New York Times Co. sees decline in digital and print advertising, saying there is a 'fragmented digital marketplace'
The New York Times Company reported its results for the third-quarter – seeing a decline in advertising revenues across both print and digital.
Having sold off most of its smaller newspapers and non-core operations, including the $70m Boston Globe deal this year, the New York Times saw advertising revenues across all mediums decline with print ad sales dropping 1.6 per cent and digital ad revenues falling 3.4 per cent.
The company cited "ongoing secular trends and an increasingly complex and fragmented digital advertising marketplace," for the reasons behind its losses, which came in at $24.2m, compared with a profit of $2.7m from the same period last year.
However, it did see a 28 per cent year-on-year increase in digital subscriptions, with the total number of digital subscribers at the end of the third quarter sitting at roughly 727,000.
Overall, revenue was up, increasing 1.8 per cent. This was helped by a near five per cent increase in circulation revenue.
In a statement, the company's president and chief operating officer Mark Thompson said that he recognised there is still a lot of work to do to transform the business model. Earlier this year the group was forced to issue a statement amid increasing speculation that it would sell, saying it was committed to 'moving forward into a digital future.'