TORONTO -- Management unveiled a modest strategy for survival to shareholders of troubled Headline Media Group at the company's annual general meeting Thursday.
"This is going to be a very significant year," interim chief financial office Patrick Michaud told shareholders in Toronto on Thursday. This year will be one "in which revenue growth will decline, but we can expect a significant turnaround in operating losses."
Headline Media Group, which owns digital specialty channels the Score and PrideVision as well as sports marketing and specialty publishing division St. Clair Group, had a rough ride in fiscal 2002. Company lost C$36.5 million ($24.5 million) during the year and another $1.7 million in the first quarter of 2003; took $7.4 million in writedowns (earlier this month, shareholder Alliance Atlantis wrote down its investment in Headline Media from $18.3 million to $2.1 million); pinkslipped half its staff at PrideVision; terminated its major league baseball contract; and saw its stock sink from about $1.30 to pennies a share.
Michaud predicted that the company would "come close to breaking even" in 2004 with the help of continued cost cutting, projected ad growth in the Score and St. Clair and an anticipated thumbs up from Canada's broadcast regulator to a request to raise specialty channel fees for the Score.
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