Canwest Global Communications Corp., which is in the midst of a major restructuring, said Friday it lost $111 million in the three months ended in August.

Falling advertising sales pulled revenue down by 13 per cent to $624 million .

Canwest Global Communications Corp. lost $111 million in the three months ended in August. (John Woods/Canadian Press)

Winnipeg-based Canwest, which owns the Global television network and the National Post newspaper among other media assets, has several of its subsidiaries under court protection from creditors.

The fourth-quarter loss was an improvement over the same period a year ago, when it lost $1.02 billion.

On an operational basis — before subtracting special charges — Canwest posted a profit of $25 million in the fourth quarter, off from $60 million a year earlier.

For its entire fiscal 2009, Canwest posted operating earnings of $310 million, down from $551 million one year earlier.

An operating profit essentially means the company makes money from running its usual businesses and is a different measure of financial performance than net profit or loss number.

Ads shrivel

Canwest, like many media organizations, suffered a drop-off in such sales during the recession of late 2008 and early 2009.

In the fourth quarter, the Winnipeg-headquartered company, which received bankruptcy court protection for its broadcast TV holdings in October, saw overall revenue slump to $624.4 million, down from $720.6 million in the last quarter of 2008.

In addition, the company said fourth-quarter revenue fell by seven per cent in its conventional television business and by 20 per cent on the publishing side of the company, which includes a stable of newspapers not included in Canwest's filing for protection from creditors.

Nevertheless, company executives maintained that Canwest's various media arms outperformed many of their competitors.

"While the abrupt and unprecedented decline in advertising revenue had a significant impact on Canwest, most business units continued to perform better than the industry average, with online and specialty television reporting growth even in the face of the recession," said president and chief executive officer Leonard Asper.

Cost-cutting helped Canwest's financial performance somewhat as the company slashed 1,372 jobs during the year.

As a result, Canwest cut its overall costs by 13 per cent.