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How NY Times (NYT) is Countering Soft Advertising Demand

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The New York Times Company (NYT - Free Report) has been struggling with dwindling advertising revenues for quite some time now. Analysts pointed that increasing online readership has made the print-advertising model redundant. Nevertheless, the company has been contemplating new avenues of revenue generation in a bid to counter the same.

The New York Times Company’s print advertising revenue fell 10.5% in the second quarter of 2017, following a decline of 17.9% in the preceding quarter. Although, total advertising revenue increased marginally by 0.8% during the quarter under review, the company hinted that it is likely to decline in the mid to high-single digits in the third quarter.

Consequently, The New York Times Company is adapting to the changing face of the multiplatform media universe, and has already included mobile and reader application products in 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 2,333,000 at the end of the second quarter — rising 114,000 sequentially (93,000 came from the digital news products and 21,000 from the Crossword product) and 63.4% year over year.

The company is not only gearing up to become an optimum destination for news and information but is also now focusing on service journalism, with verticals like Cooking, Watching and Well. In this regard, it recently acquired The Wirecutter and its sister site, The Sweethome that recommends people about technology gear, home products and other consumer services. The company also acquired a digital marketing agency and portfolio company, HelloSociety, from Science Inc., which complements its T Brand Studio that helps in creating digital ad innovation and branded content. Further, it has launched digital subscriptions for NYT Cooking, its popular recipe site and app.

These endeavors have led the stock to increase roughly 24.1% in the past six months compared with the industry’s growth of 4%.

Bottom Line

The New York Times Company is diversifying business, adding new revenue streams, strengthening balance sheet and restructuring portfolio. It had offloaded assets in order to re-focus on its core newspapers and pay more attention to its online activities. These helped the company to post fourth straight quarter of positive earnings surprise, when it reported second-quarter 2017 results. Currently, the stock carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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