OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS
While the pandemic is still affecting the Company’s businesses to varying degrees, the Company’s digital media, data, and information businesses have held up relatively well.
The underlying fundamentals and value of these products have proven resilient despite the challenging market conditions.
GLACIER MEDIA INC.
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION & ANALYSIS
Revenues have begun to recover in a number of areas and are gradually improving on an overall basis. The overall decline in consolidated revenue for the year was 18.1%. This reflects the mixed results of certain operations which are still being affected by revenue decreases from the impacts of COVID-19 and certain operations which surpassed prior year results in the later months of 2020.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Environmental and Property Information revenues were up 11% as compared to the prior year. Revenues for this group were more resilient to the negative effects of COVID-19.
ERIS acquired the assets of GeoSearch in November 2020. ERIS continues to grow organically, both in the U.S. and Canada.
STP and ERIS were up 8% in revenue overall for the year, which includes one month of revenue relating to the GeoSearch acquisition.
REW (the Company’s residential real estate portal) generated record traffic growth and revenues were up 29% for the year.
Local Digital Media revenues, including a partial interest in Village Media, grew 7% as compared to the prior year.
Efforts to adjust sales focus and product offerings and pivot to areas of demand have been effective in maintaining digital revenues and generating marketing results for advertisers during the pandemic.
Digital audience growth was strong as the Company’s Local News Network monthly page views grew 30% as compared to last year. This growth continued a consistent pre-COVID trend and accelerated due to the focus on local news and COVID related issues.
Glacier FarmMedia revenues decreased 20% as compared the prior year as a result of the conversion of the farm shows to a virtual format from an outdoor format due to the pandemic. Revenues were off 10% during the year excluding the farm shows. Demand for food and agricultural output has remained strong during the pandemic.
The energy and mining group revenues were off 15% for the year, improving in the later months of 2020 as compared to the decline noted in early 2020. Significant cost reductions have offset the decline in revenues. The JWN Energy Group was sold subsequent to year end, in March 2021.
Print community media advertising revenues were off significantly compared to prior year. The decline improved in the later months of the year as compared to the declines experienced during the early months of COVID-19.
Operating costs have been reduced significantly in response to the revenue declines. The federal government Aid to Publishers (“ATP”) program was expanded to include non-paid publications. The majority of the Company’s publications are controlled distribution, so the expansion of the ATP program helped offset the revenue declines in these markets.
Overall, the Company’s operating profitability is improving. Consolidated EBITDA was $4.2 million for the year excluding CEWS.
It is encouraging that the efforts and investment made in the core areas of focus for the Company prior to the pandemic have allowed demand for these products and services to be resilient during the pandemic. The respective brands, market positions and value to customers have remained strong.
Print advertising revenues have declined the most, but are improving, albeit at a lower amount than pre- pandemic levels. They are expected to recover further from current levels in the near term then continue their secular decline. The Company is planning for the financial costs relating to newspaper restructurings that may be required in the future.
It owns real estate in some of its newspaper markets that can be sold to partially offset these costs. The new ATP program will help extend the life of the newspapers, if it continues.
The Company and its partners are seeing that local digital media businesses can operate on a standalone basis without newspapers, and can be operated with newspaper staff as well as new staff.
The Company’s objective is to transform local media operations from mostly print newspaper revenue to digital operations over time.
Overall, the Company expects that as time progresses, and the pandemic abates, revenues will recover.
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