TV station stock prices aren’t what they were a year ago, but nothing is what it was a year ago. Disney (NYSE: DIS) has held steady in the $22 range since the September market collapse; McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MEG) is in similar territory. Both stocks are about 50 to 70 percent of where they were before the banks imploded. Less diversified companies are having a slog. Belo (NYSE: BLC), for example, a pure-play TV company with 20 or so stations, is holding at around $2 from around four times that much in September, and a 52-week high of more than $17 a share.
Meredith Corp. (NASDAQ: MDP), holding at between $17 and $18 a share after a 52-week high of $52, announced it will take a special charge of $16 million--around $9 million after taxes, or 20 cents a share--for its fiscal second quarter of 2009. The write-down is related to cutting 250 jobs, shuttering Country Home magazine and relocating some of the work related to its other publications. Meredith’s fiscal year began last July 1. The company’s 12 TV stations generated $70 million in revenue for fiscal 1Q09, down by $5 million from the previous year.
Price snapshot taken at approximately 10:15 a.m. Monday, Jan. 12:
