The New York Times Company recently announced a quarterly profit. How they got there wasn’t pretty but who cares, right? In what could be viewed as the new normal for Newspapers and other local media companies, the Old Grey Lady deftly leverages the Internet and digital subscriptions, along with maneuvers involving myriad assets, financial charges and operations to post a much needed profit.
Below: Some high & low-lights from that financial disclosure, and the promo trailer from Front Page; the documentary about how the Internet is forcing The New York Times to reinvent itself.
- Circulation revenue grew by 3.4 percent
- Total advertising revenue fell 8.8 percent
- Overall digital revenue, (usually double-digit growth) fell 4.5 percent
- Weakness from About.com division due to changes in how Google pushes traffic to info sites
- Sold part of its stake in the Boston Red Sox
- Took hit related to repayments of $250m it borrowed from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim
- Operating profit for the quarter grew 5.5 percent
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