NY Times posts lower profit, revenue falls 7 pct (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

The New York Times Co (NYT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday posted a 7 percent decline in revenue, dragged by poor real estate and retail advertising sales.

Fourth-quarter net income was $53 million, or 37 cents a share, compared with a loss of $648 million, or $4.50 a share, in the fourth quarter last year when it took a large write-down on its New England group.

Revenue fell 7.1 percent to $865.8 million. Excluding the write-down and other items from both periods, profit per share from continuing operations fell to 44 cents, compared with 46 cents a share a year earlier.

New York Times shares have lost about a quarter of their value in the last year as the publisher of the namesake newspaper, the Boston Globe and 15 smaller daily papers has been battered by falling advertising sales.

The company faces a potential proxy battle from a shareholder group that owns just less than 5 percent of its outstanding shares.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120176959119831685.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo

New York Times Swings to Profit,
But Advertising Slump Takes Toll
By DONNA KARDOS
January 31, 2008 9:59 a.m.

New York Times Co. swung to a fourth-quarter profit but its revenue slipped amid a late-year ad slump, and the media company said the first quarter started on a weak note.

The publisher of its namesake newspaper and the Boston Globe posted net income of $53 million, or 37 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier net loss of $648 million, or $4.50 cents a share. The latest quarter’s results included seven cents in write-downs, while the prior year had $5.11 a share in write-downs, due mainly to the declining value of the Boston Globe, offset in part by a six-cent gain from the period having an additional week.

snip

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/01/nyt-december-and-january-advertising-tanks-q4-weak.html

The New York Times said advertising spending dropped severely in December and that the weakness has continued into January. National advertising okay, but classifieds and retailing getting hit.

Total Q4 revenue (continuing ops) down 7% year over year, ads down 9%. Excluding an additional week in Q4 last year, total revenues down 2%, ads down 4%.
December advertising down a shocking 12% in the month of December, even after excluding the additional week. Company says this weakness has continued into January.
Operating income (continuing ops) down from $170 million to $160 million
Online revenue growth decelerated to 18%, despite 35% growth at About.com. This suggests that online ad revenues at the news properties were very weak.
Circ revenues up 3% (from price increases)

Hard to overstate how hard advertising got hit in December. Even the flagship New York Times business down 13% in the month (after adjusting for the additional week). This will obviously put the NYT company in an even more precarious position vis a vis angry investors. It also almost certainly suggests we will see (or soon see) a similar fall-off at other major media and Internet companies.

CEO Janet Robinson:

“After total revenues grew in both October and November, advertising softened in December, which had a significant effect on the quarter. Although national advertising continued to increase, due in part to strength in the financial services and entertainment categories, classified and retail advertising declined as the overall economy slowed. Continuing our transition into the digital era, online revenues again demonstrated very strong growth, up nearly 18 percent in the quarter. Circulation revenues also continued to show gains, up almost 3 percent.

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