New York Times Ad Sales Down, Digital Subscriptions Up

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By Todd Wasserman2013-08-01 10:37:03 -0400

Digital subscriptions rose, but those gains were mostly offset by a drop in advertising at The New York Times Co. in the second quarter, the company reported Thursday.

Second-quarter circulation revenues rose 5.1% thanks to a boost in digital subscriptions, but ad revenues were down 5.8%. Revenues from both were $245.1 million and $207.4 million, respectively.

Overall, the company — which publishes The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The International Herald Tribune (which is will be renamed The International New York Times this fall) — claims 738,000 digital subscriptions. That's a 40% jump over the same period in 2012 and validation that the company's paywall strategy is paying off.

Revenues from the company's digital subscriptions were $38.3 million, up 44.1% from the same period. Likely fueled by the Boston Marathon bombing coverage, The Boston Globe's digital subscribers jumped about 70% year over year.

The activity, however, was not quite enough to make up for falling ad revenues. Print revenue fell 6.8%, while digital ad sales also contracted 2.7% "largely due to ongoing secular trends and an increasingly complex and fragmented digital advertising marketplace," according to a company statement. At $51.2 million, digital ad revenues accounted for 24.7% of ad revenues vs. 23.9% for the same period in 2012.

Still, the results — a net income of $0.13 per share — were better than Q2 2012, when the company lost $0.58 a share on write-downs for the sale of About.com and the company's regional newspaper group.

Image: Flickr, Joe Shlabotnik

Topics: Advertising, Business, journalism, Media, newspapers, The New York Times