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New York Times February ad revenue falls 6 percent
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Advertising revenue at The New York Times Co. fell 6 percent in February on weaker performance in every category of newspaper ads, the company said on Tuesday.
Total company revenue from continuing operations fell 3.6 percent versus February 2006.
The results reflect ongoing trouble at the Times and other newspaper publishers as they try to stem an advertising loss as more readers spend their time online.
Monthly revenue figures are like snapshots rather than broader overviews of how publishers perform, but they often can cause sudden swings in their stocks.
Dallas Morning News publisher Belo Corp. said last month that it will stop providing monthly revenue reports, saying its interests "are in informing our shareholders of meaningful financial patterns."
At the Times newspaper, national ad revenue was down on weakness in technology products, studio entertainment, banking, automotive and corporate advertising. Book, alcoholic beverage and international fashion fared better.
Ad revenue at The New York Times fell 7.5 percent in February, while it dropped 4 percent in its New England group, which includes the Boston Globe.
Ad revenue at its other local papers fell 8.1 percent.
Internet ad revenue rose 14.3 percent on growth in display and classified advertising.
The Times publishes much of its material for free, but charges readers under the TimesSelect program to read certain columnists and gain access to its archives.
The program has about 639,000 subscribers. Sixty-six percent get it as part of their home-delivery subscriptions. The other 34 percent get it from online-only subscriptions.
Other publishers reported similar results for February. At McClatchy Co., ad revenue dropped 5.2 percent from last year, while Internet ads rose 1 percent.
Lee Enterprises on Monday reported a 1.6-percent drop in ad revenue compared with last February.
Lee and Gannett, which reported a drop in newspaper ad revenue last week, partly blamed the declines on bad weather.
