New York Times profit beats as digital ad sales rise, costs fall

The company has been cutting costs and enhancing its online and mobile offerings to offset the impact of falling print ad revenue.

Advertisers are increasingly shifting to digital platforms as readers turn to smartphones and tablets, putting pressure on print ad revenues of newspaper and magazine publishers.

New York Times' digital ad revenue rose 14.2 percent to $48.3 million in the second quarter, accounting for about a third of its total advertising revenue.

Print ad revenue fell 12.8 percent, the fourth straight quarter of decline. The company's total advertising revenue declined 5.5 percent.

Operating costs fell 4.9 percent to $344.8 million.

New York Times said it expected a mid-single digit percentage decline in its ad revenue in the current quarter and operating costs were expected to fall by low-single digit percent.

The company's circulation revenue grew slightly, helped by a 13.8 percent rise in revenue from digital-only subscription products. New York Times said it had 1 million paid digital-only subscribers as of July 30.

Net income attributable to shareholders rose to $16.4 million, or 10 cents per share, in the second quarter from $9.2 million, or 6 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the company earned 13 cents per share.

Revenue fell 1.5 percent to $382.9 million.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 11 cents per share and revenue of $383.5 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

New York Times shares were slightly down at $13.10 in early trading on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Abhirup Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey)

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