Tribune Publishing Co (NASDAQ:TPCO) saw its shares slightly higher Friday on announcing financial results for the first quarter.
Total revenues were $216.5 million, down from $244.5 million in the first quarter of 2019. Loss from operations was $62.0 million, substantially due to non-cash impairment charges of $51.0 million, compared to a loss of $7.4 million in the first quarter of 2019
Adjusted EBITDA was $13.3 million, a decrease of $8.0 million compared to the first quarter of 2019. Digital-only subscribers increased 30.7% to 370,000 at the end of the first quarter 2020, up from 283,000 at the end of the first quarter 2019, and related revenue was up 42.4% compared to the first quarter of 2019
Tribune CEO Terry Jimenez said: "We began 2020 with a sharp focus on growing our digital-only subscriber base and managing costs to offset secular revenue declines. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first quarter required us to accelerate these efforts in order to manage the impact of the economic slowdown on our advertising partners and thereby our business.
"We have continued to see strong growth in digital-only subscribers which increased 30.7% year-over-year as of the end of the first quarter and continue to grow rapidly as we progress through second quarter."
The Chicago-based publishing giant is not providing full-year 2020 guidance at this time. For the second quarter of 2020, the Company expects total revenues of $172.0 million to $175.0 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $10.5 million to $12.0 million.
TPCO shares acquired 11 cents, or 1.1%, to $10.01.
