The company, which reported its earnings for July through September on Thursday, posted a profit of $15.7 million, compared with a loss of $4.3 million during the third quarter last year. That translated to earnings of 10 cents a diluted share versus a loss of 3 cents a share a year ago.
Costs decreased during the quarter, falling 3.6 percent to $504.2 million. Circulation revenue grew by 3.4 percent to $237 million.
Total advertising revenue, meanwhile, slipped 8.8 percent, to $262 million, as national and classified advertising and the company’s About.com group proved particularly weak. Revenue in every advertising category was down, a sign of the challenges the industry faces in a stagnant economy.
The company benefited from a $65.3 million pre-tax gain from the sale of part of its stake in the Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Boston Red Sox. It also recorded a $46.4 million charge related to a repayment of the $250 million it borrowed from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú. The repayment in August came three and a half years before it was due.
“Despite a challenging advertising environment, our operating profit grew,” said Janet L. Robinson, president and chief executive officer of the Times Company. “These results highlight the strength of The Times brand and its ability to further monetize its world-class news, analysis and commentary.”
Operating profit for the quarter was $33 million, compared with $9 million a year ago. Excluding special items, operating profit grew 5.5 percent, to $65.5 million.
The Times now has 324,000 paid subscribers to the various digital editions of the paper, including e-readers and its Web site, compared with 281,000 at the end of the second quarter. Those figures do not include the 100,000 users who receive access to NYTimes.com free through a sponsorship by the Ford Motor Company.
The Times said that about 800,000 home delivery customers had linked their accounts to NYTimes.com and now receive access free. New orders for print subscriptions continued to increase, the company said, a rise it attributed to the free Web access that accompanies the subscriptions.
(The Boston Globe just began charging users of its Web site, so those results were not reflected in the third quarter.)
Digital advertising revenue at the company’s News Media Group, which includes the newspaper businesses, increased 6.2 percent to $50.3 million, a slower rate of increase than in previous quarters, which the company attributed to a weaker economy. Digital advertising revenue for the company over all actually fell 4.5 percent, to $74.8 million, due in part to weakness at About.com, which is suffering from a change in the way Google directs traffic to informational sites.
The About Group recently replaced its chief executive and is working through a turnaround plan that executives said is still in its early phases. Revenue at About decreased 20.8 percent to $25.7 million, mainly due to decreases in both cost-per-click advertising and display advertising.
Print advertising revenue declined 10.4 percent over all.
The Times Company derived 28.6 percent of its advertising revenue from digital business in the third quarter.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 20, 2011
An earlier version of this article incorrectly said print subscriptions rose in the quarter. New print subscription orders and subscriber retentions rose, as did circulation revenue.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=8194f5cd280ae1430d8ff77ffe177587