The Arena Group Reports Record Revenue as Digital Advertising Grows 56% for Third Quarter of 2022
The Arena Group Holdings (AREN), the publisher of Sports Illustrated, TheStreet, Parade and more, reported that revenue for the third quarter was $66.7 million, the largest quarterly revenue in company history.
Digital advertising revenue increased 56% in the third quarter to a record $28.5 million from $18.3 million in the third quarter of 2021. Quarterly gross profit was $26.2 million as compared to $27.4 million in the prior year period, a slight decline due in part to the absence of both the Summer Olympics and the launch of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit magazine’s annual edition, both of which occurred in the third quarter of 2021.
Overall, The Arena Group generated $180 million in revenue for the first nine months of 2022, a 41% increase.
“The record results from The Arena Group reflect the investments we made over the past 18 months, disciplined and focused operations and the continued diversification and expansion of our core verticals," said Ross Levinsohn, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Arena Group. "Our proprietary playbook is driving robust and sustainable growth across our three core verticals – Sports, Finance and Lifestyle - enabling us to outpace our competitive set in both digital advertising revenue and audience growth.
"The macroeconomic challenges have impacted our industry across most of our competitive set, however we have continued to buck the trend and are optimistic for the remainder of 2022 and beyond.”
The Sports vertical, anchored by Sports Illustrated and featuring local team sites brand FanNation, The Spun and Sports Illustrated Media Group partners, increased monthly average pageviews by 27% year-over-year, and the Sports Illustrated Media Group reached the #4 ComScore ranking across sports media in September.
In September, The Arena Group acquired The Morning Read, a golf publisher, to which the Company will apply its playbook to drive audience and revenue growth. The Morning Read was an existing publishing partner of the Company.
“This is a watershed quarter for the company with record revenue, lower costs, audience and advertising growth with increasing yield and profitability,” Levinsohn said. “We expect our Adjusted EBITDA to be positive in the fourth quarter and for the full year with expanding audiences, higher revenue, and operational efficiency. The investments we made over the past two years have driven our success, growth, and opportunity for the coming years.”
The Finance vertical grew monthly average page views 209% year-over-year, reaching an average of 27 million page views online each month, according to Google Analytics. During the third quarter, TheStreet-branded filming studio opened on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
The Lifestyle vertical, anchored by Parade, which the Company acquired in April is already delivering improvements in audience and yield. Subsequent to the acquisition and integration, management decided to wind down Parade’s print business, reallocating resources from print to Parade’s digital business. According to Google Analytics, Parade.com’s monthly average page views have increased by 18% sequentially from the second quarter of 2022 and for the first time Parade broke the top 10 ComScore ranking in the Lifestyles category in September.
And The Arena Group continues to expand its partnerships signing 24 new publishing partners, adding millions of new users, impressions and revenue and profit at little-to-no incremental cost to the company.
“Our playbook facilitates cross-promotion, real time coverage and in-depth analysis, and success in one part of our business drives improvements across the board," Levinsohn concluded. "As a key component of this, acquisitions that are integrated into our platform generate significant growth over historical levels, while simultaneously expanding profit margins. We proved this last year with The Spun, and repeated it with Parade and plan to do so with The Morning Read. The challenging media landscape is creating significant M&A opportunities for us at compelling valuations, and we anticipate additional disciplined and accretive acquisitions to accelerate our growth.”
