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How NY Times (NYT) is Countering Soft Advertising Demand

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The U.S. newspaper publishing industry has long been grappling with sinking advertising revenue. The downturn in the newspaper publishing industry witnessed over the last few years was aggravated as print readership declined, with more readers opting for online news, thereby making the print-advertising model increasingly irrelevant.

Advertising remains a significant source of revenue for The New York Times Company (NYT - Free Report) , which in turn is dependent upon the health of the economy. We observed that the company has been struggling with dwindling advertising revenue for quite some time now. Total advertising revenue dropped 7.7% during the third quarter of 2016. Print advertising revenue fell 18.5% in the third quarter, following a decline of 14.1% in the preceding quarter.

Adapting to Changing Media Landscape

Consequently, The New York Times Company has been contemplating on new avenues of revenue generation. The company is adapting to the changing face of the multiplatform media universe, and has already included mobile and reader application products in its portfolio. Other publishing companies such as New Media Investment Group Inc. , Gannett Co., Inc. (GCI - Free Report) and The McClatchy Company are also trying to adapt to different revenue generating ways.

The New York Times Company is concentrating on online activities, as evident from its pay-and-read model. Its pricing system for NYTimes.com was launched on Mar 28, 2011. The company notified that the number of paid digital subscribers reached 1,557,000 at the end of the third quarter – rising 129,000 sequentially (116,000 came from the digital news products and 13,000 from the Crossword product) and 30% year over year.

Last year in December, The New York Times Company’s viewership of its live video on Facebook, Inc. (FB) had crossed 100 million driven primarily by the Presidential debate and celebrity interviews, as per media reports. The New York Times has been using Facebook’s Live videos platform since Apr 2016.

The company’s initiatives remain on well on track but soft adverting revenue forecast for the final quarter of 2016 raises concern among investors. Management expects total advertising revenue in the fourth quarter to decline at a rate equivalent to that of the third quarter.

New York Times Company (The) Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

 

New York Times Company (The) Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | New York Times Company (The) Quote

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