Belo Corp. announced Monday it will spin off the Dallas Morning News and the rest of its $750 million newspaper operations from the television divisions, which further supports analysts' speculations that it may leave newspapers completely.

The newspaper business would be spun off into a public company, A.H. Belo Corporation, the name taken from its founding newspaper publisher that it abandoned over a decade ago to emphasize its broadcast and multimedia assets, according to a company source, Editor & Publisher reported Monday.

Newspapers and broadcast have been moving toward opposite directions at Belo recently. In its Q2 financial report this year, its newspaper revenues had dropped 8.5 percent on slumping real estate, retail display, help-wanted and auto classified.

By contrast, its 20 station television had grew up 2.5 percent even as political ads, for instance, declined by more than half. Even the growth in Web sites associated with Belo TV stations surpassed Internet growth in newspaper sites, by 48 percent against 19 percent.

Belo's Monday announcement did little to disguise which direction it thinks will be more lucrative. The television business was described as "20 television stations in fast-growing markets," according to E&P.

Belo also noted that the new TV business – which will still keep the Belo name- will become the largest pure-play public television broadcast company in United States after spinning off the newspaper business.

The spin-off will be accomplished through a tax-free distribution of A.H. Belo Corp. shares to Belo Corp. shareholders. It is expected to close in the first quarter next year.

The new A.H. Belo will remain its headquarter in Dallas, and is expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.