Dallas-based Belo Corp. said yesterday that it will take a non-cash charge of about $370 million in the fourth quarter after completing its annual testing of goodwill and other tangible assets using standard accounting procedures.

The writedowns are related to the valuations of assets at The Providence Journal, The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., and to a lesser extent, WHAS-TV, in Louisville, which represents about $22 million of the total charge. Belo said there is no tax effect applied to the impairment charge and the company estimates the earnings-per-share impact to be about $3.60 per share.

The impairment charges were taken as Belo plans to split itself into two companies. One, which will retain the name Belo Corp., will hold the company’s TV stations. The other, called A.H. Belo Corp., will hold the newspapers, including The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal and The Press-Enterprise.

In the split, each shareholder of Belo Corp. will receive 0.20 of a share of A.H. Belo for every one share in the existing Belo Corp. For example, a holder of 100 shares of Belo Corp. will receive 20 shares of A.H. Belo.

Belo said the distribution will take place on Feb. 8. Shares of the new Belo Corp. (BLC:NYSE) and A.H. Belo (AHC:NYSE) are scheduled to begin trading on Monday, Feb. 11.

Belo also announced yesterday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a regulatory filing related to the planned spinoff of the company’s newspaper business and related assets. That allowed the New York Stock Exchange to begin trading so-called “when-issued” shares of AHC Series A common stock under the ticker symbol AHC wi. The “when-issued” shares of the new Belo Corp. that holds the television stations trade under the symbol BLC wi. Many public companies traditionally ask the SEC for permission for “when-issued” trading to give investors an early idea of what their shares in spinoff companies are worth. But trading volume in “when-issued” shares can be thin, involving only a few thousand shares a day. As a result, prices can fluctuate wildly.

Belo said that as with similar impairment charges announced by several of Belo’s peer companies during the past two years, the impairment is a non-cash charge to earnings, and it will not affect the company’s liquidity, cash flows from operating activities or debt covenants, or have any impact on future operations.

“Despite challenging industry conditions for all media companies, these required goodwill-impairment charges are not reflective of our positive view of the value of Belo’s underlying business,” Robert W. Decherd, chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “We remain optimistic and encouraged about the future success and value of our businesses — both to newspapers and television.”

Shares in the existing Belo Corp. (BLC:NYSE) closed yesterday at $17.09, down 6 cents a share.