Whoa. Just: Whoa.
Posted by: Jon Fine on March 20, 2007
The New York Times Co. reports its February revenues.
It is not pretty:
The New York Times Company announced today that in February 2007 advertising revenues from continuing operations decreased 6.0% and total Company revenues from continuing operations decreased 3.6% compared with February 2006.
(snip)
The New York Times Media Group - Advertising revenues for The New York Times Media Group decreased 7.5%.
(snip)
New England Media Group - Advertising revenues for the New England Media Group decreased 4.0%.
(snip)
Regional Media Group - Advertising revenues for the Regional Media Group decreased 8.1%.
The Times, groping for good news, updates TimesSelect data—and gives further evidence that rising Web revenues do not cancel out falling print revenues:
The Internet ad revenues included in the three media groups above rose 14.3%. . Year-to-date Internet revenues at the three media groups increased 20.5%
(snip)
TimesSelect, the fee-based product on NYTimes.com that includes The Times’s distinctive columnists and extensive access to its archives, currently has approximately 639,000 subscribers, with about 66% receiving TimesSelect as a benefit of their home-delivery subscriptions and 34% receiving it from online-only subscriptions.
34% of 639,000 = 217,260 paying subscribers.
Assuming all of these people are paying full freight yearly subscriptions—not guaranteed, that—that’s $10.9 million in revenue.
Is it worth $10.9 million to the Times for it to wall off its columnists? You tell me.
