Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations, after adjusting for some items, totaled 13 cents, beating analysts’ estimate of 11 cents, according to Zacks Investment Research. Sales were $382.9 million, below $388.7 million in the year-earlier period and below the FactSet consensus of $383.6 million.
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“Cost declines outpaced the decrease in overall revenues, which was primarily driven by continued pressure on print advertising, and led to strong adjusted operating profit growth in the quarter”, said Mark Thompson, president and chief executive officer. A year ago, they were trading at $3.78.
Print ad revenue fell 12.8 percent, the fourth straight quarter of decline. Digital revenue, however, rose 14 percent in the quarter, with double-digit year-over-year growth in both digital advertising and subscription revenue.
Circulation revenue grew slightly, helped by a 13.8 percent rise in revenue from digital-only subscription products. This is in addition to its 1.1 million print-and-digital subscribers.
The New York Times Company announced today that as of Thursday, July 30, it had passed the one million paid digital-only subscriber mark, less than four-and-a-half years after launching its pay model. Street is looking for third-quarter revenue drop of 0.1 percent to $364.43 million.
“We recently initiated several important relationships – with Apple, Facebook and Starbucks – all of which we believe will enable us to reach new audiences for our journalism as well as provide incremental revenue”. Digital advertising pulled in $48.3 million or 32.5 percent of total ad revenues for the quarter to June 30.
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But digital subscriptions are obviously the company’s source of growth. Newspaper and magazine publishers are struggling to arrest the fall in their print ad revenue, caused by advertisers’ increasing preference for digital platforms as readers turn to smartphones and tablets.
