EW Scripps (NYSE: SSP), which said in late February that it was putting its United Media character licensing business up for sale, has now sold those operations to Iconix Brand Group for $175 million in cash. The deal means Iconix will take over the licensing of brands, such as “Peanuts”…

Over the past six months, newspaper earnings results have been relatively positive as Gannett (NYSE: GCI), the New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT)  and McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) have returned to profitability and ad declines have abated. When Gannett kicks off the Q1 newspaper earnings season on Friday morning, analysts expect…

After working together for years through a trade association, a dozen broadcasters are now forming a financially-backed joint venture to develop a national mobile service, including live and on-demand video, local and national news and entertainment from both TV and print companies. The joint venture is upping the financial stakes…

Newspaper website veteran Rusty Coats is leaving his post as VP of interactive for the newspaper division of The E. W. Scripps, E&P reports. In a memo (after the jump) sent to Scripps staffers, Coats, who was instrumental in establishing the Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Newspaper Consortium, also said that he’s…

E W Scripps, the newspaper and TV holding company, has decided to put its content and cartoons/comics licensing unit United Media on sale, it announced as part of its Q409 earnings results today. UM is responsible for licensing popular features such as “Peanuts” and “Dilbert”, among others, with the rationale…

EW Scripps (NYSE: SSP), the newspaper and TV media company (not to be confused with its cable net sibling, Scripps Interactive), saw its net loss worsen in Q3 as revenues fell 19 percent. Much of the trouble centered on the loss of political advertising this year versus last year. While…

E W Scripps, the newspaper and TV media company, has started its reorg process, reshuffling the management overseeing its 13 daily newspapers with an eye toward putting “increased emphasis on community-changing local content and peak-performing advertising sales,” in their own humble words (via E&P). The company has created an operating…

E W Scripps, the newspaper and TV station media company, has reported its Q209 numbers, and it swung to a Q209 profit, but the topline number is deceiving in comparison because of a $525 million impairment charge it took in Q208 last year on its newspaper biz. On revenue side,…

Traditional media companies aren’t known for being forthcoming when it comes to sharing details about their digital operations—as of just a few quarters ago, Disney (NYSE: DIS) didn’t even break out its digital results separately. But this week, several companies provided a few new insights into their digital strategies. Here’s…

The problems of the newspaper industry were on full display in EW Scripps’ first quarter, as the publisher swung to a $221 million loss and its revenues dropped 20 percent to $205 million. The loss represented $4.12 per share. Thomson Reuters (NSDQ: TRIN) analysts estimated that the Cincinnati publisher and…

Just two months shy of its 150th birthday, EW Scripps (NYSE: SSP) will close Denver’s Rocky Mountain News, the paper reported (via Romenesko).  In December, Scripps said it would fold the paper unless it could find a buyer. Considering the woeful state of the newspaper market in general these days—and…

—Seattle P-I union to the rescue?: As the clock ticks down on whether Hearst will sell, fold or turn its Seattle Post-Intelligencer into a digital-only property, the paper’s union is considering making a buyout offer of its own. The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild is trying to see if enough members…

Pointing to the same set of troubles pressing down on the newspaper industry, E.W. Scripps (NYSE: SSP) posted an operating income loss of $19.4 million before taxes and “minority interests” while its revenues decreased 6.2 percent to $265 million in Q4. And in another sign of how the economy has…

Classified ads continue to be battered online and off, hence, newspaper companies have been singing the praises of their online partners this week at the UBS Global Media and Communications (PDF) conference. Earlier on Wednesday, Gannett (NYSE: GCI) praised CareerBuilder for supplying 80 percent of its interactive revenues for Q4;…

—Chicago Tribune cuts 11 jobs: As part of those layoffs, The Tribune Company flagship is also letting its two New York correspondents go. Tribune Editor Gerould Kern said this is probably it for layoffs this year—there’s just little more than three weeks to go anyway—but offered no assurances that the…

—E.W. Scripps: Broadcasting veteran Brian Lawlor has been tapped to lead the company’s TV division as its SVP. Effective Jan 1, 2009, when Bill Peterson retires, Lawlor will oversee the 10 stations plus digital businesses. Since the beginning of this year, he has been corporate VP-sales for the TV division,…

With the first quarter that has EW Scripps (NYSE: SSP) reporting as a separate company from Scripps Interactive (NYSE: SNI), the newspaper/broadcaster said it will suspend its dividend payment to give it more flexibility as economic conditions worsen. The company also said about 400 newspaper jobs will be cut in…

Last fall, 11 newspaper publishers agreed to let real estate upstart Zillow.com carry the real estate listings from their 282 papers. Now, the Zillow Newspaper Consortium, which includes Hearst and Lee Enterprises (NYSE: LEE), and the price-comparison site are launching a real estate ad network with the right to sell…

When newspaper companies released their quarterly earnings for the past two years, the news tended to follow this arc: circ, print ad revenues tended to be down, while online kept on growing. But for a number of major publishers, this past Q2 witnessed online declines by Tribune (-4 percent), AH…