Couldn't happen to a more liberally partisan democrat mouth-piece.....
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0887d6aa-58da-11dd-a093-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
The New York Times suffered a 16.4 per cent decrease in June advertising
revenues and warned on Wednesday that the effects of high oil prices, a
slowing economy and the housing crisis were likely to weigh on its
prospects
for some time.
"I think it's clear that many of the advertising budgets are tightening
up,"
said Janet Robinson, chief executive of the New York Times Company,
predicting a "tough" second half of the year.
The June performance followed an 11.9 per cent decline in May advertising
revenues, and suggested that an already deep erosion in newspaper
advertising could be accelerating. Ms Robinson said the company would
respond by raising newsstand prices for the New York Times from $1.25 to
$1.50 per copy beginning in August, marking the paper's second increase in
a
year.
That announcement came as the company re****ted that second-quarter profits
fell 82 per cent to $21m, or 15 cents per share, compared with the same
period a year ago, when it benefited from a $94m gain from the sale of
television stations.
Excluding that and other one-time events, income from continuing
operations
was down 5.5 per cent for the quarter. Revenue fell 6 per cent to $742m.
The New York Times Company's results were the latest sign of gloom from
the
newspaper industry, which is now feeling the effects of a slowing economy
as
it grapples with an ongoing migration of readers and advertisers to the
internet.
Gannett, the largest US newspaper chain, last week re****ted a 36 per cent
decline in second-quarter earnings, including a 17 per cent drop in
advertising at its flag****p USA Today newspaper.
Times' executives on Wednesday pointed to weakness in a variety of
advertising categories, including Hollywood studios, department stores,
technology products and telecommunications.
Among the worst-hit was real estate classified ads, which first moved
online
to lower-cost competitors and are now drying up altogether in hard hit
property markets like California.
This year, the New York Times offered voluntary redundancies to about 100
newsroom employees, a rare step for a paper that has prided itself on
adding
journalists even while competitors were retrenching. The company said on
Wednesday that the voluntary buy-outs were expected to cost $40m-$50m.
One bright spot for the company was its About.com website, where revenues
increased 15.8 per cent to $28.6m amid higher advertising. That helped its
internet revenues grow 12.8 per cent to $91.3m for the quarter, accounting
for 12.3 per cent of its total revenues.
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