Question-and-Answer Session
[Operator Instructions]. And our first question is from line of Karl Choi from Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead.
Karl Choi - Merrill Lynch
Hi. I have a few questions. First one is on the TV side. Could you talk a bit about the pacings for the fourth quarter? Is there any sort of particular weakness by either geographic location or affiliation or it's pretty weak across the board? And second is, as far as your guidance is concerned for the fourth quarter, it looks like, if my... I do my math right, the non-postage and non-newspaper... non-paper costs are actually going to be relatively up slightly or not really coming down a whole lot even though the revenues are under some pressure. Just trying to see if there is any unusual timing as far as cost is concerned?
Stephen M. Lacy - President and Chief Executive Officer
Okay, Karl. Let me take those in opposite order, while we dig out the pacing information that you requested. I'm not quite sure how you are doing the calculation, but certainly compared to either what we would have anticipated earlier or to the fourth quarter in the prior year as reported, we will have expense reductions across the organization as I mentioned earlier. Part of that being places that we think of as discretionary spending, part of it related to lower incentive accruals and some favorable results that we've had in benefits primarily in our healthcare activity for the year-to-date.
And as it relates to pacings and of course, this is just basically pacings as of last Friday, May is a weaker month than April at this point. And of course, it's very, very early for June, but June sort of looks like the quarter taken as a whole. And I don't have the affiliate information at my finger tips and Paul Karpowicz, I don't know if you could add anything to that and if not, Karl, we can get back to you a little later with that data.
Paul A. Karpowicz - President, Broadcasting Group
Yes, this is Paul. It's... your question, was it across the board, and certainly there is a softness across the board. However, certain markets like Phoenix and Las Vegas that have traditionally been very, very hot markets for us, have slowed down and as a result, we're seeing unusual softness in those places.
So, while our pacing is still very much up in the air as it relates to June, we do know that Phoenix and Vegas specifically, have not been particularly helpful. But there is really no trend across affiliation or even geography. It's just in two markets where they've had some significant housing foreclosure, mortgage issues, we're seeing a significant slowdown there.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
