March 28, 2024

The Times Isn’t for Sale, Its Publisher Declares

In a statement, the publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., who is also chairman of The New York Times Company, said that he and Michael Golden, the vice chairman, had spoken to Donald E. Graham, chairman and chief executive of The Washington Post Company, about his decision to sell The Post and some smaller newspapers and stressed that The Times did not plan to follow a similar path.

“Will our family seek to sell The Times? The answer to that is no. The Times is not for sale, and the trustees of the Ochs-Sulzberger Trust and the rest of the family are united in our commitment to work together with the company’s board, senior management and employees to lead The New York Times forward into our global and digital future,” the statement said.

Mr. Sulzberger and Mr. Golden cited The Times’s success with its digital subscription model, its profitability and strong cash flow as reasons it was “perfectly able to fund our future growth. The Times has both the ideas and the money to pursue innovation.”

Early Saturday, the Times Company announced its decision to sell the New England Media Group, which includes The Boston Globe, to John W. Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox, for $70 million.

On Monday, The Washington Post Company announced it would sell its flagship newspaper to Amazon.com’s founder, Jeffrey P. Bezos, for $250 million. The sale of The Post by the Graham family, which owned it for 80 years, leaves The Times as the nation’s last major newspaper run by a family.

In an interview published last week in The Daily Beast, Mr. Sulzberger addressed rumors that a media mogul like Mayor Michael Bloomberg might purchase The Times at some point. “Imagine. People talk. What a shock,” Mr. Sulzberger is quoted as saying. “The Times,” he says, slapping his palm on the table, “is Not. For. Sale.”

Wednesday’s statement was released shortly after Mr. Sulzberger held a closed-door meeting with family members.

In the statement, he and Mr. Golden cited plans by Mark Thompson, the company’s president and chief executive, to find profits by expanding “investment internationally, in video, in paid products and in brand extensions.” They also cited the editorial strengths of The Times’s executive editor, Jill Abramson, and the editorial page editor, Andy Rosenthal.

“We’re incredibly proud of our association with this great institution and, on behalf of the trustees and the other members of our family, we plan for that association to continue for many years to come,” they said in the statement.

In an earnings statement released last Thursday, The Times reported that while it still faced a troubled print advertising market, it swung to a profit in its most recent quarter because of stronger circulation revenue and lower operating costs. The company reported that net income rose to $20.1 million, or 13 cents a share, in contrast to a loss of $87.6 million, or 58 cents a share, in the period a year earlier.

The Times also noted in its release that its strategy to charge customers for accessing content online remained successful. In the second quarter, the number of paid subscribers to the Web site, e-reader and other digital editions of The Times and The International Herald Tribune grew to 699,000, a jump of more than 35 percent from the period a year earlier.

On Wednesday, the company’s stock price closed down 6 cents, at $12.02.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/business/media/times-co-chairman-declares-paper-not-for-sale.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Times Company Profit Falls on Weak Ad Revenue

The New York Times Company reported a sharp drop in net income in the first quarter as the print advertising market remained stubbornly depressed for newspapers.

The company said net income fell 57.6 percent to $5.4 million, compared with $12.8 million in the quarter a year ago.

The weakness in print advertising, coupled with an unexpected drop in revenue at About.com, led to earnings of 4 cents a share before special items are excluded, compared with 8 cents a share in the period a year ago.

Revenue for the quarter dropped 3.6 percent to $566.5 million. Total advertising revenue declined 4.4 percent, but the performance by advertising sector varied widely. At The New York Times Media Group, which includes the namesake paper, NYTimes.com and The International Herald Tribune, the decline was 1.9 percent.

Digital advertising across the company grew 4.5 percent. As a percentage of the company’s total advertising revenue, digital was 28 percent, up from 25.6 percent a year earlier.

At the New England Media Group, which includes The Boston Globe, advertising revenue fell 5.1 percent. At the Regional Media Group, which includes local newspapers from Florida to California, the decline was 9.7 percent.

About.com, which experienced a loss in visitors after Google refined its search algorithms, saw a 10.2 percent drop in revenue.

The results did not reflect any revenue from the start of an online subscription model for NYTimes.com, which began after the end of the first quarter.

For the first time, the Times Company provided information on how digital subscriptions were faring. The company said that since it started limiting the number of articles readers could read on NYTimes.com for free, it has signed up more than 100,000 subscribers. While it said the program was still too young to judge a success, “early indicators are encouraging.” Subscriptions start at $15 every four weeks, but many subscribers have so far paid discounted introductory rates.

 The company said it was optimistic that digital subscriptions would help improve the bottom line in the second quarter.

 “While the challenges for our company and for the larger economy are not yet behind us, the recent launch of the Times digital subscription packages on NYTimes.com and across other digital platforms brings our plan for a new revenue stream to life, offering us another reason for optimism about the future,” the chief executive, Janet L. Robinson, said.

 Operating costs at the Times Company were essentially flat at $535.4 million. Rising newsprint costs continued to weigh on the company. They rose 12.7 percent, offset partially by other factors, including a drop in circulation. Circulation revenue fell 3.7 percent, to $228 million.

The company ended the quarter with $352 million in cash and short-term investments, a lower amount than at the end of 2010 because of $54 million in pension contributions.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=6fe27ff5f386ce82df68d54244dda79f