These aren't merry times for the media giants. This morning, Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) became the latest such monolith to come up short.
Fourth-quarter revenue fell by 3% to $12.3 billion, with top-line gains at the company's media networks and Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) offset by declines at AOL, publishing, and filmed entertainment.
Earnings from continuing operations clocked in at $0.23 a share, before a massive $24.2 billion asset-impairment charge that covered many of its properties.
The biggest revenue bleeder was AOL, clocking in 23% lower year over year. That bloodletting is intentional; AOL has been pushing access subscribers out the door by eliminating perks as it keys in on higher-margin ad revenue derived from serving up free content. For now, the purge seems to have succeeded in increasing adjusted operating profits.
As a longtime AOL subscriber, it stings to see AOL with just 6.9 million stateside access subscribers. That's 2.4 million fewer than it had a year ago, and well shy of the 26.7 million access accounts it encompassed at its 2002 peak. Why is AOL going with a gradual decline, when it could probably receive a healthy ransom by handing over its access customers to EarthLink (NASDAQ:ELNK), United Online (NASDAQ:UNTD), or any other budding ISP?
Weakness at the rest of the company is more understandable. Print publishing is a fading medium. In movies, the company faces the same troublesome comparisons as Disney (NYSE:DIS), with this year's DVD sales more sluggish, and its slate of theatrical releases weaker, than last year's. And guess which way television advertising is going these days?
Alas, things won't get better in the near term. The company is projecting adjusted earnings for all of 2009 to merely equal the $0.66 a share it ultimately earned in 2008.
Time Warner is now trading in the single digits, armed with the power to declare a 1-for-2 or 1-for-3 reverse split. That move was authorized to help beef up the company's share price after it finishes spinning off its cable subsidiary, but Time Warner may want to keep the option open if its stock continues to shrink on its own.
This year, at least, it seems there's no happy ending in store for Time Warner. We can only hope things will turn around in the sequel.
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