Tribune operating profit off sharply ahead of newspaper spinoff

Tribune Media Co.’s operating profit fell 32 percent in the three months leading up to the company’s spinning off of its newspapers.

Tribune Media reported Tuesday operating profit of $61.3 million in the three months ended June 29 compared with $89.6 million in the year-earlier period. The company reported net income of $82.8 million on revenue of $894.5 million for the second quarter. A year earlier, the company had net income of $66.3 million on revenue of $730.2 million.

“While the core advertising market experienced headwinds in the first half of the year, we continue to be encouraged by the strength of our new broadcast scale, as evidenced in our year-over-year retransmission fee increases, and feel positive about the opportunities presented by the political advertising landscape in the second half of 2014,” Peter Liguori, Tribune Media president and chief executive officer said in a news release.

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Tribune Media owns the broadcast operations and real estate formerly owned by Tribune Co. The former company’s newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, were spun off into a separate, publicly traded company, Tribune Publishing Co., on Aug. 4.

The broadcast operations had operating profits of $52.2 million in the second quarter, down from $106.4 million a year earlier after adjusting for the purchase of Local TV at the end of 2013. Revenue was $425.8 million in the recent period compared with $406 million after adjustments a year earlier.

The publishing operations had operating profits of $32.9 million, down from $59.6 million a year earlier. Revenue was little changed at $468.7 million in the second quarter compared with $469.6 million a year earlier.