Postmedia CEO Paul Godfrey
Postmedia Network Canada Corp. will remain a private company until some time in the first half of 2011, chief executive officer Paul Godfrey said on Monday.
Mr. Godfrey discussed the planned stock listing following the Toronto-based media company's release of its first set of financial results following the closure of its $1.1-billion deal to buy the newspapers formerly owned by CanWest Global Communications Corp.
"A lot will depend on market conditions," Mr. Godfrey said in an interview on Monday.
Revenue for the three months ended Aug. 31 totalled $241.3-million, up 1.5 per cent from CanWest's revenue of $237.7-million for the same period last year.
The results were combined from Postmedia's financials from July 13, when the newspapers emerged from creditor protection, and the results under CanWest's ownership prior to that date.
The media company that owns the National Post and 10 other major daily newspapers, as well as 35 community papers, reported a loss of $44.6-million. CanWest's losses from June 1 to July 12 were not provided.
Postmedia's 2011 fiscal year began this fall with employee buyouts offered across its major publications in an effort to cut costs. Mr. Godfrey said the company has also outsourced its advertising production, and is in the midst of centralizing all of the papers' pagination duties at one operation in Hamilton.
"We're always looking at options," Mr. Godfrey said of the cost-cutting efforts.
Following the economic downturn that hurt newspapers' ad sales, Postmedia saw a modest improvement in print advertising revenue, which were up 1.7 per cent in the quarter, to $153.8-million. That improvement was mostly driven by national advertisers, while retail advertising is still lagging.
"From my experience in the business, national is the first one to take the downturn and the first to come back," Mr. Godfrey said. "We're knocking on all available doors, of steady customers, people who had been advertisers in the past and people we want to be advertisers in the future."
The company has also been training its sales team, so that representatives now sell ads both in print and online, rather than splitting those duties. Revenues from digital operations rose 7.4 per cent to $20.4-million.
Print circulation revenue was down 1.3 per cent to $59.5-million.