Posted on 07/23/2008 8:16:25 AM PDT by LdSentinal
The New York Times (NYT: 13.07, +0.21, +1.63%) fell as low as $12.38 this morning after its second quarter earnings missed estimates. Profits plunged 82% to $21 mn versus the $118 mn posted in the same period a year ago, a period that was helped along by the one-time sale of an asset.
The share plunge is the lowest since July 1995.
Print ads dollars at the Times continue to shrivel, sending operating income in a nosedive, as ad dollars continued their inexorable march toward the Internet. Hotels, automakers, airlines, all hurt by high energy prices, have pulled back sharply.
Meanwhile, in news on another front, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates, philanthropist and legendary co-founder of software giant Microsoft (MSFT: 26.53, +0.73, +2.82%) have announced they plan to hold a press conference at the TimesCenter, run by the New York Times, to make an announcement today. In the past, Gates through his foundation has given tens of millions of dollars to help fix New York City schools.
Now if only the Times was on the list of the philanthropists handouts, as ad dollars continue to plunge at the paper. The Times is hoping against hope that its mix of assets, including The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, About.com, regional newspapers and a classical music radio station in New York can pull it out of its corkscrew dive south. Stay tuned.
They’ve driven a great asset into the ground.
The major source of revenue for newspapers is still advertising but, I guess when that source is drying up......well there you have it.
The interesting thing is that newspapers have been padding their circ numbers for YEARS and gouging advertisers. It is egregious.
Simply google “newspaper circulation scandal” and you will have plenty of information on all that has come down about this. Not only are they disgusting from a bias standpoint but more disgusting as unethical businesses.
A Democratic bailout.
They could just open up the Washington ComPost and read it on the air.
You know, someone should tell Rush this is a great business opportunity here.
He would love this kind of stick it in your face publicity.
He could become a mega media mogul... Could you imagine the headlines? The libs would have a heart attack on camera.
A surefire way for the NYTimes to get some of their readers back is to shun an opinion piece by McCain after running Obama’s opinion piece. They need to think about doing that. I think it will really help boost their circulation.
Is Soros going to buy the NYT just to make it an even worse propaganda machine?
I’m sure the camel jockeys will step up with a bail out at any moment....
They can rename it the “Camel Dung Daily”....
Can someone in the newspaper business help me out? I thought the number of pages which a newspaper printed was based on the number of ads in that issue. When the ad revenue was down, the newspaper compensated by printing fewer pages.
The NYT, my favorite birdcage liner.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. I would love to see the end of the NY Slimes in my lifetime.
NYT has profits? Who woulda thunk!
LOL, yeah that’s the ticket!
I just love a happy ending!
whoopee
I find difficulty in coming up with the words to describe how pleased I am to be seeing the NYT in a death rattle.
So, I am left with......YEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAA.
It’s a good morning.......
Technically, your point has merit, but if so, then all it means is their results from this quarter last year were 'not true'...that's the great thing about a ledger sheet...it always catches up to the truth, eventually.
No matter how you look at it, their business is declining rapidly along with the rest of their "peers".
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