Postmedia released its first quarter results for the three months ended on November 20, 2023 and there is reason for hope and – because this is the publishing industry – despair.
Andrew MacLeod, Postmedia’s president and CEO, led with the good news. “Q1 marked an important milestone in our transformation with the repayment of our first lien notes totaling $200M over the last seven years. Repayment and the subsequent refinancing of our debt and recently announced new credit ABL facility will provide needed flexibility to accelerate our transformation,” he said.
MacLeod also touted the growth of the company’s parcel distribution business and praised the Canadian government positively for its settlement with Google on the Online News Act and revising the Journalism Tax Credit. “Both represent material stabilizers to Canada’s domestic media industry,” he said. “We look forward to working with Federal and Provincial levels of government to implement structural reform in the Canadian media sector so the domestic industry, critical to Canadians, can regain its footing and secure our digital futures.”
Less positive was Postmedia’s first quarter operating results. Revenue for the quarter was $104.6 million compared to $124.2 million in the same period last year, representing a decrease of nearly $20 million, or 15.8%. This was mostly due to decreases in advertising, totaling $14.4 million, and circulation, totaling $7.1 million. If that math doesn’t quite add up it’s because the losses were partially offset by the parcel distribution business that brought in $3.6 million.
According to Postmedia, the net loss this quarter was $10.6 million, compared to a net loss of $15.9 million in the same period in the prior year. The better-than-last-year loss was primarily the result of a decrease in foreign exchange losses in the three months ended August 31, 2023 and the increase in operating income before depreciation, amortization and restructuring –partially offset by a decrease in gain on disposal of assets held-for-sale and other assets, loss on debt refinancing and increases in depreciation and interest expenses.
