Lower Costs Offset Slowing Ad Sales

Article Excerpt

TORSTAR CORP. $7.85 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 78.9 million; Market cap: $619.4 million; SI Rating: Above average) lost $0.03 a share (total $2.7 million) in the three months ended September 30, 2008, compared with a profit of $0.11 a share ($8.4 million) year earlier. If you exclude restructuring costs and the writedown of an investment, Torstar would have earned $0.20 a share in the latest quarter. There were no such items in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue grew 0.8%, to $372.1 million from $369.2 million. Higher revenue at the company’s Harlequin book publishing subsidiary and Internet operations helped offset lower advertising revenue at Torstar’s newspapers. Positive currency exchange rates also contributed to the higher revenue. Torstar’s latest restructuring should save it $18 million a year. That should help it cope with the current ad slump. The company could also unlock some of its value by spinning off or selling some of its businesses such as Harlequin,…