The Big Story: Media General blames Florida – the nerve!
March 24, 2008 at 11:13 am by Wayne Garcia
Media General, the owner of Newschannel 8 and the Tampa Tribune, is blaming its lackluster financial performance on us right here in Florida. Specifically, Reuters reports, it’s our shitty economy that is getting the finger(pointing):
Poor economic conditions in Tampa, Florida, will contribute to Media General Inc. reporting a loss when it announces its first-quarter results, the newspaper publisher and broadcaster said on Thursday.
Media General, which publishes the Tampa Tribune, said “the recession in Tampa is so deep that we will not be able to fully offset the revenue shortfalls we are experiencing there.”
The company plans to post a loss of 40 cents to 45 cents a share from continuing operations. The figure does not include five television stations it is trying to sell.
Ahhh, nothing like a nice, deep recession.
Things aren’t as gloomy, however, for the president and CEO of Media General, Marshall N. Morton, according to the AP:
The chief executive officer of struggling newspaper publisher and television station operator Media General received executive compensation valued at more than $2 million during 2007, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday.
Marshall N. Morton, who is also president of the company, received a base salary of $925,000, almost an 18 percent increase from the year before, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A large portion of Morton’s compensation came from the value of stock and option awards. The awards, granted Jan. 31, 2007, had a total value that day of $844,719, according to the filing.
He received no bonus, unlike in 2006, when he received $475,592.
Poor baby. No bonus last year. How will he make ends meet??
While the company has laid off employees (and many in the remaining staff are fearful of more job cuts), and eliminated news sections to save $$$, Media General is begging the FCC to allow it to consolidate print and broadcast news operations throughout the country as it does at the Newscenter in Tampa, which is grandfathered and exempt from cross-ownership regulations.
The good news, however, is that MG is bringing its female-oriented and wildly inappropriately named Skirt! publication to town, the Biz Journal tells us. Good news if you are a snarky columnist who writes about MG blunders from time to time (see: Orange.) Here’s the ad the Trib wrote recently looking for Skirt! advertising execs. Note the way-too-hip graphics, tres New Frontier:
