New York Times Advertising
NYT Company Reports 10.6% Decline in Ad Revenue in Its 19 Papers
The company reports a $335,000 first quarter loss because even a 16% increase in Internet revenue could not offset the historic drop in print advertising
The drastic decline in American newspaper advertising was highlighted in April 2008 when the New York Times Company reported a first quarter net loss of $335,000, brought on mainly by a 10.6 percent decline in advertising revenue.
The loss surprised analysts, but the company stock dropped only eight cents, to $19.42, the day the losses were announced.
In reporting its 2008 first quarter results, the company noted that even a 16 percent increase in its Internet advertising could not offset the decline in print advertising.
The company owns the New York Times, the nation’s most prestigious newspaper, the Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and 16 smaller papers.
Investors Calling for Company to Sell Smaller Papers
According to both the Times and Reuters reports, some investors have been calling for the company to sell smaller papers and to focus more on Internet properties.
The Newspaper Association of America announced earlier in the year that newspaper advertising revenue dropped nearly eight percent in 2007. That was the second biggest drop in more than 50 years.
In his New York Times story on the loss, Richard Perez-Pena called the company’s 10.6 percent loss in ad revenue "the sharpest drop in memory." He attributed it to both the nation’s economic downturn "and the continuing long-term shift of readers and advertisers to the Internet."
