Belo Corp.

In the age of media consolidation, among the first casualties to suffer from the relentless focus on the bottom line is political news coverage. Dallas-based Belo Corp. is an exception.

At a time when the major broadcast networks are opting to reduce coverage of the two national conventions in favor of “Trading Spouses” and repeats of “CSI,” Belo’s television stations are expanding coverage. For the fifth consecutive election cycle, the company will run the “It’s Your Time” program, which gives each congressional and gubernatorial candidate five free minutes of air time to make his or her pitch directly to voters.

And in the lead-up to November’s general election, Belo stations will air at least an hour’s worth of political coverage every week, including debates and interviews with candidates of all levels, plus features on local issues.

It’s all part of a strategy Belo conceived in 1996, and since that time more than 400 candidates have participated. Robert W. Decherd, the president, chairman and chief executive officer of Belo, told The Dallas Morning News, “Belo took this groundbreaking step eight years ago to ensure that we were doing all we could to create an informed electorate in the communities we serve.”

Incidentally, The Dallas Morning News is the flagship property of Belo, which got its start way back in 1876, when Alfred Horatio Belo purchased the Galveston Daily News. Nine years later, he sent an associate to find a proper location to establish a sister publication. In 1885, that paper—The Dallas Morning News—began printing.

The Belo associate who took a chance on Dallas—George Dealey—eventually became owner of the company, naming it A. H. Belo Corporation after its founder. (The initials were dropped in 2001.) The company opened its first radio station in 1922.

The Dallas Morning News was key to Belo’s success. Its good performance led to the purchase of the company’s first television station, also in Dallas, in the early 1950s. In 1991, Belo purchased The Dallas Morning News’ competing daily, the Times-Herald, and shut the paper down. Dallas officially became a one-daily city, and Belo went on to expand significantly.

The company bought the Providence Journal newspaper in 1997, along with several television stations, for $1.5 billion from the Providence Journal Company.

Today Belo is the eighth largest broadcast television company by revenue, with 20 stations in all. In addition to the Morning News, it publishes three major dailies (including the Providence Journal and the Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.) as well as a handful of community papers.

There have been setbacks along the way, most notably the failed 19-month partnership with Time Warner that was News 24 TV, a 24-hour cable news network launched in 2002 in the Houston market. Sagging ratings led both companies to pull the plug in July, with Belo taking an $18.7 million loss on the deal, which had included cable news stations in San Antonio and Charlotte, N.C.

And there was the 12 percent stake in the Dallas Mavericks that Belo paid $24 million for in 1999; the team’s majority owner, Mark Cuban, had agreed to buy Belo’s share back for $34 million, but after a public battle they settled on a price tag of $27 million.

The setbacks were the exception, though, and the company continues to prosper financially, as operating revenues and net income have increased at a healthy rate. The company had a profit $128.5 million in 2003.

Belo’s philanthropic arm, The Belo Foundation, has awarded grants over the past half-century totaling $20 million.

—Robert Morlino

August 20, 2004

Sources: Company Web site, Hoover’s Online, The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, Dow Jones Business News