Media General, the publisher of nearly 130 daily, community and weekly papers, primarily in Southeast USA, released their January 08’ revenue results and like what we have seen time after time from newspapers, the results weren’t pretty.

For January 2008, Media General reported revenues of $71.5 million – this equates to a decline of $6.5 million when compared to last year. The biggest decline was seen with the publisher’s classifieds. Among its large dailies real-estate classified revenues were down 37%, automotive 35% and employment revenues decreased 34%. All other media types owned by the publisher were up (broadcast and online). Increases in other areas however, were not enough to make up for the newspaper losses.

Unlike some of the other publishing groups its size, Media General has started to dabble in areas outside of traditional newspaper, but still remaining entertaining, for the purpose of user engagement. Media General has branched into the online gaming arena and so far, has seen some success with this. Their advergaming revenues were up 4% in January!

written by Beverly Crandon \\ tags: Media General, Newspaper Revenues, Online Gaming