New York Times In The Red, Fails To Make A Nickel - Worst Disaster In History Of Printed News
Leftist ad given special rate in the NY Times. Came a little while before the McCain smear and today’s report of fraudulent Iraq anti-war reporting. What else should they expect once they’ve become the print version of Air America, and the print version of all Hollywood’s failed anti-war films?
NYT:
The New York Times Company, the parent of The New York Times, posted a $335,000 loss in the first quarter — one of the worst periods the company and the newspaper industry have seen — falling far short of both analysts’ expectations and its $23.9 million profit in the quarter a year earlier.
The company did break even on a per-share basis, compared with the average analyst forecast of earnings of 14 cents, down from 17 cents in the first quarter of 2007.
The company’s main source of revenue, newspaper advertising in print and online, fell 10.6 percent, the sharpest drop in memory, as the industry suffers the twin blows of an economic downturn and the continuing long-term shift of readers and advertisers to the Internet.
In a conference call with analysts, Janet L. Robinson, president and chief executive, said it was “a challenging quarter, one that showed the effects of a weaker economy,” compounded by “a marketplace that has been reconfigured technologically, economically and geographically.”
Looking ahead, she said, “We see continued challenges for print advertising in a faltering economy.”
The company recorded an operating profit of $6.2 million on revenue of $748 million, down from $54.5 million in operating income on revenue of $786 million a year earlier. That included a noncash charge of $18.3 million for an asset write-down and one-time costs for changes that will lower costs in the long run, like closing a printing plant and employee buyouts. The company lowered operating costs by 1.1 percent, and it predicts sharper declines later in the year.Excluding the write-down, depreciation and amortization, operating profit for the company was $66.4 million for the quarter, down from $98.9 million a year earlier.
The poor showing stemmed from The Times Company’s core news media group, which includes The Times, The Boston Globe and The International Herald Tribune, as well as several regional newspapers.
Excluding the $18.3 million charge, depreciation and amortization, the unit reported an operating profit of $68.5 million for the quarter, down from $99.4 million in the period a year earlier.
The group’s revenue dropped 5.7 percent, driven by the 10.6 percent decline in advertising revenue. But it also recorded a 1.9 percent increase in circulation revenue, after the company raised the prices of newspapers like The Times and The Globe.
The About Group, which includes About.com, reported an operating profit of $12.6 million, a 9.5 percent rise from a year ago. Revenue at the group increased 25 percent, to $28.2 million as the unit benefited from increased ad sales and acquisitions.
The Times Company’s declining fortunes have sowed shareholder discontent, and the weak first-quarter results could intensify calls for a shift in strategy. A pair of hedge funds, Harbinger Capital Partners and Firebrand Partners, acquired a large stake in the company early this year, demanding that it sell assets and invest aggressively in Internet operations.Rather than endure a proxy fight, the hedge funds and the Times Company struck a deal, agreeing to expand the board to 15 seats from 13, with the two extra seats going to the funds. That agreement is expected to win approval at a shareholders’ meeting on April 22.
“I think there is a great deal of common ground that we already have,” Ms. Robinson said. The company will move judiciously, she said, but it is already open to the kind of buying and selling the funds advocate, “constantly evaluating the portfolio, not only for performance but also for strategic fit.”
Across the industry, newspaper ad revenue — print and online, combined — fell almost 8 percent last year, the second-worst decline in more than half a century, according to the Newspaper Association of America. The Times Company’s ad revenue dropped 4.7 percent last year, when adjusted for a change in the length of its fiscal year.
Over the last year, classified ads continued a decadelong flight to the Web, and display ads for real estate and cars fell sharply as those industries contracted.
As it wore on, 2007 grew steadily worse, meaning that as 2008 passes, some of the year-earlier comparisons will become a little easier.
Ms. Robinson said that April should be somewhat better than the first quarter, but that is partly due to timing of Easter and of one of the Times newspaper’s magazines, Key.
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As soon as I hear ANYONE on TV cite the NYTimes for ANYTHING my “grey-dar” goes up and the information to follow becomes GREATLY scrutinized and devalued …
Much like their stock, of recent times.
April 18th, 2008 at 6:33 amHey NYT, try reporting the news, not making it up to support your liberal agenda.
April 18th, 2008 at 6:39 amOh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive!
I have only one thing to say to the powers that be at the NYT about their ongoing troubles….
Muwahahahahahahaha!
April 18th, 2008 at 6:41 amIt’s the ECONOMY, stupid.
April 18th, 2008 at 6:52 amI wonder who the the NYT will be pick to write about this story. and if they will take themselves out of context while writing it. maybe blame it on bush
April 18th, 2008 at 7:01 amIn the words of the world famous philosopher Nelson Muntz: “Ha Ha”.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:12 amI say fire everybody and move the paper to Mexico …
Hire cheap labor (could probably completely re-staff for what you’ve paid MoDo alone).
April 18th, 2008 at 7:21 amWell, it should be making lots of money, because all the lefties who are the majority in this country, as they would have us believe, are surely buying NYTs every day. And what with the moveon.org crowd and intellectuals who subscribe across the country—oh what, the individual lefties aren’t putting their money where their mouths are? They aren’t subscribing to their propaganda socialist mouthpiece rag? Oh, darn.
April 18th, 2008 at 8:08 amLies and anti-American tardary don’t work anymore. The best way to drive home this point to a bunch of elitist shits like the Slimes is to take away their profits.
Best way to do that is just kick back and watch them shoot themselves in the foot with their lying ass Jane Fonda rhetoric.
Advertisers will continue to pull out and the Slimes will soon become like Airhead America….broke, and irrelevant.
And you atheists said there was no God.
April 18th, 2008 at 8:27 amDon’t worry. Pelosi and Reed and the rest of the left wing
April 18th, 2008 at 10:01 amtax hikers will loan/give them the money to bail out and will somehow charge the American taxpayer. Who else will spread their Nazi news?
“The company’s main source of revenue, newspaper advertising in print and online, fell 10.6 percent, the sharpest drop in memory, as the industry suffers the twin blows of an economic downturn and the continuing long-term shift of readers and advertisers to the Internet.”
Yeah, exactly, the internet and the economy. What a bunch of bullshit
April 18th, 2008 at 10:02 amWell this traitorous paper should move to Havana. It would do much better there.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:03 amI’m not very good with numbers & I only read the first paragraph of the above article. But I think it’s safe to say that toilet paper profits are a lot higher than the New York Times’ profits.
April 18th, 2008 at 1:08 pmMaybe reporting good news is verboten?
April 18th, 2008 at 1:57 pmWhat comes around, goes around, ya lying treasonous cocksuckers…
April 18th, 2008 at 4:53 pmSocialists going bankrupt in a free market Capitalist system.
April 19th, 2008 at 4:27 amI can’t think of a more poetic ending.