A.H. Belo, owner of the Dallas Morning News and related businesses, posted a small revenue gain and a small profit for the first quarter.
The year-to-year revenue gain, unusual for a newspaper publishing company, came from growth of the company’s digital ad agency, Speakeasy, the addition of three marketing services businesses and growth in its printing revenues..
Revenue was $65.4 million, up 1.6 percent from the 2014 quarter and net earnings were $307,000, a margin of 0.5 percent.
The result is consistent with the company’s strategy under CEO Jim Moroney of acquiring and starting businesses that will generate enough revenue to cover continuing print advertising losses.
The company’s financial reports do not break out total print advertising revenue but its total of print and digital advertising and marketing services income was down 2.4 percent. Display advertising was down 2.7 percent; classifieds, 11.7 percent: preprints, 11.2 percent; and digital, 7.3 percent.
A.H. Belo shares were trading down about 7.5 percent for the day.
Correction: An earlier version of this story contained a typo in the headline.
