by Marshall N. Morton, President and Chief Executive Officer, Reid Ashe, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, John Schauss, Vice President - Finance and Chief Financial Officer, and Lou Anne J. Nabhan, Vice President, Corporate Communications

Welcome from Lou Anne Nabhan

Thank you and good afternoon everyone. Welcome to Media General’s Fourth-Quarter Conference Call and Webcast.

Earlier today, Media General issued a press release announcing earnings for the fourth-quarter and full-year 2005 and a press release announcing revenues for the month of December. Both press releases have been posted on our Web site. The comments from today’s conference call also will be posted on our Web site immediately following the call.

Today’s presentation contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties. They should be understood in the context of the company’s publicly available reports filed with the SEC. Media General’s future performance could differ materially from its current expectations.

Our speakers today are Marshall Morton, president and chief executive officer; Reid Ashe, executive vice president and chief operating officer; and John Schauss, vice president-finance and chief financial officer. We will begin with Marshall.

Remarks from Marshall Morton

Thank you, Lou Anne, and good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

Our fourth-quarter net income of $25 million, or $1.05 per share, compared with $36.8 million, or $1.55 cents per share, in the 2004 fourth quarter. The decline from last year’s fourth quarter is essentially explained by two things: absence, this year, of over $20 million of Political advertising revenues generated during the heavy final campaigning leading up to the November general election in 2004, and a $6.1 million pretax gain from settling a newsprint swap dispute.

Underscoring the success of our new revenue development initiatives, designed in large measure to compensate for the loss of Political advertising, our total revenues in the quarter were down only 1.7%.

Fourth-quarter 2005 results also reflected lower Publishing Division profit, due mostly to higher newsprint and employee benefits expense, and a loss from our share of SP Newsprint’s operations, which resulted from higher energy and ONP costs.

On the other hand, improved operating results in our Interactive Media Division and lower interest and corporate expense made positive contributions to the quarter.

Our results for the quarter highlight the importance of our new business and growth initiatives. Looking behind the numbers, our small drop in quarterly revenues demonstrates that we’re making solid progress in overcoming the cyclical effect that so often affects the results of broadcasters because of the confluence of political and Olympics revenues every two years.

For the full-year 2005, we’re pleased with our overall results. We made good strides in further strengthening the quality of our core products. Our newspapers have sharpened the focus of their content, design and navigation based on reader needs, and they have also implemented creative new sales and promotion strategies. We’re particularly pleased that our Publishing Division outperformed its peers for advertising growth, which we attribute to the quality of our products, the introduction of new targeted products, and the quality of our markets. The Publishing Division also outperformed its peers in total net paid circulation, and several of our newspapers produced year-over-year circulation increases.

In the Broadcast Division, the combination of high-quality local news and aggressive investment in program acquisition has enabled most of our stations to remain market leaders. We have invested substantially in sales training and tools and have fostered a new business development mindset at all of our stations. This investment has enabled our Broadcast group to outperform its peers for time sales growth for the fourth year in a row. Standardizing news systems and centralizing traffic and master control operations have enabled our Broadcast Division to operate with even greater efficiency.

Our online enterprises have grown in functional sophistication and in viewer interactivity, which together have resulted in significant growth of our total audience. Robust Classified and other advertising products and services generated double-digit revenue growth from our web sites.

In print and online, our Classified brands are the strongest in their markets. Our newspaper Classified revenue growth was top-of-industry for the second year in a row. Online Classified advertising revenues increased nearly 50% in 2005, not only from liner ad upsells from our newspapers, but also from featured products that are unique to the online medium.

We implemented a major initiative in 2005 to derive at least 5% of total revenues, profitably, every year from new products and services. This growth initiative has captured our folks’ attention, quickly gaining us new revenue and heightening our focus on, and connections to, our customers. As a result, in 2006 all of our properties are featuring targeted, market-specific products, including, for example, Spanish Language, Youth, Entertainment, Sports, Food, Health & Fitness, Faith & Values, as well as yellow page products in print and online, shoppers, weeklies, direct mail and other formats.

Media General continues to deliver strong operating margins and good cash flow. Our primary uses of cash have been capital investments and debt repayment. Today the Board approved a 4.8% increase in the dividend, bringing it up to an annual rate of 88 cents per share, a yield of 1.8%.

Our capital investments are not only replacing older equipment and bringing us into regulatory compliance for digital TV, they are also increasing our operational excellence enterprise-wide. New printing presses being erected in three of our newspaper markets will enable us to deliver higher quality products and generate new revenues from color and commercial jobs. We have begun to find new ways to monetize our digital investment such as introducing 24-7 local weather channels on the added broadcast spectrum.

We paid down $48 million of debt in 2005, and our debt-to-total capital ratio at year-end was below 35%. We have strong financial flexibility, including a bank revolver and a universal shelf registration, which are available to fund growth.

Economically our markets are strong. This is especially true in Tampa, our largest market and the 12th largest media market in the country, with its strong population growth, low unemployment and healthy retail sales growth. The strength of Tampa, and several other Media General markets, should have a positive impact on all three of our divisions in 2006, accelerated to a degree by the return of elections and the Olympics.

Overall, I’m pleased to report that, as we enter 2006, we at Media General strongly believe that we are in a position to continue to build shareholder value.

I’ll now ask Reid to discuss the details of our divisional operating performance for the fourth quarter. John will follow Reid with comments on below-the-line items and our financial position.

Remarks from Reid Ashe

Thank you, Marshall. I’ll start with the Publishing Division. Total Publishing revenues for the quarter increased 2.1%, and newspaper advertising revenues increased 3.5%. This growth was driven primarily by increased Classified advertising, especially help wanted, higher Retail revenues, and by our internal initiatives for new revenue development, including cross-selling and new products.

Expense increases, especially for newsprint and employee benefits, offset the revenue gains in the period, however, and profit declined 4.7% compared to the 2004 fourth quarter.

Classified advertising revenues increased $3.1 million, or 6.4%, due to strength in employment, which was up in nearly all markets. Declines in automotive advertising prevented the overall gains in Classifieds from being as strong as they were in the year’s prior quarters. In addition, Christmas falling on a Sunday in 2005 resulted in softer Classified advertising in all categories.

At The Tampa Tribune, Classified advertising revenue increased 11.8%. Employment advertising in Tampa was up 28%, real estate advertising increased 41%, and automotive advertising was down 13%.

At the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Classified revenues increased 4.3%. Employment advertising increased 3.8%, real estate classifieds were up 32%, and automotive declined 25%.

At the Winston-Salem Journal, Classified revenues increased 3.1%, with employment and real estate both up 13.3%, and automotive was down 8.9%.

Classified revenues at our Community Newspapers increased 0.5% for the quarter. Virtually all of the papers had solid gains in employment advertising, while real estate and automotive were mixed across markets.

Retail revenues increased $1.8 million, or 2.9%. This growth was primarily attributable to strength in preprints, color advertising, and increased ROP advertising.

The increase in Retail revenues came primarily from The Tampa Tribune, up 6.1%, and its associated daily newspapers, which saw a 14.4% increase. Our Tampa area properties saw strength in preprints and color advertising, and in the financial, department store and medical categories.

At the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Retail revenues declined 3.4%, reflecting lower spending for color as well as in the department store, furniture, grocery and jewelry store categories.

The Winston-Salem Journal reported a small increase in Retail revenues, 1.3%, its first quarterly increase of 2005 for the category. The increase resulted from higher spending for preprints as well as in the department and jewelry store categories.

Our Community Newspapers in total saw Retail revenues rise 1.6% over the year-ago quarter. The largest increases came from our Northern Virginia, Charlottesville and North Carolina newspapers.

National advertising continued to soften, declining $878,000, or 6.6%, from the prior quarter. At The Tampa Tribune, National revenue was down nearly 10%, reflecting lower spending in the travel, pharmaceutical, and telecommunications categories. The Winston-Salem Journal also was down for the quarter, by more than 15%, due to lower automotive spending partially offset by higher telecommunications spending. On a brighter note, at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, National revenues increased 4.5%, reflecting higher spending for preprints and for telecommunications advertising. National revenues for our Community Newspapers were up 3.7%, mostly because of preprints.

Almost entirely due to a change in the wholesale rate to newspaper carriers, Circulation revenues for the quarter were $1.2 million below the prior-year level. There was also a corresponding expense decrease for this change in wholesale rates.

Publishing Division expenses for the fourth quarter increased at the moderate rate of 4.4%. Higher newsprint prices and employee benefits costs represented the most significant increases, and increases in other departmental expenses also had an impact.

Salary expense increased 1.9%, while employee benefits expense increased 21%, reflecting higher health care and retirement plan costs.

Newsprint expense was up 7.9% over the 2004 quarter. The increase was the result of higher newsprint prices, partially offset by lower consumption. The average price per ton was $553 compared with $485 in the prior-year quarter. We are pleased with our change to lighter basis weight newsprint, which is substantially complete at most of our newspapers.

Let’s now turn to the Broadcast Division. Fourth-quarter results reflected a decline in Political revenues of $20.1 million compared with record election spending in the 2004 fourth quarter.

Our new revenue development programs drove higher Local time sales. National time sales increased as well, and the division also benefited from strong advertising in the month of December. These factors together provided a significant offset to lower Political time sales.

Local time sales, excluding Political, increased $9.1 million, or 19%. Our stations are intently focused on new business development, market-share gains generated by advertiser incentive programs, and improving spot inventory management and pricing. Local advertising categories showing the largest gains in the quarter included furniture, automotive, medical and telecommunications.

National time sales, excluding Political, increased $3.2 million, or 13%. Categories with the largest increases for the quarter included telecommunications, automotive, services and department stores.

Total Broadcast Division expenses for the quarter were up only 0.3%. Lower cost of goods sold for our production equipment subsidiary nearly offset higher salaries and employee benefits expense.

These strong efforts on both the revenue and expense sides, however, could not fully offset the virtual absence of Political revenues in the quarter, and profit therefore was down 27.6%.

Now, let’s turn to the Interactive Media Division. For the quarter, the division’s operating loss of $1.4 million was a 17.6% improvement over the 2004 fourth quarter. Revenues of $5.8 million represented an increase of 47.3% over the prior-year period.

All significant revenue categories exceeded the prior year by double digit percentages, with the greatest increases coming from Classified advertising, which exceeded the prior year by 44%. In addition to liner upsells from our newspapers, we generated a significant increase from additional upsell products such as our “Top” branded products. Top Jobs and Top Homes each contributed to the strong growth, while Top Autos fell slightly.

Our new acquisition, Blockdot, is transitioning well into Media General. Blockdot is growing in the number of clients for its advergaming products. We have also integrated our Boxerjam game business into the Blockdot organization, realizing some synergies and growth opportunities by doing so.

I will now turn our presentation over to John.

Remarks from John Schauss

Thank you, Reid. Let me begin with the below-the-line items for the quarter, as shown in the Business Segments table of our press release.

Interest expense decreased by $459 thousand, or 5.8%, compared to the 2004 quarter, primarily due to lower debt levels.

Our share of SP Newsprint’s operating results was a loss of $908 thousand from income of $1 million in the year-ago quarter. The loss was attributable to higher energy and ONP costs.

A small increase in acquisition intangibles amortization was due to the acquisitions in 2005 of the Blockdot advergaming business and two weekly newspapers in the Richmond market.

Corporate expense was $450 thousand below the 2004 quarter, reflecting somewhat lower costs across several different departments.

The change in the Other line item on the Business Segments table mostly reflected the absence of the gain from the newsprint swap settlement that Marshall discussed earlier.

The effective tax rate for the quarter was 36.9%, compared with 37% in the prior-year quarter.

Total debt at the end of the fourth quarter was $485 million and represented 34.6% of total capital. Our debt outstanding included $190 million in bank debt, $200 million in public debt, and $95 million in consolidated variable interest entity debt.

Capital expenditures for the fourth quarter were $26 million. Of that amount, Publishing Division capital expenditures of $15 million were invested mainly in new press control equipment at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, news equipment at The Tampa Tribune, press projects at the Bristol Herald Courier and the Lynchburg News and Advance, a new operations facility for the Opelika-Auburn News, and expenses for a new advertising system that, on completion, will serve all our newspapers and their web sites. The Broadcast Division spent $8 million, mostly for the conversion to high-definition digital television. Expenditures by the Interactive Media Division were $416 thousand, mostly for a new content management system. Corporate capital expenditures were $2.5 million.

Capital spending for the full year 2005 was $74 million, and this amount is expected to be $126 million for the full-year 2006, including carryover amounts from 2005.

EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2005 of $64 million, compared with $83 million in the prior-year period, mostly reflecting lower net income.

After-tax cash flow was $42 million, compared with $54 million in the year-ago period.

Free cash flow in the fourth quarter was $16 million, compared with $45 million in the 2004 fourth quarter, reflecting increased capital spending.

And, now, back to Marshall.

Remarks from Marshall Morton

Thank you, John.

Before we move to Q&A, I’d like to comment first on the status of FCC proceedings regarding cross ownership and then on our first-quarter outlook.

Press reports indicate that the White House will soon nominate a third Republican for the FCC before the end of the first quarter. After Senate confirmation, Chairman Martin will have a working majority, which will allow the Commission to re-start its cross-ownership proceedings. We’ll participate actively when those proceedings begin, and we look forward to supplementing the FCC’s record on how the public interest in served best by rules that permit the common ownership of newspapers and television stations in markets of all sizes.

Now, let me comment on our outlook for the first quarter of 2006.

The Publishing Division expects some improvement in its revenue growth rate over the fourth quarter of 2005. Classified employment and real estate advertising are expected to offset shortfalls in automotive advertising. New products should help drive continuing Retail revenue growth.

The Broadcast Division will benefit from the Super Bowl coverage on its three ABC network affiliates, the Winter Olympics on its five NBC affiliates, the return of the NCAA basketball tournament in March on its sixteen CBS affiliates, and solid growth from our new business development initiatives. Local and National time sales are projected to increase by 7-8%, with minimal Political advertising anticipated in the first quarter. Broadcast revenue increases will be offset to some degree by higher sales expenses.

We plan to provide earnings guidance as the first quarter unfolds.

That concludes our formal remarks, and, now, we will be pleased to take your questions.

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