessed the launch of 62 titles compared to 81 for the same period of 2021. In the first quarter of 2022 28 titles were launched. In the second quarter the number dropped to 12. The third quarter saw 22 titles introduced.

Third quarter operating revenues were $744.3 million, including a $1.4 million negative impact from hurricanes Harvey and Irma, compared to $772.3 million in the prior year quarter. There was no material impact on revenues related to currency changes in the quarter. The year-over-year performance reflected lower print advertising and circulation revenues offset partially by higher digital advertising revenues and the contribution from acquired operations (1). On a same store basis, operating revenues in the third quarter declined 9.4% (or 10.2% when excluding $6.7 million related to the 2016 third quarter revaluation of acquired deferred revenue), an improvement compared to a decline in the 2017 second quarter of 10.6%, as a result of digital revenue growth. Total digital revenues in the third quarter increased to $245.0 million, or approximately 33% of total revenue, including the contribution from ReachLocal which was acquired in August 2016. GAAP net income for the third quarter was $23.0 million, including a $20.1 million tax benefit offset partially by $15.4 million of after-tax severance, acquisition, asset impairment, facility consolidation and other costs; approximately $10.3 million of these charges were non-cash. Adjusted EBITDA (2) for the third quarter increased 27.3% to $73.9 million compared to $58.0 million in the prior year quarter with a 240 basis point margin improvement year-over-year, which includes the favorable comparison related to the aforementioned deferred revenue revaluation. Click Read More below for additional information.

The network continues to operate smoothly with the busiest mailing and shipping week fast approaching. Between Nov. 25 and Dec. 8, the Postal Service accepted 4.9 billion mail and packages for delivery. Overall, heading into the busiest mailing and shipping week, average days to deliver a mailpiece was 2.7 days. First quarter-to-date service performance scores covering the period Oct. 1 through Dec. 3 included: *First-Class Mail: 90.1 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 2.4 percentage points from the fourth quarter. *Marketing Mail: 92.2 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, consistent with performance from the fourth quarter. *Periodicals: 82.6 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, consistent with performance from the fourth quarter.