NYT Endures Forgettable First Quarter

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The New York Times last week released gloomy First Quarter results that reflected an 11.2 percent decline in ad revenues and plunging net income.

Net income was $3.1 million, or 2 cents a share in FQ 2013, compared to $42.1 million or 28 cents a share during the comparable period a year ago. Overall ad revenues dropped 11.2 percent, but the Times' print properties, which include the Boston Globe, Worcester Telegram & Gazette and the International Herald Tribune, suffered a 13.3 percent decline in ad revenues. Digital advertising sank 4 percent compared to year-ago FQ results.

In response to the grim figures, Times management plans to unveil reduced cost subscription models, along with a premium subscription rate that would include access to Times-sponsored events.  As previously reported, the Times also is focusing on its own brand and attempting to unload its New England newspapers (see "TUOL" post 4/16/13).

On a bright note, digital subscriptions of the Times and Intl. Trib jumped 49 percent in the First Quarter compared to 2012 figures, reaching 676,000. 

Magazines Running Out of Ammo

The Sporting News photo of Jay Hughes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Advertising pages in the consumer magazine sector plunged 8.2 percent in the First Quarter of 2012, compared to First Quarter results last year, according to Publishers' Information Bureau (PIB) statistics cited in Folio (www.Foliomag.com).


Sporting News (a "TUOL" staff fave during their formative years) suffered an 80.1 percent drop-off in ad pages. Overall, the "women's magazine" category performed badly in the First Quarter, PIB numbers reflect, as titles such as O! The Oprah Magazine, Ladies Home Journal and Better Homes & Gardens all endured fewer ad pages. Marie Claire was a shining exception, boasting a 10 percent increase in ad pages.

The numbers weren't much better for news magazine not named Bloomberg, as The Economist slipped 4.8 percent in ad pages over the first three months of 2012, while Time's ad pages sank 21 percent. Automotive and food products were advertising categories that severely cut back on magazine advertising, as only toiletries & cosmetics and apparel & accessories stepped up a periodical presence during the First Quarter of 2012.

Forecast: Newspapers to See Ad Revenues Disappear 'Virtually'

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Over the next four years, the Internet will leave newspapers in a trail of dust in pursuit of advertising revenues, and will supplant the print media as second only to television as the nation's largest advertising medium.

So says the annual Global Entertainment and Media Outlook report released today by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. The report, covering 2010-2014, predicts online advertising (excluding mobile ads) will climb from $24.2 billion in 2009 to $34.4 billion by 2014, according to a story in today's Wall St. Journal.  The report is less confident about newspapers, forecasting ad revenues to shrink in 2014 to $22.3 billion. According to  the Newspaper Assn. of America,  print advertising revenue was $24.82 billion in 2009.

Advertising in interactive media, email and video will increase dramatically, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, to $6.6 billion in 2014 from its $4.7 billion level in 2009. The report cites the Internet's inventory potential and greater broadband saturation as factors underlying the report's estimates. Roughly 64 percent of U.S. households currently have broadband access, up from 34 percent broadband penetration in 2005.