Earnings Labs

USA TODAY Co., Inc. (TDAY)

Q1 2011 Earnings Call· Mon, Apr 18, 2011

$7.28

-1.49%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.
Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Gannett's First Quarter 2011 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Our speakers for today will be Craig Dubow, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Gracia Martore, President and Chief Operating Officer. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Gracia Martore. Please go ahead.

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Access 342

Thanks, Danielle and good morning, and let me add our welcome to our conference call and webcast today to review our first quarter results. Hopefully you've had an opportunity to review this morning's press release. You can also find it at www.gannett.com. Before we get started, however, I need to remind you that our conference call and webcast today may include forward-looking statements, and our actual results may differ. Factors that might cause them to differ are outlined in our SEC filings. This presentation also includes certain non-GAAP financial measures. We have provided a reconciliation of those measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in the press release and on the Investor Relations portion of our website. As many of you know, we hosted our annual MEANY luncheon in our New York offices in late March this year and provided an extensive update of results at that meeting. So we're going to keep our comments relatively brief this morning, Craig will comment on the progress of several initiatives and briefly review results for the quarter. I will then follow with a more detailed look at our business segments, as well as the balance sheet. Now let me turn the call over to Craig.

Craig Dubow

Analyst · Access 342

Thanks, Gracia, and good morning, everyone. As Gracia noted, we've provided a thorough update at the MEANY presentations, and our results very much are in-line with the expectations we shared then. Earnings per diluted share adjusted for special items were $0.41 for the quarter, Digital segment revenue growth was up 12% as stronger online employment ad demand positively impacted the results at CareerBuilder. Digital revenue companywide was over 12% higher, as well reflecting our cross-platform sales initiatives. Our Publishing segment revenue results lag last year by 6%, reflecting the current state of a domestic economy. However, we had strength in Auto and Employment. Softness in certain sectors persist, particularly real estate here in the U.S. and more broadly in the U.K. Broadcasting segment revenues were down just $3.6 million, reflecting the challenge of overcoming our own success last year of over $24 million in Olympic, Super Bowl and political spending. Core TV advertising growth was solid as was growth in retransmission fees and Digital revenue and our Broadcasting segment. Excluding the incremental impact of the events that benefited last year's revenue, total television revenues were up significantly. We're very pleased with the core growth in television. Our total revenues were down about 4%. Our expenses were lower overall reflecting our continuing efforts to create efficiencies across the company, particularly in Publishing. All of our businesses were solidly profitable in the quarter. We generated free cash flow of $216 million and we reduced our debt by over $160 million despite challenges to revenue growth. Gannett has changed dramatically over the last few years as you have seen. We have changed the way we gather and distribute content. We have successfully expanded our presence in our markets, both locally and nationally through multiple platforms and devices. We are changing the way we…

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Access 342

Thanks, Craig. Revenue results for the quarter were impacted by several factors as Craig noted. They reflect the general health of the economy here in the U.S. and U.K. and the uneven recovery we are experiencing. They reflect strength in some sectors, as well as continued softness in others, such as real estate. Overall our total operating revenues were down almost 4% and totaled $1.3 billion. Reported operating expenses for the company for the quarter were down as well. As a result, the company was solidly profitable despite the challenging advertising environment as operating income, excluding special items, was $192 million. Earnings per diluted share for the quarter on a GAAP basis were $0.37, but if you exclude those special items, earnings were $0.41 per share. We detailed the special items in the release this morning. In summary in the first quarter, they totaled approximately $14 million pretax. Approximately $8 million was due to facility consolidations and $6 million pretax was the result of workforce restructuring. We provided reconciliations of those several non-GAAP items to our GAAP schedules in our release this morning as well. As you may recall, we sold The Honolulu Advertiser and its related assets and a small directory publishing business in the second quarter of last year. Results for this pro forma properties have been reclassified to discontinued operations. Revenues from those properties totaled approximately $23 million in the first quarter last year. Of course, we cycle those events next quarter. So looking at each of our segments in a little more detail, total Publishing segment revenues were just over 6% lower. They reflect continuing strength in Auto and Employment in the U.S., however, that was offset by softer ad demand in certain sectors, most notably real estate domestically, and over all in the U.K. Severe…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from Craig Huber with Access 342.

Craig Huber -

Analyst · Access 342

Gracia or Craig, can you give us a sense of how your April Digital ad revenues are doing? And I'm also curious if you're planning on doing Newspaper furloughs again here in the second quarter, I believe you did them in the first quarter?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Access 342

Craig, on the Newspaper revenue side, Publishing revenue side, April obviously will benefit from the later Easter that impacted March, as well in the U.K., we're going to be the beneficiary of some special events surrounding the wedding, the royal wedding in the U.K. So at this point, we're anticipating that revenues will look a bit better in April than they have certainly in the prior three months. As to the second part of your question...

Craig Dubow

Analyst · Access 342

The second question was regarding furloughs. And Craig, As we always do, we take that element very, very seriously. We're going to see how the quarter starts shaping. And again, it will be a position that we look at as we move forward.

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Access 342

Although I will say, Craig, in our Publishing, U.S. Community Publishing, we are taking some minor furloughs about 1,000 folks or so, and that at this point is the extent, basically, of the furloughs that we are taking across the company.

Craig Huber -

Analyst · Access 342

And also Craig if I could ask, on the Auto side and Television, how did that perform with the percent change there in the quarter? Since that's a 28%, 25% of the total TV revenues?

Craig Dubow

Analyst · Access 342

It's about -- yes, it's in that range, about 23% to 25%. Overall, for the period three, I can give you that, it's up 13-plus percent at this point. There was a bit of softness as we came in the first two months, but that seems to certainly have improved itself and has been a big factor in the overall success for Broadcast.

Craig Huber -

Analyst · Access 342

Did you have it, Craig, for the whole quarter?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Access 342

It was down slightly, Craig, but you have to recall that with Olympics, that's a big Auto...

Craig Dubow

Analyst · Access 342

It's going to be a skew.

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Access 342

So if you exclude the special event of Olympics, Auto performed very, very well for us in the quarter and in the month of March, which I think is indicative of how things are going.

Craig Dubow

Analyst · Access 342

I think you got to be careful how you look at that, and I think March is probably going to be more reflective on a pure compare year-over-year.

Craig Huber -

Analyst · Access 342

Your CareerBuilder sales force only revenue, what's the percent change there in the quarter?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Access 342

CareerBuilder had a very strong quarter, and their network global revenue was up about 14% year-over-year.

Craig Huber -

Analyst · Access 342

Is the sales force -- your own sales force in line with that? Sales force only?

Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company, LLC

Analyst · Access 342

Are you talking newspaper driven, the partners...

Craig Huber -

Analyst · Access 342

No your CareerBuilder sales force only generated revenue, which you typically help us with.

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Access 342

CB-driven revenue was actually up about 16%. Newspaper driven was up, but not obviously as significantly as CB driven.

Craig Dubow

Analyst · Access 342

[indiscernible] we are very excited by them.

Operator

Operator

And next we will hear from Alexia Quadrani with JPMorgan. Alexia Quadrani - JP Morgan Chase & Co: Your Broadcast guidance for the second quarter in the core items, if you include political, implies a little bit of moderation from what you saw in the first quarter, particularly if you take out the acceleration in retrans you're expecting. Is that just an element of conservatism, I guess looking forward, or are you seeing the core slow down a little bit? I'm just staying on the second quarter, if you can give us a little bit of detail of what you think the positive impact of Easter may amount to -- I'm sorry, the Publishing side?

Craig Dubow

Analyst · JPMorgan

First, on the broadcast for that question. It has been a very, very solid start with the quarter here. And as we have commented, particularly in the Automotive area and Telecom area, we've seen quite a bit of real strength, as well as in Media. To say that there is anything moderating, I would not agree with that at this point. It's -- I think, pretty consistent and where we are trying to go at this point, Alexia.

Gracia Martore

Analyst · JPMorgan

I think there may be a little bit of conservatism as we watch and wait to see the impact of the Japanese situation. As you know, there were several plants there that were closed, there's some key parts that are needed here that aren't necessarily flowing. So we're, I think as we start out the quarter, we want to be a little bit conservative as that other situation plays out. Alexia Quadrani - JP Morgan Chase & Co: And then is there anyway to further quantify how much you'll benefit Easter, maybe in the Publishing side in April?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · JPMorgan

It's probably in the single millions, low to mid-single millions of dollars would be at the top of my head.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will come from Michael Kupinski with Noble Financial.

Michael Kupinski - Noble Financial Group, Inc.

Analyst · Noble Financial

You guys are holding down the cost on the corporate side, which came in a little lighter than I expected. Does your branding campaign fall in that line item? Can you just give us some thoughts on any updates on the corporate expense for the year?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Noble Financial

Sure. I think on the corporate expense side the branding campaign does impact that line item obviously. Some of that was accrued earlier. But as well, I think we have the benefit of a little bit lower stock-based compensation number on the corporate side, but I'd say it will be in that general run rate or a little bit higher through the remainder of the year.

Michael Kupinski - Noble Financial Group, Inc.

Analyst · Noble Financial

And then just going back to the Digital revenues. They were obviously strong, probably the best we've seen for well over a year, a couple of years. Do you have any thoughts on how that's shaping and pacing into the second quarter? Is there more rates or growth from the first quarter?

Craig Dubow

Analyst · Noble Financial

That would be a pure guess at this point, Michael, we are seeing continued opportunity, and as we said in the prepared comments, it really is dependent in great part on the economy, because as that the economy improves, we are well, well positioned, and I think you're seeing that just with a bit of a bump up in the unemployment number to the positive and that is going to carry through in what Matt has positioned with CB. So I expect that to continue.

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Noble Financial

And just add to what Greg said on the Yahoo! side, we have been ramping up and so we should have a good strong full quarter in the second quarter similarly to the local community websites that we're doing on the Broadcast side. And then as Greg said, early indications are that CB is starting the quarter well. So we anticipate good follow through on the Digital front.

Craig Dubow

Analyst · Noble Financial

Michael, the other thing, just to carry on to the Yahoo! part and the open that we had with the broadcast stations and now with the ad that we are having with the additional openings in the market, I think is a very, very good signal. Dave Lougee and the team are really working hard. But again, when you have the combined reach that we have now in the marketplace as we discussed in the comments, I think you're going to see some real positive opportunity as we go forward. So we're quite excited by what we're seeing early on and only believe that's going to further expand. And additionally, with the 264 hyper local community sites that we have, we're seeing some positive progress on that as well and that's now in ten of the broadcast markets. So with that, we are quite hopeful that again, as the economy improves, we should have some nice improvement on that end.

Michael Kupinski - Noble Financial Group, Inc.

Analyst · Noble Financial

Just one final question, the margins in Publishing obviously took the biggest tumble in well over a year. You guys were just doing an incredible job last year. Some of that obviously is the newsprint. But I was wondering if you can just talk about the individual components of Publishing, whether or not any one of those divisions, whether it be a Newsquest or the community newspapers or USA TODAY had a disproportionate impact on the margins?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Noble Financial

On the margin side in Publishing, in the first quarter, that's always typically our smallest quarter and when you have newsprint expense going against you where as it was a positive in the first quarter of last year, that has a disproportionate impact on margin. I think you'll see, as the year unfolds that, revenues and expenses will be in better alignment and we will make good progress on the margin front.

Craig Dubow

Analyst · Noble Financial

So that's basically -- Gracia just to follow up on that, what you're saying is that all of the components in Publishing, including USA TODAY Community and Newsquest, all saw this lower margins, and they were all proportionate to the margin decline for the total company?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Noble Financial

Basically proportionate. I wouldn't call out one over the other. USA TODAY may have had a little bit more volatility to their margins, but I wouldn't call out any other.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will come from Jim Goss with Barrington Research.

James Goss - Barrington Research Associates, Inc.

Analyst · Barrington Research

What is the current mix within Classified Advertising, of the Auto Employment real estate? Remember historically you've been about a 30, but now you're getting some varied experience, and I'm just wondering how that looks right now?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Barrington Research

Within classified, Jim, or within all the categories?

James Goss - Barrington Research Associates, Inc.

Analyst · Barrington Research

No, just within the Classified category. How does it break down right now?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Barrington Research

On the Classified side, depending on...

James Goss - Barrington Research Associates, Inc.

Analyst · Barrington Research

You could even use US, international and total I suppose.

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Barrington Research

Obviously at Newsquest, there's a higher predominance of Classified as a percentage of their total revenues. But in U.S. Community Publishing and domestically, we're probably in the 30% range on Auto, 20% to 22% in Employment, and 15% or so in Real Estate and All Others is another 25%, and some legal spending, whereas that Newsquest Auto would be about half of what it is in the U.S. Employment would be in that 25% range and real estate would be a bigger category for them in the 20% to 25% range, and then there all other would be a similar kind of number.

James Goss - Barrington Research Associates, Inc.

Analyst · Barrington Research

What do you think it will take to get the real estate to improving within the context of still high foreclosure activities that probably creates continuing pressures in that category even if housing prices start to move up?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Barrington Research

I think as the Beige Book indicated, we're going to need to see the foreclosure situation abate and we're going to need to see new homes permits picking up. So It will depend on the part of the country, how quickly or not quickly the market picks up, but we really need to see the foreclosure side of the equation, improve a bit more before you can see new home permits picking up in any consequential way.

Craig Dubow

Analyst · Barrington Research

There will be, as you know, Jim, just by region, just scores of inventory on the market. So there's going to be lots of questions. But again, our real hope is to see the improvement on the overall economy because that's going to be the first key indicator for us as we look at real estate overall. And let's just hope that we're nearing the end, despite the comments from each of the districts from the said book, the Beige Book.

James Goss - Barrington Research Associates, Inc.

Analyst · Barrington Research

I'm just wondering at what point do you not have huge decline, and huge decline at least some leveling in that? And the other area I want to ask about is USA TODAY, I was wondering if you can provide an update regarding travel as to its impact on both advertising and circulation? And maybe throw in any progress regarding the monetization of the iPad addition?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Barrington Research

Sure, on USA TODAY, the Travel category represents several percentage points of their total revenues, and they're still being somewhat impacted by the travel situation that has seemingly bottomed out, although we're keeping a close eye on what higher fuel prices is going to translate into with regard to airline prices and travel over key holidays, such as Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. So there's still clearly an impact from those events from those areas. But USA Today is doing a very good job of improving its vertical on the travel side and looking at other opportunities to garner additional dollars there. So I think it'll be interesting to see how all of that plays out for the remainder of the year. And as to the monetization of the iPad, they continue to do a good job in attracting advertising to that platform and continue to support the efforts that we have there, but that's something that's under constant review here.

Craig Dubow

Analyst · Barrington Research

And all I would say, Jim, in addition on the iPad, we've had two, our version two that came out for Apple and the first version on the Honeycomb Android, and certainly, with tech, it immediately jumped lots of popularity to it and as well with travel. So as that continues, the numbers that are moving toward that and continuing to stay with the iPad, I think are going to be very interesting as we move forward. It's a very positive environment and with a number of awards and other things that month-by-month we seem to be winning on that. People seem quite satisfied with the offering and that's just going to continue to grow. So we're really excited by that.

Operator

Operator

And next we'll hear from Doug Arthur with Evercore Partners.

Douglas Arthur - Evercore Partners Inc.

Analyst · Evercore Partners

Gracia, what tax rate assumption did you build in to get to the $0.41? It looks a little bit lower than on a normalized basis on a year ago.

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Evercore Partners

Actually as we said at MEANY, our tax rate was about 30.7%, which is actually right in line with last year's tax rate. You have to take out, obviously, special items, and last year you also had the Medicare credit that impacted taxes. But when you solve for apples-to-apples, it's right in line with last year's tax rate.

Douglas Arthur - Evercore Partners Inc.

Analyst · Evercore Partners

And then the big jump in net income attributable to non-controlling interest, I assume, is mostly CareerBuilder?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Evercore Partners

Yes. Yes, it is.

Douglas Arthur - Evercore Partners Inc.

Analyst · Evercore Partners

And then finally, do you have a number on USA TODAY ad pages year-over-year?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Evercore Partners

You know, Doug, we probably are not going to be giving out ad page numbers because they really don't reflect the totality of the platforms that USA TODAY has. USA TODAY is not just a print product, it is a combination of print, web, mobile, iPad, a lot of different devices. And so I think we will, in the future, just be reporting on their total results rather than giving out just pages, which is only one part of their distribution.

Craig Dubow

Analyst · Evercore Partners

It's not just -- agree, they just not fully reflective of the opportunity that it's providing for us.

Operator

Operator

And next we have Edward Atorino with Benchmark Capital.

Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company, LLC

Analyst · Access 342

Can you give us sort of a year-to-year change in revenues of CareerBuilder as opposed to the other digital stuff?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Access 342

Yes, Ed, I think that we indicated that with regard to CareerBuilder, their CareerBuilder-driven revenues were up about 16%.

Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company, LLC

Analyst · Access 342

And the non-CareerBuilder?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Access 342

Would've been up obviously a lesser amount.

Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company, LLC

Analyst · Access 342

Speaking of the tax rate, any guidance going forward on the sort of normalized tax rate?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Access 342

You know, it varies quarter to quarter, and not necessarily -- some good things tend to happen in the quarter and so we take advantage of those. Looking into the second quarter, on a normalized basis, I would use for modeling purposes at this point a 33% tax rate, but there may be some significant changes that will be of a one-time nature that, as we get better clarity on them, we'll certainly share information around it.

Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company, LLC

Analyst · Access 342

Did you say retrans was $12.6 million?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Access 342

No I think I said $19.5 million.

Craig Dubow

Analyst · Access 342

A solid number, up very nicely.

Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company, LLC

Analyst · Access 342

And Digital? Did you give a Digital number?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Access 342

Companywide, we said...

Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company, LLC

Analyst · Access 342

Broadcasting,.

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Access 342

Oh, Broadcasting. We gave a TV Digital number, which was up 28%.

Edward Atorino - The Benchmark Company, LLC

Analyst · Access 342

Okay. Dollar amount?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Access 342

We didn't give dollar amounts.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will come from Amy Stepnowski with the Hartford.

Amy Stepnowski

Analyst · the Hartford

I wonder if you can just remind us about the relationship between your Auto Classifieds and Classified Ventures particularly Autos.com, how the two relate and if the improvement in the Auto Classified is reflective of what you're seeing in your ownership in Cars.com?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · the Hartford

I think that everywhere you look, Auto is a positive. So both at the Cars.com level and in our businesses as we've just been detailing and Broadcast, as well as in our Auto Classified, Auto has been, over the last several quarters, a real positive across the board. With regard to classified at Cars.com, obviously we sell Cars.com through our local businesses, as well as directly through Cars.com. And so both of them have benefited from the relationship that we have between the two of them.

Amy Stepnowski

Analyst · the Hartford

And that's because you're an owner in Cars.com you have an exclusive for being able to sell their advertising, is that correct?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · the Hartford

Well, it varies market to market. But in the markets that we serve, we would be the only media outlet that would sell Cars.com.

Operator

Operator

And our final question will come from Barry Lucas with Gabelli & Company. Barry Lucas - Gabelli & Company, Inc.: Craig or Gracia, could you talk about the regional variances and in particular, if any green shoots are appearing in the really tough states of Arizona, California, Nevada and Florida?

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Gabelli & Company

You know, Barry, on the regional variation front, we are seeing actually better numbers on the real estate front in those markets, which may in part be some of the foreclosures sales or other activity such as that. But on the Auto and Employment side, those four states -- I'm sorry, on the Auto side, those four states continue to lag what are very positive results in the other states. And similarly on Employment, our employment revenue in everything but those four states is about 2x to 3x better. So it really varies from category to category, but we are seeing a little bit better results on the real estate side than we are seeing -and also a little bit better on the retail front. So it depends on the state, but feeling -- particularly in Arizona, we've seen some good results there in our Arizona Media properties. So it's a bit of a mixed bag, but a little bit of green food, I suppose, if you could call it that.

Gracia Martore

Analyst · Gabelli & Company

Thanks very much for joining us today, and if you have any additional questions, you can reach Jeff Heinz at (703)854-6917 or me at 6918. Have a terrific day. Thank you.

Craig Dubow

Analyst · Gabelli & Company

Thank you.