Scripps stock punished after guidance

January 31, 2007 Shares of media firm E.W. Scripps Co. took a beating Tuesday after management provided weaker-than-expected financial guidance for its current first quarter partly because of sluggish newspaper trends and said it has no plans to sell or spin off its newspaper unit despite recent speculation that Scripps will focus on its fast-growing TV assets. The news overshadowed what analysts called a solid fourth-quarter profit that reversed a year-ago loss thanks in part to strong political advertising revenue. Scripps on Tuesday reported a fourth-quarter profit of $133.9 million, compared with a loss of $603,000 a year ago when the firm took a goodwill write-down for the Shop At Home network, which it sold last year.

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