Source: National Post

An improving advertising market and lower costs helped propel Canwest Global Communications Corp. to a big increase in second quarter earnings.

The Winnipeg-based media conglomerate said it earned $94-million from operations in its fiscal second quarter, a 750% jump over the $11-million operating profit it posted a year earlier.

Top line revenue from continuing operations for the quarter, which ended Feb. 28, increased slightly to $479-million.

“For the quarter, on a comparable basis, the company reported marginal top line growth which reflects improvement in the advertising environment in both television broadcasting and publishing businesses,” John Maguire, Canwest’s chief financial officer, said in a release. “The growth in operating profit also reflects the success of steps taken by the Company over the last year to improve the competitive position of both businesses through the reduction of operating expenses.”

Canwest’s publishing division, which includes the National Post and several of the country’s other big daily newspapers, reported an operating profit of $41-million, up 28% from a year. Revenue edged down slightly to $254-million. Year over year, operating expenses in the publishing unit dropped 12%.

Its television division experienced an even bigger improvement, earning $56-million dollars from operations, up 66% over the same period last year.

Canwest said it had 6 of the top 15 analog specialty channels over the winter period. The company said the publishing division’s weekly readership topped 4 million, up 2.1% in 2009 according to the NADbank readership study.

Canwest is involved in two separate restructurings under the Canadian Creditor Arrangement Act, one for the publishing unit and the other for its conventional television assets and holding company.

© National Post