Don’t be surprised if Comcast (CMCSA) arranges to sell the NBC broadcast network and its TV stations to a third part,y after announcing plans to buy controlling ownership of NBC Universal as early as next week.

Potential buyers for the NBC TV network and its 10 owned TV stations (in the top 25 markets) could include major NBC affiliated television groups owners such as Hearst (HTV), Gannett (GCI), Belo (BLC) and E.W. Scripps (SSP).

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Note: The Hitwise data featured is based on US market share of visits as defined by the IAB, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or category, from the Hitwise sample of 10 million US internet users. Hitwise measures more than 1 million unique websites on a daily basis, including sub-domains of larger websites. Hitwise categorizes websites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market orientation and competitive context. The market share of visits percentage does not includeA traffic for all sub-domains of certain websites that could be reported on separately.

It seems it has been some time since I updated the performance of Standard & Poor's Dividend Aristocrats. Year to date through November 4, 2009, the Aristocrats have generated a better return than the Dow Jones Industrial Index, 12.2% versus 11.7%, respectively. However, the Aristocrats performance has trailed the return on the S & P 500 Index's return of 15.9%.

In the below table, I have shaded the rows for those companies that have cut their dividend this year.

Gannett Corp. (NYSE: GCI)

Originally recommended on Aug. 24/09 (IWB #2931) at $8.16. Closed Friday at $13.22.

In 2007, before the recession, GCI's Goodwill was valued at $10 Billion. When the recession happened, everything in the market place lost value, which makes perfect sense considering what is and has happened. When people lose their jobs, they lose value that impacts their wallets. Same goes for Goodwill during a recession. When a person loses his job, however, that doesn't mean that he'll never have value as an employee again. Eventually, he'll have another job and the value of his bank account will grow. Same goes for Goodwill. When the market recovers, and it will, the value of a companies brand, reputation, and customer service will be worth more than what it was worth when it experienced macroeconomic difficulties.

At the end of each trading week, Hillbent scans the equity market for potential anomalies which exhibit extremely oversold and overbought conditions. Past observations have revealed that such candidates may experience reversal corrections to the upside or downside once the market reconfirms that their fundamentals remain solidly intact or relatively poor. From a contrarian perspective, these lists may also serve as a precursor to changes in institutional sentiment and underlying fundamentals.

(The purpose of this report is not to provide specific recommendations, but instead serve as a time-saving reference tool and starting point for investment ideas as the upcoming trading week unfolds. Of course, the results generated are not always perfect and users are strongly encouraged to perform their own due diligence on these names. Note that overbought and oversold conditions are based upon proprietary algorithms and quantitative models instead of conventional technical analysis indicators. As a supplement to this report, please refer to our ETF Trends Report to determine if market direction trends support a bullish or bearish investment bias over short-term, intermediate, and long-term timeframes.)

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We knew that USA Today's early word of a circulation plunge -- 17%, announced by Gannett (GCI) two weeks ago -- would probably be a sick canary in a dark coal mine.

Monday's semi-annual circulation FAS-FAX numbers for U.S. dailies, though, are still breathtaking. On average, down 10.6% daily and 7.4% Sunday. That's on average, and largely twice as bad as the declines have been over the past four-plus years. Look at some of the individual results and you'll understand why the New York Times (NYT) just announced that it is taking another 100 jobs out of its newsroom and why other newsroom (and, of course, wider) cuts may increase -- not decrease -- as Wall Street indicates that an overall economic recovery will be a 2010 reality.

By MG Siegler

Back when newspapers were the only game in town for ad space, they could charge whatever they wanted. Now the web has near infinite ad space, and newspapers find themselves playing the wrong game. They’ve got ad sales staff that specialize in commodity order fulfillment and not premium advertising solutions.

Barron’s published an interesting article this weekend by Jonathan A. Knee, director of the Media Program at Columbia Business School and co-author of The Curse of the Mogul. (Note: Mr. Knee’s co-author for the book is Bruce Greenwald who has been discussed here in the past.) Mr. Knee’s article pertains directly to a topic that appeared here in May regarding newspapers and “creative destruction”.

Mr. Knee’s article in Barron’s is entitled “This Dying Medium Has Plenty of Life”. In the article, he points out that newspapers are still more profitable than other types of consumer media. Although profit margins have fallen from levels exceeding 30% to the mid-teens today, this still exceeds margins for movies, music, and books which have often struggled to reach 10%. Ultimately, he believes that “news junkies should anticipate an era of unprecedented plenty”.

While 77% of US companies have beaten earnings per share estimates so far this earnings season, the average stock that has reported has actually declined 0.72% on its report day. (For stocks that report after the close, we use its next-day change, and for stocks that report before the open, we use that day's change.) Heading into earnings season, the market was at extreme overbought levels, and companies are finding it difficult to see an increase in share prices even when their earnings reports blow away the numbers.

Some companies have managed to do well, however. In the first table below, we highlight all of the US companies that have gone up more than 5% on their earnings report days (S&P 500 companies are outlined in black). As shown, Lexmark (LXK) has seen the biggest gain at 15.91%, followed by Renaissance Learning (RLRN) (15.67%), Helen of Troy (HELE) (12.5%), Werner Enterprises (WERN) (12.38%), and Lufkin Industries (LUFK). Other notables on the list of big winners include Gannett (GCI), Tempur-Pedic (TPX), CSX, Bank of New York (BK), and Harley-Davidson (HOG).

Gannett Co. Inc. (GCI), the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S., recently reported third-quarter 2009 results. Despite a faltering economy and decline in print advertising revenue, the company’s earnings topped expectations, buoyed by effective cost-cutting measures, lower newsprint expense, reduction in headcount and pay cuts. Operating expenses dropped 14.4% to $1,179.6 million.

Gannett’s quarterly earnings of 44 cents a share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 38 cents as well as the company’s expected guidance range of 39 cents to 42 cents a share. However, earnings fell 42.1% year-on-year from 76 cents reported in the prior-year quarter due to an 18.4% decline registered in the total revenue of $1,336.6 million.

The Wall Street Journal (NWSA) said last week that it has passed USA Today (GCI) to become the #1 newspaper in the US by weekday circulation, though the USA Today - the longtime holder of this distinction - is still claiming it has the highest total print circulation.

The Journal recently told Ad Age that when the next Audit Bureau of Circulations report is released on Oct. 26, it is expected to show average paid circulation of 2.02 million copies over the last six months, an increase from the 2.01 million the same period in 2008, writes MarketingVOX.

4:10 PM, Oct 19, 2009 --

• NYSE up 88.3 (1.2%) to 7,222.21.
• DJIA up 96.28 (1%) to 10,092.
• S&P 500 up 10.23 (0.9%) to 1,098.
• Nasdaq up 19.5 (0.9%) to 2,176.

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

Sentiment

Stocks are broadly higher on hopes the earnings reporting season will deliver good news for investors in the days and weeks ahead. Caterpillar (CAT), which releases results Tuesday morning, is up 5.3 percent and leading the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a triple digit gain. Texas Instruments (TXN) is holding modest gains and Apple Computer (AAPL) is flat ahead of reports due out after the closing bell. The tech-heavy NASDAQ is up 20.

The economic calendar remains light. A report from the National Association of Homebuilders [NAHB] released Monday afternoon showed homebuilder sentiment [HMI] slipped to 18 in October, down from 19 the month before and its fist decline since June, when the gauge of industry confidence slipped to 15.

Q3 2009 Earnings Call

October 19, 2009 10:00 am ET