The Dallas Morning News Enhances Local Coverage

DALLAS, Aug. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Dallas Morning News announced the successful launch of its enhanced approach to local coverage in neighborsgo and the Metro section of the newspaper last weekend. The improvements were designed to increase the community-specific coverage of the weekly neighborsgo publications and bring a more regional focus to the daily Metro section.

Neighborsgo is now distributed in Briefing and continues to be delivered inside the Friday edition of The Dallas Morning News. This new home delivery strategy increases the distribution of neighborsgo by nearly 200,000 households for a combined total of more than 340,000 households in North Texas. Neighborsgo will also be available online, inside the Friday eEdition of The Dallas Morning News. Single-copy and free rack distribution of neighborsgo have been discontinued.

Community coverage has increased from 44 to 71 neighborhoods and suburban areas throughout the Dallas area. Grouped into 11 weekly zoned editions, neighborsgo follows shopping patterns and demographics, key criteria that provide new opportunities for advertisers to drill down to their geographic targets in a more specific, cost-effective way.

"As the leading provider of local news and information in the Dallas area, we are continuing to invest in our in-depth local news coverage and distribution," said CEO and publisher Jim Moroney. "The increased coverage area and distribution of neighborsgo improves our service to the many communities that make up our distribution area and also gives advertisers more visibility and exposure in more neighborhoods."

As part of its identity as a "window on your community," neighborsgo now includes Good Kid, Police Blotter, School Briefs and Community Voices, all features that were previously published inside Metro. Each edition also features rotating columns by city officials and community leaders. Published stories and photos will continue to be a combination of consumer-generated and staff-written articles first posted on neighborsgo.com.

"People want to see local news and ads that are relevant to them," said Oscar Martinez, publisher of neighborsgo. "This move clarifies the roles of Metro and neighborsgo and puts us in a position to further engage both readers and advertisers."

At the same time, the Metro section of The News has been repositioned to have a regional focus. Content has been organized thematically for readers' convenience, with topics including public safety, education, transportation, neighborhood profiles and much more.

"In all, these changes have two important and positive effects," continued Moroney. "We are giving our engaged readers more focused, meaningful content in a greater number of communities, and we are giving our advertisers more targeted and cost-effective tools to reach audiences. I am confident that the improved focus and distribution of our content will be well received by both the communities and the advertisers we serve."

About The Dallas Morning News

Established in 1885, The Dallas Morning News (dallasnews.com) is Texas' leading newspaper. Its portfolio of print and online products reach an average daily audience of more than 1.1 million. The newspaper has received nine Pulitzer Prizes since 1986, as well as numerous other industry awards recognizing the quality of its investigative and feature journalism, design and photojournalism. In 2010, The News received the Pulitzer Prize for an editorial series highlighting the economic disparity between the northern half and southern half of Dallas. In 2003, the paper launched the leading Spanish-language daily in North Texas, Al Dia and the nation's first editorial blog. In 2007, the paper established one of the country's first consumer-generated community news sites, neighborsgo.com. In 2008, the paper launched the free, home-delivered quick-read, Briefing. The Dallas Morning News is the flagship newspaper subsidiary of A. H. Belo Corporation.

About A. H. Belo Corporation

A. H. Belo Corporation (NYSE: AHC), headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a distinguished newspaper publishing and local news and information company that owns and operates four daily newspapers and a diverse group of websites.  A. H. Belo publishes The Dallas Morning News, Texas' leading newspaper and winner of nine Pulitzer Prizes; The Providence Journal, the oldest continuously-published daily newspaper in the U.S. and winner of four Pulitzer Prizes; The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA), serving the Inland Southern California region and winner of one Pulitzer Prize; and the Denton Record-Chronicle.  The Company publishes various niche publications targeting specific audiences, and its partnerships and/or investments include the Yahoo! Newspaper Consortium and Classified Ventures, owner of cars.com.  A. H. Belo also owns and operates commercial printing, distribution and direct mail service businesses.  Additional information is available at www.ahbelo.com or by contacting David A. Gross, vice president/Investor Relations and Strategic Analysis, at 214-977-4810.

Statements in this communication concerning A. H. Belo Corporation's (the "Company's") business outlook or future economic performance, anticipated profitability, revenues, expenses, dividends, capital expenditures, investments, impairments, pension plan contributions, real estate sales, future financings, and other financial and non-financial items that are not historical facts, are "forward-looking statements" as the term is defined under applicable federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those statements.

Such risks, uncertainties and factors include, but are not limited to, changes in capital market conditions and prospects, and other factors such as changes in advertising demand and newsprint prices; newspaper circulation trends and other circulation matters, including changes in readership methods, patterns and demography, and audits and related actions by the Audit Bureau of Circulations; challenges implementing increased subscription pricing and new pricing structures; challenges in achieving expense reduction goals, and on schedule, and the resulting potential effects on operations; technological changes; development of Internet commerce; industry cycles; changes in pricing or other actions by existing and new competitors and suppliers; labor relations; regulatory, tax and legal changes; adoption of new accounting standards or changes in existing accounting standards by the Financial Accounting Standards Board or other accounting standard-setting bodies or authorities; the effects of Company acquisitions, dispositions, co-owned ventures, and investments; pension plan matters; general economic conditions and changes in interest rates; significant armed conflict; and other factors beyond our control, as well as other risks described in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010, and other public disclosures and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE The Dallas Morning News