The main message NYTCo (NYSE: NYT) president and CEO Janet Robinson wanted to get across to attendees at the UBS Media Week conference was how different the newspaper company is from its publishing peers. Specifically, she highlighted the NYT’s and Boston Globe’s lower exposure to classified ads, which have been a consistent drag at most papers. She also said recent moves to increase newsstand prices has helped push circulation revenues higher, which she cited as proof that the devotion from the company’s respective readers. Before her appearance, the NYTCo provided some updates on its finances. Next year, cap ex is expected to be $40 to $50 million, slightly less than the $50 to $55 million in spending slated for 2009. And as the NYT prepares for layoffs, the company expects severance costs of $50 million for the full year.
As for how Q4 is otherwise shaping up, print ads will decrease 25 percent in the quarter — Robinson felt a need to emphasize that these are “challenging times” — while online ad revs will increase 10 percent in during the period. As for the success in circ revs, that segment will be up just 2 percent. Still, circ revenues are increasingly important to the company, as the segment makes up 42 percent of the NYTCo’s total revenue, she said.
Looking ahead to next year, Robinson said that the NYT will continue to concentrate its circulation efforts to build up that national reach. Expect more local editions such as the ones it has done for San Francisco and Chicago. Robinson also said that mobile will be more important, pointing out that the NYT’s iPhone app has been downloaded over 2 million times.
Turning the proceedings over to NYTCo CFO James Follo spent time outlining progress on the company’s debt battles. By the end of 2009, the NYTCo’s debt will be $800 million, down from $1.1 billion at the end of last year. More than three-quarters of the company’s debt matures in 2015 or later, which gives the company some breathing room.
Plea for patience: During the Q&A, NYTCo’s Martin Nisenholtz, SVP for digital operations, took a question asking why it was taking the company such a long time to reach a decision on how — and if — it would erect a paywall. He said he hoped observers would extend some more patience with the company on this issue: “If we don’t get it right at the end of the day, we’re going to lose a lot of money. We’ve been through a process to look at different pay versus free, we’ve looked at the FT’s metered model and the WSJ’s paid model. We also continue to look at free to see what we would need in advertising to keep supporting the business as we have. Making the right decision is better than making the quick decision, especially in light of what we’re seeing for online in Q4.
Robinson added: “The process also demands that we look at our product offerings and what we could offer in addition.”
Not anti-Google: Turning to the question of whether the NYTCo would look to pull its content from Google, in a way suggested by News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch, Nisenholtz treaded carefully, keeping clear to avoid any anti-Google rhetoric. “We have a good relationship, and a distinctly successful one, with Google (NSDQ: GOOG). For example, About.com has a great cost-per-click and that depends on Google’s AdSense. But we know this [search] ecosystem could change and we’re talking with all the players. We have an extensive archives base and if the ecosystem changes, we would be a part of those discussions.”
As for how well display is doing, Nisenholtz said that CPMs are up 7 to 8 percent year-to-date for premium display only — that does not include CPC or classified or remnant ads.

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