Torstar eyes tablet growth

Article Excerpt

TORSTAR $6.36 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Shares outstanding: 79.9 million; Market cap: $513.2 million; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 8.3%; www.torstar.com) earned $0.06 a share, excluding one-time items, in the three months ended September 30, 2014. A year earlier it made $0.08 a share. Revenue declined 7.1%, to $211.2 million from $227.4 million. The slow economy continues to hurt advertising revenue at Torstar’s newspapers. However, revenue improved at its Internet and flyer-distribution businesses. Torstar has also signed a new deal with the publisher of Montreal’s La Presse newspaper. In 2013, La Presse launched a free digital version for tablet computers. Under this agreement, Torstar will use La Presse’s technology to launch a digital version of its flagship paper, the Toronto Star. The company will spend $11 million to $14 million on this project and expects to launch it by the end of 2015. At that time, it will also stop charging users to access the Toronto Star’s website. That will hurt…