Valassis Again Touts Its Weakest Revenue Drivers as the Future of the Company

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Valassis went to the Deutsche Bank Leveraged Finance conference on Oct. 1 and again touted its two weakest business segments as the future of its business. (BNET has harped on this issue before.)

In its presentation, the company showed revenue numbers indicating that that “Neighborhood targeted” and “Free-standing inserts” are its most robust revenue drivers. Both involve newspaper coupons and ads; and both segments are flat through Q2.

The same presentation showed “Shared Mail” and “International, Digital Media & Services” as down 11.6 percent and 18 percent in revenue, respectively (Digital is only up 9 percent if you exclude “discontinued operations”). Digital accounts for only $73 million of Valassis’ $1 billion YTD revenue. Here’s the chart:

(Click to enlarge.)

One might assume that Valassis would be leaning more heavily on the FSI and Neighborhood segments of its business, especially given the collapse of the shared mail market. But no. The presentation says:

As newspaper coverage declines, Shared Mail and Online are logical and effective solutions for newspaper-delivered content.

This may indeed be true in the long run. But it isn’t right now.

Tags: Revenue, Operational Accounting, Finance, Jim Edwards

Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.

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