Last fall, Dallas-based Belo Corp., the parent company of The Dallas Morning News and The Providence Journal, announced plans to enhance shareholder value by spinning off its newspapers into a separate company.

Three months after the spinoff took place Feb. 8, the transaction has not yet paid off in the value of the stocks of the two companies. But Robert W. Decherd, Belo’s non-executive chairman, told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting on Tuesday that the strategy will work in time.

“While current economic, market and industry dynamics are not yet rewarding the spinoff ... we are confident that by creating two separate companies, shareholder value will be unlocked over time and investors who have longer-term investment goals will be rewarded,” said Decherd, who served as Belo’s chief executive officer until the spinoff.

After the spinoff, Decherd became chairman, president and chief executive officer of A.H. Belo Corp., the company created to operate Belo’s newspapers and affiliated Web sites. A.H. Belo owns The Dallas Morning News, The (Riverside) Press-Enterprise, The Providence Journal and the Denton Record-Chronicle.

Dunia Shive is president and chief executive of Belo, which owns 20 TV stations and affiliated Web sites.

Presiding over her first Belo shareholder meeting as chief executive officer, Shive said Tuesday that Belo would pursue short-term opportunities from political advertising and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, while continuing to invest in such long-term opportunities as the Web and in high-definition production capability.

“There are great challenges and great opportunities ahead, but I’m confident we have the right team in place to continue delivering outstanding results,” she said.

The stock price of Belo (BLC:NYSE) closed yesterday at $10.24 a share. Shares of A.H. Belo (AHC:NYSE) closed yesterday at $8.41 a share.

Belo shareholders reelected three Class I directors: Decherd, a director since March 1976; Shive, a director since February 2008; and M. Anne Szostak, a director since October 2004. The three-year terms expire at the 2011 annual meeting.