The Arena Group Holdings (AREN), the New York tech-driven publisher of Sports Illustrated, TheStreet, Parade, HubPages and more, on Wednesday reported record third-quarter revenue of $66.7 million--its largest quarterly total in company history.
The company generated $180 million in revenue in the first nine months of the year for a 41% year-over-year increase. Third-quarter revenue amounted to a 12% year-over-year increase, compared to $59.6 million generated in the same quarter in 2021. The increase was driven by a 26% increase in total digital revenue to $38 million in the third quarter of 2022, which included a 56% increase in digital advertising revenue to a record $28.5 million.
“The record results from The Arena Group reflect the investments we made over the past 18 months, disciplined and focused execution and continued diversification and expansion of our core verticals,” The Arena Group Chairman and CEO Ross Levinsohn said in a Nov. 9 statement. “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,” he said.
The Arena Group’s increase in digital advertising revenue was mainly due to a 32% increase in monthly average pageviews and a 10% increase in revenue per pageview with 86% of the total increase driven by organic growth and the remainder due to the acquisition of Parade Media.
Other revenue increased by $600,000 or 15%, primarily from licensing and syndication revenue, despite the fact that the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit magazine launch added in excess of $3 million of revenue to the third quarter of fiscal 2021, but in the current year was launched during the second quarter.
The company’s 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 No. 4 ComScore ranking across sports media in September.
The Arena Group also acquired golf publisher The Morning Read, which was an existing partner to which the company will apply its playbook to drive audience and revenue growth, according to the statement.
During the third quarter, TheStreet-branded filming studio opened on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and TheStreet grew monthly average pageviews 209% year-over-year, reaching an average of 27 million pageviews online each month, according to Google Analytics.
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 pageviews 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.
The Arena Group’s quarterly gross profit decreased slightly to $26.2 million from $27.4 million in the prior year period in part due to the absence of both the Summer Olympics and the launch of Sports Illustrated Swim magazine’s annual edition, both of which occurred in the third quarter of 2021.
Net loss was $16.3 million as compared to $24.7 million in the prior year quarter, an improvement of $8.4 million. More than 100% of the third-quarter 2022 losses of $16.6 million were non-cash charges including stock-based compensation, amortization of platform development and intangible assets and other non-cash charges.
