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The newspaper division of Scripps is dragging down the company’s stock price, and CFO Joseph NeCastro said at an investor conference on Tuesday that the company is considering “maybe some form of separating the newspapers out.”
Scripps’s cable network business, which includes HGTV and the Food Network, is the company’s lead profit generator, and Scripps is now entering into ecommerce with Shopzilla and uSwitch, writes the Rocky Mountain News (which is owned by Scripps).
Compared to the cable business, the company’s newspaper and broadcast television businesses are slow- or no-growth.
The company’s Networks division, which includes the cable business, grew 17.8 percent in the first nine months of 2006, while its Interactive Media division grew 408 percent (thanks in part to the uSwitch acquisition).
During the same time period, newspapers dropped 0.1 percent.
The announcement, boosted by positive statements from Wall Street analysts Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch, helped Scripps stock hit a 52-week high.
Scripps owns newspapers in 18 markets, and is also a 50-50 partner with MediaNews Group, owner of the Denver Post.
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Should…
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