Politics helped, says Milwaukee-based Journal Broadcast Group, with political and issue advertising hitting $700,000 for the last three months of 2010. For the full year, Journal stations harvested $1.3 million from the "political and issue" category. For the quarter, operating earnings dropped from $4.6 million to $3.2 million. But without two specific events (a $1.8 million non-cash impairment charge for a building in Omaha and the year-earlier $500,000 gain from a tower replacement), the operating earnings would have improved from $4.1 million to $5 million.

On the TV side, Journal rode the wave of political advertising and grew fourth quarter revenue by 32.1%.

For all of Journal Communications, including newspapers and printing, revenue improved nearly 8% and earnings per share rose from 12 cents to 20 cents.