Online Subscribers Up, Advertising Still Down for 'New York Times'

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The New York Times, pictured as its print version sits for sale in a rack July 23, 2008 in New York City, has benefitted from online subscriber growth as ad revenue has fallen.

Image: Mario Tama/Getty Images

By Jason Abbruzzese2014-02-06 15:49:35 UTC

An increase in digital subscribers softened the blow of continued advertising declines at the New York Times, which reported fourth-quarter 2013 earnings on Thursday morning.

Digital subscriber growth of 19% from fourth-quarter 2012 to the same period in 2013 boosted circulation revenue. The newspaper of record finished the year with about 760,000 paid online subscribers.

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Advertising revenue declined 1.3%. As noted by Bloomberg's Edmund Lee, this is the thirteenth consecutive quarter in which ad revenue fell at the Times.

However, the 1.6% fall in print advertising is far less than previous quarters that have yielded double-digit declines. Digital ad revenue fell 0.2%.

Times CEO Mark Thompson emphasized the improving ad numbers in a press release.

"Advertising revenue showed notable improvement in the second half of the year," he said in the release. "Advertising revenues in the fourth quarter were down 1% on a like-for-like basis, excluding that extra week in 2012, the best quarterly performance in more than three years."

The Times, which launched a redesigned website about a month ago, is preparing to launch new products that are designed to bring in additional subscriber revenue.

The Times alludes to an upcoming "mobile news product" in its own writeup on the company's earnings. One such offering of a new subscriber product could be "Need to Know," which the offers access to top news for $8 per month.

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Topics: Business, Media, The New York Times, paywall