Biz weekly owner reports higher earnings, raises guidance

Dolan Co., which owns weekly business newspapers across the country, reported Wednesday that its net income rose by more than 40 percent, and the company raised its revenue guidance for the rest of the year.

Total revenues for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2010, were $78.5 million, up 25.8 percent from $62.3 million in the same period of 2009. Revenue in the division that operates the business journals, however, fell slightly to $22.1 million.

In the division that operates the business newspapers, total operating expenses rose 2.1 percent to $17.4 million from the third quarter of 2009, due primarily to new product initiatives begun in the first quarter of 2010. On a year-over-year basis, direct operating expenses in the division that operates the business newspapers increased 4.0 percent to $7.2 million while selling, general and administrative expenses for the division increased 2.0 percent year-over-year to $8.9 million.

Dolan owns the Long Island Business News, Mississippi Business Journal, the Colorado Springs Business Journal, the Idaho Business Review and the Daily Journal of Commerce in Portland, Ore., among others.

The company is raising its full-year revenue guidance to $309 million to $312 million, up from from $307 million to $310 million. In addition the company is tightening its guidance for net income attributable to The Dolan Co. to $1.13 per share to $1.17 per share from $1.11 per share to $1.18 per share, and its cash earnings guidance to $1.55 per share to $1.59 per share from $1.54 per share to $1.60 per share.

The earnings release can be read here.