Announced at the same time as widespread layoffs, the August numbers for the New York Times Company were never going to provide great comps given last year’s political conventions in New York and Boston. But the picture they do paint is of a company slipping back when it budges at all in its traditional media space and making gains in the online arena. With every passing quarter, the online operations become more important to NYTCO’s present and future..
Unfortunately, a 28.3-percent increase in internet advertising is a drop in the Times ad rev bucket and can barely offset print declines or low gains. About.com’s growth– 41 percent in August and 34 percent year to date — brightens the corporate results but not enough. With About.com, NYTCO showed a 1.7 percent increase in ad revenues and 0.6 percent in total revenues; excluding the online-only unit, advertising revenues were down 1.0 percent and total company revenues dropped 1.2 percent.
September isn’t any better, according to this statement from NYTCO president and CEO Janet Robinson. “In September, our largest month in the quarter, advertising has been challenging and visibility remains limited. We continue to benefit from very strong double-digit advertising growth at our digital operations, particularly About.com. But elsewhere, advertising is weaker than expected. The answer for now? “To address this, the Company is moving aggressively to reduce costs across all its business units. At the same time, we will continue to develop additional revenue streams by leveraging our brands, introducing new products and continuing to grow our existing Internet businesses.” The cost-cutting includes two rounds of staff reductions — nearly 2 percent announced last May and this latest round of roughly 4 percemt.
Press release.
Related: NYT, Knight Ridder Announce Major Layoffs, Buyouts
– NYTCO Will Reduce Staff By Nearly 2 Percent; No Cuts At Digital
Subscriber content
?
Subscriber content comes from Gigaom Research, bridging the gap between breaking news and long-tail research. Visit any of our reports to learn more and subscribe.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Comments have been disabled for this post